Vlog 036 - TV on the Radio | R.E.M. | Elbow | The Kills ...

TV On The Radio bassist Gerard Smith passed away on April 20th – our condolences to his family and friends. The band have called off a series of tour dates in support of “Nine Types of Light”, which they previewed parts of last month at SXSW, including the catchy aggro-rap number “Repetition”. For their Letterman appearance, they featured a couple of dancers on the moody, sensuous “Will Do”, a welcome but far different vibe then the one they unleashed on the Ed Sullivan stage in 2006, when they debuted the adrenaline fueled rocker “Wolf Like Me”. We hope the band manage to reconstitute themselves soon and carry on – their sound on “Nine Types” has developed and matured to the point where they’re one of the most creativly adventurous indie rock outfits out there. With the release of the excellent “Collapse Into Now” R.E.M. have definitively put to rest any notion of a mid-career slump. Over at REMHQ, video documents from the Athens rockers’ summer 2010 sessions at Berlin’s Hansa studios have slowly been dribbling out, starting with “Discoverer”, the album’s propulsive first cut, and more recently with “Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter” (a track that on record features contributions from Peaches and Lenny Kaye) and also the humourously-titled “Mine Smell Like Honey”. It’s great to see Stipe, Mills, Buck and Berry having so much fun playing the new material…watching them rip through Accelerate’s “Living Well” in Paris in 2008 makes us hope the boys might relent and decide to play a few dates in support of this great new record. Writing in the April issue of Uncut, John Lewis nicely captures the enviable position that UK pop stars Elbow now find themselves in: “A well-deserved Mercury prize triumph in 2008 has elevated them into rock’s premier league, and turned Guy Garvey – keen birdwatcher, unrepentant Yes fan and the band’s affable front man – into something of a national treasure.” We play a bit of “One Day Like This”, recorded shortly after their Mercury win, and then dip into a couple of tracks from ...