Radiohead: Difference between revisions

Radiohead
File:Thief - Radiohead.jpg
Background information
Years active	1986–present
Members	Thom Yorke Jonny Greenwood Ed O'Brien Colin Greenwood Phil Selway

Radiohead is a British alternative rock band from Oxford and nearby Abingdon, comprising five members:

• Thom Yorke, the lead singer, who also plays acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar, and piano;
• Jonny Greenwood, who plays lead guitar, keyboards, modular synthesiser, Ondes Martenot, glockenspiel, and creates sounds with a laptop;
• Ed O'Brien, who plays supplemental guitar, often with effects pedals, and provides backing vocals and auxiliary percussion;
• Colin Greenwood, who plays bass guitar, keyboards, sampler, and synthesisers; and
• Phil Selway, who plays percussion, including drums, and provides backing vocals.

Fans, music critics, and fellow musicians tend to regard them as among the most fearlessly (and perhaps fearfull) creative bands of their era, although they are not universally popular. In general, Radiohead's music is more complex than that of other pop musicians, incorporating a wide range of influences across genres and time periods, but they identify with the punk and post-punk movements rather than with progressive rock.

Since the mid '90s their reputation has grown with a series of albums that increasingly abandoned rock's cliches and began to address sociopolitical themes, including globalization and environmental disaster. Some criticize Radiohead for being pessimistic, lyrically obtuse, overly serious, and lately, for lacking in conventional tunefulness, and they have never been one of the most commercially successful bands in the world (nor, ironically, a favorite of most radio stations); but their commercial success remains quite high, and frontman Thom Yorke is a sort of anti-rock star without conforming to the typical images. Yorke's falsetto voice, sometimes smooth, and sometimes subtle and cracked, is perhaps the most identifiable current to the band's changing sounds.

Radiohead has sometimes been described as an "outsider" band within the mainstream, or vice versa. Some fans see them as natural inheritors of the mantle of R.E.M., Pink Floyd or even the Beatles, though Radiohead is too much of a cult band to match these groups sales' figures.

Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood are chiefly responsible for songwriting, with Yorke making the songs and Jonny building on them. In recent years band members have sometimes embraced less clearly defined roles as a consequence of (or perhaps initially causing) their records' move away from standard rock style and instrumentation. For example, bassist Colin Greenwood effectively wrote much of the song "Dollars & Cents" by playing string samples from Alice Coltrane over a simple bassline, inspiring brother Jonny's ultimate (original) string arrangement; while Colin did not play his own bass on "The National Anthem," ceding that task to guitarist/singer Yorke. Unlike most rock bands, Radiohead has three - rather than one or two - native guitarists. When Kid A came out, the comparatively sparse guitar work (with guitarists either not contributing to the same tracks, or relegated to other instruments) made some old fans wish for a return to a stricter band line-up. Concerts still feature plenty of three guitar action, however, and often, more rock-accessible arrangements of "experimental" tracks. Radiohead is generally held to be an excellent live band, and has picked up awards for such in several magazine reader polls.

Producer Nigel Godrich has worked with the band since the recording of The Bends, where he assisted producer John Leckie, and has contributed significantly to their sound, often being dubbed the "sixth member" of the band. Graphic artist Stanley Donwood, along with Yorke (under an alias, usually Tchock/y), has produced the artwork for the band's albums since their My Iron Lung EP. Donwood and Yorke met at the University of Exeter, and together also created the official band website, Radiohead.com. See section: Radiohead and the Internet.

Roots and Influence

Early influences include The Beatles, The Smiths, Elvis Costello, Joy Division, Pixies, Talking Heads, Roxy Music, R.E.M., U2 and the Jam among others. Later influences have included jazz musicians like Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman and Krautrock pioneers such as Kraftwerk, Neu! and Can, whose song "Thief" Radiohead has covered. Electronic music artists like Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, and Autechre have also been cited as important influences on Kid A and Amnesiac. The work of Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki informed some of Radiohead's string-oriented songs such as How To Disappear Completely, but more significantly, French composer Olivier Messiaen, who made much use of the Ondes Martenot, is a longtime idol of Johnny Greenwood whose work is adored by all members of the band. Members of Radiohead are also fans of reggae, dub reggae, and classic soul music, particularly Booker T & the MGs for Colin.

