So apparently Radiohead's new aptly titled album Hail to the Thief (Hi Dubya) which is due on June 9th has been leaked to the p2p networks. I do not use these illegal devilish systems (just joking) but I stumbled over an mp3 of the song Backdrifts at Fluxblog. Thank you, Matthew.

Though I have the impression that this song is almost purely electronic it seems to meld natural noises with artificial ones convincingly. The song is dominated by a mystic background sound reminding me of the amplified sound of a shell when you hold it onto your ear: you can hear the roaring ocean. The backbone of the track are the hypnotic (what else did you expect) propelling drums which kick in after 30 seconds together with Yorke's tortured voice. The drumming is precise and robotic like a drum-machine. After three minutes the piano repeats the theme, I wouldn't call it a melody. A trippy haunting track whetting my appetite for this album. I wasn't interested in it at all in the beginning. Somehow I have never looked forward to a Radiohead album but in retrospect they made at least one great one: Amnesiac. Will I ever finish my review of it?

Paul wrote some more not too positive things about the new album at The Rub.

P.S. The album can be downloaded from here. I have read that it is not the final mastered version though. Some interesting impressions on We Suck Young Blood which I haven't heard yet at Sean's (from the Canadian review site tangmonkey) new music blog said the gramophone.

P.P.S. The download link does not work anymore. Too much traffic I guess.

Aus der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung von heute:

"Die Amerikaner am Nebentisch hatten den Fehler gemacht, etwas zu laut und hämisch über 'Old Europe' zu sprechen, so laut, daß der Kellner im 'Vavin' es hören konnte. Dann kam das Essen. Unser Essen. Wir bekamen einen Salade au chèvre chaud; die Amerikaner bekamen nichts. Nach dem Salat wurde Carré d'Agneau, Soupe de Poisson und Steak Tartare serviert. Die Amerikaner saßen vor leeren Tellern und riefen Wütendes in Richtung Küche. Nach einiger Zeit sagte ein mitfühlender Gast, er glaube, die Amerikaner seien inzwischen etwas böse. 'Nun', sagte der Kellner, 'wir sind auch etwas böse auf sie. Die Küche ist nicht der Irak. Wir lassen uns kein Ultimatum stellen.'"

Translation in English:

"The Americans at the adjacent table had made the mistake to speak a little too loudly and maliciously about 'old Europe'. So loud that the waiter in the 'Vavin' could hear it. Then the meal came. Our meal. We got a Salade au chèvre chaud; the Americans did not get anything. The Salade Carré d'Agneau, Soupe de Poisson and Steak Tartare were served next. The Americans sat in front of their empty plates and cried out furious things towards the kitchen. After some time a sympathetic guest said he believed that the Americans had become somewhat angry in the meantime. 'Well ', the waiter said, 'we too are somewhat angry at them. The kitchen is not the Iraq. We don't let us issue an ultimatum.'"

"In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. ... Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness."

• Hannah Arendt, The Origins Of Totalitarianism

via wood s lot who is doing an amazing job in putting together all these exciting and profound cultural and political quotes and links day for day

Recycling time. Mainly taken from this thread at ILM.

• Keith Jarrett - Somewhere Before (From 1968 or something. Everything is there already. The touch and the humming.)
• Keith Jarrett - Always Let Me Go (Why the heck do I continue to buy his records after 1982?)
• Laurie Anderson - Live at Town Hall, September 2001 (The two concerts just after 9/11. Chilling.)
• Ani DiFranco - So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter (Quite jazzy and improvisational. She is ok but I am not a fan.)
• Suicide - American Supreme (Phantastic cheap sounding beats. Great trash.)
• Reindeer Section - Son of Evil Reindeer (Scottish indie orchestra. Ok poppy tunes but not great.)
• Mountain Goats - Tallahassee (I preferred the down-to-earth lo-fi All Hail West Texas)
• Go-Betweens - Bright Yellow Bright Orange (Absolutely gorgeous, album of the first two months of 2003, have to check the Cat Power though)
• Bonnie Prince Billy - Master and Everyone (Oldham sounds so much like Nick Drake that I fear that he's going to kill himself next.)
• Beth Gibbons & Rustin' Man - Out of Season (Very good. Gibbons modulates her voice a lot. Low-key and heartbreaking. Nevertheless played to death already.)
• Massive Attack - 100th Window (Amazingly dense. Clash of the civilizations with a conciliatory end I don't see in reality)
• Smiths - Rank (The last official Smiths release I didn't have yet. It's all right. The song versions are different. Live they seem to have sounded less good though.)
• Cat Power - You Are Free (An instant classic, my album of the year up till now)
• Dirty Three - Horse Stories (Reminded me a lot of GYBE!, did the D3 influence them? Overall I was a little disappointed by this. The violin grates occasionally)
• Calla - Televise (Excellent indie rock somewhere between Sonic Youth, Pavement and Yo La Tengo)
• Tom Liwa - Stäfa/CH (It starts with a Nick Drake cover and goes on in the same vein)
• Oum Kalthoum - Diva of Arab Music (A disappointment. Her voice could never ever compete with Billie Holiday's)
• Robert Johnson - Steady Rollin' Man (How could I live without a CD of the incarnation of blues men?)

