Thom Yorke/Flea supergroup gets name and tour

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Thom Yorke in concert
Thom Yorke in concert (Image credit: Sylvain Lefevre/ASA/epa/Corbis)

Thom Yorke's supergroup featuring Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, Beck drummer Joey Waronker and percussionist Mauro Refesco will be touring the USA in April under the Atoms For Peace moniker.

Blogging on Dead Air Space, Thom Yorke revealed the ensemble's plans:

"hey everyone

ok so in April the other band.. that i got together to do the eraser and other stuff u know .. Mauro, Flea, Me, Joey and Nigel is going back out to do some shows in the US.. ending with playing with Coachella. we had too much fun to just leave it there...

it has been decided that we call ourselves Atoms For Peace. hope you like the name.. it seemed bleedin' obvious."

The dates are as follows:

5 April - New York, Roseland Ballroom (with Flying Lotus)
6 - New York, Roseland Ballroom (with Flying Lotus)
8 - Boston, Citi Wang Theatre (with Flying Lotus)
10 - Chicago, Aragon Ballroom (with Flying Lotus)
11 - Chicago, Aragon Ballroom (with Flying Lotus)
14 - Oakland, Fox Theatre (with Flying Lotus)
15 - Oakland, Fox Theatre (with Flying Lotus)
17 - Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Bowl
18 - Indio, Coachella

And the name? Well, aside from being a song on Yorke's aforementioned The Eraser solo album, Atoms For Peace comes from an early Cold War-era Dwight D Eisenhower speech in 1953.

All that remains is for us to join Drowned In Sound in asking Thom and friends to book some shows here in the UK too. And please, Flea, for the love of god, keep that slap bass in check.

Chris Vinnicombe

Chris Vinnicombe worked with us here on the MusicRadar team from the site's initial launch way back in 2007, and also contributed to Guitarist magazine as Features Editor until 2014, as well as Total Guitar magazine, amongst others. These days he can be found at Gibson Guitars, where he is editor-in-chief.