Ed O’Brien has opened up on his insecurities as a guitar playing, reflecting on how the bond with his Radiohead bandmates pulled through.

O’Brien had a feeling that the Radiohead reunion shows were going to be okay when he was at Jonny Greenwood’s 50th birthday party making small talk in front of the fire with frontman Thom Yorke.

Speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, he says he could feel the friendship coming back, admitting that over the years they had drifted apart. And this was all the motivation they needed to commit to booking live dates, and to getting into a rehearsal space to learn how to play together after their hiatus.

“I think we felt the friendship come back,” says O’Brien. “I remember standing around the fire, talking to Thom, and Thom and I have always been... We were really close, and I hadn’t seen him for a long time. We’d sort of drifted apart. We stood next to fire and sort of… ‘How are you?’ ‘How are you?’ …the classic guy kind of stuff. You could feel the friendship. I could feel the love.”

There began the path to the reunion, to The Church Studios, Paul Epworth’s studio in London’s Crouch End, and to the live dates in November and December last year.

But the story also reads like a metaphor for how O’Brien has dealt with depression. In recent interviews, he has revealed how he would eschew traditional therapy treatments, force himself to get up on the morning and play guitar for hours at a time.

“My therapy was literally locking myself in a room for three hours in the morning whilst the kids were homeschooling and my wife was working,” he told Rolling Stone. “I was in such a dark place, but I knew that I had to get up each day, get out of bed, and do this thing.”

Little did he know, O’Brien would come out of the other side of it with a new solo album, Blue Morpho. In conversation with Lowe, he expanded on how his depression impacted his feeling of self-worth, his playing, and his place in the band.

“I think I always had an idea of what I brought to the band,” says O’Brien. “I was just really fucking insecure about it. I always felt like, in musical hierarchies, there’s Thom and Jonny, and the rhythm section is its own thing. Where am I?”

Things got worse when Radiohead had an existential volte-face in 1999 and decided upon this grand reconstruction of what they should sound like. Where were the guitars?

“When we made Kid A, I was in a really dark place again,” says O’Brien. “We were dismantling the band – of how it was, the form of it – and I’m smoking a lot of spliff. I’m taking herbal antidepressants, and I’m sort of medicating myself.”

O’Brien says he lost all sense of self-worth.

“Because when you’re depressed, you have no self-confidence whatsoever,” he adds. “And you see other people thriving.”

Working through Radiohead’s issues and eventually coming to the realization that they would do a string of shows together reminded O’Brien of just how the band worked, how the camaraderie hadn’t died, and how important they were to each other. Those pre-show rehearsals took them all back to a more innocent time.

“In a way, it was kind of like our village hall rehearsals back in the late ‘80s,” says O’Brien. “Because it was the first time we’d done a rehearsal where there was no expectation of new material, or all going on a tour. There was no pressure.

“They’re really fucking beautiful human beings. And like family, we’re all little bit gnarly. But everybody has a really, really good heart, really good heart. Nobody’s trying to stiff one another. There’s genuine kindness, and that’s the thing that came to me, but I think it came to everyone else as well.”

In other Radiohead news, it was recently revealed that the band had finally been convinced to ditch their cables and go wireless for their reunion shows thanks to a new piece of tech.

Radiohead went wireless for the first time during their recent tour after testing a new system that left even their most cynical techs impressed.

The band’s shows across the UK and Europe late last year were their first in seven years, and a newly forged relationship with US firm Sound Devices has helped modernize their live rigs and perhaps convinced them to ditch cables for good.

“The band doesn’t tend to change how they operate for the sake of changing; they are only interested in upgrades that will serve their musical goals,” says Radiohead FOH mixer Simon Hodge. “Although the band has used RF [Radio Frequency] systems for guitars in the past, the opinion was always that it never sounded as good as a cable.

“In an arena, you have so many factors affecting the sound that go far beyond RF or cables, which is why we spend so much time in advance doing blind tests and ensuring we’re starting from the best place.”

Jonny Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, and Thom Yorke, as well as bass player Colin Greenwood, have all welcomed Astral ARX32 Wireless Receivers and Astral TX Wireless Transmitters into their setups.

One important factor was Sound Device’s Astral Guitar Cable – for connecting electric guitars to the Astral transmitters – which ended up having no impact on their tone whatsoever.

“We brought it into Jonny’s studio and did some blind tests between Astral and their preferred cables,” Hodge recounts. “We all listened, and even the most cynical guitar techs were impressed.

“The quality of the audio path was obvious, and it wasn’t changing the sound at all. The packs also auto-detect the cable, allowing us to easily adjust them in the receiver menu or UI as needed per instrument.”

Then there was the matter of dealing with the multiple guitar changes throughout the set.

So, the tech fed the Astral ARX32 inputs into a Prodigy Audio Processor via Dante and custom Streamdeck controllers, essentially creating a main hub for all the guitar signals.

“The band travels with dozens of guitars; Ed O’Brien himself had 32 on this run,” Hodge says. “This was the first time we could have all 32 at once accessible and easily switchable in the same interface, a choice that either the musician or tech can make as needed.

“The Astral Guitar System ended up being a game changer for us.”

As revealed to Rolling Stone in March, the band has adopted a less chaotic touring model moving forward, promising 20 shows per year on a different continent. Last year, they played four-show residencies in five European cities, with other continents set to get some Radiohead action in the near future.

Elsewhere, Ed O’Brien, who recently announced a new solo album, has opened up about how the guitar has helped him combat depression.

Radiohead have always been invested in the augmentation of electric guitar tone, laboring over novel ways to disguise it with pedals, to present it as something uncanny, something alien.

Ed O’Brien’s pedalboard is the kind of thing we’d like to see in the Smithsonian one day. As O’Brien explained to Guitar World in 2020, Radiohead regard their guitars merely as inputs, as raw materials for fresh new sounds.

“The guitar to me is a bit like an oscillator on a synthesizer, it’s the start of a sound rather than the sound in itself,” said O’Brien. “I love the purity of an acoustic and an electric, but I guess coming from Radiohead I’m more used to treating the guitar like a synthesizer and processing it that way. Anything that can take you into a new range, like a Whammy, is very useful.”

But not everyone in the band has been given carte blanche to max out the Pedaltrain. Appearing on Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt’s Rockonteurs podcast, bassist Colin Greenwood revealed that he wasn’t allowed to have a pedalboard.

Was it because his the plummy thumb of his Fender Precision through an Ampeg tube amp was considered organic matter, a sort of reassurance to the audience that their feet were still planted on Planet Earth?

Well, not entirely. But making weird noises was not his job, and there was the risk of it going wrong.

“I’m not really allowed,” he says. “[Whispers] I mean, I do have a pedalboard now! I wasn’t allowed one for a very long time, ‘cos, you know, in front of 30,000 people and a quiet song, I might tread on the distortion pedal [at] the wrong time, whatever. Or the tuner pedal, where you press the button and it cuts out.”

Most people here can relate. Pratt certainly can. But Greenwood says he has a tactic for when things go wrong that he learned from the best.

He remember, “Well, Johnny Marr said said to me – or Ed – if you make a mistake, the thing you need to do is just glower at your tech. Just glare at them! Or do it twice, the jazz way.”

This conversation with Greenwood offers invaluable insight into the different mindsets of its guitarists. His brother, Johnny, is actually into DSP coding.

“He’s got a thing called [Cycling ’74’s] Max/MSP on his computer, which is, like, under the bonnet of samplers and stuff,” says Greenwood. And yet, in comparison with O’Brien, Colin says both brothers remains minimalists when it comes to their touring gear.

“My brother’s sort of a purist,” he says. “He very much believes in one guitar and one amp. That’s all you need. When we were doing the shows with Radiohead at the O2 [in London], all the guitars are under the stage. There were, like, I don't know, 20 old guitars.

“I thought, ‘That's amazing.’ I thought those were Ed and Thom’s [Yorke] guitars. And Adam [Cummings], who looks after Ed, said, ‘No, no – those are just Ed’s guitars.’ I was like, ‘Oh, my God – that’s amazing. But I’m the same [as my brother]. I’ve got my P-Bass. That’s all I want and need, and it’s just an amazing thing.”

Greenwood was coy on Radiohead’s next move but, should their schedules align, he says they want to book some shows “somewhere, someplace, sometime”.

He also offered his thoughts on how the band navigate different time signatures – indeed, how they think about rhythm itself – particularly on the more elusive compositions, such as Pyramid Song.

“It’s feel,” says Greenwood. “Well, there’s this whole thing about body clocks… Everybody has got a different clock inside their bodies, and a different tempo, different BPMs, and Thom’s a fast BPM, and a lot of his music is about the 16th before the one, so everything’s almost like a funk thing. Thom’s always just before the 1.”

In related news, Radiohead's Ed O'Brien recently discussed using guitar playing as therapy in the midst of depression.

Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien has just announced his second solo album, Blue Morpho – a record that draws its primary inspiration from using the guitar as therapy in the midst of dark times.

“From 1990 or ’91 through to 2018, when we stopped touring and went on hiatus, it was pretty much nonstop,” he recently shared in an interview with Rolling Stone, as he looked back on his career with the legendary band.

“It’s all-encompassing, and it demands your full attention, and it’s addictive in that way. But it’s not necessarily healthy, because you just keep going, keep going, keep going. And then when you stop, suddenly the ghosts catch up.”

“I went into a deep depression,” O’Brien admits. “It was the first time in my life that I had to stop. And what I realized was that I’d been keeping busy, like a lot of people do, running from these ghosts of my past, particularly from my childhood.”

“It was really hard,” he continues. “Some days you just didn’t want to get out of bed. I thought, ‘Will this be with me forever?’”

The guitarist admits he wasn't interested in medication or traditional therapy, but found solace in working on a music project with no set goal in mind – and noodling on his guitar for a good chunk of the day.

“My therapy was literally locking myself in a room for three hours in the morning whilst the kids were homeschooling and my wife was working,” he recalls. “I was in such a dark place, but I knew that I had to get up each day, get out of bed, and do this thing.”

Eventually, the load was lifted – one strum at a time.

“The most challenging bit, and the bit that I find fascinating and full of mystery, is the songwriting bit. You get so excited seeing this one little thing you can play on the guitar, you suddenly hear this whole piece…. Music and magic, five letters, they share the same three.”

As for how he'd describe the album that was borne out of this period, O'Brien sums it up as, “It felt honest, and at the end of the day, that’s the most important thing for me.”

In more recent news, one of the guitars that O’Brien has been experimenting with recently is the off-kilter Circle Guitar by Circle Instruments, an electro-mechanical guitar that uses a MIDI-enabled physical sequencer to strum the strings.

NAMM 2025 was marked by some pretty eye-opening innovations. However, perhaps one of the most off-kilter offerings was the Circle Guitar by Circle Instruments, described as “a hyper instrument that transforms what a guitar can do.”

Essentially, it's an electro-mechanical guitar that uses a MIDI-enabled physical sequencer to strum the strings. As the name suggests, there's a spinning wheel covered in tiny plectrums which create “rhythms impossible to replicate by hand” – all in the spirit of freeing players to go beyond the traditional realm of guitar playing.

The Circle Guitar managed to attract the attention of a few guitarists with a penchant for all things unconventional – among them, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien.

“When I discovered Aphex Twin, the first thing about it was that he was sort of an enigma,” creator Anthony Dickens tells Guitar.com. “And then I heard that he made his own instruments, and I was like, fucking hell, that is cool! That is the ultimate freedom, isn’t it?”

After toiling away at the Circle Guitar project since shortly before the pandemic, Dickens happened to come across a That Pedal Show episode with the Radiohead guitarist, during which he asserted that searching for new sounds and textures is more important than the pursuit of technical virtuosity. That appreciation for out-there guitar innovations was primed for some Circle Guitar experimentation – and it turned out to be right up his street.

His comment struck a chord with Dickens, and he quickly slid into O'Brien's DMs, and the rest, as they say, is history.

“Within an hour, he got back to me going, ‘Wow, this is amazing. I’d love to come and play it,’” Dickens recalls. “And a week later, he was in my house!”

O'Brien would later champion the Circle Guitar, saying, “Occasionally, you see or get to play something that makes you think in a totally different way. This is an extraordinary new guitar, and I’ve already put an order in to buy the first one.”

Alongside O'Brien, Phish bassist Mike Gordon, Idles' Lee Kiernan, Muse's Matt Bellamy, and producers Paul Epworth and John Congleton are all in on the action. And if you want to see what the fuss is all about, there's currently a waiting list to get your own Circle Guitar, and it costs £7,995 (approx. $10,000) apiece.

For more details, head to Circle Instruments.

If you happened to be watching the second season of the hit Apple TV sci-fi show Severance as it aired while also regularly using TikTok, there's a decent chance your algorithm at some point guided you to one of the many fan-made edits of scenes involving the show's dual love stories.

A whole bunch of these were soundtracked by the climactic third verse of Radiohead's Fake Plastic Trees. (Spoilers abound in these videos, if you're interested in the show and haven't seen it yet).

Oh, and if a grittier show like The Bear is more your speed, don't worry! There are plenty of Fake Plastic Trees-backed montages of Jeremy Allen White alternately yearning, brooding, and crashing out as well.

And to think, Fake Plastic Trees hasn't even been Radiohead's biggest moody-'90s-opus-turned-viral-hit of late, a distinction that goes to Let Down, a track from the alt-rock legends' 1997 milestone, OK Computer, that was so polarizing within the band that it nearly broke them up.

Improbably, the song made its way into the Billboard Hot 100 charts earlier this year, where – as of mid-November – it still remains.

Fake Plastic Trees, though, has an even more dramatic backstory than its younger viral counterpart.

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke was famously inspired to write the song after seeing the late Jeff Buckley in concert.

“When we were doing the second record [1995's The Bends], I went to see Jeff Buckley before he died. And it reminded me of this vulnerable part of me that I was choosing to hide,” Yorke told author Jason Thomas Gordon for his The Singers Talk book.

“I remember I recorded Fake Plastic Trees on my own to begin with. Then, when we came together to listen to it, the others said, ‘We’ll use that!’ and I was like, ‘No, no, we can’t use that, it’s too vulnerable. That’s too much me.’”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the process of capturing a song that raw and personal on record was an exhausting one, full of fits and starts. Add to that expectations from the C-suite at the band's label, EMI, who were hopeful that the vulnerability of the song would connect with the public in the same way the band's equally vulnerable blockbuster breakthrough hit, Creep, had the year before.

Speaking to Guitar World in 1998, Yorke described the Fake Plastic Trees sessions as simply, “a fucking nightmare.”

“There was one stage at the first session when it sounded like Guns N’ Roses’ November Rain,” Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien scoffed in the same interview. “It was so pompous and bombastic, just the worst.”

In the end, the song got some of its character back from, what else, a mistake.

“Paul [Kolderie, who mixed The Bends] missed a cue, so the electric guitars don’t come in at the right place,” Yorke told Guitar World. “It was a mistake, but we kept it.”

You can hear said mistake by comparing the studio version above to the vintage live performance of the song on Late Night with Conan O’Brien below.

Ed O'Brien and Jonny Greenwood tear their way in at the onset of the third verse, whereas in the studio version, Yorke and his acoustic – and the rhythm section – mostly carry matters while Yorke sings, “She looks like the real thing.” O'Brien and Greenwood then SWAT team their way in time for Yorke to spit the verse's second line, “She tastes like the real thing.”

Some, like this writer, would argue that that delayed eruption gives Fake Plastic Trees its greatest power, and that it's the reason why you can find that moment in all of the above montages.

Speaking to Jason Thomas Gordon, Yorke confirmed a long-rumored story that he cried hearing the playback of the song for the first time.

“When you record, you’re going through one set of feelings, but the one thing you’re not really aware of is you,” he said. “You’re not aware of your own identity, so it’s like meditating.

“Even when you play, if you perform something well, you have a sort of feeling that goes beyond that. You’re not even aware of your own vulnerability, you’re just off somewhere, and then you come back. It’s like seeing yourself in the mirror for the first time, catching yourself unaware.”

Though famous for their drastic, uncommercial artistic left turns and unwillingness to simply play the hits onstage (especially their biggest), Radiohead have noticeably nodded to their recent viral hits during their ongoing run of European shows – their first anywhere since 2018, with both Let Down and Fake Plastic Trees making more frequent setlist appearances than in years' past.

At the time of its release, Fake Plastic Trees wasn't the hit EMI wanted. But hey, what's a 30-year wait?

Ahead of Radiohead’s long-awaited reunion tour, the band’s music is once again coming to the fore of the music public’s consciousness – and, naturally, that means it’s been picked up by a few new fans.

Specifically, the melancholic arpeggio-heavy Let Down – from 1997’s OK Computer – has been doing the rounds on social media, and has hit the popularity milestone that only a select few modern mainstream artists achieve: TikTok virality.

To the casual listener, it might not be that much of a surprise. Let Down is, after all, a great song. However, at the time of its writing, it wasn’t equally appreciated by all members of the band.

Speaking to The Times, Thom Yorke, Ed O’Brien and Jonny Greenwood reflect on the origins of Let Down, which almost spelled an end for the UK alt-rock icons during the making of their third studio record.

“I find that especially bizarre,” Yorke notes of the song’s skyrocketing popularity. “Because I fought tooth and nail for it not to be on the record, but Ed was, like, ‘If it’s not, I’m leaving.’”

O’Brien himself was keen on Let Down. He saw it as the “emotional heart” of OK Computer, a record whose other standout tracks include No Surprises, Karma Police and Paranoid Android. Still, Let Down’s contemporary success took him by surprise.

“I was astonished,” he says in the same interview. “So I told my kids, who are 18 and 21, and they said, ‘What do you expect? Teenagers are depressed. It’s depressing music!’”

In a 1997 interview with Guitar World, Radiohead’s guitar triumvirate discussed the making of OK Computer and the far-flung influences that shaped the guitar parts of each song – Let Down included.

“We do try to be diverse,” O’Brien said. “The guitar sound on No Surprises was supposed to hark back to [the Beach Boys’] Pet Sounds, Let Down was a nod to Phil Spector, Exit Music had a [composer Ennio] Morricone atmosphere, Airbag was an attempt to do something like DJ Shadow.

“But because we haven’t paid the dues, if you like, to play those types of music, we fail to get what we hope to achieve. But by going down that route, we find our own thing.”

In that same interview, O’Brien and co looked back on how their debut album changed the way they thought about recording guitars, and set them up for two landmark albums.

OK Computer, which catapulted Radiohead from alt-rock outcasts to true rock royalty, was just one of a number of hugely influential records from Radiohead. In 2000, the band ripped up the guitar rulebook to create OK Computer’s follow-up, Kid A.

“Every time I picked up a guitar I got the horrors.”

Speaking to Q in a 2000 interview, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke was reflecting on the Herculean task of writing the material for what would become the band’s fourth album, Kid A.

The picture of what seems like a somewhat over-the-top reaction to your run-of-the-mill writers block becomes a bit clearer when you take into account that Yorke was attempting to follow up OK Computer, the landmark 1997 album that catapulted Radiohead from alt-rock outcasts with a fairly sizable following to true rock royalty – uniting in euphoric praise all but a few scattered dissenters in the music journalism intelligentsia, and raising the eyebrows of even those who didn’t really like what they heard.

It came at a curious moment in rock guitar. The garage-through-a-broken-mirror riffs of the grunge tidal wave had well and truly washed away – the genre’s biggest bands having mostly fallen apart due to tragedy or stasis – but the feral aggression of down-tuned nu-metal was still just out of sight, gathering strength for its JNCO jean-powered offensive.

It was into that vacuum that the world received OK Computer, a collection of jittery and jagged rock anthems (and they were anthems) that expressed uneasiness and disaffection with what at the time made many optimistic and hopeful – the embrace (by choice or by force) of the cutthroat capitalist Washington Consensus ideology around much of the world, and, in particular, the seismic advances of technology.

There was little reference point for it, musically. It featured the birth of a (very) reluctant new guitar hero in Jonny Greenwood, who ripped sounds out of his Telecaster Plus that were not of this Earth.

