Radiohead’s music publisher, Warner Chappell Music, has launched a website where you can purchase and download sheet music and tabs for songs from all of Radiohead’s albums. Check it out here.
Category: In Rainbows
Jamie Gurnell wrote in to tell us that he created an info-graphic about Radiohead’s music. On his site, he says:
Radiohead is a band that is the very definition of “unclassifiable” I developed this idea of bleeding genres into each other and plotting the corresponding songs on a graph. It was by no means a mathematical undertaking and took several hours of quite enjoyable listening and debate to achieve. What you come away with is the basic idea that Radiohead in itself is its own genre, refusing to fit anywhere but inside itself.
I am aware that this graph will come under scrutiny and be the brunt of harsh remarks, but in a way, that is what it is meant to do. It is meant to be discussed. It is an ongoing work in progress and until Radiohead stops making music it will never be finished.
If you have any suggestions, remarks or thoughts on improving or altering this design I am completely open to them.
After a few more revisions I plan on trying to get some of these made.
They will be approximately 30X30 Inch silk screens.Many thanks to my friend Art Commisso for the help.
You can view a larger version here.
You can download an even larger version here.
You can view the info-graphic up close by checking out Jamie’s site or clicking the two links above.
Radiohead co-manager Chris Hufford has outlined the reasons for Radiohead’s surprise move to release their forthcoming album online with only a few days notice, in an exclusive interview with Music Week.
Hufford, one of the founders of Courtyard Management, said that the move to make Radiohead’s eighth studio album The King Of Limbs available to download on Saturday February 19 via bespoke website thekingoflimbs.com, more than a month before a physical release via XL Recordings, is a “logical progression” from the release strategy behind previous album In Rainbows.
He explained that Courtyard and the band learned what aspects of the In Rainbows release worked and what aspects did not during the campaign. The decision was made not to take an ‘honesty box’ approach with The King Of Limbs, as they had with In Rainbows.
Following The King Of Limbs‘ release on CD, vinyl and download via XL on March 28, the album will be available in a multi-format deluxe set, described as a “newspaper album” via thekingoflimbs.com on May 9.
Hufford explains that the set, which includes two ten-inch records, a CD, artwork and a download, will be housed in a package designed as a newspaper.
From the £6 price tag of the MP3 release to the move to initially bypass traditional retail routes, Hufford said every decision made has been done with Radiohead’s fans in mind.
“Our allegiances are to the band. We manage Radiohead, we don’t manage retail or labels, we just manage the band and are just trying to do the best possible thing to allow another brilliant record to be embraced by the fanbase,” said Hufford.
For the full interview see Music Week magazine this Monday.
(from Music Week)
Kind of old news, but still news, courtesy of the BBC:
Radiohead have given their blessing to an “official bootleg” of their Haiti benefit concert, held last January.
A group of fans have spent the last year creating a DVD of the gig by piecing together footage shot by 14 audience members.
The band allowed it to be released on the condition that proceeds went to Oxfam’s Haiti emergency fund.
The film was made available online over Christmas, and has already raised more than $11,500 (£7,300).
Radiohead, who are based in Oxford, played the impromptu Oxfam benefit concert at Hollywood’s Henry Fonda Theatre, but no official recording was made.
But Dr Inez Rogatsky, a fan from New York, attended the gig and “taped a little bit of video”.
After several more fan films found their way onto YouTube, she and another fan Andrea, who lives in Italy, came up with the idea of creating a full-length concert film.
“Collecting the footage took a while – maybe two or three months,” she told BBC 6 Music.
The video was then passed to a third fan, Devin, a civil engineer in California, who began the painstaking nine-month editing process in his spare time.
“It was totally done on weekends, a few hours at a time,” he said.
The film has little of the shaky camerawork and obscured views traditionally associated with fan videos . As Dr Rogatsky explains, that outcome was never guaranteed.
iPhone footage
“Fourteen separate video recordings doesn’t mean that there were 14 people standing there with professional equipment,” she said.
“Some of the recordings are a few seconds shot on an iPhone. On some of the songs I wish we had better coverage than we did.”
“I’m pretty pleased with the outcome of a lot of the them. There’s a sequence in Morning Bell where, in the beginning of the song, Jonny [Greenwood – guitarist] is walking slowly around the stage,” said Devin.
“He just has a kind of ‘caged animal’ feel. He’s just waiting to unleash.”
Dr Rogatsky contacted Radiohead’s manager after “a lot of procrastination”.
“I heard back within two days that it was a great idea. He mentioned that the band wanted us to get donations for Haiti. I suggested a few organisations, and they decided to go with Oxfam.”
Oxfam set up a dedicated donations page for the project with an “honesty box” system of requesting money from fans who download the film.
It echoes the pioneering online release of Radiohead’s last album, In Rainbows.
The full concert video was uploaded to YouTube and other video-sharing websites on Christmas Eve and, according to its creators, has been downloaded thousands of times.
