from London, with love.

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)

Last night, Radiohead was Conan O'Brien's musical performer. The band "phoned in" their performance from London...

At first, it struck me as strange. I mean, it just seemed like Conan wanted the band on the show--and I thought perhaps the band agreed to do their appearance "tongue-in-cheek"--but I was wrong (a side note: Radiohead were Conan's first musical guest ever..back in 1993). I wonder who people thought would flop first: Radiohead or Conan? I'm sure the fact that both are incredibly relevant (Radiohead are the world's biggest band, and Conan is set to take Jay Leno's seat) is a shock to most.

Performance here


However, it hit me a minute into the performance in that the band are going on a green crusade (I tuned in late because, yes, I was watching a marathon of "Little People, Big World")--they said that they did not want to play arenas out in the middle of nowhere because they wanted to reduce their carbon footprint (however, their American tour is taking place in large American arenas, out in the middle of nowhere thanks to livenation...yay clear channel!). Thom is a pretty big activist--anti-nuclear weapons, anti-war, anti-meat eating(I think he's on a gluten-free diet as well) you know. I also then remembered reading that the band are considering buying new gear in every city that they play in so that they don't have to travel around with lots of big rigs full of gear (again, to reduce their carbon footprint).

I googled it today, and, yes, the band are preparing for their upcoming tour and did not want to fly across the Atlantic. By refusing to fly just to perform on the show, Thom maintains that the band are cutting out "the equivalent of driving one's car around solidly for a year"..and, you know, it goes with NBC's whole "Green Week" campaign.

I know, I know--I should be a detective. Hello captain obvious!

The band are at their best--Thom's jibber-jabbering on and on, and though this is far from one of my favorites off of "In Rainbows", it was great late night viewing.

However, a more upbeat song from "In Rainbows' " second CD, "Bangers & Mash" can be seen in incredibly high quality (and you don't even need a great computer for it to look beautiful) here

And a great live version of "Bodysnatchers" from the Scotch Mist webcast

..and my favorite "In Rainbows" track, "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi", live

...and, for good measure, Radiohead's live cover of the New Order performed (but Joy Divison written) classic "Ceremony"