Words by kidChaos
Living in a time where record labels are on the brink of collapse and single/ringtones dominate the market, it’s not often an artist creates content out of the soul. With music more manufactured and marketed with different formula’s, creativity might be at an all time low.
Enter Radiohead.
Seven albums deep and these English lads are determined to continue to make history. They’ve set unprecedented milestones not only with their videos, but with the way they work against the system. They have come a long way since “Creep” & “High And Dry” — and gaining such critical acclaim with albums like Ok, Computer what more do they have to prove? Falling out with their old label EMI couldn’t have come at a better time and Radiohead was bound to capitalize. One thing labels have yet to understand is the digital age and the less they understand it, the more they crumble. There is an obvious upside to digital downloads and not all is lost (see: iTunes sales going through the roof), but labels have yet to realize how to monopolize the content with such freedom that runs rampant on the internet.
Four years after the release of Hail To the Thief, Radiohead announced the release of their new album In Rainbows to be released through their website for digital download. Fans had the luxury to pay whatever they wanted. The bidding started at zero. This limited time offer only lasted about a month or so, but it was genius in itself. Although exact numbers for the In Rainbows digital release remain undisclosed, the figure is estimated to be at least a million. They have since toured the world and eventually released a box disc set containing collectors goodies for the ultimate Stans. The album itself went on to go multi-platinum and win Grammy for Best Alternative album of the year in 2009, proving that the power of the music transcends “free downloads” and it’s not so much the way it’s presented as much as the content within each release. Just look at what Drake did with So Far Gone (a mixtape offered for free99). Gimmicks aside, there’s no denying people support excellent music.
Now, within hours of their rumored EP, Radiohead attacks the internet in another creative way. While the jury is still out on the likelihood of a new project, the fans at least enjoy more Radiohead music with a leak called “These Are My Twisted Words.” The song is presumably from an EP titled Wall Of Ice, based off this cartoon which mocks the music industry as a whole. While the band itself gained success from the machine, it’s inspiring to see artists go against the grain and now that Radiohead is a free agent they are liable to work and create as they please. In between cryptic messages and Thome Yorke’s announcement that no Radiohead music will be out soon only hours separate Radiohead from making history again.
And even if Monday comes and goes with the EP, at least the fans have a new song to enjoy until the wrath from their master plan is revealed.
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Download — Radiohead “These Are My Twisted Words”
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Nice post for a Sunday night. I was surprised to see Thom Yorke on TSS but you guys always acknowledge those who deserve it. Easily one of my favorite bands (top 5) and they put on one hell of a live show.
In Rainbows was a solid album. Since they always make quality music, I paid $10 for the album; $1 for each song. Sure they could have gotten more, but they were offering it for free. I respect the angle they took cause labels are looking even more foolish these days with their “old school” approach.
Anxiously awaiting their new project, but I realize that will probably be a year or two away. I’d recommend listening to Amnesiac if your not too familiar with the band and don’t want to listen to their more “commercial” work.
Radiohead has always been inspiring.
Posts like this are why TSS is the only hip-hop blog I read.
just wanted to thank TSS for posting this. Another reason why this group is so successful. Radiohead is second to none.
I don’t think the word “Stan” is appropriate here. What’s wrong with being a fan of deluxe packaging and artwork? What’s wrong with spending money on something you like?
I mean, if you want to call anyone a “Radiohead Stan”, try Kanye West, who was denied meeting them backstage, and surprise, threw a fit about it.
I’m not even going to debate the writing of the rest of this article.
^ I’d be interesting in hearing an alternate opinion, just out of curiosity.
I listened to In Rainbows and slept on alot of tracks then heard Gnarls Barkley cover Reckoner and loved the cover so went back and listened to the album in full and still listen to it often. great album.
Is this link working? been tryin to download it with no luck.
Heres another link if anyone else is having issues with the one above -
http://www.zshare.net/audio/64137808cda9f099/
For Gotty, an explanation. It’s more than an alternate opinion, it’s piecing together some pieces of a puzzle, sans the image on the box to make sure I’m doing it right. It abruptly begins:
I think one of the most important things about this leak is that it was released on What.CD, a popular torrent tracker that replaced OiNK.CD after law enforcement stormed the home of one Alan Ellis, founder of OiNK. These torrent sites are notorious for leaks, and are usually the home of the initial leak. Radiohead, being a very well read and educated band, have decided to play on this. Yes the cartoon reference (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/sony_microsoft_mpaa_riaa_apple.jpg) certainly seems like it played a hand in this, but it would take a “Stan” to realize the connection. The song “These Are My Twisted Words” was released on What.cd with an .nfo file, containing leak and release information, which for leak and release teams equates to bragging rights. But the interesting thing about the .nfo file released with “These Are My Twisted Words” is that it contains ASCII art that seems very Radiohead-like in nature, especially in relation to album artwork for Kid A and Amnesiac. It can be viewed here: http://pastebin.com/m44092c09 . That is what links “These Are My Twisted Words” to Wall of Ice. What else is known is that the release date points to tomorrow, or Monday. So this may be an early leak of a single, or what some believe is an EP.?
