I do have something to say about The King Of Limbs but I’m a bit behind with things. So it will be up soon. However, I have written an article for Nerve ranking Radiohead’s albums from worst to best. It wasn’t easy and I wrote it under a pretty short deadline. But it was still kind of fun. Almost as much fun as reading the abuse a few people have hurled my way in the comments at Nerve and on At Ease.

Nerve added the “key tracks” after I submitted the article so I had no say in those. In addition, the format of a straight ranking is troublesome as it doesn’t indicate just how far back Pablo Honey is and how close The King Of Limbs, Amnesiac, and The Bends are. So it’s not science and merely my opinion on a Tuesday morning after rolling out of bed.

I was able to do this for Nerve due my involvement with At Ease where I’ve been pretty busy this week with all the news surrounding the release of the new record.

Last night after I got back from Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s show at the Vogue Theatre I blurbed on Twitter that “Godspeed You! Black Emperor were monumental. 2.5 hours of world ending bombast.” And that’s kind of almost all I want to say. But the occasion seems to call for more.

Firstly, it was Godspeed’s first show on home soil (or in North America for that matter) in eight years. Secondly, I had missed my only opportunity to see the band when they were last in Vancouver in 2000. So for years I’ve jealously heard the stories of Godspeed’s powerful live show and downloaded live recordings in the failed hope of trying to simulate some sort of personal experience. And I wasn’t kidding myself, I really didn’t think I’d ever have the chance to see Godspeed on stage.

But then last night happened. From 8:50 until 11:15, Godspeed You! Black Emperor were transcendental and once I got comfortable in one of the horrible Vogue seats in the orchestra, I got lost in a live performance in a way that very, very seldom happens. Every single “song” was rendered more powerfully than their recorded counterparts and you could actually feel the music moving through you. Coupled with the eerie and at times apocalyptic projections*, I felt completely immersed all night and when the show ended I could scarcely believe it hadn’t just begun.

The set drew very heavily from 2000′s Lift Yr. Skinny Fists including the opening pieces which were the only “bright” notes in the entire show. Once the powerful Gathering Storm ended, the rest of the set soundtracked a landscape in decay. Albanian, a “new” song played a lot in 2003 which has yet to be recorded, was a menacing hell-beast and indicates that if the band do head into the studio this spring (as rumoured), the fruits of those sessions will be some of Godspeed’s most powerful material.

As the show slowly moved to its final epic statements, the band finally reached back to their first album with the portentous Dead Metheny and its most recent with Rockets Fall On Rocket Falls. Dead Metheny, in particular, was delivered with such intensity that I almost felt pinned down in my seat. The final piece of the night was BBF3 from the Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada EP. A fitting closer as it encapsulates Godspeed’s aesthetic perfectly: a field recording of a man becoming enraged, a slow build, and a thunderous climax that laid waste to any last shred of operating ear drums in the Vogue.

Setlist
Hope Drone
Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
Gathering Storm
Monheim
Albanian
Chart #3
World Police And Friendly Fire
Dead Metheny
Rockets Fall On Rocket Falls
BBF3

* The projections were actually projected from two old school film projectors the likes of which I hadn’t seen since elementary school. The projectionist was busy all night, draped in reels of film as he set up each piece and even used his hands and a fishbowl at times to further distort the images.

The most pointless live shots I’ve ever taken of a band?

Some random notes about the gig:
- The setlist was the exact setlist the band played at their first gig back after the hiatus this past December in England.
- All the other songs the band have been playing on this tour are: Moya, Gamelan (another “new” one like Albanian), 09-15-00 (Outro), The Sad Mafioso, She Dreamt She Was a Bulldozer [...], and The Cowboy. Not going to lie, would have loved to have heard Moya and/or The Sad Mafioso last night.

If you’re keen to hear a recent version of Albanian, you can download a version from a show last month in Amsterdam.

Download
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Albanian

So last night I noticed Radiohead’s website was down. I don’t actually check the site all that often but I accidentally clicked on the link in my toolbar (I was intending to go to Gawker, sadly) and noticed the Radiohead’s Dead Air Space blog and official site were not loading at all. So I half-jokingly made the above comment on Twitter.

I went to bed a few hours later after the site had come back online with nary a change. When I woke up this morning I saw some excitement on Twitter and went to Dead Air Space only to be greeted with…

Which then led to….

The King Of Limbs!

All in all a pretty nice little Monday!

Obviously this is a very similar release process that Radiohead experimented with for In Rainbows back in October 2007. This time around there is no “Pay What You Want” component which isn’t really that surprising. I don’t think the band removed that little gimmick due to not making money last time (because they made more money off In Rainbows than any other previous Radiohead record) but the fact that it was just that, a gimmick. That they then had to answer questions about for months and months after.