Band recommendations, DJ sets and webcasts have included anything from noisy Welsh indie rock (i.e. Mclusky) to underground European electronic artists to St. James' Infirmary to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Mahalia Jackson to Gilberto Gil. The band are huge fans of Outkast and DJ Shadow, the former most likely having influenced recent albums and the latter certainly influential on OK Computer, as well as old-school hip hop. Artists they have invited to open for them on tour include Sigur Ros, Supergrass, Spiritualized, Sparklehorse, Stephen Malkmus (of Pavement), Low, Clinic, and the Beta Band, among others.

Radiohead, along with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins, and other mostly American bands, was influential in defining the alternative rock sound heard on radio in the early 1990s, with their hit "Creep." Subsequent Radiohead singles, even hits, have neither adhered to the so-called grunge style, nor enjoyed such extensive radio play and cultural influence.

However, Radiohead's middle 1990s albums, particularly The Bends, have been influential in popularizing emotional, melodic, multilayered British rock music, whose current adherents include such popular bands as Coldplay, Travis, Muse and Keane. Many fans of either Radiohead or these newer bands which are allegedly similar to them see little specific connection between the work and outlook of Radiohead and that of newer Britpop bands. The bands themselves have generally written the comparisons off as media hype. Members of Radiohead have not made many comments on the issue; it seems clear that the band isn't particularly keen on the new generation of Britpop musicians: when asked in 2001 by MTV, "How do you guys feel about the fact that bands like Muse, Travis and Coldplay are making a career sounding exactly like your records did in 1997?", Yorke replied: "Good luck with Kid A." (Ross, 2001). However, they don't tend to be fans of the past generation of Britpop musicians such as Oasis, Pulp and Blur, either, although Jonny Greenwood is huge fan of Graham Coxon and the latter's solo artistic albums.

The album OK Computer has had some influence, in its ambitious conceptual scope, its track order (one writer called OK Computer the first great album designed to make full use of the CD format), and in its lush but sonically detailed production style. Music with a mix of acoustic instrumentation and electronic effects has become increasingly common in recent years, both in the mainstream and the independent music scene, although how much of this is due to the album's own influence is unknown; OK Computer's sound, while somewhat unique in the mid-'90s rock landscape, was indebted to previous recordings by other artists and bands, some of them more popular than Radiohead.

Radiohead's work in the current decade has also introduced sounds deriving from experimental electronic music, post-bop and free jazz, and 20th century classical music to some rock listeners previously unaware of them. Evidence of such effect is widespread but almost entirely anecdotal. Impassioned claims were made that Kid A, in particular, was upending the blandness of the charts by debuting at #1 in the US, although the predicted revolution in popular tastes has not (yet) come to pass. Kid A and its unique, largely Internet-based promotional campaign may have had some effect on music industry practices.

The mere quality of Radiohead's work has had influence, inspiring other musicians to challenge themselves. Following The Bends, Michael Stipe of R.E.M. described his view of the situation: "Radiohead are so good, they're scary." Dave Matthews wrote of wanting to give up whenever he hears a new Radiohead album and realizes it's as good or better than the last: "Listening to Radiohead makes me feel like I'm a Salieri to their Mozart." Billy Corgan cited his appreciation of Kid A, along with his hatred of Britney Spears, as one reason he disbanded the Smashing Pumpkins. On a more positive note, recent Shortlist Prize-winning Brooklyn band TV on the Radio named their early EP "OK Calculator" in homage to Radiohead.

Another outspoken fan of Radiohead's music is U2's frontman Bono. He was a bit disappointed when the band declined participation in the Live 8 concerts. He said the following: "It's very difficult for people, they can do whatever they want as far as I am concerned. They are that great, they're that special to me. If they don't want to do this, then fair play to them. I would love to see them, Thom if you heard this, I've a little missile on the way."

Some artists outide the pop music world have drawn on Radiohead. Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau's trio has done freewheeling covers of "Paranoid Android", "Exit Music (for a film)", and "Everything In Its Right Place", among others. American classical pianist Christopher O'Riley, also host of the public radio show From the Top, has performed and recorded dozens of his Radiohead song arrangements in recent years, making them a regular part of concert repertoire. O'Riley says he was drawn to the layering in Radiohead's music. Acclaimed novelist Michael Cunningham cited OK Computer as an album, which "for reasons I can't begin to explain... subtly but palpably helped shape" The Hours.