?Radiohead have been very mysterious about the way they will release music. They have recently ruled out LPs, or “collections of 10-11” songs as Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke have both put it. But, they are still a very active band and have a great interest in releasing music. Just this month, they officially released a song titled “Harry Patch (In Memory Of)”, in dedication of Harry Patch, with proceeds going to the British Legion.
But why are Radiohead so mysterious about their released/leaks? Because they are concerned with how their product is heard. They release albums as albums, and don’t often produce huge singles, aside from their earliest of tracks, in which for the longest while, refused to play life, as they are “not that band” anymore. They have evolved beyond that style of song and are concerned with different issues in their artistry than singles to sell. They aspire to more than radio plays.?
?When the internet came into play for this band, they were still on a traditional record label, and it greatly changed the dynamic of their music. Kid A came before the downloading rush, but its sister album, Amnesiac, came around the time in which records were leaked and downloaded, song by song, over 56 kbps connection, and would often take a while for each song to find, and then download, hoping the peer network would stay up. So songs were listened to individually and out of context of a record, not as how Radiohead intended. Songs like the alternate version of Morning Bell and Hunting Bears confused early listeners, and from such point, people saw Amnesic as a B-sides record, and not a separate collection of songs as one should view it, or as Radiohead intended it to be viewed. One such reason is the drumless version of Morning Bell, in which Phil Selway was supposedly out to lunch, and they were on the brink of possible breaking up at this point. ?
?Amnesiac went on to get less than stellar reviews from the rest of the world, being in the shadow of its sibling, Kid A.
Fast forward to Hail to the Thief, where the “unfinished” record was stolen, in full, containing all 14 songs, from the recording studio, and then leaked online months in advance of Hail to the Thief proper, and was easily found by googling for it. As artists, they were frustrated, all of their hard work they had yet to turn in to their record label (a record label in the early 2000s that was still expecting big returns from a band that once had great radio singles, but have since changed perspectives), and after this release, the nail in the coffin in their contract, they decided to not bother with the modern music industry.
This was still before extreme leak/release teams.?
?Now, we live in an age when people take pride in their ability to release and leak someone elses work before anyone else can. The bourgeois and creators will say that this practice is unlawful and harmful, and the proletariat will fight back for the sake of fighting back, and this is where the Wall of Ice comes in.?
?The companies listed on the Wall of Ice cartoon were once or are now currently running a large part of the entertainment market. Previously, this companies thrived. Records were capable of going Diamond not if they were good, but because of where the money flowed. Remember, back in the 70’s and 80’s and early 90’s, home movies were not affordable like the way records were, but the MPAA still made the majority of the money based on Box Offices. When VHS was released, the tapes were very expensive due to technology and how expensive movies were to produce, they were not practical to own and didn’t share the same marketplace as cassette tapes and vinyl records. This later changed due to changed production costs, VHS getting cheaper, the cassette’s able to be copied, the introduction of the compact disc, and such until the point when VHS and CDs were in the same marketplace costing roughly around 18 dollars for each. Then the internet came into play, and the heavy pirating hit because we finally had the hard drive space to have everything we ever wanted, and not just what we could afford. Even when we stopped purchasing the individual media, we still needed a way to view and watch, which is how Apple ends up on the list.?
?Whether or not Radiohead releases an EP tomorrow is only important for the sake of the music. They’ll release music when they want to and how they want to, and they do it because they love what they do, they have something to say, and the want us to hear. They know some of us won’t pay a dime, and they know others will pay exorbitant amounts (“Stans”, if you will) for the mp3s (it was recorded that people were capable and have paid up to $500 for In Rainbows), or special packages (with the packaging sometimes being key to understanding the context of the song or album in culture). They’re just playing the field, man.
I read all of that & I want to mull it over before replying in full. I do agree that nothing is truly happenstance as it might seem.
B/w the post & the comment, I’ve got some Googling that I want to do.
I apologize for lack of works cited, as the information seemingly builds and I forget where it’s from, but I recall finding some information in these books:
Exit Music: The Radiohead Story
http://www.amazon.com/Exit-Music-Radiohead-Mac-Randall/dp/0385333935/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250482299&sr=1-8
and
From a Great Height
http://www.amazon.com/Radiohead-Great-Height-Jonathan-Hale/dp/1550223739/ref=sr_1_34?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250482337&sr=1-34
As well as publications such as Spin and Rollingstone, and music websites long forgotten, as well as Radiohead message boards, one of the most important being Ateaseweb.com/mb and the original radiohead.com message board that was once a rapidly changing monster, but I have yet to visit it in quite a time.
Other facts were taken from various news articles, editorials, and blog postings from the internet in the past few years for work in communications classes, focusing on Marshall McLuhan’s “The Medium is the Massage” as well as other communication theorists.
@ shanetron: STFU