But like In Rainbows, the band managed to keep this completely quiet. There have been rumblings for a few weeks that the record was done but nothing concrete. The band also already have three labels on board to distribute The King Of Limbs around the world which makes the fact that no information leaked out all the more impressive (though it’s hard to say exactly how many label people actually knew anything before this morning). The King Of Limbs will be in stores on March 28 around the world, March 23 in Japan on CD and 12″ vinyl (XL will be handling the album in Europe, TBD will take care of North America while Hostess will release the album in Japan). Clearly the band enjoyed the way the retail process worked last time because they’re working with all the same people again.

Of course if you can order an impressive sounding “Newspaper Album” from The King Of Limbs website which includes the record on 2 10″ records (so different from the retail vinyl version), a CD, large pieces of artwork as well as 625 tiny artworks. I love the way Radiohead have put lots of thought into the special physical versions of these last two albums as they’ve brought an increased focus to the art of Stanley Donwood who is just as much the 6th member of Radiohead as Nigel Godrich is (who also produced The King Of Limbs). As for calling it a “Newspaper Album” I’m not sure but my guess is that it’s simply a comment on the dying industries newspapers and CDs are a part of.

UPDATE:
Regarding the whole “newspaper album” I found this in the Terms & Conditions on the album site:

17. The newspaper parts of the Newspaper Album are manufactured using traditional newsprinting technology. Therefore there may be unique yet inherent flaws in the quality of print and paper.

So that’s likely what we can expect with the artwork and why it’s a “newspaper album.”

But before all that we get to hear the record this Saturday when the album becomes available to those who preordered it (and then for everyone else when it ends up on torrent sites, Mediafire, and every blog ever) through the band’s own (and seemingly new) imprint Ticker Tape. And here’s what I’ve loved most about the way Radiohead are releasing The King Of Limbs (and it was the same for In Rainbows): we all get to hear the record at once. No leaking. No advance copies to journalists or websites. We all get to experience it at the same time again. And I think that’s a pretty cool gift Radiohead are giving their fans.

The title of the album is a bit odd and kind of creepy. But apparently the title refers to a 1000 year old oak tree in the English countryside which reduces the creep-factor a bit. The phrase “king of limbs” also appears in the commentary of a Qur’an expert (not the Qur’an itself as it has been reported elsewhere) but I think the tree thing is obviously more relevant given all the artwork featuring trees and gnarled branches and limbs that have been decorating Radiohead’s official site for a while now.

Still no tracklist for the new album yet (though the Japanese site for The King Of Limbs is claiming an eight track album [UPDATE: that info was removed]) so here’s this…

Download
Radiohead – These Are My Twisted Words

And if things go as they did last time as far as time zones go, us here in Vancouver will likely have the record blasting late Friday night. Anyone want to cover over for a listening party?

Firstly, let’s dispense with the obvious: Let England Shake is an amazing album. One that will be talked about a lot and one that deserves to be heard by many, many people.

After PJ Harvey debuted the title track from the record way back in April I thought all signs were pointing to an incredible record. Little did I know that Let England Shake would be a bold concept record (of sorts) about England, World War I, nationhood, and the effects all three have on the human condition. Mick Harvey (formerly of the Bad Seeds) is all over this record which is fitting given that the album deals with the ANZAC experience at Gallipoli on a few occasions.

I’ve not even digested the record yet but it is clearly something pretty special and the sign of an artist in complete control of her vision and her talent. Let England Shake is astonishing, astonishing stuff.

Download
PJ Harvey – Written On The Forehead

The Words That Maketh Murder

The Last Living Rose

Let England Shake is out next week and to celebrate PJ Harvey will be playing a show in Paris on Monday which will be webcast live on her official website at noon PST. Now if she’d only announce a proper North American tour with a Vancouver date.

Photo by Seamus Murphy.

The Raveonettes are quietly going about assembling a catalogue of some of the catchiest, most hummable melodies of the last decade. The latest installment is Forget That You’re Young.

Download
The Raveonettes – Forget That You’re Young

Perfect for this afternoon.

Forget That You’re Young is the first single off the forthcoming new record entitled Raven In The Grave (early front-runner for Album Title Of The Year) which is being release on April 5. Happy times.

Artistically speaking, M.I.A. had a rough 2010. Her record, /\/\ /\ Y /\, didn’t seem to connect with anyone except for those who had been patiently waiting for some giant misstep to finally string M.I.A. up. I’ve recently gone back to the record and enjoyed more than I did when it first came out but it will never be a fun record (her ranting and raving got in the way).

Thankfully, on New Year’s Eve M.I.A. launched a 2010 rescue mission on herself by releasing her Vicki Leekx mixtape (her first mixtape since the rightfully lauded Piracy Funds Terrorism way back when). And this mixtape is both fun and intelligent and full of great moments that the last record lacked. I’m not sure whether this release is an attempt by M.I.A. to wipe the 2010 slate clean but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

Download the whole mixtape for free here. Or check out a little sample below.

Download
M.I.A. – Bad Girls