„Natürlich wollen die Menschen keinen Krieg. Warum sollte irgendein armer Kerl auf einem Bauernhof sein Leben in einem Krieg riskieren, wenn das Beste, was er davon haben kann, ist, daß er an einem Stück zurück auf seinen Hof zurückkommt? Natürlich wollen die einfachen Leute keinen Krieg: Weder in Rußland noch in England und auch nicht in Deutschland. Das ist klar. Aber schließlich sind es die Führer des Landes, die die Politik bestimmen und es ist immer eine einfache Sache, die Leute mitzuziehen, ob in Demokratie oder faschistischer Diktatur oder einem Parlament oder kommunistischer Diktatur. Stimme oder nicht, die Leute können immer dazu gebracht werden, den Wünschen ihrer Führer zu folgen. Das ist einfach. Alles, was Sie tun müssen, ist, ihnen zu sagen, daß sie angegriffen werden und die Kriegsgegner dafür zu denunzieren, daß ihnen Patriotismus fehlt und sie das Land einer Gefahr aussetzen. Es funktioniert in jedem Land gleichermaßen.“

Hermann Göring, Reichsmarschall, bei den Nürnberger Prozessen.

English translation:
"Of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

Hermann Göring at the Nuremberg Trials.

From here.

Some quotes from this funny thread at ILM:

• Brian Eno: i have ideas and i am proud of it. (j fail)

• Beck: "The world is a lonely abandoned garage sale." (Nate Patrin)

• Metallica: "We're jerks." (Alan N)

• Bardo Pond: "Check out the pedals we'll use for our next song" (donut bitch)

• Sonic Youth: "Give us our pedals back you fuckers" (Nate Patrin)

• Kraftwerk 'humans are rubbish except when they invent stuff' (stevem)

• Boards Of Canada 'remember that place you never went to? remember that feeling you never felt? we do' (stevem)

• Chili Peppers: "Hey young impressionable ladies, here's my genitals!" (nickalicious)

• Low: "Would you mind keeping it down? Thanks."</font size> (mark p)

• The Wedding Present/Cinerama - "I'm mad that she's dating someone else" (Aaron W)

• Sigur Ros: "Mmmmmmmm, shrooooooooms." (nickalicious)

• Kate Bush: "My voice reaches no longer to the heavens, but as far as my ceiling". (Nichole Graham)

• U2: "We rock God, and we know it". (Nichole Graham)

• Momus: without whose influence music would be as it is today. (Momus)

• Britney Spears: "I'm not wearing any underwear. But if I was, they'd have pink ribbons and lollipops on them. Except I'm not." (mark p)

• Steve Malkmus: "You liked me in Pavement." (Sam Jeffries)

• Shakira: "Your ears say no, but that raging boner says yes." (nickalicious)

• Miles Davis: while wearing shades in the dark, turns back on audience, says nothing (nickalicious)

• Pink Floyd: "Crikey, society is full of maladies and ills. We'd better express this awful truth, but beneath a wave of overdubbed guitars and intricate electric piano and post-soul gospel chorus voices to soften this horrible reality to our listeners." (Nate Patrin)

• The Ramones: "1, 2, 3, 4" (Aaron W)

• Godspeed You Black Emperor! - "the world is eeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnding....." (Aaron W)

• the Mountain Goats: "I saw the light hit your face as the smell of the strawberries wafted in from [random geographical location], but i knew it was over but we wanted to hold on." (j fail)

• The Mekons: "We enjoy failure and ourselves." (j fail)

• Radiohead: "We don't enjoy anything at all." (Neudonym)

• McLusky: "These microwave chips are shite." (William Bloody Swygart)

• Flaming Lips: "But when I walked into the lamp-post for the second time, there were these bright lights in front of my eyes and suddenly it was all beautiful..." (William Bloody Swygart)

• Scott Walker: "Life's hard even when you're good looking" (Aaron W)

• Interpol: "we wear designer suits" (Aaron W)

• Julio Iglesias: "Hello? Hey, pretty laydee... no, no Enrique's not home right now. I'll tell him you called. OK, bye. "Aiii..." (William Bloody Swygart)

• Philip Glass: "on and on and on (and on and on and on)" (t''t )

• Depeche Mode - If Jesus were alive today, he'd be a heroin addict. (justin s.)