History

(1986–1991) Formation and first years

File:Curfewcover.jpg

On A Friday

The Radiohead story began in the mid-Eighties at Abingdon School, a "public," boys-only grammar school located just outside the city of Oxford. Drummer Phil Selway was a year above Thom Yorke and Ed O'Brien, bassist Colin Greenwood a year below them, and Colin's multi-instrumentalist brother Jonny two years below him. Though the five didn't know each other that well, they began meeting up in the school's music department, which Yorke describes as "great-no one came down there, and there were these tiny rooms with soundproofed cubicles." Colin remembers Abingdon's music school as a place "where we would all run and hide away from the tedious conformity of timetables and uniforms." It wasn't long before the boys formed a more or less permanent band, playing music heavily influenced by acts like Joy Division, Magazine, U2, R.E.M., Brett Boucher, Elvis Costello and the Smiths. After trying and ditching a series of names, they finally settled on the rather uninspired On A Friday in honour of the day they regularly rehearsed. The band played their first gig in August 1986, at Oxford's Jericho Tavern. Jonny Greenwood, Colin's younger brother, became the final addition to the band when Colin took him along to rehearsals as a shortcut to babysitting him. Soon he began to take his keyboard along and play any parts they wanted on top. It was a long time before Jonny became an official member of the band.

Even though the band were already fairly certain that they wanted to keep playing together, when it came time for college, all chose to bow to parental pressure and continue their education, putting music on the back burner. For almost four years On A Friday didn't play a single gig, and they rehearsed only during holiday breaks. In 1991, the band reemerged to release its first demo tapes. Their first one – the Manic Hedgehog Demo (named after an Oxford record shop) – brought the group to another gig in the Jericho Tavern. In the meantime, the band had already appeared on the cover of Curfew, a magazine based in Oxford.

(1992–1995) Stop whispering, start shouting: Pablo Honey and The Bends

Jonny Greenwood

Things went fast as On A Friday started being booked for gigs frequently. Various record labels showed interest and eventually the group signed a 6-album recording contract with EMI. The band was signed not long after the members had graduated from university. The only member of Radiohead without a university degree is Jonny, the youngest, who abandoned his course in psychology at Oxford Polytechnic when the band got signed. Responding to the critic in Curfew who characterised their name as mundane, the band decided to swap it for the title of a cod-reggae tune, "Radio Head" on Talking Heads' True Stories album. The record is a band favourite and would later be a major influence on their own Kid A.

After spending a year trying to break into the consciousness of the British music press, they finally did become well-known with "Creep" in 1992. The band subsequently released Pablo Honey in 1993, began touring America, and nearly broke up over the pressure. The band's debut release was a self-produced EP, described by Chris Hufford as "not a clever move." "A huge conflict of interests. I think Thom was very insecure of my involvement. I'd had that happen to me as an artist when one of our managers acted as producer. There was definitely some friction on that front. Otherwise it was a treat; we fired out the songs." The 4-track Drill EP came out in March 1992 with Prove Yourself as the lead track. It reached 101 in the UK singles chart. The band then hired Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade, who produced Buffalo Tom's "Let Me Come Over," as producers. The album was finished in three weeks in an Oxford studio. Although representing a style from which the band would later move, songs like the big self-loathing hit "Creep," "Anyone Can Play Guitar," "Thinking About You," and "You" were popular. Because the album kept on breaking around the world, the Pablo Honey supporting tour moved into its second year.

However, some critics and record buyers labeled the band as a "one-hit-wonder" on the heels of "Creep"'s massive success. The band was fully aware of this, and began work on their second album immediately after the tour finished. The hiring of producing legend John Leckie to make their next record – The Bends – showed that the band had further developed as musicians and the latter contributed significantly to the sound of the album. "The best part about working with John Leckie," Jonny recalls, "was that he didn't dictate anything to us. He allowed us to figure out what we wanted to do ourselves." Previous producers Kolderie, Hufford and Slade participated in the mixing process and the selection of tracks. Nevertheless, the first sessions were exceedingly difficult, as the pressure to make a follow-up that would build on the success of Pablo Honey created high levels of tension within the band. Recalling these sessions, Leckie said: "It was either going to be Sulk, The Bends, Nice Dream, or Just. We had to give those absolute attention, make them amazing, instant smash hits number 1 in America. Everyone was pulling their hair and saying, 'It's not good enough!' We were trying too hard!" Thereafter, the band responded by seeking a change of scenery, quitting the studio and touring Australasia and the Far East. Trying new songs while touring relaxed the atmosphere and helped in making their second album.

