Sunday night, Thom Yorke played the Orpheum in Los Angeles with his new unnamed band, that includes Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, after playing a rehearsal show at Echoplex. Before fans of his ‘other’ band start running into the streets, screaming bloody murder, they should be reassured by the fact that Thom posted on his website that ‘Radiohead is not breaking up’ (probably for that very reason). Apparently, he’d also announced his ’side project’ a little over a week ago, although I surely didn’t see anything about it. Maybe I’m out of the loop.

Still, considering the melancholy and technical way his music had been heading on his most recent work, including his solo album Eraser, it’s strange to see the line-up he’s garnered for this new band: So, there’s Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, drummer Joey Waronker of Beck, Mauro Refosco of David Byrne’s band and his longtime collaborator/producer, Nigel Godrich, on guitar and keyboards. If this band stays together for any length of time, it’ll be interesting to see how they progress, in a more straightforward-rock kind of way.

The songs, some of which still need to be titled, were premiered to the L.A. audience, which included some in-the-know celebrities like Anne Hathaway and Ed Norton (who probably got their assistants to offer their first born for the quickly sold-out tickets). Some of the already named songs include: “Open the Floodgates” and “The Hollow Earth”. They also played Yorke and Radiohead favorites like, “Harrowdown Hill” (posted on YouTube) and “Super Collider”.

I haven’t read or heard yet about an album being released or even if one’s been recorded. This seems like a preliminary stage in something Thom may just be dabbling in. Who knows? For someone used to playing by his own rules, there’s no telling.

Meanwhile, keep updated on Radiohead’s website.

New York Times Article