Skip to content
Premieres

See Thom Yorke Groove to Howlin’ Wolf, Dance to Ginuwine

Thom Yorke Ginuwine Pony Ingenue Atoms for Peace Video DJ Set

That up there is, yes, Thom Yorke and his Atoms for Peace “Ingenue” video dancing partner getting low to Ginuwine’s 1996 R&B groove “Pony.” An enterprising YouTube user (who’d only previously shared a Descendants live clip) put the two together because it simply needed to happen. A little less fun than Usher and a goat doing call and response, but at least twice as sensual. Just make sure you stick around for the freakout at the end.

Meanwhile, below, we’ve got a second clip of Yorke grooving out (this time knowingly) to Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning” at Le Poisson Rouge in New York in the wee hours of Friday morning. He and bandmate/producer Nigel Godrich have been doing a string of DJ duo events — “with two turntables and a microhone,” as Thom cheekily tweeted — to get word out about Atoms for Peace’s just-out debut album Amok.

As he explained to Rolling Stone yesterday, “Originally, we were just going to DJ and not play any of our shit. Then we got carried away.” Their set included Amok songs in addition to tracks from Yorke’s 2006 solo LP The Eraser. “We finally got our shit together. We’ve basically just cut everything up into its constituent parts. We’ll try to re-cut the tunes live, mixing in loads of other bits and pieces and collaging stuff.”

In addition, Yorke sings — “It’s like fucking karaoke or something! But it’s not, because … I have my own machines.” — while Dutch artist Tarik Barri provides “fucking bonkers” visuals. Our pals Brooklyn Vegan were at the gig last night. After sets from Holly Herndon and Arca, Atoms took the stage around 1 a.m., did 12 songs and then began spinning whatever they damn well pleased once they were done. Hence:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fv-bMtoubac%3Frel%3D0

And while we’re here, you might as well see what Yorke and Godrich did together. “Ingenue”:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=FIA0LSvXP7g%3Frel%3D0

“Black Swan”:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wngYyjj6-Z0%3Frel%3D0

“Dropped”:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=haMr6ofV11w%3Frel%3D0

“Before Your Very Eyes…”:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=QPv45nLYAlk%3Frel%3D0

The complete Atoms for Peace set list:

1. “Ingenue”
2. “Black Swan”
3. “Stuck Together Pieces”
4. “Dropped”
5. “Eraser”
6. “Amok”
7. “Before Your Very Eyes…”
8. “S.A.D.”
9. “Atoms for Peace”
10. “Unless”
11. “Harrowdown Hill”
12. “Default”