The Smile (Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood & Tom Skinner) To Release Live Album Tomorrow

The Smile released one of the best albums of 2022 in May. Their debut album, A Light For Attracting Attention, was always going to a) gain fanfare because of the people involved and b) receive comparisons to the band members' original bands because of the people involved.

The trio made up of Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead fame, and drummer Tom Skinner from jazz outfit Sons Of Kemet, have rejuvenated the sound of the band that brought us Creep, Paranoid Android, The National Anthem, and Burn The Witch, so it's a delight to hear that we'll finally get to experience the band live on stage beyond some poorly-recorded clips on social media and YouTube.

Tomorrow, The Smile will release a live album: The Smile at Montreux Jazz Festival, July 2022. In addition to the live album, fans will be able to watch the entire performance from 7:00 am - which includes extra songs - for just 48 hours on the band's YouTube channel. 

Montreux Jazz Festival was one of the first gigs the trio ever played together after forming in late 2020. That show also marked the band's live debut of the song Bending Hectic, which Thom Yorke admitted to writing half an hour before their festival appearance. 

The Smile have been busy touring Europe and North America this year; we're hoping for a surprise Australian visit at some point.

The Smile at Montreux Jazz Festival, July 2022 Tracklist:
01. Pana-Vision
02. Thin Thing
03. The Opposite
04. Speech Bubbles
05. Free In the Knowledge & A Hairdryer
06. The Smoke
07. You Will Never Work In Television Again 

Last year, Radiohead celebrated the 20th and 21st anniversaries of their critically acclaimed albums, Kid A and Amnesiac. 

Along with the release of the massive triple album Kid A Mnesia (the deluxe reissue of their 2000 and 2001 mega LPs, Kid A and Amnesiac), the band came together with longtime producer/collaborator Nigel Godrich (who also produced The Smile's album) to create a virtual exhibition of previously unseen artworks, sounds and designs from the making of the two albums, in a wholly realised space online.

Conceived initially as a real-world exhibit, the piece moved to the online realm during the pandemic and was optimised for VR headsets.

"A confluence of events including but not limited to laws of zoning and physics and Covid-19 would conspire to thwart those best-laid plans, moving Kid A Mnesia Exhibition beyond the physical world," the official statement explained.

"Everything experienced within the Kid A Mnesia Exhibition is sourced directly from the original artwork and multitrack recordings of those fourth and fifth Radiohead albums—all rebuilt from the original elements in a new controlled space without the limitations of stereo sound or LP/CD packaging."