“It’s pretty amazing to me that this was basically 100% crowd-sourced,” said Devin.
“To the best of my knowledge, every individual that had anything to do with this has never had any personal contact with each other.”
Oxfam’s Bob Ferguson added: “We are thrilled to have the support of Radiohead and their smart and motivated fans to help us raise much needed funds for our work in Haiti.
“It’s especially important now, as the one-year anniversary of the earthquake is here, that this project helps to remind people that the dire situation in Haiti is far from over, and that continued support from the rest of the world is needed.”
Fans can show their support by heading to Oxfam’s website and donating through their “on your honor” page.
Q Magazine readers recently voted Radiohead’s OK Computer as the best album of the past 25 years. No big surprise there, right? The band also took three other places in the top 30 – compiled to mark 25 years of the magazine – with The Bends at eight, Kid A at 18 and In Rainbows at 23. 13 years ago, Q Magazine had a similar poll where OK Computer was also named best album of all time. Now that is staying power.
Full list after the jump.
(thanks to Peter)
Categories
The Lost Radiohead album
Take some time today to read this article about how Radiohead’s OK Computer and In Rainbows were meant to complement each other. Now, this is just speculation but some interesting points have been raised. What do you think?
Ten years after OK Computer shocked the world, Radiohead released In Rainbows on October 10 (10/10). Though no one was expecting the album to be released until 2008, Radiohead announced In Rainbows just ten days in advance. In Rainbows, which consists of ten letters, has ten tracks, and would be downloadable from a rumored ten servers.
Radiohead preceded the release of In Rainbows with nine cryptic messages. They repeatedly emphasized X, the Roman Numeral for ten, in phrases such as “March Wa X”, and “Xendless Xurbia”. The tenth message was posted on October 10 with a photo of the band drinking tea.
There has been a lot of speculation over Radiohead’s emphasis of ten surrounding the release of In Rainbows. One theory suggests that Radiohead was typifying a binary code of ones and zeros,1010101010. This has come to be known as the Binary Theory, also called the TENspiracy by some.
Puddlegum first addressed the Binary Theory in Radiohead: 1010101010. Someone associated with Thom Yorke contacted Puddlegum, sharing Thom’s reaction to Puddlegum’s article:
“The meaning behind all of this is right in front of our faces, we’re just overlooking it. [Thom] has been expecting an article much like this one for a couple of years, as have I. But I’m willing to wager he’ll have fun waiting a few more. On the other hand, it seems to annoy him that no one ‘gets it’ yet, given the mountain of clues.”
Ten days after our original article, we have come to believe that OK Computer and In Rainbowswere meant to complement each other. During the writing and recording process of OK Computer, Radiohead used the working title of Zeros and Ones. If OK Computer is represented by 01, and In Rainbows is represented by 10, then we have 01 and 10. In binary code 01 and 10 complement each other.
Consider that In Rainbows was meant to complement OK Computer, musically, lyrically, and in structure. We found that the two albums can be knit together beautifully. By combining the tracks to form one playlist, 01 and 10, we have a remarkable listening experience. The transitions between the songs are astounding, and it appears that this was done purposefully.
The lyrics also seem to complement each other. There appears to be a concept flowing through the01 and 10 playlist. Ideas in one song is picked up by the next, such as “Pull me out of the aircrash,”and “When I’m at the pearly gates, this will be my videotape.”
To create the 01 and 10 playlist, begin with OK Computer’s track one, Airbag, and follow this with In Rainbow’s track one, 15 Step. Alternate the albums, track by track, until you reach Karma Police onOK Computer, making All I Need the tenth track on the 01 and 10 playlist. Follow Karma Police withFitter Happier from OK Computer, for tracks eleven and twelve. These two tracks act as a bridge between the first ten and the following ten tracks on the 01 and 10 playlist. Then continue to alternate the albums again, picking up with Faust Arp on In Rainbows, with Electioneering on OK Computeras the following track.
Radiohead – 01 and 10 playlist:
1. Airbag (OK Computer)
2. 15 Step (In Rainbows)
3. Paranoid Android (OK Computer)
4. Bodysnatchers (In Rainbows)
5. Subterranean Homesick Alien (OK Computer)
6. Nude (In Rainbows)
7. Exit Music (For A Film) (OK Computer)
8. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (In Rainbows)
9. Let Down (OK Computer)
10. All I Need (In Rainbows)
11. Karma Police (OK Computer)
12. Fitter Happier (OK Computer)
13. Faust Arp (In Rainbows)
14. Electioneering (OK Computer)
15. Reckoner (In Rainbows)
16. Climbing Up The Walls (OK Computer)
17. House Of Cards (In Rainbows)
18. No Surprises (OK Computer)
19. Jigsaw Falling Into Place (In Rainbows)
20. Lucky (OK Computer)
21. Videotape (In Rainbows)
22. The Tourist (OK Computer)
Cracked.com has more about this, as well as a conspiracy theory about Kid A.
(via Kottke)