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Atoms for Peace (band)
English-American supergroup From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Atoms for Peace were an English-American rock supergroup comprising the Radiohead songwriter Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano), the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, the Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich (keyboards, synthesisers, guitars), the Beck and R.E.M. drummer Joey Waronker, and the Forro in the Dark percussionist Mauro Refosco.
Thom Yorke (front) and Nigel Godrich
Flea (front) and Mauro Refosco
Atoms for Peace performing at Melt! Festival 2013
Yorke formed Atoms for Peace in 2009 to perform songs from his debut solo album, The Eraser (2006). They toured the US in 2010. In 2013, they released an album, Amok, the product of combining their jamming with Yorke's electronic music. It received mainly positive reviews, with critics likening it to Yorke's solo work. Amok was followed by a tour of Europe, the US and Japan. The band members have collaborated intermittently since.
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History
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2009—2010: Formation and first shows
In 2006, the Radiohead songwriter, Thom Yorke, released his first solo album, The Eraser, comprising mostly electronic music. It was produced by Radiohead's producer, Nigel Godrich. In 2009, Yorke performed solo at Latitude Festival, and found it was possible to perform Eraser songs on acoustic instruments. He contacted Godrich with the idea of forming a band to perform The Eraser without sequencers, reproducing the electronic beats with Latin percussion.[1]
Yorke and Godrich formed Atoms for Peace in 2009 with the bassist Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers; the drummer Joey Waronker, who had performed with acts including Beck and R.E.M; and the percussionist Mauro Refosco, who had performed with acts including David Byrne.[1] Yorke said: "I've been playing with [Radiohead] since I was 16, and to do this was quite a trip ... It felt like we'd knocked a hole in a wall, and we should just fucking go through it."[1]
The band went unnamed for early performances, billed as "Thom Yorke" or "??????".[2] In February 2010, they announced the name Atoms for Peace, taken from a song title from The Eraser, which references the 1953 speech by the American president Dwight D. Eisenhower.[3] Atoms for Peace toured the US in early 2010, supported by Flying Lotus. The tour included a performance at Coachella.[3] Along with songs from The Eraser, they performed the 2003 Radiohead B-side "Paperbag Writer", the Radiohead song "Follow Me Around" and the 1998 single "Rabbit in Your Headlights", a collaboration between Yorke and Unkle.[4][5][6]
2013: Amok
After the tour, Atoms for Peace spent three days jamming and recording in Los Angeles. Yorke and Godrich edited and arranged the recordings over two years, combining it with Yorke's electronic music.[7] This became the band's debut album, Amok, released on February 25, 2013, through XL Recordings.[8] It received mainly positive reviews, with critics likening it to Yorke's solo work.[9][10][11]
Amok was followed by a tour of Europe, the US and Japan.[12] The tour included performances of Yorke's 2009 single "FeelingPulledApartByHorses".[13] Atoms for Peace partnered with a British startup, Soundhalo, to sell recordings of the performances.[14] Godrich said he saw Soundhalo as an alternative to low-quality audience recordings on YouTube.[14]
That July, Yorke and Godrich removed Atoms for Peace and Yorke's solo music from the streaming service Spotify. Yorke called it "the last gasp of the old industry", accusing it of only benefiting major labels with large back catalogues, and encouraged artists to build "direct connections" with audiences instead.[15] Atoms for Peace were readded to Spotify in December 2017.[16]
Later activity
In 2015, Yorke and Flea performed "Atoms for Peace" on the French television show Le Grand Journal[17] and performed "Default" at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.[18] In 2018, Atoms for Peace reunited without Refosco to perform "Atoms for Peace" at a Thom Yorke show in Los Angeles.[19] Flea provided trumpet for Yorke's song "Daily Battles" for the 2019 film Motherless Brooklyn,[20] and Waronker contributed drums to a song on Yorke's 2019 album Anima.[21] Waronker and Refosco formed a new group, Jomoro, and released their debut album, Blue Marble Sky, on 4 June 2021.[22]
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Members
- Thom Yorke – lead vocals, guitars, piano, keyboards, percussion
- Flea – bass guitar, melodica, keyboards
- Nigel Godrich – keyboards, synthesisers, guitars, percussion, backing vocals
- Mauro Refosco – percussion, additional drums, marimba
- Joey Waronker – drums
Discography
Studio albums
Singles
Music videos
References
External links
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