The Smile presented a set of three songs for the latest release of the NPR Tiny Desk Concert series — see it below.
The band, consisting of Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead, as well as Tom Skinner from Sons of Kemet, stopped by the NPR office to perform songs from their debut album “A Light For Attracting Attention”.
Together with saxophonist Robert Stillman for the performance, the band played “Pana-vision”, “The Smoke” and finished “Skrting on the Surface”.
Speaking about the performance, Tiny Desk host and producer Bob Boylen said: “They arrived early with saxophonist Robert Stillman to test a few tunes and figure out what made sense at my table — minus the volume and effects that shape the sound of the album. soundscape. For about 90 minutes, the Tiny Desk team arranged a relaxed rehearsal, watching the band’s creative friendship develop by itself, and settled on four songs.”
He continued: “For the keen eyes, you’ll see that Tom York is handed a guitar for the second tune, but suddenly he’s playing bass, and Johnny Greenwood’s bass suddenly becomes a guitar. Before “The Smoke” they recorded another tune, but it was not included in the final version; they were not happy with their performance.
“The set ends with my favorite song, “Skrting On the Surface,” and we hear how vocals, guitar, bass and drums are perfectly intertwined with lyrics that remind us how fragile our lives are, and for me, how these magical moments can be transcendent.”.
The band made their live debut in 2021, performing on Glastonbury’s Live at Worthy Farm concert video, which was broadcast in May of the same year.
Their debut single “You Will Never Work In Television Again” was released in January last year, followed by “The Smoke”, “Skrting On The Surface” and “Pana-vision”.
They were followed by the release of “A Light For Attracting Attention” in May, which was named one of the best NME albums of 2022.
Last month, it was announced that The Smile will release a live album recorded during a performance at last year’s Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. The digital-only release appeared on streaming platforms on December 14.