Paranoid Android, Subterranean Homesick Alien – he graced the sci-fi names of the songs with tones to match. Not one, but two, disconcerting solos in the former – the first opening with a frenzy of gonzo tremolo picking, the wayward stabs of the latter sometimes sucked into a black hole by the envelope filter of Greenwood’s Mutronics Mutator rack unit.

Aiming for the cosmos on Alien while Radiohead’s ever-steady third guitarist, Ed O’ Brien, kept a foot on this planet with haunting arpeggios, Greenwood used the ever-versatile DigiTech Whammy to beam three-note statements into interstellar space.

OK Computer was immediately recognized as singular. “Saviors” of rock, of the guitar – got thrown around a lot. A 1997 Guitar World piece on the band noted frequent comparisons of the album to the work – in scope and significance if not subject matter – of Pink Floyd and U2.

Moving into the 21st century, an essay in no less than the United States Library of Congress equates OK Computer to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

During the presidency of George W. Bush, Coldplay’s Chris Martin went so far as to suggest that the Bush administration’s policies might change for the better if then-Vice President Dick Cheney gave the album a spin.

“It changed my life, so why wouldn't it change his?”

How do you follow something like that up?

Well, O’Brien explained in a 2017 interview with Total Guitar, the answer was “‘Bring synths in, throw our tools away.’”

Mind you, this wasn’t a unanimous decision.

Ever the band’s liaison to the world of Guitar Rock™️, O’Brien felt that if Radiohead were indeed seen as the genre’s foremost creative talents, why not double down?

Coldplay were channeling the band’s soaring melodies and enormous choruses into sing-along giga-hits, while millions of those attracted to the band’s heavier, dystopian side were finding kinship in the work of Muse. Show the world who the originals are, eh?

For Yorke, who was feeling the aforementioned pressure of writing, as O’Brien put it in a 2000 interview with Total Guitar, “three-minute guitar songs,” the doubling-down idea was a non-starter.

“I'd completely had it with melody,” Yorke told Q in 2000. “I just wanted rhythm. All melodies to me were pure embarrassment.”

Hugely inspired by the angular beats and expansive ambient soundscapes of electronic music boundary-pushers like Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin, Yorke wanted to build songs up from drum machines and textures, not riffs, melodies, or hooks.

Though he had no attachment to his status as a nouveau guitar hero (he told Rolling Stone in 2017 that he’s “always hated guitar solos”) even Greenwood was reportedly thrown by just how left-field Yorke’s newfound approach was, never mind the feelings of the band’s bassist – Greenwood’s older brother, Colin – drummer Phil Selway, and, of course, O’Brien.

The subsequent recording process was lengthy, and beset with teething problems, as the band tried to start from square one. Songs were nebulous, with the band exchanging roles ad hoc – Jonny Greenwood responsible for beats on one song, keys on another; Yorke on bass here with Colin Greenwood on keys there. Even Selway picked up the guitar on occasion.

Of an August 1999 rehearsal featuring much of the band’s new material, O’Brien wrote – in his revealing online diary documenting the Kid A recording process – “[I] think that these rehearsals will be viewed in hindsight as where we turned a corner (or hope so).

“Obviously, working on the songs and playing again has helped, but just as importantly we have been forced to confront certain things – like what the fuck are we doing exactly? – how do we set up the next bit of recording so that we don’t start 20-odd songs and not finish one of them?”

Speaking to Total Guitar in 2000, Selway described the band’s six-string division of labor up to that point thus: “In the past, Ed would make these marvelous sounds, Jonny would play the angular lead parts, and Thom would be playing the driven parts, but that's over now.”

Jonny Greenwood, though still picking up the guitar from time to time, ventured off into instrumental lands unknown. In particular, he developed a fondness for the Ondes Martenot, an obscure early electronic instrument not too distant from a theremin – all eeriness and sustained whirring.

O’Brien, in turn, realized that – aside from working more on keyboards – he had to take his playing’s more textural side one giant leap further; and to do so, he too needed some new kit.

An October 1999 diary entry, for instance, reveals a Roland guitar synth to be his “new toy.” But he also wanted something that could add bang-for-buck value to his limited-by-necessity playing, and contribute prolonged textures, like those the younger Greenwood was discovering in his Martenot and innumerable other analog synths.

Enter the Sustainer pickup.

“The first time I heard the Sustainer thing was on Michael Brook’s Infinite Sustain guitar,” O'Brien told Total Guitar in 2017. “He gave one to the Edge on The Joshua Tree; that’s the sound on With Or Without You, that high-pitched thing. So as a young guitarist I was always drawn to sounds that didn’t sound like the guitar.”

“When we threw guitars out, I got in contact with Michael Brook and had a great conversation when we were in the studio. And he directed me towards Fernandes, who had the Sustainer,” he recounted later in the interview. “I had a Clapton Strat from the mid-’90s, and we put the Sustainer unit in there, and that’s when we started using it, around 2000.”

Just as this was occurring, the guitarist was contrasting the vintage, analog tools strewn about the studio by eagerly adding new tech to his pedalboard.

“We took my Clapton Strat with Lace Sensor pickups that I loved, fitted a Fernandes Sustainer unit in it, and at the same time it was the birth of all these new looping pedals,” he told Total Guitar. “The Akai HeadRush had come out and the Line 6 DL4. The combination of the two was… bonkers!”

Slowly but surely, the stubborn, amorphous songs began to take shape – some picking up more conventional arrangements on the way, others ditching them.

One of the first to solidify was Optimistic. Having begun life on Yorke’s 505, it quickly evolved into one of the album’s few full-band, guitar-heavy workouts.

“Optimistic is possibly my favorite band song that is played together live in a room,” O'Brien wrote online in October 1999. “Sounds fucking great.”

The end result was a rare display of muscle, a thundering, hard-riffing statement that kept with the album’s obscure atmosphere, but was dressed in enough conventional rock-with-a-capital-R clothing to, say, soundtrack a Top Gear montage of Ayrton Senna whipping his Formula 1 car around the streets of Monte Carlo.

Charles Mingus-style free jazz freakout brass was added to The National Anthem, a freight train of rhythm section drive led by one of the great rock basslines of the 21st century – a must to get under your fingers, especially if you’ve got some dirt at hand on your pedalboard or amp.

Those songs aside, though, the bring-the-guitars-off-the-stands moments were thin on the ground as things finally finished up.

There’s a climactic outburst of built-up riffing following the third verse in Morning Bell, the dazed triplets of In Limbo, and the dreamy acoustic strums of How to Disappear Completely – all mesmerizing. But it's always when the band steps off into the synthesizer and effects deep end – truly burying the instruments that had made them the belles of the ball and making them unrecognizable – that the album becomes a world unto itself.

There’s Everything in its Right Place, essentially a drone with looping wizardry and one of Yorke’s most expressive vocal performances; the ever-underrated title track, a beautiful and disquieting lullaby; Treefingers, a pure formless soundscape that wouldn’t sound out of place on one of Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works albums... guitars are barely discernible, texture only, if that.

Idioteque, arguably the album’s (if not the band’s) crowning achievement and thesis statement, was built not from a riff or chords but an otherworldly four-note synthesizer hook, poached – with permission – from composer Paul Lansky's early electronic composition, Mild und leise.

“Knives Out is the only song on the new record which is basically three guitars, bass, drums, and vocals,” O'Brien explained to Total Guitar in the months before the album's release.

“The only one, and when we finished it we worked out that we'd spent 373 days on it. And when you hear this song, you'll go ‘Why did you take so long to do something like that?’”

When Kid A was released on October 2, 2000, though, Knives Out was nowhere to be found. Eager readers would have to wait for the release of Kid A’s sibling, Amnesiac, the following year, to hear it.

Radiohead had indeed thrown away their tools, and the pedestal that so many had put them on. They were nothing close to the first band to blend guitars and electronic instruments, but the way they did it – turning the former into tools that generated quiet sound manipulation and atmosphere more than melody and rhythm – re-defined what “rock” and even “alt-rock” meant to people.

When all was said and done, listener confusion meant little – the album became the band's first chart-topper in the United States. Upon release, it, unsurprisingly, met with a far more polarized critical reception than its predecessor, but those who praised it often did so in euphoric terms.

Austere and inscrutable, the album was a violent reaction to the messianic expectations that had been placed upon the band, and couldn't have stood out more in the environs of rock's other chart-toppers; aggro blasts of angst that told listeners to, among other things, “break stuff.”

Even 25 years on, Kid A still sounds like nothing else – alien, you might say.

As Radiohead's first tour in seven years inches closer, we take a deep dive into the Guitar World archives to uncover the game-changing band's approach to recording guitars during what many may consider Radiohead's golden era: from Pablo Honey to OK Computer.

“There are lots of mistakes on it,” Ed O’Brien – one-third of the band's guitar triumvirate – commented back in a 1997 interview with Guitar World, referring to Radiohead's debut, Pablo Honey.

“But you learn from your mistakes. I still think it’s a valid album. It’s very up, quite hedonistic – ‘Let’s put on eight guitar overdubs and turn them all up!’ I think it’s one of those albums you might put on in an open-top car on a Saturday night going to a party, but I could be wrong.”

The Bends, released in March 1995, in particular, marked a significant shift from a guitar perspective: it was a band finally (fully) dipping its toes into experimenting and flexing its creative use of its three-guitar lineup, a peek into what Radiohead was to become.

“We were very aware of something on The Bends that we weren’t aware of on Pablo Honey,” O’Brien continued.

“There was a need to put more and more guitar tracks on Pablo Honey, and you had to play all the time. Whereas the approach to The Bends was, if it sounded really great with Thom playing acoustic with Phil [Selway, drummer] and Coz [Colin Greenwood, bassist], what was the point in trying to add something more?”

“Sometimes the nicest thing to do with a guitar is just look at it,” Thom Yorke jokingly added.

As for the division of guitar labor between Yorke, O'Brien, and Jonny Greenwood, Yorke commented, “I just keep time, really,” while Greenwood was uncomfortable being referred to as the lead guitarist. “You could describe it like that, I suppose, but it’s not really like that.”

Yorke quickly came to Greenwood's defense, adding, “When I run out of melodies, there’s usually something on Jonny’s guitar that’s a melody, like Mr. [George] Harrison used to do. You know, pick a melody up here [fingers upper reaches of imaginary fretboard], and so on, because it gets a bit boring listening to one voice all the time.”

As for why Yorke felt The Bends was successful, he divulged, “We had to put ourselves into an environment where we felt free to work. And that’s why we want to produce the next one ourselves, because the times we most got off on making the last record were when we were just completely communicating with ourselves, and John Leckie wasn’t really saying much, and it was just all happening.

“I don’t know if it’ll work again, but I hope it does,” he concluded.

28 years later, Radiohead have just released the live album Hail to the Thief (Live Recordings 2003–2009) and are set to embark on a series of European dates in November – their first since their 2018 tour, which marked the release of A Moon Shaped Pool.

A Venn diagram showing the similarities between heavy metal legends Iron Maiden and alternative rock icons Radiohead won’t show much overlap. That’s why news of the collaboration between Dylan Gers, son of Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers, and Noah Yorke, son of Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, made headlines in 2022.

The track in question, Red Skies, was notable for its hypnotic acoustic rhythms, icy synths and Celtic melodies – culminating in an intriguing three-and-a-half minutes of deep reflection that left listeners wanting more.

The good news is it wasn’t a one-off. Gers Jr returns this year with his Melancholic Madman EP, which features his friend Noah on drums, and it’s a more electric affair than the song they first released. After its John Frusciante meets Jimi Hendrix intro, opening track Feel My Heart soars into a symphony of harmonized guitars flanked by a fiery solo.

Then there’s Talisman, which explores a darker shade of alternative rock and features some impressive vocal work from the singer/songwriter. Moonlight Lies is a somber ballad intensified by generous amounts of phaser and reverb. Young Boy is the simplest in terms of structure – showing just how impactful you can be with one acoustic and a handful of cowboy chords.

“I started playing guitar when I was 16,” says Gers. “But even before, I’ve always had music in my head, especially having grown up around Iron Maiden. I’ve been surrounded by guitars for as long as I can remember; then one day I decided to pick one up, and fell in love.

“I’m fascinated by certain guitar heroes. It feels like they aren’t as big a deal these days, compared to when you had people like Tony Iommi or my dad, Dave Murray and Adrian Smith. It’s disappearing a bit. That’s why, on this EP, I decided to make my guitar moments more impactful, like on the riff section of Moonlight Lies.”

It’s interesting how this EP leans more on alternative rock influences than metal.

“The influences are coming from all over the place. I wrote Moonlight Lies thinking about The Doors and ended up crooning like Jim Morrison. Talisman is a proper riff-induced song, partly inspired by Black Night by Deep Purple, in terms of how the guitar riff hits you in the face.

“Noah Yorke drummed on all the tracks. I don’t have many modern influences, but Noah is a big inspiration. Some of the tracks feel a little Celtic-driven. You can imagine people playing flutes a couple of hundred years ago and dancing around a fire to them!”

You’re holding an HSS Strat on the EP cover. What does that guitar mean to you?

“My main guitar is called Jasmine. She’s never far away from me, and she was the first guitar I paid for. I found her on Facebook Marketplace, went round some random geezer’s house, and I could tell this was the one. I had a beaten old acoustic, and I’d occasionally borrow guitars my dad left around, but this was my first proper guitar.”

It appears as if you’ve changed a few of the parts.

“Yeah, I’ve changed loads of stuff. The scratchplate used to be white and it’s now pearl, to emulate Dave Murray, who uses a shiny one. I put a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge. Kurt Cobain used that pickup, as does Dave. The nut because was plastic, which was typical for Mexican Strats made in 2015. It now has an ivory nut.

“A lot of the song ideas for the EP were written on Jasmine. I have an Ovation acoustic, which also got used a bit.”

What kind of amps and pedals were you using for the sessions? There’s some sparkly modulation added to Moonlight Lies.

“That was just a MXR Phase 90 with reverb, running into an Engl amp. Sometimes we’d put the phaser on zero, just to thicken the guitars with some extra movement and soul. It changes your tone, helping it all breathe. I think it’s a trick Eddie Van Halen used.”

How did you and Noah get to know each other?

“We met at university – I only found out who his dad was later on. It was kinda bizarre! We lived together for a few years, making crazy noise. Red Skies came from a jam in the living room. Noah plays in a great band called Hex Girlfriend. I never listened to Radiohead before I met him, then I learned how incredible they are. A Moon Shaped Pool is seriously good.”

You sound like you’ve taken influence from all three guitarists in Maiden, rather than just the one you’re related to.

“I’m a big fan of my dad – he’s my favorite, of course. But the three of them are like the greatest players for different reasons. They all bring something dramatically different to the table. Dave has this lucidity and fluid motion. My dad brings this magnificent chaos coming out of pure passion. Adrian has this mind-blowing melodic blues feel.

“On this EP I’m trying to pay homage to all the greats. The title is a nod to Diary of a Madman by Ozzy Osbourne, which had some incredible playing from Randy Rhoads – he was unbelievable.”

Who else has shaped your sound?

“I’m really into Marillion; Steve Rothery is a magical player. I adore Script For A Jester’s Tear and Clutching At Straws. I looked up to Dave Mustaine as a kid. I saw him at Download Festival once and he walked right past me. I went up to him, saying, ‘Nice to meet you!’ and he was probably wondering who the hell I was!”

What was it like growing up with a guitar god as a dad?

“He never pushed me into it, which I found admirable. His attitude was, ‘If Dylan doesn’t want to do it, fair play!’ I didn’t start until later and even then he was hesitant to teach me until I showed him how serious I was.

“One thing he told me was to focus on the picking hand. The fretting hand will always come naturally, but the right hand is what brings it all together, whether you’re playing fast or slow. He didn’t teach me much in terms of technique, but I learned a lot by watching him play.”

What did he show you when you finally sat down together?

“I remember him making me learn House Of The Rising Sun for the picking rhythms, as well as Long Train Running by The Doobie Brothers for more of an intense strum.

“He’s a master to watch. The way he’s able to move about and play those leads and rhythms in time is insane. Every time I see him I’m like, ‘Oh my god – this guy is really great!’”

• Melancholic Madman is out now via sly-tone Records. You can follow Dylan Gers on Instagram.

In recent years, Irish rockers Fontaines D.C. have gone from hardy, post-punk upstarts playing clubs to festival headliners, enjoying huge success on both sides of the Atlantic. In a fresh rig rundown, guitarist Carlos O'Connell has revealed how the preamp from an unassuming spring reverb is his secret weapon throughout that life-changing period.

There are plenty of notable names on his pedalboard, including an MXR Micro Amp for “pushing the amp a little bit,” a Strymon Volante tape delay, and an Eventide H9 Harmonizer.

But it's the pedal free of any swish design features and eye-catching branding that steals the show. It has a lineage with The Who’s Pete Townshend, but it was Radiohead’s strange-gear-loving Ed O’Brien that turned him on to it.

“It's called the Type 636P and it's made by this company called Soundgas,” he tells Premier Guitar.

Based out of Derbyshire, England, the firm is run by a group of vintage gear enthusiasts with a strong focus on vintage synths, tape echoes, and studio effects, but isn’t averse to the odd foray into new builds. The preamp is one such example of that. But they’re made in limited batches, and their £1295 (approx. $1750) price tag compounds their exclusivity.

As O’Connell explains, the pedal is based on the preamp from a Grampian 636 reverb unit. The studio rack was used by Townshend as a boost distortion on a score of The Who records.

“He figured that the gain in it was unbelievable,” O’Connell relays. “So [Soundgas] started refurbing a load of these spring tanks when they realized this thing was crazy, and they made these units. It’s a preamp, but it’s got the biggest distortion I’ve ever heard.

“It’s insanely expensive, but I saw Ed O’Brien on YouTube was showing his new ’board, he played through it and I was like ‘Wow,’” he continues. “Soundgas put it through drum machines and everything; it distorts stuff in an incredible way. I thought, ‘I need to hear it myself!’”

The sound he gets from it is akin to gravel in a cement mixer; it's disgustingly gritty, and it's very easy to see why he condemned his piggy bank to smithereens to get one. He cleans up extraneous noise with an MXR Smart Gate, and the Micro Amp keeps its animalistic nature but puts it in a more fitting suit to meet your mother in.

“This thing sounds incredible on like everything, you know?” he enthuses. “I've been using it in the studio when I produce albums [for other artists]. I have it in a chain out of the 'board and you can feed anything into it.”

Elsewhere in his interview, O'Connell also showcased how dynamic it can be, playing gently with the humbucker and single coil pickups of his Fender Mustang to usher out a fairly crystalline clean tone. On the other end, he shows how it can go “quite mad” with the dials cranked and its teeth bared.

Handily, because the pedal's face is so clean, he or a roadie has scrawled the relevant track names it's used for on it – Big Shot, Favourite, and I Love You are among the bunch.

“If you want it to be super dirty like I do with the Mellotron quite a lot, you just push the front end. It starts distorting a lot more; it squashes the sound a lot.” The sound here is well into germanium fuzz territory. “That works especially well in the studio.”

Despite not being an outright fan of his fellow Irish guitar hero, O'Connell's main studio axe is a copy of Rory Gallagher's Strat. That led to him playing the original, heavily relic’d guitar last year, and it left him in awe.

Visit Soundgas for more info on the pedal. A new batch is expected in the fall.

Colin Greenwood has had an illustrious career as Radiohead's bassist and is currently moonlighting with Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. Standing side-by-side for decades with his brother and Radiohead's lead guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, and multi-instrumentalist frontman Thom Yorke, Greenwood is well-versed in the two guitarists' differing – yet complementary – styles, which form the very essence of Radiohead.

“[Thom] takes it very seriously,” he tells Rolling Stone's Brian Hiatt. “He's probably, for my money, one of the finest guitarists in the world.

“He's one of the best guitarists I know, like rhythm guitarists, because of the way he plays the guitar. The way he rolls with his shoulders when he plays, it's sort of [the guitar] part of his body. He's just incredibly physically connected, and always [has] been.”

Hiatt comments that Jonny Greenwood, on the other hand, has a more “cerebral” approach to guitar, to which the bassist replies, “Yeah, I agree. They're very different, how they work, which is probably why they complement each other so well.”

“[Jonny's] first record was Cool for Cats by Squeeze on pink vinyl that my mother threw away because she thought it was obscene,” he recalls when reflecting on how his brother's eclectic playing style developed. “But he listened to anything, and I think he learned guitar by [listening to] the Pixies and Lou Reed's album New York.

“Then he was in the Thames Vale Youth Orchestra playing the viola, which I always forget because I don't know how many times he went. So you know, he's one of these people who can just pick anything up and make something cool out of it.”

And as for whether we can expect any Radiohead shows next year to coincide with the 30th anniversary of breakthrough record The Bends, Greenwood replies, “Genuinely, I've been so focused on Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds for the last two months. I don't know what plans are afoot in Radiohead land.”

The Smile – the sonically adventurous trio of Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, and jazz drummer Tom Skinner – are fresh off the release of Cutouts, the band's second album of 2024, and third in as many years overall.

That sentence in particular is still a surprising one for many Radiohead fans, given that eight years and counting have elapsed since that band's last studio effort. Then again, despite featuring Radiohead's two principal members, the Smile are a very different beast indeed.

The sheer knottiness and prog inclinations of their music, even in comparison to Radiohead's more difficult material, were apparent from their very first gigs. Also apparent from those early shows was Jonny Greenwood's newfound love of rhythmic delay pedals, a preference the guitarist expounded upon in a new interview with NME.

“The guitar parts [on Cutouts] are often focused on using a delay pedal,” Greenwood said. “A few years ago, I started to wonder if technology was moving too fast to appreciate how powerful old ideas – like a simple echo – still were. So I decided to just use a delay pedal, a guitar, and an amp for a year or two, and see what I could write with that (supposed) limitation.

“But then,” he continued, “the guitar, on its own, is already an amazing thing. Treating the delay as its equal opened up lots of directions. It’s still giving me ideas – probably to the point of nausea for Thom and Tom, but maybe there’s still room for a few more on the next record. If they’re different enough…”

One looking for an example of this delay-forward sound need only hear the Cutouts standout Eyes and Mouth, which has been kicking around the trio's setlist since the beginning.

GW.com EIC Michael Astley-Brown, writing about the band's first gigs, wrote, “With the wrong pedalboard, set closer Eyes and Mouth could be mistaken for a pentatonic scale exercise, but a shower of dotted-eighth repeats lent it an altogether more ethereal quality.”

Greenwood's guitar approach has branched off in other ways with the Smile, the most notable being his adoption of a Gibson Les Paul.

Though he's used a Les Paul on occasion with Radiohead, and never kept to one model exclusively overall, Greenwood is synonymous with his Honda sticker-adorned Tobacco Burst Telecaster Plus, which he can be seen thrashing on in just about every Radiohead era, particularly in their earlier days.

Asked by The Sunday Guardian in 2015 why he had been playing a Les Paul more frequently, Greenwood nonchalantly offered, “Guitars are like typewriters. It’s technology, it’s not something to be admired or worshipped. Like, oh, a washing machine or something. It does the job.

“You start seeing people putting them on walls as decorations and it’s just… it’s like putting a vacuum cleaner there. That’s really bizarre for me. They’re okay; they all sound the same, it’s the brutal truth.”

For their fifth studio album, TANGK, IDLES went down a slightly different sonic route, enlisting Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich's expertise to shape their record. One of Godrich's recommendations? Not tuning their guitars.

“On this album, we didn’t really tune our guitars. We’d tune to the track,” reveals guitarist Mark Bowen in the new issue of Total Guitar. “Nigel wouldn’t allow us to use tuners. We’d go, ‘I’ll just tune that.’ And he’s like, ‘No, listen to what you’re playing.’ So it wouldn’t be like a strict 440hz across the across the strings.” 

Nick Cave’s Jubilee Street and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Scar Tissue are two classic recordings that served as inspiration, as they both used the approach of tuning by ear to compensate for the guitar's infamously approximate intonation. 

Elsewhere in the same interview, Bowen and fellow guitarist Lee Kiernan explain how Godrich was also responsible for encouraging the band to build TANGK around tape loops. 

“The first thing Nigel wanted us to get into was understanding tape loops,” says Bowen. “He just gets you to play, and he’ll take bits and bobs and snapshots. Sometimes that’s a means to create texture that then you can write a song based off. 

“Sometimes, as with the track Gratitude, it’s the basis for the whole song. Jon [Beavis, drummer] played this 6/8 pattern. Then, I played this riff that was like three fives and then a three, so it joined up with him every 18 beats. 

“Dev [bassist Adam Devonshire] plays in 4/4. Basically, every 18 beats it kind of lines up and then falls out and lines up. That was something I was interested in with the tape. It sparks creativity.”

In a recent interview with Guitarist, Bowen confirmed this album was all about pure experimentation. “I felt like I had reached the limitations of what a guitar band is. Our goal has always been to expand what guitars can do, rather than disregard them completely.”

IDLES have a busy festival season coming right up, followed by an extensive UK tour in November.

For more IDLES, plus new interviews with Joe Perry, The Last Dinner Party, and Mdou Moctar, pick up issue 385 of Total Guitar at Magazines Direct.

Colin Greenwood’s place in the music firmament is well established after almost four decades as bass guitarist of Radiohead. Beginning with their iconic debut single Creep, the band brought sonic sadness into the mainstream in 1993 via Thom Yorke’s languid vocals and the combined guitar crunch of Jonny Greenwood and Ed O’Brien. 

An amazing band, without doubt, yet Colin Greenwood’s ice-cool, syncopated basslines seldom fit within the categories of a ‘greatest bass guitarists’ list. “I think Colin Greenwood is one of the most unsung bass players out there,” John Garrison told Bass Player. “He's incredibly musical and his underpinning of Thom Yorke's melodies is amazing.”

The opener of 1997’s OK Computer, Airbag remains one of Greenwood’s best-loved moments on bass guitar. Although it may initially appear as if the bassline is just a series of random off-beat licks, it isn't.

Similar fills appear in slightly different parts of the bar throughout the song, and the rest periods also shift. In fact, the lo-fi austerity of Greenwood’s bassline drives the whole track, even though it contains more rests than licks.

“I try to find all of the good notes and what feels best to play,” Greenwood told Bass Magazine. “Sometimes I make it too complex and too noodly, but Thom is good at putting the brakes on that. You can tell that I’ve been told not to play too much for years! Maybe that’s why it comes out in short bursts.”

Airbag works because of its inherent contrasts. While the guitars create lush, echoing textures of whole-notes held through bars, Greenwood and drummer Phil Selway are firmly on the ground, employing a primitive rock groove with a twist: Sometimes one or the other simply stops playing, even in the middle of a phrase, and then begins again.

The stop/start nature of Radiohead's rhythm section is now a trademark of the band's sound, but it was born on this track. Having cited Bay Area sample and turntable artist DJ Shadow as the inspiration for this approach, the drums on Airbag were recorded, sampled, and then cut to pieces and rearranged digitally.

As for the bassline, Greenwood reportedly left gaps that he meant to fill later, but he never quite got around to it. The quirky randomness of the part became the part, as he plays it pretty much note-for-note when the band play live.

The track was recorded in late 1996 at the historic English mansion of St. Catherine's Court. Greenwood played a '73 Fender Precision through an assortment of Ampeg gear, including an SVT rig and a B-15 combo. 

It's a super-dark and thick tone – so much so that, if you eliminate everything below 250Hz, the bass disappears completely. Furthermore, the highest note on the track is C# on the 4th fret of the A string, and it happens once.

Let's get into what Greenwood actually does. The verse is where he first appears, 11 bars into the song, introducing the E-G-E-G-A motif that’s employed throughout. Things get interesting when he continues the same motif against B7, and then against F#m, where it really shouldn't work (G in the bass against an F#m melody with a G# in it?), but the tension pays off and resolves in bar 26.

He keeps at it in the re-intro at bar 28, where the drums and bass swap roles for the first time, with Selway suddenly pulling out and Greenwood continuing the same motif under a two-chord pattern (F/A-A). 

From this point on, with all motifs and harmonic content essentially established, Greenwood starts mixing it up with subtle rhythmic changes.

For the guitar solo, Greenwood inverts the motif’s rhythm – starting it on the last 16th-note of two as opposed to four – and mixes in little variations and fills, all in the lowest six notes of the instrument's register. This powerful shift propels the tune forward into the final chorus, where he puts it all together.

Then, the big payoff: the breakdown and outro groove, where Greenwood channels a classic R&B riff, cuts it into stop/start techno pieces, and finally plays it continuously through ten riveting bars. 

For a closer, he actually comps the tune's intro changes, straying from the main motif for the first time in the song just seconds before it ends.

Though you may be skeptical of the bassline, this opening track from an album often cited by critics as one of the top 10 records of the '90s has the Greenwood/Selway signature retro-techno stamp all over it, and set the course for the rhythm section of one of today's most appreciated bands. 

Greenwood, though operating in a thoroughly modern context, noted in 2001 that his roots are like many of ours: “I'm really more of a soul boy. Bill Withers and Curtis Mayfield, those are the people who informed me in playing the bass. That combination of rhythm and melody.” 

Even on a track as anti-roots as Airbag, it shows. And it grooves.

It’s been two decades since singer-songwriter James Blunt first conquered the UK airwaves with his multi-million selling debut album, Back to Bedlam, in which time he has gone on to have more success than ever, even finding time to pen hits for the likes of German producer Robin Schulz and The Vamps (yes, the songwriting credit on I Found A Girl is Blunt).

John Garrison has occupied the bass chair with Blunt since 2007, having stepped in following the departure of original bassist Malcolm Moore. In Garrison’s case it’s an awareness of what it takes to make a situation work, together with an impulse to keep things simple, that has proved essential. 

“As a bass player it’s rarely ever about you,” says Garrison. “You’re there to do what’s right for the artist. On this gig, people want to see James, that’s who they want to focus on, so there shouldn’t be any distractions from that.”

Currently on tour promoting Blunt’s seventh studio album, Who We Used To Be, we asked Garrison to name five albums that helped shape him into the bass player that he is today. 

1. Level 42 - A Physical Presence (1985)

“I was introduced to this album when I was 15. I had been playing drums for six years but had just got my first bass and it became my musical bible. I would play along to it from start to finish every day after school until I could play it note-perfect.

“At the time, I was so dedicated (and hadn't discovered girls or beer yet!) that I would rewind it to the start if I made a mistake and start again until I had played it right. But I couldn't understand why I couldn't get into any local bands. I assumed everyone thought playing 26 notes a second was cool!”

2. It Bites - Once Around The World (1988)

“I had been a fan of It Bites since hearing Calling All The Heroes from their first album, but the second album introduced me to beats and progressions I had never heard before. Dick Nolan's interplay with Bob Dalton on drums was so precise that not one bass drum beat goes by without a bass note and vice versa.

“But what I really liked about the album was still the tunes – so melodic and catchy that the casual listener doesn't really pay any attention to the complexities going on below. It sounds dated now, though, and was hugely self-indulgent, but that was still OK in 1988!”

3. Jellyfish - Spilt Milk (1993)

“The drums and bass on this album are still some of the best I have heard. And it doesn't age sonically. It got me into songwriting and the possibilities of how a bass can add dynamics and excitement to a song.

“Joining A Fan Club is a crazy Queen meets Beatles meets Supertramp rollercoaster that always leaves me breathless by the end, and the bass on that track is amazing, very Macca-esque.

“I was lucky enough to see them live during their short-lived career. and they were even better in the flesh. It made me raise my live game quite considerably.”

4. Radiohead - OK Computer (1997)

“I think Colin Greenwood is one of the most unsung bass players out there. He's incredibly musical and on this album he comes into his own. His underpinning of Thom Yorke's melodies is amazing.

“I once heard in an interview Thom Yorke calling Colin the secret weapon to Radiohead and I think he is right. Anyone who has tried to play along to Paranoid Android will know how complex his basslines can be, but they always sound so 'right’. The entrance of the fuzz bass halfway through Exit Music (For a Film) is still one of my favourite moments in music.”

5. Talk Talk - The Colour Of Spring (1986)

“This still remains my favorite album of all time. For me it's the perfect mix of great musicianship and great songwriting. The bass of Paul Webb is so melodic and imaginative, but it always complements the song.

“Most people know the piano hook bassline of Life's What You Make It; but there are so many great bass hooks throughout this album – and the rhythm section of Webb and Lee Harris on drums, I could listen to them on their own all day.

“They made two more great albums after this one that were a lot more experimental and really pushed musical barriers at the time – much to the annoyance of EMI!”

Of Radiohead’s three guitarists, Ed O’Brien is the band’s resident stompbox obsessive, with an eternally rotating pedalboard (which, these days, is usually built by TheGigRig/That Pedal Show’s Daniel Steinhardt).

O’Brien is tasked with occupying the space between Jonny Greenwood’s acerbic leads and Thom Yorke’s rhythmic dances, and as such, pedals and textural playing have been integral to his guitar approach.

In a new interview with Guitarist magazine, O’Brien has explained how two of the band’s seminal ’90s records, The Bends and OK Computer, were shaped by one BOSS pedal in particular – and it’s been on every pedalboard he’s brought on tour since.

“I love the DD-5,” he says. “To me, the DD-3 is the sound of the ’80s, while the DD-5 is the sound of the ’90s. The DD-5 was key to the sound of The Bends and OK Computer. It was virtually all DD-5.

“I didn’t use many pedals at the time, but the BOSS DD-5 was one of my favourites because I could get so many different sounds out of it. I love using it for ring modulator-style noises.

“I play around with that pedal a lot and it’s been on every Radiohead pedalboard I’ve gone out with because it’s the only delay that can make those OK Computer sounds.”

O’Brien’s love of BOSS delays doesn’t stop there, though. His first delay pedal was a DD-3 – and he uses a DD-3T on his current ’board – but he’s also keeping a close eye on the Japanese effects giant’s latest output for future tours with Radiohead.

“When I go out on tour again, the [DM-101] Delay Machine is probably going on the ’board,” he reveals of his plans for BOSS’s “ultimate analog delay pedal”.

“I can store sounds in there, which I can’t do with the Electro-Harmonix Memory Man. The Delay Machine is extraordinary.”

The SDE-3000D, BOSS’s newly launched version of Roland’s game-changing ’80s rack unit, is also in O’Brien’s sights.

“If I can make the SDE-3000D [Dual Digital Delay] work I’ll use that, too, although I’ll still need a DD-5,” he admits. “I think the [original Roland] SDE-3000 is amazing. That ’80s era of delays was really special, and BOSS totally nailed it.

“Daniel [Steinhardt] and I have very similar tastes in delays, and I’m always waiting for his validation. With the SDE-3000D, he said, ‘BOSS have knocked it out of the park.’”

So, in an age where guitarists can have all manner of all-encompassing delay modelers at their feet, why does O’Brien need so many delays? It’s all about the feeling, he says.

“Delays are like any pedal inasmuch they have their own character,” he explains.

“Each one does something differently and, for me, it’s an emotional thing. Like, how do I hear and see the record emotionally? I’m not one of those guys who has one delay and that’s my sound. It’s an expensive habit – I have lots of delays – but, as you can tell, I’m a big fan of BOSS!”

This month, Guitarist magazine includes a free supplement dedicated to 50 Years of BOSS. Click here to download it as a digital version or here for a 'digital page-turner' on Issu.

Colin Greenwood is set to play bass on Nick Cave’s forthcoming solo tour across the US later this year.

The dates kick off in Asheville, NC on September 19 and finish with two shows at LA’s Orpheum Theatre on October 27 and 28. 

Greenwood previously performed with Cave across his Australian dates with Warren Ellis in 2022. Here, he is presented as “accompanying” the songwriter and performer, suggesting a set of intimate shows in a duo format.

The news is also significant for Radiohead fans as it means there is unlikely to be an end to the band’s hiatus this year. The UK rock band have not released an album since 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool. 

In addition, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood formed side-project The Smile in 2021, with drummer Tom Skinner. A recent newsletter update from the group shared an image of The Smile in the studio, stating, “We’re deep in recording. Week 7. Reel 15.”

Last year, Radiohead drummer Philip Selway told Stereogum that he does not begrudge the other members’ bands and projects, amid their ongoing hiatus. 

“Radiohead’s the umbrella, if you like,” said Selway. “What Radiohead does is very much the pole that’s holding up the umbrella, but all these other projects come underneath it as well. And it’s just fascinating seeing how we all operate in different musical collaborations… getting that wider sense of each other’s musicality in that way.”

Check out Nick Cave’s full US solo tour dates with the Radiohead man below.

Colin Greenwood is not the only famous bassist keen to play with the Australian great, though. Last year, Flea dropped in to perform with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis at their LA show.

Nick Cave US solo tour dates 2023

• 09/19 Asheville, NC - Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
• 09/21 Durham, NC - DPAC
• 09/23 Washington, D.C. - Lincoln Theatre
• 09/25 Cleveland, OH - Playhouse Square
• 09/27 Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theater
• 09/29 Chicago, IL - Auditorium Theatre
• 10/02 Minneapolis, MN - State Theatre
• 10/06 Brooklyn, NY - Kings Theatre
• 10/07 New York, NY - Beacon Theatre
• 10/10 Boston, MA - Wang Theatre
• 10/12 Montreal, Quebec - Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier
• 10/14 Toronto, Ontario - Massey Hall
• 10/15 Detroit, MI - Masonic Cathedral Theatre
• 10/17 Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
• 10/20 Atlanta, GA - Atlanta Symphony Hall
• 10/22 Dallas, TX - Majestic Theatre
• 10/23 Austin, TX - ACL at The Moody
• 10/27 Los Angeles, CA - Orpheum Theatre
• 10/28 Los Angeles, CA - Orpheum Theatre

For more information and tickets, head to Nick Cave’s site.

The '90s is a time often associated with grunge, family sitcoms, and guilty pleasure pop music.

Dialing back, though, you'll find a time when groups from across the UK made their respective marks on an evolving scene. And though not always apparent on the surface, one of the most magical aspects of the indie/Britpop era was the guitar work.

Some focused on the cascading rhythms of '80s college rock, while others harkened back to '70s-inspired blues rock. And some brave souls amalgamated their style and influences so deeply that entirely new soundscapes were formed, reshaping our notions of what we thought we knew musically.

The '90s UK scene had many contenders – below, we're dialing back to 15 indie/Britpop guitar heroes who shook up the UK in the '90s.

15. Adam Devlin (The Bluetones)

As one of the lesser heralded six-stringers of his era, Adam Devlin formed a symbiotic partnership with The Bluetones frontman and vocalist Mark Morriss. The Bluetones' first two records, Expecting to Fly (1996) and Return to the Last Chance Saloon (1998), are sweet slices of Britpop heaven, yielding the Hounslow-based group major chart success.

Devlin pulled no punches in lionizing his heroes through his chiming chord progressions and sing-song approach to the guitar. After closing shop in 2011, The Bluetones reformed in 2015 and have performed on and off since.

14. Mark Day (Happy Mondays)

Madchester scene legends Happy Mondays aren't exactly known as a ”guitar group” per se, but peel back the onion, and it's plain to see that guitarist Mark Day's contributions are constitutive, nonetheless. In the case of Day, the best way to describe his importance to Mondays' psychedelic blend would be “structural”.

The group fancied themselves as a musical tornado, with an aim to get people up and dancing. To that end, Day laid the bedrock for a cataclysm of samples, vocalizations, and keyboards that would define the iconic group's music. Anyone who has heard 1990's Pills' n' Thrills and Bellyaches understands the magic of Happy Mondays. And Mark Day is at the epicenter of the madness.

13. Donna Matthews (Elastica)

Sadly, the wonder that was Elastica lasted for only two records, Elastica (1995) and The Menace (2000), but their impact is everlasting. A sublime blend of Britpop, punk rock, and post-punk, Elastica personified “cool” by every measurable output. At the heart of the chaos was red-haired firecracker, Donna Matthews.

Never one to take an excessive solo, it was Matthews' punk chords and whip-smart songwriting that would catapult the group to early success. However, luck wouldn't smile on Elastica for long, with drugs taking a toll on Matthews, leading to her departure in 1998. Matthews has kept a low profile since, with her recent output being restricted to improvisational music uploaded via YouTube.

12. Graham Lambert (Inspiral Carpets)

As a critical cog in the late-'80s alternative dance scene, the Inspiral Carpets were early purveyors of what was to come. By 1990, the Carpets had made waves with Life, and it was with that head of steam that they careened into the decade with The Beast Inside (1991) and their magnum opus, Revenge of the Goldfish (1992).

Lambert's atmospheric chord stylings and heavy riffing showcased an alternative approach to that of scene mates Happy Mondays, which would prove authoritative over a bustling musical movement. After two more records, the Carpets folded their tent in 2016, and Lambert has been mostly quiet since.

11. Debbie Smith (Echobelly)

After lending her talents to shoegaze outfit Curve, guitarist Debbie Smith joined vocalist Sonya Madan at Echobelly's onset in 1994. Smith's soaring vocals were accented to perfection by Smith's heavy, sidewinding approach to the guitar.

Known for sporting a Fender Jaguar, Smith provided textural layering, intertwining her string strokes with Madan's vocals to spellbinding results. At the height of their fame, Everyone's Got One (1994), and On (1995) were big hits in the UK. In the years since, Echobelly continues, but sadly, Smith no longer drives its engine.

10. Steve Cradock (Ocean Colour Scene)

Best known for their 1996 record Moseley Shoals, Solihull veterans Ocean Colour Scene are one of the few survivors of the Britpop era. But none of that would have been possible without the diverse talents of guitarist Steve Cradock.

A rare breed who could ably shift from sparse indie chord progressions to beefy, blues-rock riffing, Cradock gave Ocean Colour Scene free hand to cover multiple genres throughout each album. Since the group's inception, Ocean Colour Scene has never wavered – even when not releasing new music – and Steve Cradock has been a massive part of the band's longterm stability.

9. Miki Berenyi (Lush)

If you're going to feast your ears on one record leaning more toward the dream pop and shoegaze side of the era, Lush's sprawling 1992 affair Spooky is a great place to start. As a vocalist, Miki Berenyi is an ace in the hole whose angelic musings will send you into the ultimate dream state. But her luxuriant fretwork ultimately set Lush apart in their heyday.

Known to brandish anything from a Gibson Flying V to an ES-335 12-string, Berenyi is the complete package. As a linchpin of the “alt-girl” movement, Berenyi influenced droves of young women to vocalize their emotions through bursts of six-string fury. While Lush is no more, Berenyi has just released her memoir, Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me from Success. If you've got the time, it's must-read stuff.

8. Russell Senior (Pulp)

The musical kinship between Jarvis Cocker and guitarist/violinist Russell Senior was undoubtedly apparent, culminating in what's generally regarded as one of the decade's finest records, Different Class (1995). And so, it was no surprise that after Senior took his angular, Fender-driven approach with him in 1997, Pulp was never the same.

Another example of a guitarist who was never much for a solo, Senior excelled at building complex, post-punk-inspired song structures accented by thoughtful riffs. While Senior did participate in Pulp's 2011-2012 tour, as it stands today, he will not be joining Cocker for Pulp's recently announced reformation.

7. PJ Harvey

As a prodigious songwriter and a talented multi-instrumentalist, PJ Harvey has always seemed most comfortable with a guitar in her hands. Since the release of 1992's Dry, Harvey has been a supernova, colliding with adoring fans' eardrums in an implosion of alt-rock glory via cool Britannica.

As a defiant female presence among a vast sea of male guitar machismo, Harvey carved out a path for those who wanted something different and maybe slightly weird. Unafraid to combine genres, Harvey has laid her contralto-ranged vocals on the top of some of the decade's finest tracks and continues to grace stages in the same manner to this day.

6. Nick McCabe (The Verve)

Easily one of the '90s' most gifted guitar personalities, Nick McCabe played sideman to Richard Ashcroft for most of The Verve's iconic moments. Aloof by nature, McCabe made his talents known via The Verve's music, starring across stellar efforts A Storm in Heaven (1993), A Northern Soul (1995), and Urban Hymns (1997).

Deploying a combination of Les Pauls, Stratocasters, and Jaguars, McCabe straddled multiple genres – sometimes within the confines of one song – seamlessly merging shoegaze, alt-rock, and modern psych to fabulous results. 

While McCabe often stands motionless, the sounds he elicits are nothing short of memorable. Ashcroft and McCabe would bury the hatchet in 2007 following professional differences, leading to 2008's Forth. But old tensions halted things once more in 2009.

5. Bernard Butler (Suede)

Though only a member of Suede during the band's formative years, Butler lent a hand to their first two records. Generally regarded as one of the UK's finest players, Butler's unique tone, iconic vibrato, willingness to experiment, and silky-smooth fretwork not only defined but created the sound of Suede.

While he left the band before its most significant commercial success, it's plain to see that Suede (1993) and Dog Man Star (1994) are Suede's finest hours. More so, it's not a stretch to say that Suede doesn't exist as it stands today without Butler's Gibson ES-355-inspired influence. Butler continues to lend his talents to various projects but has never returned to Suede since his 1994 departure.

4. John Squire (The Stone Roses)

John Squire proved a throwback in an era not always associated with old-school guitar heroes. With a Gibson Les Paul effortlessly slung over his shoulder, the amiable six-stringer was a perfect foil to The Stone Roses' enigmatic lead vocalist, Ian Brown.

As early combers to a rising scene, Squire showed his meddle, covering everything from baggy, alt dance, and Big Star-inspired indie rock on the Roses' 1989 self-titled debut and 1994's Second Coming. 

With the Roses folding in 1996, Squire next lent his licks to The Seahorses, recording Do it Yourself in 1997. These days, Squire focuses on his artwork, but he occasionally pops up for air on the musical side of things as he sees fit.

3. Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead)

Never afraid to adapt his style as the musical situation sees fit, Johnny Greenwood has long been heralded as one of the finest players of his generation. As the de facto lead guitarist of Radiohead – a mantle he sometimes shares with Ed O'Brien – Greenwood is responsible for some of the group's fiercest guitar-driven moments, as well as many of its most off-the-beaten-path compositions.

While records such as The Bends (1995) and OK Computer (1997) paint a picture of an iconic guitar god, Greenwood's work on Kid A (2000) and In Rainbows (2007) reflect a restless virtuoso entirely unwilling to stagnate. 

Radiohead have been quiet of late, but lately, Greenwood's focus has been on crafting new material with Thom Yorke in The Smile, as well as composing movie scores. For the curious, the soundtrack to 2007 flick There Will Be Blood is just one of many standout moments in Greenwood's ever-evolving career.

2. Noel Gallagher (Oasis)

By no means a virtuoso, the era's most prolific songwriter is an able guitarist in his own right. Gallagher made up for it, though, with brazen swagger, a cocksure attitude, and a massive catalog of legendary songs left in his wake. 

Harboring an intuitive ability to untether lyrical solos seemingly on a dime, Gallagher's Union Jack Epiphone Supernova was never louder than on Definitely Maybe (1994), (What's the Story) Morning Glory (1995), and 1997's cocaine-fueled oeuvre Be Here Now.

Though Oasis ended in an explosive ball of fury in 2009, leaving fans forever “mad fer it”, The Chief is still at it with his High Flying Birds. From both a musical and aesthetic perspective, Gallagher was a tour de force that quite literally defined '90s era Britpop. While he will never be mistaken for the era's most gifted axe-slinger, when it comes to songwriting, Noel Gallagher has no equal.

1. Graham Coxon (Blur)

A profoundly dexterous multi-instrumentalist, Coxon was initially thrust into the role of Blur's guitarist purely out of need. Coxon's lo-fi approach fashioned a musical mosaic laden with chimes of shimmering six-string bells, noisy flourishes, and downright weird bursts of angular art-rock. 

While unafraid to take a solo, don't expect conventional tropes: no, Coxon uses his time in the limelight to induce over-amplified colorways of disruptive pandemonium.

Partially responsible for some of the most exotic records of the Britpop era in Modern Life is Rubbish (1993), Parklife (1994), and The Great Escape (1995), Coxon is dissimilar to his contemporaries in aptitude and temperament. Blur reformed in 2009, and in addition to his art and solo work, Coxon continues to imprint his brand of Telecaster-bred whimsy on the group to this day.

The Smile put in an appearance at Barcelona’s Primavera festival last month (June 10) and new project of Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood recently shared footage of their haunting performance of The Same.

Here Greenwood takes on piano duties while Yorke puts his Guild Starfire II bass guitar to good use. The semi-hollow bass is typically called upon by Yorke for playing The Same, Skirting The Surface and Opposites. 

Radiohead sleuths The King Of Gear cite it as being most likely a late-60s Starfire II, owing to the dual-pickup configuration, which debuted in 1967, and the fact it uses Hagstrom Bi-Sonic pickups (instead of the Guild-made humbuckers that were introduced in the early ’70s). 

This variant was favored by both Jefferson Airplane’s Jack Cassady and The Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh around the close of the decade, so it has good form as tool for heady jams – and if we’ve learned one thing, it’s that The Smile enjoy heady jams.

Yorke frequently plays bass during The Smile’s performances and while his fretwork on The Same is fairly restrained, he does a surprisingly good line in Flea-like fingerstyle work. As we’ve previously noted, this is perhaps thanks to his time studying the RHCP man’s technique during their Atoms For Peace project.

That said, it’s The Smile’s drummer Tom Skinner (also of UK jazz heroes Sons Of Kemet) who arguably gets the best job on The Same – manipulating some modular synth gear into scything, echo-ing textures across the bed laid down by his bandmates. 

Yorke still finds time during the set to exercise his electric guitar abilities, however – as the frontman demonstrated when he employed Ed O’Brien’s signature Sustainer Strat debuting The Smile’s latest song, Bodies Laughing, at their Berlin show in late-May.

Thom Yorke has appeared onstage using his Radiohead bandmate Ed O’Brien’s signature Stratocaster to perform a new track Bodies Laughing.

Yorke debuted the song during a performance at Berlin’s Tempodrom venue on May 20 with his side-project The Smile (who have only recently released their debut album).

“So, yesterday we wrote another new song,” explained Yorke, before they performed the song. “So we’re gonna try and play it. No: we’re going to play it. There’s no mistaking [it]. As long as you guys know how it starts, we’ll be all right… It’s called Bodies Laughing.”

The song is a swirling, fragile and, dare we say it, weirdly funky guitar-led tune that revolves around the line “everybody’s laughing… we can’t control it anymore”. 

The Smile also features Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, alongside Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. However, fan footage shows Yorke using what appears to be a signature guitar of his other Radiohead collaborator, Ed O’Brien, to perform the song.

The signature model is usually easy to identify thanks to its unique pickup configuration (a Seymour Duncan JB Jr humbucker in the bridge, Texas Special single coil in the middle and Fernandes Sustainer in the neck) and the two mini-toggle switches that control the Sustainer. 

Yorke’s EOB Strat seems to have been modded slightly, with black pickup covers in the bridge and neck, though – to the best of our zoom/YouTube identification ability – they appear to be the same units.

Indeed, Yorke does launch into several solo sections throughout Bodies Laughing that appear to make use of the Sustainer, alongside some unseen effects, which would explain its selection. 

Either way, it seems Ed O’Brien’s signature model is proving inspirational to his bandmates, too. Perhaps they'll want to pick up some of the gear that O’Brien has recently put up for auction, too.

Radiohead electric guitar effects wizard Ed O’Brien has announced he’ll be selling a number of pedals and rack units from his personal collection in aid of charity.

For the auction, O’Brien has teamed up with vintage and rare gear retailer Soundgas, and has selected two unnamed refugee charities that will receive a portion of all the generated proceeds.

The standout item on the list is O’Brien’s gold-finished Klon Centaur overdrive pedal, which the guitarist used on both The King Of Limbs and A Moon Shaped Pool. It also saw action when both albums were toured in 2011-12 and 2016-18.

As an added bonus, O’Brien’s favored settings are still marked on the pedal.

At the time of writing, the highest bid for the #1537 Klon currently sits at $8,805. Given most Centaurs go for around this price anyway, we wouldn’t be surprised to see this number creep up over the coming days. Whatever it ends up selling for, 10% of the final price will be donated to charity.

“It’s time to clear out a few pedals and delays from the cupboard to usher in some new sounds,” O’Brien said on Instagram. “So, I’m selling a load of gear that need new homes. It's the good stuff.

“I am trying so hard not to be a hoarder,” he continued. “I want to use the stuff that I have and if I don’t, then it needs to move on. These are up for sale on an auction with my friends at Soundgas. A percentage of the proceeds are going to two refugee charities.”

Joining the Klon is a restored and modified Binson Echorec PE603-T and a Korg SE-300 Stage Echo, both of which O’Brien used extensively on his 2020 debut solo album, Earth.

Two Line 6 Echo Pros are also up for grabs, as is a Market Electronics Echoplex EP-2. The list is capped off by a Roland SVC-350 Vocoder.

For the full list of items – and to find out when the auction time for each piece of gear ends – head over to Soundgas.

Given that many of Radiohead's most beloved and enduring hits are acoustic guitar-driven, their frontman, Thom Yorke, has a rich vein of material to dip into when playing an acoustic solo gig. 

That's why it's a bit of a surprise that – during his solo performance in Zermatt, Switzerland on Saturday (April 9) – Yorke chose to, for the first time, play a solo rendition of one of Radiohead's most ferocious electrified rockers, Bodysnatchers.

You can see the fairly faithful version – powered by a Gibson B-25 rather than the roaring SG of the 2007 original – above.

It wasn't the only surprise of the evening, as Yorke also brought out a 12-string guitar for a mesmerizing rendition of These Are My Twisted Words, the perennially underrated, near-instrumental one-off single Radiohead released in 2009. You can check that out below.

Though the rest of the 23-song set was comprised of a similar mix of Radiohead rarities (such as Spectre, the band's rejected theme for the 2015 James Bond movie of the same name) and classics (like Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, for which Yorke again picked up the B-25), it was especially notable for Yorke's performance an as-yet-unreleased song by The Smile, Free in the Knowledge. 

Though played by The Smile – the trio comprised of Yorke, his Radiohead bandmate Jonny Greenwood and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner – at a live-streamed rehearsal in December 2021 and at all three of their shows at the Magazine London in January, Yorke's haunting rendition marks just the second time he's played the song solo.

Armed this time with a Martin 00-18, and assisted at the beginning by some eerie vocal effects, Yorke left the crowd spellbound by the song, which was second on the setlist after the 2018 solo cut, Has Ended.

Though The Smile have released four singles – You Will Never Work In Television Again, The Smoke, Skrting On The Surface and Pana-vision – the release date of their debut album has still yet to be announced.

As-yet-untitled, the album was helmed by Radiohead's longtime producer and sixth member of sorts, Nigel Godrich.

The Smile – the Radiohead side project featuring Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, and Sons Of Kemet’s Tom Skinner on drums – have premiered a new single, Skrting On The Surface.

The band's third single to date – following The Smoke and You Will Never Work In Television Again – the song is, notably, the first formally released version of an idea that's been kicking around the Radiohead extended universe for well over a decade.

Skrting On The Surface was performed – with a slightly more minimalist, acoustic-driven arrangement – by Radiohead on three occasions during their 2012 tour, and was also played three times in 2009 and 2010 as a solo piano piece by Yorke during shows with his supergroup, Atoms for Peace. There's even evidence on Radiohead fanpages of the song existing in fragmented form as far back as the late '90s.

In any case, The Smile's version is a different beast entirely, with a spidery central guitar figure and the sort of ethereal, wafting horn arrangements that also powered The Smoke. 

You can take the song for a spin below.

Skrting On The Surface will almost certainly appear on the trio's as-yet-untitled debut album, which was helmed by Radiohead's longtime producer and sixth member of sorts, Nigel Godrich.

In late January, The Smile played their first-ever public gigs – a trio of shows in the span of 15 hours – at the London event space Magazine. 

Tickets were hard to come by, but luckily enough, we were able to snag one, and share our six biggest takeaways from the gigs. 

Back in May 2021, Radiohead masterminds Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood surprise-debuted The Smile, a new project with bolder guitar leanings than their day jobs. Completed by Tom Skinner, drummer for London jazz outfit Sons of Kemet, the trio made their debut via a Glastonbury livestream, held in place of the actual festival.

This weekend, the group played their first gigs in front of actual human beings. The ambitious setup saw the band perform three shows in the round, all within the space of 15 hours to allow for livestreams of the concerts across three time zones.

As luck would have it, Guitar World was on hand to experience the group’s first performance at London event space Magazine and note down any especially nerdy guitar details. And with two members of Radiohead in the band, there were plenty to spot. Here are six things we just had to share…

1. The Smile are unashamedly prog

Radiohead are perhaps the ultimate ‘stealth’ prog band, consistently pushing their sound but without delving too far into progressive excess. But The Smile don’t hold back.

The time signatures are evidence enough: from the second Yorke launched into the uneasy piano tinklings of 7/8 opener Panavision, the evening only occasionally ventured into 4/4 – hell, the band’s big ‘single’, the Sonic Youth-flavored You Will Never Work in Television Again, is in 5/4, and there were two songs in the rather more challenging 11/8: the eerie Waving a White Flag and unreleased Radiohead reworking Skirting on the Surface.

In part, the band’s penchant for off-kilter grooves could be attributed to Skinner’s fluid drumming, but there’s also the notion that with fewer moving parts to manage, Yorke and Greenwood are able to span a wider array of times, tones and textures themselves. Certainly, there were few sonic landscapes left unpainted by the trio and the monumental array of gear they’d brought with them. Which brings us to…

2. Jonny Greenwood is really into rhythmic delays now

The manic outro of Radiohead’s Identikit was something of a precursor to this particular development, but The Smile’s debut performance confirmed that closely sync’d delay pedals are very much Greenwood’s guitar sound du jour.

There was the tight slapback of Greenwood’s, erm, slapped Les Paul riff that drives Thin Thing, Open the Floodgates’ dreamy cascading repeats and the skronky, angular echoes of The Opposite. With the wrong pedalboard, set closer Just Eyes and Mouth could be mistaken for a pentatonic scale exercise, but a shower of dotted-eighth repeats lent it an altogether more ethereal quality.

Interestingly enough, while Greenwood had been spotted with a Strymon TimeLine in rehearsals, he opted for a Boss RE-20 and DD-200 for the live shows. Oh, and he played sans shoes all evening. Toes of steel, that man.

3. Thom Yorke is a mean fingerstyle bass player

The Smile’s trio format finds both Yorke and Greenwood alternating between bass and guitar, but they each have very different approaches to the four-string.

When Greenwood donned his blonde P-Bass, he attacked it in a similar manner to his Telecaster Plus, with aggressive pick strokes and plenty of action at the upper end of the fretboard. Hell, he even whipped out the ol’ violin bow for A Hairdryer’s transcendent intro drone. In short, he plays bass like a guitarist.

Thom Yorke, on the other hand, treated his Fender Mustang like a dedicated maestro of the low-end, whether navigating The Smoke’s snaking bassline with a deft fingerstyle touch, or laying down The Opposite’s slinky stabs. No doubt he picked up a few tips from his time spent with Flea in Atoms for Peace, not to mention Jonny’s brother Colin, who was in attendance that evening.

4. Jonny Greenwood sold a whole new audience on the Les Paul

Rather than his customary Tele Plus, Greenwood relied solely on a Goldtop Gibson Les Paul for his six-string duties – an instrument rarely seen with the guitar anti-hero outside of performances of Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint.

The result was a warmer, more robust sound than his wiry single-coil jabs, and one better suited to bolstering the sound of The Smile’s leaner lineup. It was a reminder of the LP’s ability to generate warm, enveloping clean tones, and any hipsters who sauntered into the show thinking they weren’t a ‘Les Paul kind of guitarist’ left craving a big slab of single-cut.

Yorke, however, broke out many of his regular Radiohead touring instruments, including two Epiphone Casinos (one with Bigsby, one without), drop D-tuned Fender Jazzmaster on We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings, and a Gibson SG for open-tuned C# modal showcase A Hairdryer. Neil Young-esque ballad Free in the Knowledge played host to a Martin 00-18, while a Guild Starfire II hollowbody bass made a thumpy appearance on Skirting on the Surface and The Opposite.

5. The band are really good at multitasking

Yorke and Greenwood are used to having a few more musicians to play with, so the three-piece format forced every member to cleave their brains in two to conjure the kind of expansive textures you’d expect for their large-scale compositions.

Yorke and Greenwood frequently switched between synths and guitars – Skinner even dropped his sticks for the odd modular workout – while one particularly memorable moment found Greenwood plucking a harp while traversing a spiralling piano line in Radiohead-but-not-quite track Speech Bubbles.

Greenwood was masterful with his socked feet, too – on more than one occasion, the multi-instrumentalist went full Geddy Lee, hitting bass pedals while handling tricksy arpeggiated chords in Waving a White Flag or hammering out a blistering punk bassline in We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings. Blasts of overdrive and Electro-Harmonix Freeze gave smart dynamic contrast to moments of the set, too.

6. The Smile’s debut album will be something special – and there’s more to come

Yes, comparisons with Radiohead are unavoidable by the very nature of the band’s members and their songwriting tendencies. But The Smile color outside of Radiohead’s lines: there’s a sense of experimentalism that embraces krautrock and prog, and one that feels entirely free of expectation.

It’s the sound of three seasoned musicians making music for the sheer thrill of it, using all the tools at their disposal. It’s a joyous thing to behold, and it appears the band agree, already hinting at music beyond the band’s debut album, which is still yet to receive a release date.

“This has been all too brief,” Yorke admitted towards the tail end of the evening’s 70-minute performance. “When we’ve written some more, we’ll do some more, but we haven’t written any more… yet.”

The Smile, the new project composed of Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke and drummer Tom Skinner, unexpectedly livestreamed their rehearsal yesterday (December 2), offering a glimpse into their latest material and guitar rigs.

Footage of the stream has been uploaded to YouTube (thank you, identikit), and showcases three songs, Look at All the Pretty Lights, Free in the Knowledge and You Will Never Work in Television Again.

Jonny Greenwood can be seen playing a Fender P-Bass throughout the stream, even deploying his trademark violin bow on the instrument.

The footage also offers a glimpse at Greenwood’s pedalboard, which has hardly changed over the decades, but now offers a number of fresh additions for the new project.

Our ageing eyes spotted an Electro-Harmonix Freeze and Nano POG, off-’board Strymon TimeLine, and what looks to be an Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer.

Otherwise, most of Greenwood’s staples are present and correct, including the Boss OD-3, EHX Small Stone, Akai Head Rush and Boss RE-20. We can’t quite spy the Marshall Shredmaster, though.

Another camera angle also offers a look at Thom Yorke’s pedalboard, which is a) gargantuan, and b) slightly harder to discern.

We can make out multiple Boss RE-20s, a Line 6 DL4, EHX Nano POG, Death By Audio Echo Dream 2, MXR Distortion+, TC Electronic Ditto X4, plus an EarthQuaker Devices Rainbow Machine and Astral Destiny. But don’t quote us on those.

There’s also Yorke’s long-favored Telenordia Kompressor and Treble Booster. As for the rest, answers on a postcard, please.

Guitars-wise, Yorke leans on his Bigsby-equipped Epiphone Casino, while Greenwood has a blonde Telecaster and Les Paul Goldtop waiting in the wings, as well as the aforementioned Precision Bass.

As for the material itself, we’re getting strong indie-rock/Sonic Youth vibes, harking back to Radiohead’s guitar-driven roots.

The Smile made their official debut at Glastonbury earlier this year, and in interviews since the performance, Greenwood has indicated their debut album is “just about finished”. Hopefully last night’s livestream means we don’t have too much longer to wait.

Electric guitars and acoustic guitars owned and played by the members of Radiohead, Rush, Pearl Jam, The Beatles and U2 are set to go up for auction in a Music Rising charity event.

Hosted by Van Eaton Galleries in Los Angeles, the auction has been organized by The Edge and producer Bob Ezrin, who have assembled a star-studded selection of unique Gibsons, Fenders, Martins and more.

Names involved in the event include, of course, The Edge, as well as Ed O’Brien, Slash, Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl, Lzzy Hale, Tom Morello, Noel Gallagher, Joan Jett, Bono, Adam Clayton and Paul Stanley.

Joining them are Flea, Johnny Marr, Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Ronnie Wood, Chris Martin, Alex Lifeson and many more, with band-signed instruments arriving from Green Day and Kings Of Leon.

The event – officially dubbed Guitars Icons: A Musical Instrument Auction to Benefit Music Rising – will be in support of musicians of the Gulf South who have been devastated by Hurricane Ida and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Highlights in the collection – and trust us, there are a few – include Lzzy Hale’s signed Epiphone Explorer signature prototype, used extensively during Halestrom’s 2019 tour, and The Edge’s Custom Fender Stratocaster, which featured during U2’s live performances of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and Bad in 2017-19.

Elsewhere, the auction features Ed O’Brien’s Fender EOB Stratocaster – used heavily on the last Radiohead tour in 2016-2018 – as well as Paul Stanley’s one-of-a-king stage-used Ibanez Custom Shop and Johnny Marr’s studio-played Limited Fender Jaguar.

And, at risk of getting carried away with the embarrassment of riches on display, final mentions go to Paul McCartney’s tour- and studio-played Yamaha BB-1200 bass, Lenny Kravitz’s Gibson Custom Shop Flying V and Eddie Vedder’s concert-smashed Fender Telecaster.

Writing in a foreword in the auction’s catalog, The Edge and Ezrin said, “Today we are faced with the ongoing financial impacts to our entire industry of the pandemic. When it struck, musicians and crew members across the world quickly saw the cancellation of tours, club performances, recording sessions and music festivals.

“Guitar Icons will take us back to our roots to help musicians of the NOLA region weather this storm until they are able to regain their livelihoods,” they added. “The proceeds from this auction will go directly to those musicians and crews as cash payments that will hopefully help them get back on their feet.”

To find out more, head over to Van Eaton Galleries.

In other auction-related news, Eric Clapton's Derek and the Dominos Martin D-45 sold for a staggering $625,000 at Julien's Auction's Icons & Idols event, which also featured instruments from David Gilmour and Eddie Van Halen.

While none of those instruments broke any records, you can find out which bank-breaking instruments are currently in the record books in our guide of the 10 most expensive guitars ever sold at auction.

Noah Yorke – the son of Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke – has shared his new song, the eerily atmospheric Trying Too Hard (Lullaby).

While the guitarist/vocalist has already released music under the name Alec Owen and L.E.T.H.A.L, arriving most recently in the form of last year’s 10-track self-titled album, Trying Too Hard (Lullaby) marks the first time Yorke has shared music under his own name.

The texturally rich track itself is what you’d expect from someone who has been heavily exposed to Radiohead’s sonic universe: a captivating electric guitar motif, a haunting vocal line and a kaleidoscopic soundscape comprising layer upon layer of dissonant-yet-smooth background lines.

It’s an impressive start to Yorke’s newly launched music project – one that has already caught the attention of his father’s Radiohead bandmate Jonny Greenwood.

“Cor, what a glorious piece of music,” tweeted Greenwood. “Today was the first time I heard it, and I’m so impressed. Nice work, Noah.”

Writing on social media prior to the track’s release, Yorke admitted it was the first song of “a new solo project that I have wanted to get going for a very long time”, and that the track “means the world to me”.

“Thank you to everyone who listened to this song in the first couple of days,” a follow-up post read. “It’s now at 10,000 plays which is nuts to me. I know the reasons for this aren’t always much to do with me but it means the world to me that anyone gives a fuck or connects with it in any way.

“It’s scary to try and establish one’s identity and people caring about a song that is so important to me gives me a tiny bit of confidence that I’m not just an offshoot,” Yorke continued. “More stuff coming soon.”

As for Noah's father, Thom Yorke recently teamed up with Jonny Greenwood for an all-new musical project of their own – titled The Smile – which they debuted earlier this year during Glastonbury's Live at Worthy Farm streaming event. According to Greenwood, the group's debut album is "just about finished".

Radiohead have announced KID A MNESIA, a triple-disc celebration of the 21st and 20th respective anniversaries of two of their landmark albums, 2000's Kid A and 2001's Amnesiac.

The new reissue packages the two albums together with a third disc of previously unreleased alternate takes, alternate mixes and never-before-heard material from the era called Kid Amnesiae.

Along with the album's announcement, the quintet premiered If You Say The Word, a hauntingly beautiful outtake from the sessions that produced the two albums. 

With occasional tense synth stabs, hypnotic acoustic fingerpicking and brilliantly supple lead guitar work from Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien, this tune is quite the lost treasure. You can check it out below.

Kid A was Radiohead's fourth album, and the hugely-anticipated follow-up to their star-making 1997 masterpiece, OK Computer. Kid A proved to be a stunning, radical departure from its predecessor, abandoning the electric guitar for all but a few tracks in favor of moody, synth-driven atmospherics and sonic textures inspired by dance music, free jazz and Krautrock.

Amnesiac picked up right where its predecessor left off, further incorporating electronics into the band's sound, while picking up some grand, orchestral flavors (most notably on the towering career highlight Pyramid Song) along the way.

KID A MNESIA is set for a November 5 release – digitally and in a variety of physical formats – via XL Recordings. You can check out its cover art and the track list of the album's third disc of previously unreleased material below.

To preorder the album, step this way.

Radiohead – Kid Amnesiae:

1. Like Spinning Plates (‘Why Us?’ Version)
2. Untitled V1
3. Fog (Again Again Version)
4. If You Say the Word
5. Follow Me Around
6. Pulk/Pull (True Love Waits Version)
7. Untitled V2
8. The Morning Bell (In the Dark Version)
9. Pyramid Strings
10. Alt. Fast Track
11. Untitled V3
12. How to Disappear into Strings

The Smile – the guitar-driven side project of Radiohead members Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke – have “just about finished” their debut album, according to Greenwood.

In a new interview with NME, the guitarist says that the band – which also features Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner – are “sitting in front of a pile of music, working out what will make the record”.

“We're thinking of how much to include, whether it's really finished or if there are a few guitars that need fixing,” he explains. “I'd hope it'll come out soon, but I'm the wrong person to ask.”

He also says that as the band was formed during the COVID-19 pandemic, writing in lockdown has been “very stop-start”, but that the process has been a “happy way to make music”.

The “most impatient member of everybody in Radiohead”, Greenwood explains that he'd rather records he releases be “90 percent a good, but come out twice as often”.

“I've always felt that, the closer to the finish, the smaller the changes are that anyone would notice,” he continues. “I'd have said The Smile could have come out a few months ago, but it wouldn't be as good. I'm always impatient to get on and do more.”

Jonny Greenwood, Thom Yorke and Tom Skinner debuted The Smile at Glastonbury's Live at Worthy Farm streaming event earlier this year, announcing the band's existence only hours before the performance.

On the songs the band played during their set, Greenwood explains: “We've recorded everything we played at Glastonbury, but I don't know if it'll be on the album. We've got to go through everything in the pile. I'm very relieved that everything for Spencer [the forthcoming Princess Diana biopic for which Jonny Greenwood is composing the score] finishes this week, because next week we can get into The Smile and make sure that's in a healthy state.”

Greenwood says that although the band's debut album is on its way, he has “no idea” whether they'll tour it.

“It's undiscussed and undecided,” he continues. “But it feels like we now have to start engaging with the outside world, having worked on this stuff alone. That's the test, when people finally hear it. I'm looking forward to that, as what the outside world makes of you is more than half the reason for doing it. I've never understood the idea of music for its own sake.”

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke and guitar anti-hero Jonny Greenwood have formed The Smile, a new three-piece project with Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, and debuted the lineup at Glastonbury‘s Live at Worthy Farm streaming event this weekend.

In typically cryptic Radiohead fashion, the band’s existence was announced mere hours before the livestream, which found the group play an eight-song set. You can watch footage of new song Thin Thing below.

Led by a fingerpicked – borderline thumped – riff from Greenwood (with a little slapback delay for good measure), the track recalls Radiohead’s darker forays into guitar-driven, progressive alt-rock.

Greenwood dons a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop – rarely seen in Radiohead, but previously used for renditions of Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint – for the performance, while Yorke showcases his impressive fingerstyle technique on a Fender Mustang Bass.

A two-minute snippet of a further track, We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings, finds Greenwood on bass, while Yorke harnesses an array of sweeping synths before strapping on a Gibson SG for some biting treble-string riffs.

There’s no word on what’s next from the project – which is also said to involve longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich – although judging from the weekend’s set, there’s already enough material for a full album.

Yorke and Greenwood have been predominantly involved in their respective soundtrack efforts since the 2016 release of Radiohead’s last album, A Moon Shaped Pool, while fellow guitarist Ed O’Brien released his debut solo record as EOB in 2020.

Paul McCartney has unveiled Ed O’Brien’s rendition of his track Slidin’, which first appeared on his 2020 album, McCartney III.

The Radiohead guitarist's riotous remix, which opts for an up-tempo feel, reimagines the track as a high-octane rocker, super-charging the huge bed of thrash-y electric guitars, punchy power chord stabs and adding a layer of ethereal synths that weave their way through the length of the song.

O’Brien doesn't pull his punches, and further shifts things up a gear by the time the guitar-lead middle eight comes around, transforming the once-easy-going melodic phrasing into a hectic, head-banging-inducing breakdown. You can listen to the full track below.

The remix is taken from McCartney’s upcoming cover album McCartney III Imagined, which sees the Beatles legend recruit an array of music industry heavyweights, including St. Vincent, Phoebe Bridgers, Beck, Anderson .Paak and Dominic Fike, to offer up their own unique spins on his tracks.

While speaking to BBC Radio 6 about the project, O’Brien said, “I really liked [Slidin’], and so I said to Paul Epworth, would you fancy getting stuck in? He was really up for it. It was great.

“A moment of light in the darkness of the winter that’s just been,” he continued. “We had a lot of fun. Got into [McCartney’s] vocals and added some chaos, some guitar– my reference point was Helter Skelter, ramp up the intensity!”

Slidin’ is the third offering from the highly anticipated album, with Dominic Fike’s rendition of The Kiss of Venus having been unveiled as the record’s lead single. Beck’s cover of Find My Way has also been released.

McCartney III Imagined is set to drop on April 16.

Glitch effects in electronic music have long transcended their original niche. These days, you can find modem-like glitches, warped samples, and machine-gun stutter in progressive metal or radio pop.

Glitchy-sounding guitar is also commonplace, but how do you go about creating futuristic guitar parts, and can they be played live? The answer is yes, they can, especially with the dizzying array of pedals available today.

Obviously, you'll have heard glitch in electronic music, from Massive Attack to Squarepusher. You'll also have heard it in the music of stadium-rock bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, as well as many smaller math and post-rock bands.

Here, we've run down a few of our favorite glitch guitar techniques. It's not intended to be a comprehensive list, but hopefully it will spark some creative new ideas for your compositions and riffs.

This guide to glitch guitar is brought to you by Manchester, UK's overrider – you can hear these techniques in action on new single sunjammer//system crash.

1. Beat, repeat and stutter

• For fans of: Jonny Greenwood/Radiohead, Three Trapped Tigers
• Pedals used: Boss DD-series delay, Line 6 DL4, Red Panda Tensor
• Song example: Three Trapped Tigers - Creepies

When most guitarists hear the phrase 'glitch guitar', this is likely the technique that springs to mind. Put simply, most delay pedals record a small buffer of audio. This can be triggered at the same volume as the original sound for a blizzard of repeats, often known as 'stutter', although some DAWs call it 'beat repeat'.

In the era of boutique pedals, there are many specifically devoted to the manipulation of small chunks of recorded audio. Some are unobtanium, but several are commercially available, like the Hexe Revolver, King of Glitch Feral Glitch and Red Panda Tensor. However, you can use standard Boss delays like the DD-6 that have a momentary 'hold' function to achieve this effect as well.

Johnny Greenwood uses a computer-based MAX MSP chain with an LFO controlling the sample size to create a dynamic version of stutter in the live solo for Paranoid Android. An example without the LFO changing sample buffer size would be the intro riff to UK math-rockers Three Trapped Tigers' Creepies.

2. Sampling and manipulating micro glitches

• For fans of: Tera Melos, Radiohead
• Pedals used: Two loopers, any delay, any pitch shifter
• Song example: Radiohead - Everything In Its Right Place (live)

A sampled sound is easy to manipulate further, which is why you'll often see guitarists with a looper at the beginning and end of their 'board. By placing pedals like pitch-shifters and delays after your main looper, you can achieve much wilder sounds.

For examples of this, consider the punctuation glitches in Tera Melos or Adebisi Shank songs - discussed in more detail below – or the way that Radiohead use Kaoss Pad-manipulated vocal one-shots and loops to glitch up their live performances of Everything In Its Right Place.

3. Glitching using warp markers in your DAW

• For fans of: Nine Inch Nails
• Pedals used: DAW only

Most DAWs will have tools to nudge an out-of-time take into time. By using these tools in a way other than intended, you can change the timing and phrasing of guitar parts, and create glitch effects like stutter and time warp. 

This works especially well for staccato chords, where stretching out a small part of the transient results in a distorted, garbled artifact.

4. Changing the speed of a sample buffer in-flight

• For fans of: Tera Melos, Minus the Bear, Brontide
• Pedals used: Line 6 DL4
• Song example: Brontide - Arioso

We most associate this trick with UK instrumental rock outfit Brontide, as a live version of their track Arioso was the first time our minds were blown by this technique. For many others, the loop master will probably be Minus the Bear's Dave Knudson, and his array of Line 6 DL4s. The DL4, like a lot of loopers, allows you to change the speed of a recorded sample, doubling it for a glitchy, octave-up effect.

The reverse, which can be done with the DL4 and other loopers like the TC Electronic Ditto, is to slow down a guitar part to a pad-like synth tone. Finally, some loopers and delays will let you manipulate the playback speed with a knob, giving you a sound close to auto-oscillation, which can then be tuned to a note.

5. Creating drum racks and sample banks from guitar samples

• For fans of: Nine Inch Nails, Joe Satriani
• Pedals used: DAW only
• Song example: Nine Inch Nails - The Great Destroyer

Using prepared guitar techniques, you can get interesting percussive sounds out of your guitar. You can do what Joe Satriani did for his first EP, and hit the strings with an Allen key to get drum-like sounds. He's not a fan of the results, but we think the timbres he created are interesting.

It's easy to make clicking and bleeping sounds, especially with distortion. These often remind us of the breakdown in The Great Destroyer, from Nine Inch Nails' 2007 album Year Zero, (even if that was synth, not guitar).

6. Phrasing with micro-loops - using loops as riff punctuation

• For fans of: Adebisi Shank, And So I Watch You From Afar, Tera Melos
• Pedals used: Line 6 DL4, Boss PS-5 or DigiTech Whammy Ricochet
• Song example: Adebisi Shank - Masa

In some ways, depending on what audio you capture and the size of the sample, this is a type of stutter effect.

There are two main ways that micro-looping can be used as punctuation. The first is marking the end of a phrase. In a dense guitar riff, bands like Adebisi Shank would loop a small snatch of the final note, and then manipulate it further to break the end of the riff from the next repeat, or indeed the next passage. This could be a pitch-shift down, or manipulating the speed of the playback. Elsewhere, And So I Watch You From Afar guitarist Rory Friers has long been a fan of using the ballistic mode of the Boss PS-5 pitch shifter to punctuate sections.

The second is adding articulation within a phrase. With quick footwork, it's possible to capture string sound, sliding, or muted string stabs in lightning bursts of stutter in-between notes. The result, weirdly, is a more legato sound – almost like the continuous notes of tremolo-picking, except with a more interesting timbre.

7. Playing MIDI samples of guitar parts

• For fans of: Nine Inch Nails
• Pedals used: DAW only

One of the most important things that can make a guitar part sound 'glitchy' is adding silence in a way that's unpredictable to the listener.

A good way of making an otherwise uninteresting guitar part a bit more exciting is to split it up using a sampler – in this video we use Ableton's Simpler – and then play the part back in using a MIDI keyboard. The process of re-playing parts of the original take using MIDI results in an unusual timbre, interesting artifacts and tiny moments of silence.

The White Stripes have shared the full version of their 2005 From The Basement performance for the very first time.

Recorded at Maida Vale Studios in London in November 2005, the show saw the band perform hits including Blue Orchid, Forever For Her (Is Over For Me) and As Ugly As I Seem, as well as a cover version of Captain Beefheart's Party of Special Things to Do.

Conceptualized by Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, From The Basement was a web TV series that ran between 2007 and 2009, with The White Stripes and Radiohead's Thom Yorke performing during its pilot episode.

This is the first time The White Stripes' entire performance from the series – as well as previously unseen B-roll footage from the show – has been available to watch in full. 

In a statement, Godrich said, “The dream of From the Basement is to capture great performances with the most direct and beautiful coverage possible, both sonically and visually. 

“We were so fortunate early on to have the support of Jack and Meg who instinctively understood the concept of the show and so came to be part of it.

“As a result, we have this amazing snapshot of their fantastic energy and style. It’s an intimate and direct performance, something magic, powerful and special. A day I will not forget.”

• The secrets behind Jack White's guitar tone on The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army

“Everything fell into place very quickly, and because of Meg and Jack’s ease and natural chemistry with each other I could just shoot what I saw,” said the show's director Sophie Muller.

“Whatever it was between them made it very simple, but so, so special and it was an honor to be there. I just love this electrifying performance.”

“It was beautifully filmed and the sound quality makes a performance on a regular TV show sound like a wax cylinder recording,” Jack White added. “No host. Thank God.”

This new free performance video isn't the only display of generosity from Jack White in recent memory. Last year, the frontman bought a Scottish busker a brand-new $3,000 Fender Custom Shop Strat, after the performer's guitar was smashed on the street.

And for more live clips of Jack White, check out his dazzling two-hand-tapped tribute to Eddie Van Halen during a recent edition of Saturday Night Live.

Gibson recently teased a Peter Frampton “Phenix” Les Paul Custom VOS, a recreation of the artist’s famous triple-pickup LP. But if you want to hear the real Phenix in action, look no further than the forthcoming Frampton Forgets the Words.

The new covers record, due April 23, finds the electric guitar legend paying instrumental tribute to David Bowie (Loving the Alien), George Harrison (Isn’t It a Pity), Lenny Kravitz (Are You Gonna Go My Way) and more alongside the Peter Frampton Band, with whom he last released 2019’s all-covers record, All Blues.

You can check out the first single, Frampton’s take on the 2007 Radiohead track Reckoner, above.

Frampton Forgets the Words was co-produced by Frampton and Chuck Ainlay, and recorded/mixed at Frampton’s own Studio Phenix in Nashville.

“This album is a collection of ten of my favorite pieces of music,” Frampton said in a statement.

“My guitar is also a voice and I have always enjoyed playing my favorite vocal lines that we all know and love. These tracks are my great band and me paying tribute to the original creators of this wonderful music. So much fun to do and I really hope you enjoy it too.”

Frampton Forgets the Words is available to preorder now. The full tracklist is as follows:

1. If You Want Me To Stay 
2. Reckoner 
3. Dreamland 
4. One More Heartache 
5. Avalon 
6. Isn’t It A Pity 
7. I Don't Know Why 
8. Are You Gonna Go My Way 
9. Loving The Alien 
10. Maybe

“It’s magnificent... Like an old Rolls Royce,” says Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien, pointing to the Cadac desk which once belonged to his main band and ended up being sold to producers Alan Moulder and Flood. 

It was here at West London’s Assault & Battery Studios, with Moulder and Flood, that O’Brien recorded and mixed parts of his first solo record as EOB. Prior to that, the analogue console had resided at Wessex Sound Studios and was used to track some of the greatest rock albums of the late '70s, including the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind The Bollocks, The Clash’s London Calling and Queen’s Sheer Heart Attack. 

This old console has earned its place in history - and the same could be said of O’Brien himself. As a founding member of one of the most important guitar bands in popular music, O’Brien has been the recipient of countless awards and accolades, although he chooses not to dwell on such merits. 

Instead, he is the kind of musician who prefers to live in the present - you quickly get the impression he only measures himself on what he has in front of him right now. 

Over an afternoon of walking TG through the guitars, amps and pedals used on Earth, plucking through Beatles-y closer Cloak Of The Night on his Martin during our photoshoot, the Radiohead guitarist is every bit as earnest and sincere as the music he is known for. “It’s funny, because people thought this would be more of an ambient album or textural kind of thing,” he says, when told this latest work is surprisingly guitar-heavy in places. 

“Maybe that’s what they see as my role in Radiohead. A lot of the responses so far have been like, ‘I had no idea you’d do something like this,’ which is always great to hear. With this, I wanted to make something very direct, but I guess with all that texture and color, too...”

You started writing in Brazil. Was the environment reflected in what you came out with?

“For me, being in Brazil made me feel like I had time... And it had been years since I felt like that. I could dedicate myself to being a songwriter because I never really had the time before or worked out how to do it. 

"I’d written bits and pieces like getting the computer out, a lot of electronic gear and making something electronic, but after about six weeks I wasn’t getting anything back. Normally you get over the hump of things and know where to give it a start. 

"Then I saw my Martin 000 sitting in the corner and I realized all I wanted to do was pick it up and start playing it. And so I did - I thought, ‘Fuck this, let’s do what I want to do rather than what I think I should be doing!’”

So the foundation was more guitar than synth?

“It was a real eye-opener, which started the process. When we moved back to Britain in 2013 - playing that Martin acoustic in my shed, that’s when things really started happening. I found a way of writing that worked for me. I got out of the way, basically. 

"I let it happen and stayed in that semi-meditative state that this stuff gets written in. Once I started demoing with Ian Davenport at Courtyard Studios in Oxfordshire, it was like, ‘Okay - yeah, I want to make a solo record now’. I didn’t know if I would be singing or someone else would, it was more a case of one step at a time, so I did some guide vocals which were enough to start dreaming it all up.”

What’s the story behind the Martin?

“I bought it in LA around 2009. We were there for the Grammy Awards as In Rainbows was up for Best Album. I had a bit of a spree during that trip; I just felt like I needed some new instruments. I bought that, a ’72 Tele and an old ’68 Fender amp, some kind of 6x10 Silverface. 

"I actually bought the Martin from that big store on Sunset, Guitar Center, because they had a big vintage section. I don’t really know what the good shit is, I’m somebody who picks things up to find out. I felt there was a nice tone to it. I wanted something old, wood and folky. It had to feel like it was of the trees and woods.”

Speaking of which, there’s a folky side of you on these recordings that we hadn't quite heard from Radiohead...

“That’s probably because it’s never been in Radiohead! Those parts were the kind of thing that Thom would come up with - he’ll have written a song on his acoustic guitar so those kinds of rhythm picky bits he would play. I mean, Street Spirit (Fade Out) is the only thing I can think of which he had written but I played. 

"I did the arpeggio thing, but I can’t remember why I ended up playing it. So those are traditionally his parts. My role in Radiohead is different.

"One of the things I’ve loved about this whole project is I get to play all the guitars! I love all the sonics and sound stuff , but I really love playing rhythm guitar and bass, too.”

The guitars on opening track Shangri-La get pretty hairy at points. What exactly are we hearing?

“That was the Martin going through a distortion pedal and into an amp. I really like how it combined with the bass, that gave it a genuine edge. I’m really into that whole Keith Richards thing, how he used distorted acoustics on songs like Jumpin’ Jack Flash. 

"I love distorted electric sounds but they can be so... I don’t want to say ‘cliché’, because that’s not fair, but I can be a bit of a sonic snob, if you like. The greatest distorted guitar sound was Steve Jones on Never Mind The Bollocks. 

"That’s how a distorted guitar should sound in my mind. A lot of distorted guitar sounds these days don’t have that element of danger, they’re almost too slick. I like it a bit more crunchy, edgy and not quite right, I guess.”

That song also features some heavily delayed, pitch-shifted guitars - which recur throughout the nine tracks...

“That’s just the DigiTech Whammy and my old Electro-Harmonix Memory Man [delay/chorus], with the vibrato of the chorus right up so it’s modulating. There’s a bit of a trail, maybe some reverb on there, but mainly delay. I’ve been using a Memory Man for years... I used to call it the ‘God’ pedal. Everything that goes through it is amazing. 

"That and the Whammy got used all over the album. They’re both such important pedals for me. There’s something about the Memory Man that frames the sound so beautifully, it takes off the edge - because the Whammy can be a harsh pedal, it makes me roll my tone off . I love that side of playing. 

"The guitar to me is a bit like an oscillator on a synthesizer, it’s the start of a sound rather than the sound in itself. I love the purity of an acoustic and an electric, but I guess coming from Radiohead I’m more used to treating the guitar like a synthesizer and processing it that way. Anything that can take you into a new range, like a Whammy, is very useful.”

Especially in a three-guitar band like Radiohead...

“Exactly, Thom might have put something down and how we might arrive there as a band when there’s not much room left. You have to work out what frequencies are missing, so I’ve ended up using things like Whammy pedals or even capos a lot. I like space and air in songs. I hate songs that are full-on the whole way through. 

"Well, I don’t hate them but I guess we came from a lot of Britpop in the 90s with distorted guitars the whole way through. We got fed up of that quickly and began to realize space is more important. 

"There needs to be things higher, lower and in the middle but with enough separation. You want riffs and melodies that interweave with one another in different registers.”

Would we be right in guessing a lot of the ‘synths’ in the song Brasil are actually heavily effected guitars?

“You would, there’s the acoustic guitar in the beginning but in the second half where it goes more dance there are so many guitars in the background.

"The high chiming thing is a guitar. Every part that sounds like a synth is multi-tracked sustainer guitars, like the string-section of an orchestra. Even the deeper bass notes, is a Spanish guitar played in a way that sounds more like a sequencer. Most people would be surprised by how much guitar there is on that track!”

Deep Days has some South American qualities to it - nylon strings, Dorian tonalities...

“I don’t know the theory behind it - clearly you do! (Laughs) In places like Brazil, rhythm, pulse, groove or tempo is everything. People might not even be able to play an instrument, but they’re instant jazz aficionados because they understand the rhythm and the samba.

"It should be danced to, and essentially they’re all dancers! The swing and BPM of that track was really important."

"We had a bit of a discussion with the engineers because they were younger and wanted to knock it down from 78BPM. We tried it at 76 and they were saying it felt more like hip-hop. 

"I had to explain it’s not hip-hop and I knew what they meant, but it had to feel slightly pushed. What’s interesting is this song couldn’t have come through at any other tempo. It simply wouldn’t have arrived at 76 or 80 or 88.”

Elsewhere, Banksters seems to revisit some of the alternative rock sounds you started out playing...

“That might be because it’s in 7/8. It’s the mongrel of all these tracks. When I wrote it, there was more of a light Brazilian beat. Initially I wanted it to sound like this Brazilian artist called Jorge Ben, but then get heavier in a T-Rex sort of way during the choruses. 

"But it wasn’t working, so I programmed a drum machine and we put this electro version of the track on top and crunched up the guitars. It’s a bit of a hybrid. 

"I guess it’s the angriest song and the nearest to Radiohead around The Bends or OK Computer. I was aware of that when doing it. Your instinct is to react against what you’ve done in the past, but I realized that’s what the song needed - a distorted chorus - so I just went with it. 

"Johnny Marr actually said something great to me once and that was, ‘Don’t be scared of sounding like yourself at times’ and by that he meant it’s alright to do new stuff and if there’s an element of your past in there, so be it. That’s totally fine. It’s no detriment to the song.”

What kind of electric guitars are we hearing on Earth?

“My Telecaster got used a lot. I think the main guitars on this record were the Tele and the EOB Strat, plus my 335 for Long Time Coming. I used my Custom Shop Les Paul, made in 1996, I think, and it’s a great guitar that sounds lovely.

"It’s all over the album, actually. It’s on Shangri-La and a few others, only for clean stuff - sounding so round and warm. It might have been the neck pickup but could even be the bridge with the toned knocked off a bit, because it’s still warm compared to a single coil. 

"I played my 1964 Epiphone bass with a single pickup, which sounds really dubby, fat and thick. And I also used a classic 1964 P-Bass too in blue, which plays really nice.”

As for amps, what are the main ones you stuck with?

“I mainly used Audio Kitchen, the Little Chopper and the Big Chopper, as well as my Lazy J 20. Those were the main amps for this record. Lazy J is made by a guy in Surrey who builds these Fender Deluxe à la Neil Young-spec amps. They’re really solid and sound brilliant.

"Flood and Alan Moulder got me into the Audio Kitchens, so that’s what I’ve been using live in Radiohead - two Big Choppers with two 1x12 cabs and they sound mental.”

What about pedals? You’re renowned for your heavy usage of effects...

“This is my live 'board with me today - I also have a studio one. There’s a Whammy on there, a Deluxe Memory Man [delay], an Origin Cali76 [compressor], plus a Catalinbread Belle Epoch Deluxe Delay - they make such a great preamp I use that as well.

"For the delay, they used all the same power, preamp and components as an Echoplex, the only difference is that the delay is digital and not tape, but it still sounds amazing. The Kingsley Page is my boost - it’s just a great tube kick to give things a bit more hair and thicken the signal a bit. 

"I also have a ThorpyFX Mushroom Cloud, their version of the Big Muff, which I used a bit too. I also own a Hologram Electronics Infinite Jets. I love that thing, it’s like an amazing synthesizer. I invited the guy who made it, Ryan Schaefer, to a Radiohead show. 

"He told me he was trying to build this pedal that you literally had on your shelf but don’t necessarily use the whole time. It helps create sounds that are different, you won’t be sure how you got there... But you did! 

"It’s one of those go-to pedals when you need something unusual. It makes your guitar stutter or sound like an accordion with backwards reverb. It’s seriously good.” 

Are there are any other pedals that aren’t on this 'board that you like to use?

“I’m also a big fan of Chase Bliss Audio pedals. They’re made by Joel Korte and he has this new pedal out called the Blooper. I used his red delay pedal a lot on this album, it sounds fantastic. 

"I also went to Soundgas who are up in Derbyshire and bought a Binson Echorec P609 or 603. It’s a great delay. I also bought a Roland Space Echo and a Korg Chorus Echo - all tape echoes - plus an Echoplex EP2. You could say tape delays are really important for me! 

"I also used the old Korg SDD-3000 from the 80s. It’s probably one of the main reasons I don’t use the TimeLine as much, it’s so pristine. The Belle Epoch and Memory Man are fantastic analogue delays with amazing chips in them.”

You certainly have plenty of options when it comes to delay...

“I find delay really inspiring, but it needs to have character. There’s another one I have, the Meris Polymoon, which is also great. I haven’t dug deep enough but it’s such a cool delay with  some great features like flanging and pitch-shifting. I needed a pedalboard that could do the job but also have enough future potential.

"When you get pedals, you have to invest time into those sounds. You need something you can investigate and dig deep on. This is great for that. I only really use the Timeline for its built-in looper. I also used a wah pedal a lot to sweep and take off the top. 

"On Olympik, it’s the wah going into a Memory Man and it sounds like a Rhodes when you get the delay right. People have been doing that for years, Mick Ronson did that a lot and Matt Johnson from The The was similar.”

There’s a fair few guest appearances, too, from Nathan East and David Utley to Laura Marling and another member of Radiohead...

“I had some incredible musicians playing on this - drummers Omar Hakim and Glenn Kotche, Nathan East and Colin Greenwood on bass, Laura Marling, David Okumu and Adrian Utley (Portishead) on guitar... Adrian did this great guitar that comes in during the outro of the opening track. I don’t know why but I call it the Alex Lifeson riff. 

"It’s a Rush kind of guitar, at least in my head.” 

It’s interesting you mention Rush, as many would describe Radiohead as a progressive rock band of sorts...

“It’s funny, I don’t know any King Crimson. Or Rush, really. I had a friend who was into Rush though so I knew early '80s songs like New World Man and The Spirit Of Radio. 

"I only knew the poppy side. The reason I mentioned them is because I just saw that documentary on them. It’s so beautiful that friendship they had, the love they had for each other. 

"I have a huge amount of respect for them, as I do for all musicians. The older I get, the more I respect other things. Pink Floyd, my dad was a massive fan. I didn’t really like them until probably quite recently. Now I love Wish You Were Here... That’s just mind-blowing genius. Shine On You Crazy Diamond is amazing.”

But growing up you were more of a punk at heart?

“Yeah, I guess the whole post-punk thing felt more all-encompassing to me. I needed more of a melodic structure. Actually, the first kind of music I was into, back in the '0s, was The Beatles. There was so much melodic structure and all these pop sensibilities, even in their most experimental moments. 

"Things like King Crimson were a bridge too far for me growing up, but it would be interesting to listen to them now. I guess I was taken by the whole dance wave when that Second Summer Of Love and acid house thing came along in 1988. That was massive. 

"You can hear the dance influences in my own music, like Brasil. I wanted to have that trance-like quality. So that kind of electronic stuff has been more influential to me than Yes or King Crimson. I was at that age where I wasn’t old enough to have seen the good [prog rock] stuff. 

"It felt quite self-indulgent, and then punk had come along. I guess I was just more into the two-minute songs.”

It’s interesting how many genres you’ve dipped and dived through over the years. Is that musical openness a key to the success?

“I think the underlying thing in Radiohead has always been the truth, really. That’s what we’re looking for creatively. When we made OK Computer, everyone was expecting The Bends part two. Same thing happened again with Kid A. We were just fortunate - the things we felt that were right to do were like left-turns. 

"I don’t think we were doing it deliberately, in order to be different, it was more like, ‘We’ve done that so let’s move on’. We liked the idea of being the Stanley Kubrick of bands. We wanted to make our Dr. Strangelove, then our 2001: A Space Odyssey, our Barry Lyndon, our Shining and Full Metal Jacket. 

"It wasn’t necessarily trying to be willfully different, we were just creating and exploring. It all came down to not getting bored and ultimately that came down to our DNA. I remember people telling us we were being weird every time we came out with one of these albums but it was like, ‘Yeah... But David Bowie would have done that!’”

David Bowie is great comparison when it comes to reinvention and risk-taking...

“I think people like the idea of artists doing things that aren’t safe - but you’ve got to be willing to fall flat on your face. And sometimes those moments you do feel worse than they actually are. History and hindsight can be kind to those moments because they came from an artistic point of view.

"With Radiohead, we never tried to be the biggest band in the world. Trying to be the best band in the world in one thing, but not the biggest. When you get into that, you become more aware of alienating people. 

"There are some people who love Pablo Honey, The Bends and OK Computer and didn’t like Kid A.

"When we got into that whole Radio 1 circuit with OK Computer, it was us, The Verve, Oasis and Blur... We were all in there. Maybe some of those people who liked the guitar bands and went to the V Festival heard Kid A and thought, ‘Not fuckin’ listening to this shit, what’s this bollocks?!’ You can’t please everyone.”

A Moon Shaped Pool came out in 2016. Any idea on when Radiohead plan to release the follow-up?

“I’m sure there will be another album. That last record was a lot of old songs, which explains the different eras of Radiohead it might have sounded like. It will definitely happen, but when that is, I have no idea...”

Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood is known to have a difficult relationship with his status as a guitar anti-hero, once comparing the instrument to a typewriter (really) - and now the alt-rock icon has spoken out on what he views to be the superiority of classical musicians.

“I stand in awe of classically trained UK musicians,” Greenwood says on the website of newly launched classical label Octatonic.

“A 20-something carrying a cello case will always be more impressive than someone with a guitar. It’s just harder to do. It takes more commitment, and the sounds they make are so limitless - for all that the instruments they play are ‘traditional’.”

Octatonic Records’ first releases include music by Greenwood himself, as well as music by Bach, Messiaen and Michael Gordon, with Steve Reich on the cards, too.

We hate to reignite the ‘classically trained’ vs ‘feel’ argument, but we can’t help feel a little slighted by Greenwood’s comments - particularly when they come from one of the ’90s’ and 00s’ most inventive electric guitar players.

These latest comments are also in sharp contrast to Greenwood’s thoughts just last year, where he stated, “Nothing’s more exciting than playing an electric guitar in a small room with a good drummer.”

Greenwood has won considerable acclaim in recent years for his soundtrack work, which includes a run of movies with director Paul Thomas Anderson, including There Will Be Blood, The Master and Phantom Thread. Radiohead’s most recent album, A Moon Shaped Pool, was released in 2016.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced its 2019 class of inductees. The artists who will enter the Cleveland institution are: Def Leppard, Radiohead, the Cure, Janet Jackson, Roxy Music, Stevie Nicks and the Zombies.

Earlier this week, it was announced that Def Leppard had also won the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame fan vote, with 547,647 votes.

In addition to Def Leppard’s current lineup—singer Joe Elliott, guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell, bassist Rick Savage and drummer Rick Allen—former guitarists Steve Clark, who passed away in 1991, and Pete Willis, who contributed songwriting and performed on the band’s first two albums, as well as much of 1983’s breakthrough Pyromania, will also be inducted.

Asked by Rolling Stone about Willis, Joe Elliott said: “I haven’t seen Pete in 14 years. I don’t know if he’s aware yet. We’re going to reach out to him over the next day or two now that the dust has settled and we’ll see if he wants to come.

Regarding whether the former guitarist might come up and play with Def Leppard, he continued: “I haven’t thought about that, but I don’t think we’ll be playing anything from that far back. But being there is part of the thing. Pete has kind of moved away from this kind of stuff, so he might just be a little reluctant to come along. The truth is that it’s obviously right that he gets in and he gets his statue, or however it works, but the success of the band was mostly to do with everyone else. I think that anybody would rightly say that the reason we got nominated is more likely to be because of the work we did after Pete left.”

Elliott also added that the band was happy to get the nod. "Now we can stop holding our breath and go, ‘Great! How wonderful to be in the same club as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles and the Who and Queen and etc., etc.,’ ” he said. “It’s nice. It’s a good club to be in.”

Other artists who have commented on their inductions include Zombies singer Colin Blunstone, who told Rolling Stone, “This is a career-defining [and] life-defining moment.”

Said Stevie Nicks—who will be the first woman to enter the Hall two times (she was inducted with Fleetwood Mac in 1998)—in a statement, “I have a lot to say about this, but I will save those words for later. For now I will just say, I have been in a band since 1968. To be recognized for my solo work makes me take a deep breath and smile. It’s a glorious feeling.”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on March 29, with an edited version set for broadcast at a later date on HBO and SiriusXM radio.

The nominees for the 2019 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have been announced, and the artist list includes Def Leppard, Rage Against the Machine, MC5, Radiohead, the Cure, Todd Rundgren, John Prine and more.

Others potential Hall of Famers on the ballot are LL Cool J, Kraftwek, Devo, Janet Jackson, Stevie Nicks, the Zombies, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan and Kraftwerk.

On the Rock Hall website, Def Leppard’s current lineup is listed along with former guitarists Steve Clark and Pete Willis.

The top vote-getters will be announced in December and inducted March 29, 2019 at a ceremony at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The event will be broadcast on HBO later next year.

In order to be eligible for this year's ballot, artists or bands need to have released their first single or album in 1993 or earlier. Six of the nominees are on the ballot for the first time, including Def Leppard, Prine, Roxy Music, Devo, Nicks and Rundgren.

A voting pool of more than 1,000 artists, historians, journalists and members of the music industry will select the new class, and fans can vote at RockHall.com or by visiting the museum in Cleveland and making a selection at an interactive kiosk.

Last year's inductees included Bon Jovi, the Cars and Dire Straits.

While Radiohead’s second album, The Bends, did not ascend to the creative heights of the band’s subsequent breakthrough masterpiece, OK Computer, there’s no way it was ever a sophomore slump. The seeds of Radiohead’s transformation from Pixies-influenced quasi-grunge music to the atmospheric, ambitious and sometimes experimental style they honed on OK Computer are most evident on “My Iron Lung,” where guitarist Jonny Greenwood more freely explores sonic guitar textures to enhance the song’s mood.

What is particularly refreshing is that Greenwood used a rather primitive, inexpensive and arguably limited rig to craft the sounds that fit that song so well. Even more impressive is that Greenwood still relies on much of that gear today, even after the band has sold millions of records and after his rig started to expand in size only a few years after the release of The Bends. Greenwood’s amp here is a Fender Eighty-Five, a late- Eighties 85-watt solid-state combo with a single 12-inch speaker that was inexpensive when it was new and has remained a dirt-cheap bargain on the used market since the early Nineties.

On “My Iron Lung” Greenwood mainly used the Fender amp as a clean foundation for a pair of pedals: a DigiTech Whammy WH-1 and a Marshall Shred Master. Set to its octave-up setting, the Whammy provides a somewhat harsh, warbling texture that is the product of its primitive 12-bit tracking technology, but in this case what many could perceive as a “flaw” actually enhances the desired effect of the melodic guitar line. The Shred Master is employed for louder and more violent sections of the song to produce aggressive bursts of distortion, although a few overdubs were recorded with just the Fender Eighty-Five cranked up as loud as it could go. The Fender Eighty-Five’s clean tones are also employed on their own for the jazzy chords heard throughout the verses.

ORIGINAL GEAR

GUITAR: Early Nineties Fender Telecaster Plus with Red-Red Dually (bridge) and Blue (neck) Lace Sensor pickups (bridge pickup setting); volume: 10, tone: 10

AMP: Fender Eighty-Five with one 12-inch Eminence speaker (Clean tone - Input 1, Volume: 6, Treble: 7, Mid: 5, Bass: 4, Reverb: 0; Dirty tone – Input 1, Volume: 10, Treble: 7, Mid: 8, Bass: 7, Reverb: 0, Gain: 10, Mid Boost: On, Limiter: 3, Presence: 5, Volume: 10, Select: On)

EFFECTS: DigiTech Whammy WH-1 (Octave +1 setting, foot pedal 100 percent toe down); Marshall Shred Master (Gain: 9, Bass: 8, Contour: 0, Treble: 8, Volume: 6)

STRINGS/TUNING: Dean Markley Blue Steel .010-.046/Standard.009-.040/ Standard

PICK: Jim Dunlop .60mm Nylon Standard 44P

GET THE SOUND, CHEAP!

• Squier FSR Affinity Telecaster HH
• Lace Sensor Red-Red Dually (install in bridge position)
• Fender Champion 40
• DigiTech Whammy Ricochet
• Joyo High Gain Distortion JF-04

TONE TIP: Set the Whammy Ricochet to 12-bit mode and adjust the Momentary switch to the “off” position for a consistent octave-up effect when the pedal is engaged.

What, exactly, is a headphone album? Well, the definition changes depending on who you are.

For audiophiles, a headphone album is a work that is so exquisitely recorded that it demands you listen to each beautifully recorded note under a sonic microscope. Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue fits that bill.

For others, a great headphone album is one that makes an intimate album more intimate (such as Bob Dylan’s original mono recordings), or a loud album louder (Rage Against the Machine’s debut album).

We’re an unsubtle and hyperactive bunch at Guitar World, so our favorite headphone albums are those that have a lot of activity in the stereo field. As dumb as it sounds, we love it every time a guitar solo takes a shortcut through our skulls as it zooms from one ear to the other.

If you don’t know what we’re talking about or you’ve never experienced any of these great albums under the influence of some high-end ear buds, we suggest you go home, put on your best set of ‘phones, turn out the lights, turn up the volume and prepare to have your mind blown sky high.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Electric Ladyland (1968)

If you haven't taken LSD, the good news is you don’t have to. Save your brain cells and listen to this masterpiece under a good set of headphones to get the complete psychedelic picture. On Electric Ladyland, Jimi Hendrix and his brilliant engineer, Eddie Kramer, create a wonderful, three-dimensional sonic world and invite you to step in. This album is not necessarily stoned, but it certainly is beautiful.

Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

TICK TOCK, TICK TOCK. DING DONG! BRRRRRRRANG!!!! WIIRRRRRRRRLLLLLLYYYYYY WHIRL…HA HA HA HA! I mean, what else can you say about the Citizen Kane of headphone albums?

The Edgar Winter Group, They Only Come Out At Night (1972)

This is a little on the obscure side, but it ranks right up there with Dark Side as an essential Seventies listening experience. The star of the show is the extended version of the hit instrumental “Frankenstein,” but almost every song on the album is a sonic thrill ride.

Santana, Caravanserai (1972)

This album was originally mixed and released in both stereo and quadrophonic. Designed to be an all-encompassing, complex and exotic listening experience, the percussion surrounds you while the soaring guitars lift you to the heavens. This is the best-recorded album of Carlos Santana’s career, and probably his best album overall.

Dukes of the Stratosphear, Psonic Psunspot (1987)

The Dukes of the Stratosphear was a pseudonym used by the British rock band XTC in the mid-to-late Eighties, and their Psonic Psunspot album was a brilliant homage to the Sixties psychedelic pop of the Beatles, Pink Floyd and the Zombies. While the project was a bit of a joke, the songs are brilliant and, due to advancements in recording technology, the sound of the album eclipses anything actually recorded in London in 1967.

The Cure, Disintegration (1989)

They say that guitarist Robert Smith was using hallucinogenic drugs throughout the course of this beautifully textured album. Like Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland, the sound of the album reflects his trippy state of mind. Listening to Disintegration under headphones is like stepping into someone else’s dream—and a rather dark one, at that.

Radiohead, Kid A (2000)

In the late Nineties, Radiohead wanted to shake up their music. Their solution was to work as a collective—one that would make interesting “sounds”—rather than with each person in band playing a prescribed role. The result was an album that sounded unlike anything else before or since. This philosophy extended to the album’s sumptuous mix, which can only truly be truly appreciated with a pair of speakers right next to your ears.

Tool, Lateralus (2001)

In 2005, four years after its original release, Tool’s Lateralus was released as a limited-edition two-picture-disc vinyl LP in a holographic gatefold package. It took them a while to do it, but they were finally able to create a package that adequately reflected the multi-dimensional music offered inside.

Dream Theater, A Dramatic Turn of Events (2011)

While everything sounds “good” these days, it’s hard to find albums that sound “great.” Everything is engineered so loud and compressed that most modern recorded music lacks the kind of space and depth that allows for a true headphone experience. Dream Theater probably doesn’t really give a damn about what is happening in popular music, which is why this album sounds as good as it does.

The Beatles, Abbey Road (1969)

Every collection has to have some Beatles, and this is by far their best and most modern-sounding album. Enjoy.

Brad Tolinski is the editor-in-chief at Guitar World.

This past Sunday, singer Lana Del Rey revealed that Radiohead are suing her over similarities between her 2017 song "Get Free" and the band's September 1992 single, "Creep."

Del Rey announced the news via Twitter, adding that the lawsuit will likely end up in court. "It’s true about the lawsuit," she wrote. "Although I know my song wasn't inspired by Creep, Radiohead feel it was and want 100% of the publishing—I offered up to 40 over the last few months but they will only accept 100. Their lawyers have been relentless, so we will deal with it in court."

Oddly enough, several years ago, songwriters Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood sued Radiohead, claiming that "Creep" sounded a bit too much like their own composition, "The Air That I Breathe," which was a 1972 hit for the Hollies.

According to Hammond, "Radiohead agreed that they had actually taken it...Because they were honest they weren't sued to the point of saying 'we want the whole thing.' So we ended up just getting a little piece of it." As a result of the Hammond/Hazlewood incident, the official songwriting credit for "Creep" is now "Radiohead/Albert Hammond/Mike Hazlewood."

Below, you can check out all three songs in order of release:

Of course, things tend to remind me of other things, and today I'm reminded of the time Joe Satriani sued Coldplay because their 2008 single "Viva La Vida" sounded like his 2004 tune, "If I Could Fly."

Sure, that's all ancient history now, and the lawsuit was settled out of court in 2009—but if you'd like to refresh your memory, check out the two videos below.

Fender recently partnered with Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien to create the EOB Sustainer Stratocaster. The guitar offers a wide palette of tones, thanks to its Seymour Duncan JB Jr. humbucking bridge pickup, Texas Special single-coil middle pickup and Fernandes Sustainer unit in the neck position. The Sustainer creates near-infinite sustain on one or more strings, making it easy to achieve thick, textured sounds.

Its controls include an on/o_ switch, intensity control and a three-position switch to select the mode: Fundamental only, Harmonic only or Blend. Other modern and classic features include a six-saddle vintage-style synchronized tremolo bridge, vintage-style tuning machines, a “10/56 V” neck profile, 21 narrow-jumbo frets, a synthetic bone nut and a special neck plate engraved with a custom “Flower of Life” emblem.

STREET PRICE: $1,099.99 | fender.com

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced its nominations for its Class of 2018.

The list includes Judas Priest, Radiohead, Bon Jovi, the Moody Blues, Link Wray, the Zombies, the Cars, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, MC5 and the J. Geils Band.

Other hopefuls include Kate Bush, Depeche Mode, Dire Straits, Eurhythmics, LL Cool J, the Meters, Rage Against the Machine, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan and Nina Simone.

The public will have the opportunity to vote alongside the more than 900 artists, historians and music industry insiders of the Rock Hall voting body. Fans can caste their vote at rockhall.com/vote through December 5. The top five acts will comprise a "fan's ballot" that will count as one of the ballots that determine the class of 2018.

The top vote-getters will be announced in December, and they'll be inducted in April 2018 in Cleveland.

In order to be eligible for this year's ballot, artists or bands need to have released their first single or album in 1992 or earlier. Nine out of 19 of the nominees are on the ballot for the first time, including: Eurythmics, Dire Straits, Judas Priest, Kate Bush, the Moody Blues, Nina Simone, Radiohead, Rage Against Machine and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Last year's inductees included Pearl Jam, Yes, Joan Baez and Journey.

Fender has announced four new artist signature models at the Summer NAMM Show in Nashville.

Fender’s latest artist signature models showcase the versatility of Fender’s sound across genres, while paying tribute to some of the music industry’s most-celebrated players and their vibrant stories; they include the Jimi Hendrix Monterey Stratocaster, George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster, JMJ Road Worn Mustang Bass and EOB Sustainer Stratocaster.

“We’re debuting a record number of artist signature models at Summer NAMM this year," said Justin Norvell, SVP Fender Products, honoring some of the most respected players in the music world. The lineup—spanning country, alternative and rock—is a testament to the genre-transcending music these artists have all inspired, and Fender has and continues to enable.”

Jimi Hendrix Monterey Stratocaster: Launching August 15, 2017 ($899.99)
It's been 50 years since Jimi Hendrix took the world by storm with his incredible Monterey Pop Festival performance, which he concluded with the sacrificial burning of his now-iconic hand-painted Stratocaster. Destroyed during the fiery culmination of his set, this one-of-a-kind guitar survived only in photos and film.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this milestone in music history, Fender created the limited-edition Jimi Hendrix Monterey Stratocaster. A trio of vintage-style single-coil Stratocaster pickups give this Strat its classic Fender sound. Bell-like and articulate, it has plenty of singing sustain for soloing. The “C”-shaped maple neck bears a vintage-style 7.25”-radius pau ferro fingerboard with 21 vintage-sized frets for a playing feel just like the original.

The six-screw synchronized tremolo is perfect for unleashing dive-bombs and other sonic expression. An homage to Hendrix’s spectacular Strat, right down to the hand-painted nail-polish artwork that burned its way into our memories, the Jimi Hendrix Monterey Stratocaster also features an exclusive etched Hendrix neck plate.

George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster: Launching August 22 ($2,499.99)
To honor George Harrison's venerable career, Fender has created the George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster, a limited-edition commemoration that embodies Harrison’s elegantly restrained playing style and sound. Based on the original Telecaster created for Harrison by luthier Roger Rossmeisl, this model remains true to its heritage with a classic look and the unique tone only an all-rosewood guitar can produce. The body is chambered for reduced weight and increased resonance.

Other features include a rosewood neck with a laminated 9.5" radius rosewood fingerboard and a custom neck plate engraved with an "Om" symbol. A classic in every way, this refined instrument was born in the era that defined rock n' roll. Harrison’s legacy is one of innovation and creativity, and the rosewood Telecaster became one of his primary instruments of choice. Only 1,000 units will be available worldwide.

Here's Harrison in action with his rosewood Telecaster in January 1969 with a little-known British band called the Beatles:

JMJ Road Worn Mustang Bass: Launching October 17 ($999.99)
Known as a true renaissance man of the modern music scene, Justin Meldal-Johnsen’s bass credits range a variety of top artists across genres. From studio to stage, Justin’s treasured ’66 Mustang Bass is his tool of choice. Fender has teamed up with him to create a signature 4-string modeled after his vintage Daphne Blue instrument—the limited edition JMJ Road Worn Mustang Bass.

Powered by a custom-spec split-coil pickup, the JMJ Road Worn Mustang bass is perfect for playing punchy, melodic bass lines. The 30" scale gives it a tight, focused tone while the modern 9.5”-radius fingerboard with rolled edges offers a familiar feel that will make any bassist feel right at home. Designed for comfort and speed, this bass also has stage-ready style.

EOB Sustainer Stratocaster: Launching November 14, 2017 ($1,099.99)
Ed O'Brien’s ambient, ethereal and orchestral guitar style is an essential part of the sonic identity of Radiohead. Fender partnered with the groundbreaking player to create the EOB Sustainer Stratocaster—an instrument as unique as his sound. The EOB Sustainer Stratocaster offers a wide palette of tones thanks to its Seymour Duncan JB Jr. humbucking bridge pickup, Texas Special single-coil middle pickup and Fernandes Sustainer unit in the neck position.

The Sustainer works some technical magic to create near-infinite sustain on one or more strings, making it easy to achieve thick, textured sounds. The Sustainer’s controls include an on/off switch, intensity control and three-position switch to select the mode: Fundamental-only, Harmonic-only or Blend. A mix of modern and classic, this Stratocaster features a 6-saddle vintage-style synchronized tremolo bridge, vintage-style tuning machines, a “10/56 V” neck profile, 21 narrow-jumbo frets, a synthetic bone nut and a special neck plate engraved with a custom “Flower of Life” emblem.

For technical specs and additional information, visit fender.com.

The Radiohead Guitar Tab Anthology is available now at the Guitar World Online Store.

The book, which is published by Hal Leonard, features nearly 20 top tunes from Radiohead, transcribed note for note with tab.

Songs include:

• Airbag
• Bodysnatchers
• Creep
• Go to Sleep
• I Might Be Wrong
• In Limbo
• Just
• Knives Out
• Let Down
• Little by Little
• My Iron Lung
• Optimistic
• Paranoid Android
• Street Spirit (Fade Out)
• Subterranean Homesick Alien
• There There
• 2 + 2 = 5
• Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

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It was the late winter of 1995, and Kurt Cobain had been dead for almost a year.

American alternative rock was caught in a grunge hangover; top acts of the time included Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins, and Dave Grohl’s new project the Foo Fighters.

In the U.K., a few bands such as Bush were attempting to cash in on the post-Nirvana craze for big distorted guitar riffs and feral howling, but the real chart conquerors were Oasis, Blur and their counterparts in the fun but mostly backward-glancing Britpop movement.

Meanwhile, on both sides of the Atlantic, thanks to the likes of Moby, the Prodigy and Massive Attack, electronic music was beginning to seep into the mainstream. With all this going on, it’s fair to say that most band watchers didn’t expect much from Radiohead.

Sure, the young quintet from England’s Thames Valley had lucked into a hit two years earlier. A big one, too: “Creep,” a melodramatic anthem of self-loathing marked by singer Thom Yorke’s surprising emotional range—first moping, then soaring—and a memorable guitar hook (played by curtain-haired Jonny Greenwood) that sounded like a shotgun being loaded.

But their subsequent singles hadn’t performed anywhere near as well. Neither fish nor flesh, Radiohead didn’t fit in with the Britpoppers and weren’t grungy enough to be grunge. Music industry folks were already writing them off as a one-hit wonder.

Then, on March 13, Radiohead’s second album, The Bends, was released. From its very first few seconds—the Roland Space Echo whooshes, reverberating piano chords, and crashing drums that open “Planet Telex”—the message was clear: We’re not the people you thought we were, and we’re about to make a major statement.

Forty-eight astonishing minutes later, Radiohead had done just that, serving notice to the world that their talent, ambition, and ability to execute were far greater than just about anyone had imagined. From the uneasy slow-build balladry of “Fake Plastic Trees” to the dizzyingly complex three-guitar arrangement of “Just” and the plaintive, heart-piercing chorus of “Street Spirit (Fade Out),” The Bends was a modern rock tour de force.

Although it took a while to catch on commercially—its biggest sales figures weren’t achieved until nearly a year after it came out—The Bends won critical acclaim from the start. (I was so taken with it that I eventually wrote a book on the band.) And that acclaim has only grown over the years.

The Bends now routinely takes high spots on critics’ and music fans’ lists of the best rock albums of the Nineties, or the past two decades, or ever. A 2006 readers’ poll in the British music magazine Q placed it at No. 2 all-time (No. 1 was Radiohead’s follow-up disc, 1997’s OK Computer). More important, the album’s influence on other musicians has been both wide and deep. Nearly every arty, big-sounding band of recent vintage owes something to Radiohead’s example; just follow the lines from Coldplay to Arcade Fire to Mumford & Sons.

But at the time The Bends was released, influencing others wasn’t exactly foremost in the minds of Radiohead’s members. Their prime concern was to establish a lasting career, and to escape the pigeonhole they’d been stuffed in by the success of “Creep.” In their early music, they’d moved with the alternative tide, referencing the work of Eighties juggernauts like U2, R.E.M., the Pixies and the Smiths. Now they were thinking bigger, and looking further back: to the high drama of Queen, Pink Floyd and the psychedelic-era Beatles.

And so it was entirely appropriate that the band chose John Leckie as the producer for their second album.

First hired by Abbey Road Studios as a tape operator in 1970, Leckie had cut his teeth working on John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band, George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, and Pink Floyd’s Meddle. Since then, he’d produced many other Radiohead favorites, including Simple Minds, XTC and Magazine.

Radiohead’s label, EMI, booked nine straight weeks with Leckie at RAK studios in North London, beginning in February ’94. Band and producer got along famously: “The best part about working with John Leckie,” Greenwood later recalled, “was that he didn’t dictate anything to us. He allowed us to figure out what we wanted to do ourselves.”

Unfortunately, the RAK sessions soon turned tense. Word from the label was that the band should concentrate on producing a leadoff single first, but no one could agree on what that single ought to be, so they tried four single contenders in succession: “Sulk,” “The Bends,” “Nice Dream” and “Just.” None of them felt right. The constant search for some magic hit sound slowed the recording process to a crawl. “I couldn’t have been more freaked out,” Yorke remembered. “We had days of painful self-analysis, a total fucking meltdown for two fucking months.”

The turnaround finally came in April, when Leckie suggested that Thom try playing “Fake Plastic Trees” by himself. There was nothing to lose; all previous attempts by the full band to capture this anti–power ballad on tape had failed. “There was one stage…when it sounded like Guns N’ Roses’ ‘November Rain,’ ” guitarist Ed O’Brien reported. “It was so pompous and bombastic, just the worst.” But this time, alone with his acoustic guitar, Thom was finally pleased with the results. It was this solo performance that Leckie and the rest of the band used as their foundation to build the final track.

With that song and several others in the can—and the original October deadline for the album put aside for good—Radiohead took to the road, playing a series of shows in Europe, the U.K., Japan, and Australasia through May and June. They took the opportunity to air much of the material they’d been working on at RAK.

One gig, at the Astoria in London on May 27, was filmed by MTV Europe and recorded by Leckie. That was a smart move, because the band’s fiery live take of “My Iron Lung,” another song they’d labored in vain to get right in the studio, ended up winning approval from all concerned. The band liked it so much, in fact, that it became the first Bends-era song to see the light of day, as the leadoff track of an EP released in September (the other six songs on that EP were cut at RAK but rejected for the final album).

At the time, “My Iron Lung” was greeted with some puzzlement by fans and critics alike. Its transitions from jangly, ring-modulated opening hook to McCartney-esque verse melody to pulverizing guitar explosions in the bridge were jarring and didn’t correspond to what anyone expected from Radiohead. But now, placed next to its 11 fellow songs on The Bends, it makes much more sense. And except for Yorke’s lead vocal, which was replaced later, what you hear on the final recording is exactly what was played on the Astoria stage that night in May ’94.

From here, the going got easier. The weeks spent playing live had loosened Radiohead up, and they completed The Bends in bits and pieces over the next several months at the Manor in Oxfordshire and Abbey Road in London. Songs like “Bones,” “Sulk” and the album’s title track, which had caused no end of problems earlier in the year, were set down with a minimum of fuss.

“When we finished The Bends,” Yorke said, “it felt like going back and doing four-tracks again. That’s what was so exciting—that we were in control of it, that it was our thing. We were simply satisfying ourselves.”

Still, EMI remained uncertain about the album’s commercial prospects and didn’t want to take any unnecessary chances. Once recording was finally concluded in November, the label asked both Leckie and the American team of Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie, who’d produced Radiohead’s debut album Pablo Honey, to mix it. In the end, three Leckie mixes and nine Slade/Kolderie mixes made the cut.

Considering all the drama that had been generated during recording and mixing, it was interesting, and a little amusing, that one song in the album’s final running order—“High and Dry,” also released as a single—actually predated the RAK sessions by almost a year, having been recorded in ’93 at Courtyard Studios just outside Oxford by the band’s live sound engineer Jim Warren.

Among the most striking aspects of the new material was that it found Radiohead expertly exploiting one of their most unusual traits: the fact that they were a three-guitar band (with O’Brien, their tallest member, joining Yorke and Greenwood on six-string duty).

On Pablo Honey, their general tendency had been simply to lay one more or less identical guitar part on top of another and another, forming a dense, fuzzy wall. For The Bends, they took a completely different approach, creating a sensible division of labor. In general, Yorke handled the chords, Greenwood did the fancy lead playing, and O’Brien was in charge of the unusual effects, but this could vary from song to song—or second to second. And for the first time, no one was afraid not to play.

In O’Brien’s words, “we were very aware of something on The Bends that we weren’t aware of on Pablo Honey…if it sounded really great with Thom playing acoustic with [drummer] Phil [Selway] and Coz [bassist Colin Greenwood], what was the point in trying to add something more?” Yorke added, “Sometimes the nicest thing to do with a guitar is just look at it.”

One other thing that set The Bends apart from Radiohead’s previous work was the greater amount of group contribution to the songwriting. Though Radiohead’s songs have always been credited to the whole band, most of the early ones were mainly by Yorke.

This changed during The Bends. “Nice Dream,” for example, was originally a simple four-chord Yorke composition, but Greenwood and O’Brien added more parts, including the intro. And the music to “Just” was largely written by Greenwood, who Yorke said “was trying to get as many chords as he could into a song. It was like writing a medley.” Because Jonny is the most musically knowledgeable member of the band (trained as a classical violist, he has since carved out a distinguished side career as a composer), it’s not entirely surprising that he’d be interested in showing off this way.

Sure enough, the progression of “Just” is full of jagged chromatic twists, and Greenwood lays an octatonic diminished scale ascending through two octaves over the chorus, adding to the feeling of menace. Other guitaristic high points of the song include a cool, clean two-part harmony section (played by Thom and Jonny) and Greenwood’s closing solo, affectionately referred to by some as the “bwena-bwaaa” part because of the strikingly vocal quality of his vicious bends.

Interesting historical note: On this track and throughout the sessions for The Bends, Jonny used two 1990 Fender Telecaster Plus models exclusively, one with a Tobacco Burst finish, the other in Ebony Frost. These guitars were stolen while the band were in Denver for an October ’95 concert.

Last year, a fan browsing a Radiohead gear site saw a description of the ebony Tele and realized he owned it, having bought it in Denver in the mid-Nineties. Messages were exchanged, arrangements were made, and nearly two decades after the theft, Greenwood was reunited with his Tele—which he took back onstage for the first time this past February, performing Steve Reich’s “Electric Counterpoint” with the London Contemporary Orchestra in his hometown of Oxford.

Upon its March ’95 release, The Bends was hailed by critics worldwide as a masterpiece. “Radiohead have suddenly bloomed into one of this country’s most magnificent bands,” the London Times proclaimed. Setting the tone for the band’s future work, Yorke’s lyrics are pretty grim throughout the album, a veritable compendium of disease, disgust and depression.

To pick just one example (from “Street Spirit”): “Cracked eggs, dead birds/Scream as they fight for life/I can feel death/Can see its beady eyes.” And yet the melodies to which these lyrics are set are so inviting, their arrangements so creative, and the group playing so powerful, that the overall effect is uplifting.

Radiohead supported The Bends with relentless gigging. They toured the U.S. alone six times within a year and a half, including a stint opening for new pals R.E.M. The hard work paid off, as the album slowly crept toward Gold (500,000) and then Platinum (one million) sales status in America. Even so, it never got any higher on the Billboard charts than No. 88, which to this day remains the worst U.S. chart placing for any Radiohead album.

In the middle of all this live activity, on September 4, 1995, with The Bends’ principal engineer Nigel Godrich at the controls, the band recorded a slow, grand, highly Pink Floyd–ian number called “Lucky” for a charity compilation album.

O’Brien opens the song by strumming the strings of his ’86 Squier Strat above the nut, creating a kind of sonic halo over Selway’s beat that perfectly establishes the ghostly mood. (Like Jonny’s ebony Tele, Ed’s Strat would be stolen in Denver a month after this recording session; unlike the Tele, it’s never been recovered.) The “Lucky” session took only five hours to complete, including mixing, and all concerned regarded it as one of their finest moments. “ ‘Lucky’ was indicative of what we wanted to do,” Yorke told me after the fact. “It was like the first mark on the wall.”

The song would reappear two years later on OK Computer, the album that made Radiohead global stars. But just as they resisted being pigeonholed after “Creep,” so too would they quickly veer away from the guitar-focused art-rock atmospherics of OK Computer.

Further groundbreaking music lay ahead: Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief, In Rainbows, The King of Limbs.

Today, nearly 25 years into their professional career, Radiohead have the same five members they started with, but they continue to grow and change stylistically. And the more wildly they experiment with their sound, the more popular they seem to become.

Their journey together is of a rare and inspiring sort, and The Bends was that journey’s crucial turning point.

Okay, so you have your headphones out—what do you want to listen to?

Something beautiful? Something cool? Something you’ve never heard before? How about all three?

The following are six tracks by five of your favorite bands worth putting under the microscope for reasons listed below. Enjoy!

Joe Satriani — “Surfing with the Alien”

For the lead guitar tone on Surfing with the Alien’s title track, Joe Satriani used a wah-wah pedal and a harmonizer. The former worked perfectly, but the latter was acting a little weird and wonky.

Satriani told Guitar World, “The sound that came out of the speakers blew us away so much that we recorded the melody and the solo in about a half-hour and sat back and went, ‘Whoa! This is a song, man!’” Then the harmonizer broke down and couldn’t be fixed.

“We couldn’t do anything,” he said. “We lost our tone. When we finally got it working again, we weren’t able to recreate the original effect. It just sounded different. So rather than screw up a wonderful-sounding performance that may have had a couple of glitches, we decided to just leave it, because it was just swinging.”

Metallica — “The Four Horsemen”

One of the most unique features of Metallica’s classic track “The Four Horsemen” is its distinctive simultaneous two-headed guitar solo, heard from 4:10 to 4:30.

You can hear two Kirk Hammetts, one in each speaker, playing roughly similar but still quite different solos. In 1991 Hammett told Guitar World this cool effect was entirely a fluke. After recording two takes of the solo, Hammett and Co. were trying to decide which one to use.

“I listened to both tracks at once, to see if one would stand out,” Hammett said. “But playing both tracks simultaneously sounded great, and we decided to keep it like that on the record. Some of the notes harmonized with each other, and I remember Cliff [Burton, bassist] going, ‘Wow, that’s stylin’—it sounds like Tony Iommi!’”

Led Zeppelin — “Misty Mountain Hop” and “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You”

Led Zeppelin albums are filled with little slips and clams, but none of that really mattered to producer/guitarist Jimmy Page who justifiably valued vibe over perfection. He called it being “tight but loose.”

The following are two headphone-worthy accidents that somehow add a touch of funky magick to these Zep classics. If you listen closely to “Misty Mountain Hop” at about 1:15, you can hear Jimmy play the heavy part too soon. He then fumbles and jumps back in.

hen, on “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” you can hear a ghostly voice at 1:43. Is it a friendly Page poltergeist? Nah, it’s actually the sound of Robert Plant singing along with drummer John Bonham during basic tracking. Whether that’s his actual naked voice leaking through the drum mics, or perhaps being blasted through Bonzo’s headphones, we may never know.

Radiohead — “Creep”

One of the most memorable and dramatic guitar moments of the Nineties is the stuttering rhythm part that sets up the chorus of Radiohead’s “Creep.” And if Jonny Greenwood’s attitude-filled flourish (played at 0:58 and again at the two-minute mark) reflects the song’s angst-filled lyrics, there’s a reason.

“That’s the sound of Jonny trying to mess the song up,” explained co-guitarist Ed O’Brien. “He really didn’t like it the first time we played it, so he tried spoiling it. And it made the song.”

The Kingsmen — “Louie, Louie”

This last pick is a strange one.

If there was never a song designed for headphones, it’s the poorly recorded garage classic “Louie, Louie.” But there are so many hilarious mistakes in this shambolic mess, with a good set of ear buds the tune becomes a brilliant piece of audio theater.

Just close your eyes and you almost see and smell these drunken bozos having the time of their lives as they struggle to play their three chords right. Just dig the drummer yelling “F@#K! in the background because he hit his hand on the edge of one of his drums at 0:57. Or laugh as the singer comes in too early at 1:55 while barging in at the end the songs surprisingly great guitar solo.

Truth is, this is actually what headphones were made for!

Brad Tolinski is the editor-in-chief at Guitar World.

Danielia Cotton has not had it easy.

But lucky for us, she channels her pain and suffering into kick-ass musical creations we can all enjoy.

Case in point, her new album, The Real Book, brought to you here exclusively in its entirety.

The album, which features guest appearances by Rachael Yamagata, Amy Helm (daughter of Levon Helm) and the Broadway Inspirational Voices choir, features 12 covers, including material by Citizen Cope, Bruno Mars and the Rolling Stones, that Danielia recorded as a coping mechanism to help her get though a rough patch in life — a diagnosis of thyroid cancer and a difficult divorce.

“My life was in a state of turmoil,” she says, “so I gravitated toward songs I knew would help me cope with the challenges I was experiencing.”

Cotton somehow manages to make each of these diverse songs her own. From the rumbling, rollicking, smokey “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” to the driving, guitar-laden “Gorilla” and the soulful choral rendition of “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” she delivers each of these selections with a grit that evinces her emotional involvement in each one.

Cotton shares, “I have wanted to do a covers album for quite a while. The producer, Kevin Salem, and I handpicked each and every song. I truly hope people will embrace our versions of some great classics.”

Cotton prowess as a well-rounded musician is clear here. As is her taste in excellent music; she has the potential to breathe some classics new life for a next-generation listener. And while she’s a respectable guitarist, it’s her flexibility as a vocalist that shines here. Smokey, ballsy, sultry ... she can deliver it all.

Overall, Cotton’s The Real Book is just a great listen for that chilly day with a whiskey-tinged cup of strong coffee. She’ll warm you right up.

Produced by Kevin Salem (Mercury Rev, Bad Brains, Lenka, Lisa Loeb), the album also features drummer John Clancy, keyboardist Rob Clores, bassist Winston Roye and guitarists Jack Petruzelli and Matt Beck.

The daughter of a jazz singer, Cotton learned how to sing and harmonize as part of her mother and aunts' group, Brooks Ensemble Plus. Her mother's influence helped her gain an appreciation for soul and gospel music, especially Mavis Staples, Etta James, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.

It was Cotton's friends and brother that exposed her to her other major influence -- the rock music of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones. Shortly after entering junior high school, Cotton received her first guitar from her mother and began writing songs locked away in her room for hours at a time, an experience that she says "saved" her.

'The Real Book Tracklist:

• 01. Eurythmics - "Sweet Dreams" (feat. Rachael Yamagata)
• 02. Bruno Mars - "Gorilla"
• 03. The Rolling Stones - "Gimme Shelter" (feat. Amy Helm)
• 04. Stevie Wonder - "They Won't Go When I Go"
• 05. Radiohead - "The Daily Mail" (feat. Tracy Bonham)
• 06. Bill Withers - "Hope She'll Be Happier"
• 07. The Staple Singers - "Respect Yourself" (feat. Tracy Bonham)
• 08. Blind Faith - "Can't Find My Way Home"
• 09. Abbey Lincoln - "Throw It Away"
• 10. Citizen Cope - "Sideways"
• 11. Simon & Garfunkel - "Bridge Over Troubled Water"
• 12. The Zombies - "This Will Be Our Year" (feat. Amy Helm)

More at danieliacotton.com.

Radiohead
OK Computer (1997)

“When I was young, I discovered punk rock, and through my early adolescence the music on my turntable and Walkman rarely ventured outside the seething universe of punk, hardcore or classic rock. I liked loud guitars, angry emotional singers and high-energy music.

“However, after several years of a steady punk diet, I grew hungry for something new. In 1997, I had left my hometown to go to art school. I had become increasingly dissatisfied with the state of pop music, and I wasn’t inspired by the majority of the underground music of the late Nineties. I needed to hear something fresh, a record that didn’t need a style or genre watermark to define it. A friend of mine who was mutually interested in electronic music asked if I’d heard OK Computer. I was a fan of Radiohead’s earlier records, but I’d written them off as either ‘too popular’ or ‘too cool,’ which were ridiculous critiques in retrospect. But I decided to give this new record a listen.

“I can recall the smallest details of the moment I heard OK Computer: the forsaken hoarder’s nest of a Toyota Land Cruiser I was riding in, the acrid odor of chain-smoked cigarettes, the grey pallor of a typical New England autumn afternoon. Hook. Line. Sinker. I drank this Kool-Aid in deep drafts.

“How to be progressive without being prog-rock? How to harness millennial disillusionment, melancholy and psychedelia in a convincing way, without imitating Dark Side of the Moon? How to approach frustrated, disenchanted and detached themes and lyrics with the conviction, artistry and insight I had been missing? More simply: how to keep the idea of guitar-based rock interesting? These were my questions, and I felt like this record provided many of the answers.

“Here were wonderfully composed guitars that ran the gamut from the serene and delicate orchestrations on ‘Let Down’ to the agitated and angular bursts of ‘Paranoid Android’ to the dense and heavy bass lines of ‘Exit Music.’ Here was top-notch musicianship, indignant innovation, pop song structures blended with punk rhythms and avant-garde noise tendencies. OK Computer was the sound of free expression within the confines and parameters of a rock band, but it also seemed to leave plenty of open road on which to explore further. It’s a shame to think that at one point I considered this a guilty pleasure. It’s a humbling listen, and like any hallmark of music history it has come to mean more to me than the simple sum of its parts. It is human expression laid to tape. For the musician, the artist, the layperson and the dissenter alike, this record can offer a glimpse of something new.”