The blogs are alive with the sound of Thom Yorke of Radiohead's new band, which he told us today had the name Atoms For Peace. "It seemed bleedin' obvious," said Yorke of the name on the Radiohead website Dead Air Space. Nerdy, pacifist, retro, ironical: the name ticks all the boxes. An antique phrase of "super-group", once used to describe bands like Blind Faith, has been dusted down to describe the band which includes Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, Beck drummer Joey Waronker, bassist Flea and percussionist Mauro Refesco. "Atoms For Peace" was also a song on Yorke's solo record, The Eraser.
It was also the name given to Eisenhower's famous speech in December1953 in which he stated, "It is with the book of history, and not with isolated pages, that the United States will ever wish to be identified. My country wants to be constructive, not destructive. It wants agreement, not wars, among nations. It wants itself to live in freedom, and in the confidence that the people of every other nation enjoy equally the right of choosing their own way of life."
Yorke's announcement at 5 pm today went (Capital Letter Deficiency Warning Follows):
hey everyone
ok so in April the other band.. that i got together to do the eraser and other stuff u know .. Mauro, Flea, Me, Joey and Nigel is going back out to do some shows in the US.. ending with playing with Coachella. we had too much fun to just leave it there...
it has been decided that we call ourselves Atoms For Peace. hope you like the name... it seemed bleedin' obvious.
The band have also announced an American tour, more info here:
APRIL:
- 5 - New York, Roseland Ballroom
- 6 - New York, Roseland Ballroom
- 8 - Boston, Citi Wang Theatre
- 10 - Chicago, Aragon Ballroom
- 11 - Chicago, Aragon Ballroom
- 14 - Oakland, Fox Theatre
- 15 - Oakland, Fox Theatre
- 17 - Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Bowl
- 18 - Indio, Coachella
Right: Thom Yorke, nuclear pacifist:
