Mojo Presents James Brown's Funky Summer/Thom Yorke Interview

The word RADIOHEAD stretches across the cover of the August issue of Mojo, right over Thom Yorke's forehead (and ear). Dramatic!

Yorke discusses his solo album with Mojo and offers a preview of some tracks the band has been working on for the next Radiohead album. He describes "Bodysnatchers" as "a little bit like Neu! meets dodgy hippy rock" as well as sounding "like that new Australian band Wolfmother." "15 Steps" was "born out of a mad rhythm experiment" and it has "a bass line like 'Airbag' and it's in 5/4 time with this 'clapping' groove throughout." Yorke says, "I really like the lyrics. 'You used to be alright/What happened?/Et cetera et cetera/Friends forever/15 steps - then a sheer drop.'"

He calls "4-Minute Warning" "very, very simple. Almost too simple", adding "In fact, it might ultimately get thrown away for being too simple. He also says the song has "been kicking around for ages" and that "I really, really like it." The first lines are "This is just a nightmare/Soon I'm going to wake up."

Yorke also mentions a "cool version" of "Nude", "another song that's been around for ages." It's the song formerly known as "Don't Get Any Big Ideas". "Burning" and "Down Is the New Up" are also contenders for the new album. Up in the air: who will produce the record, and what label will release it.

In a sidebar feature, Mojo rates 11 "new" songs Radiohead has been playing on their current tour ("new" is a relative term; Mojo notes that "Nude" dates back to at least 1998). "Bangers 'N' Mash" and "15 Step" are each given 5 stars, while "Videotape", "House Of Cards", "Bodysnatchers" and "4-Minute Warning" each land four.

Elsewhere in the issue: plenty of reviews, coverage of the Mojo Honours List awards, an article about Johnny Cash, and interviews with Rosanne Cash and John Martyn.

There are also some nifty shorter features; more on those later.

To "celebrate" James Brown's return to the UK (for some "special summer shows"), Mojo compiled James Brown's Funky Summer, which includes songs by Brown, as well as "his friends, his heroes and his protégés."

Mojo Presents James Brown's Funky Summer Track Listing:

1. James Brown - Gut Bucket (unreleased track, exclusive to Mojo. More unreleased tracks are at James Brown's website or "find out more via" intriguemusic.com)
2. Maceo And All The King's Men - Funky Women
3. Vicki Anderson - If You Don't Give Me What I Want (I Gonna Get It Some Other Place)
4. Lyn Collins - You Can't Love Me If You Don't Respect Me
5. James Brown - Get On The Good Foot (Live)
6. Fred Wesley & The Horny Horns - Between Two Sheets (available on A Blow For Me, A Toot To You/Say Blow Blow Backwards "[George] Clinton co-wrote and co-produced this piece of salacious, intergalactic funk in 1977. It still packs a free-flowing party groove.")
7. Bootsy Collins - What So Never The Dance
8. James Brown - Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved (available on James Brown Greatest Breakbeats "Behind the raw funk grooves, James Brown has always been a man with a message... Moreover, Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved is one of the many JB tracks sampled by Public Enemy - the hip hop act most influenced by Mr Brown's pronouncements.")
9. Bobby Byrd - I Know You Got Soul
10. Tammi Terrell - What A Good Man He Is (available on The Essential Collection "James Brown also signed Tammi Terrell - then using the name Tammy Montgomery - and released a single by her in 1963 on his own label. Terrell later enjoyed greater success when she joined the Motown empire before her tragic death in 1970 at the tender age of 24. But her vocal performances remain immortal.")
11. Soul Survivors - Please Please Please
12. Albert King - Cold Sweat
13. Roy Brown - Love Don't Love Nobody (available on Roy Brown And New Orleans R&B "New Orleans jump blues hero Roy Brown scored 15 R&B hits between 1948 and 1951, including the seminal "Good Rockin' Tonight". He received widespread radio play and as such influenced everyone from Mr [James] Brown to Elvis Presley.")
14. The 5 Royalles - Think
15. Braille - Antenna (available on Box Of Rhymes. "'Helping people understand things they can't see,' is how James Brown-approved hip hop star Braille describes his role in music.")