Author: Jonathan

Filter Magazine has heard 4 of the new tracks from the upcoming album and had this to say:

This week Filter had the distinct pleasure of hearing 4 tracks from the new Radiohead album, which is tentatively scheduled for release in the US on June 10th. As we sat and listened all we could say after was “wow”. Our impressions of the first songs we were heard were that these songs are simply amazing. The songs were very reminiscent of OK Computer but, of course, going to a higher level like only Radiohead could do.

Read more…
(thanks to Ben)

UK Teletext is reporting that Radiohead will announce the tracklisting and name of their new album on Monday at 5pm GMT. The album is apparently 14 tracks long!

Every so often, RollingStone magazine goes back to albums and up their status to classic. For their April 2003 edition, they did it for Radiohead by changing their **** rating to ***** with The Bends and Kid A, while changing ***1/2 for amnesiac to ****.
Here’s what RollingStone had to say:

RollingStone Hall of Fame: The Greatest Albums Ever Made
Radiohead – The Bends *****
Fans of Radiohead’s 1993 single “Creep” basically divided into two camps: those who loved it as a dynamic slice of self-loathing rock & roll, and those who just enjoyed the skrakunk-skrakunk guitar distortion before every chorus. On their later albums, Radiohead would throw their lot in with the skrakunk-skrakunk crowd, pushing the boundaries of sonic experimentation. But for one record, they demonstrated how good they could be when they struck to guitar rock. Singer Thom Yorke explored the expressive power of moaning, while guitarist Jonny Greenwood proved equally gifted with restrained strumming and electric flare-gun solos. When critics describe bands such as Coldplay as sounding like Radiohead, they usually mean that they sound like Radiohead’s brilliant second album.
The title of The Bends refers to decompression sickness, when deep-sea divers come up too quickly – a comment on the band’s sudden fame. The lyrics are filled with Yorke’s unhappiness rendered as health metaphors: He makes himself a cripple who can’t climb the stairs in “Bones,” and with “My Iron Lung,” he immobilizes himself even more completely and complains, “This is our new song/Just like the last one/A total waste of time.”
The record is filled with lovely ballads, full of longing, jealousy, and critiques of consumer culture. But the best is the last: “Street Spirit (Fade Out).” Over chiming guitar arpeggios, Yorke sings a hymn to his own claustrophobia and insignificance, making them sound like exalted states of being. When he intones, “Cracked eggs, dead birds scream as they fight for life,” he finds solace in the vowels, transforming them into a melody of hope. By the end of the song, with harmonies swirling around, the beauty has touched even him: The final words on an emotional, bleak album are “Immerse your soul in love.” -Gavin Edwards
Further Listening: OK Computer, 1997 **** Kid A, 2000 ***** Amnesiac, 2001 ****

(thanks to Matt for typing this)

The Flaming Lips are recording their version of “Knives Out” for their upcoming EP. The Lips also cover Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” and Beck’s “The Golden Age.”

Internalmemos.com, a site which posts corporate memos and communications, has a memo from MTV Europe Broadcast Standards Manager Mark Sunderland which outlines what videos should not be played during the current war with Iraq:

Dear all
In the light of the outbreak of war in Iraq in the last 12 hours, our recommendations for the scheduling and content of videos and programmes are as follows:
1. Video recommendations
Obviously, there will be heightened public sensitivity to representations of war, soldiers, bombing, destruction of buildings and public unrest at home. The ITC Programme Code requires us not to broadcast material which offends against good taste or is offensive to public feeling. We therefore recommend that videos featuring the following are not shown at the moment:
war
soldiers
war planes
bombs
missiles
riots and social unrest
executions
other obviously sensitive material
Examples include:
System of a Down “Boom!” – anti-war video containing facts and figures about, amongst other things, the projected casualties in the war in Iraq.
Aerosmith “Don’t want to miss a thing” – contains footage from the film “Armageddon”.
Manic Street Preachers “So Why So Sad” – contains footage of soldiers being killed and man throwing a hand grenade.
Passengers/U2 “Miss Sarajevo” – contains missiles, guns and buildings being blown up.
Bon Jovi “This ain’t a love song” – contains war scenes and victims in distress.
Iggy Pop “Corruption” – contains wars, riots, guns and captions “we love guns” and “we love rifles”.
Paul Hardcastle “19” – contains war footage.
Radiohead “Lucky” – contains war footage including injured children.
Billy Idol “Hot in the City” – contains an atomic explosion.
Armand van Helden “Koochy” – contains an atomic explosion and ships being blown up.
Trick Daddy “Thug Holiday” – contains soldiers being killed at war.
Furthermore, videos with words such as “bomb”, “missile”, “war” or other sensitive words in the artist or song title should not be shown at the moment.
Examples include:
Outkast “B.O.B (Bombs over Baghdad)” – song title may offend.
Radiohead “Invasion” – song title may offend.
Megadeth “Holy Wars” – song title may offend.
Gavin Friday “You, Me and World War Three” – song title may offend.
B-52s videos.
Read the full memo here.

We’re unaware of a Radiohead video called “Invasion” so the mention above was a little confusing.
(thanks to Alan)
UPDATE: We’ve been told that the video called “Invasion” may be one of the promotional Kid A blips that were shown on the Web and TV. (thanks to Simon)