Word: bandness
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When the lead singer of a critically beloved, commercially successful band in its prime releases a solo album, it's a bit like a married man with two kids zipping by in a fiery new Porsche. Something, you suspect, ain't right at home. Sure enough, Thom Yorke has admitted that Radiohead, years-long holder of the title Only Band That Matters, has hit a lethargic patch. Personal lives have grown comfortable, professional momentum has slowed. With the future uncertain, Yorke made The Eraser--which turns out not to be a betrayal of his band but a love letter...
From the ethereal melodies to the beats layered upon beats, The Eraser is full of Radiohead music--dark, dystopian, oddly beautiful--minus the other members of Radiohead. (It was composed mostly on a laptop.) In spots, the band is missed. The Clock creates some grinding tension but never figures out how to release it, while Black Swan eddies around a chorus ("This is f___ed up, f___ed up") that hardly mines new emotional territory. You can sense Yorke's grasping for something, and with the help of producer Nigel Godrich, who oversaw Beck's midcareer-crisis record, Sea Change...
...role and is crucial to the play’s finale. The aesthetic choices, from Lucy’s blackboard to Snoopy’s doghouse, form colorful geometric patterns, which are only enhanced by the set’s dark backgrounds. There are serious flaws, including a pit band that drowns out much of the cast’s singing, but they are too few and too sporadic to mar the production. During intermission, while I asked a producer some questions about the arrangements, a member of the audience inquired why the cast and crew chose to stay...
...Soon after Peretz spoke, Palestinian Interior Minister Saeed Siyam issued a call to arms for all members of the various Palestinian security forces, urging them to band together against the Israelis and honor what he called their "religious and moral duty to stand up to this aggression and cowardly Zionist invasion." Other Palestinian officials appealed to the international community to do something to forestall further bloodshed. For those around the world hoping that the very obvious perils of escalation will walk all parties back from the precipice, Thursday's events - and the absence of any sign of significant international intervention...
...DIED. Johnny Jenkins, 67, acrobatic, left-handed blues guitarist who as a boy jammed with a guitar he made from a cigar box and rubber bands, then went on to deeply influence Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix; after a stroke; in Macon, Ga. As a gofer for the Pinetoppers, Jenkins' college-circuit ensemble, Redding drove the band to Memphis, Tenn., in 1962 to make a record for Stax Records, and during a lull sang These Arms of Mine. When the song became Redding's breakthrough hit, Jenkins, who feared flying, opted not to tour with the rising star. The flamboyant...