Hufford claimed that "it made them re-evaluate what they were good at and enjoyed doing. Playing live again put the perspective back on what they'd lost in the studio." The EP My Iron Lung (1994) was released between the two albums while the band were touring and saw them in a transitional stage between the pop-like Pablo Honey and the musical depth of their sophomore album. Having worked the songs in on the road, they returned to Britain and completed the album at once in a fortnight in late 1994. It was swiftly mixed and released in May 1995. It wasn't successful until their third single "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", which hit the Top 5 in UK. The album finally bounced to the charts in 1996. The Bends drew heavily on 1960s influences as well as the then-popular music exemplified by groups such as R.E.M. and the Pixies. Songs like "High & Dry", "Fake Plastic Trees", "My Iron Lung" (the band's response to their big hit "Creep") and "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" were striking, original and profound, hinting that the group were growing as musicians and were on the way to lasting fame.

Although not regarded as a proper Britpop album, it was associated with the movement and in early 1996, Radiohead – widely praised a year after the album's release – took part in Cool Britannia, battling famous acts like Oasis, Blur, Pulp, and Suede. The Bends is now considered by many critics and fans to be one of the best albums of the mid-1990s.

(1996–1998) Climbing Up the Walls: OK Computer

Thom Yorke said that the Bends succeeded because "we had to put ourselves into an environment where we felt free to work. And that's why we want to produce the next one ourselves, because the times we most got off on making the last record were when we were just completely communicating with ourselves, and John Leckie wasn't really saying much, and it was just all happening." The band didn't know it at the time, but already one new song was recorded for the album: "Lucky", especially produced in September 1995 for the War Child charity's The Help Album, which was an indicator of the bands next steps. With the assistance of engineer Nigel Godrich, Radiohead really did produce their next album themselves. They bought their own recording gear and went to work on OK Computer in early 1996. By July they had recorded four songs with producer Nigel Godrich at their rehearsal studio, Canned Applause, a converted shed with the latest recording equipment. Their plan was to stay away from traditional recording studios and the bad vibes they'd previously set off in the band. After recording four songs, and having learnt from The Bends, they decided to perform the songs live, touring with Alanis Morissette, before completing the record. The rest were recorded in actress Jane Seymour's 15th-century mansion in St. Catherine's Court near Bath. Unfortunately, some of the same tension present during the Bends sessions appeared once again during the track selection for OK Computer. At the end the band learned that creative tensions isn't necessary a bad thing. By the end of the year the album was finished and February and March it was mixed and mastered.

On 16 June, 1997 OK Computer was released and received even greater acclaim than The Bends, featuring prominently in many "best album" polls, then and now. It found Radiohead introducing uncommon musical elements, experimenting with ambience and noise to create a set of songs that many consider to be a high point of late-twentieth century rock music. It received a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album and was followed by their big "Against Demons World Tour". Grant Gee, the director of the "No Surprises" video, accompanied the band on their tour and filmed it, which resulted in the "fly on the wall" documentary Meeting People Is Easy, which showed the band starting from their first and foremost tours and finishing in their late burn-out dates in mid-1998. During this time their performance at the Glastonbury Festival (shown briefly in Meeting People Is Easy), just after the release of OK Computer, was hailed by Michael Eavis as one of the greatest gigs ever performed at the festival. OK Computer has been named the best album of the past 20 years by US music magazine Spin, and the best album of the 1990s by the online music publication Pitchfork, as well as numerous other publications and public votes.

The band released two EPs No Surprises/Running From Demons (1997) and Airbag/How Am I Driving? (1998), which differ only by a couple of songs. The more notable is the second, which has few songs that could best be described as a bridge between the progressive alternative rock of OK Computer and their subsequent experimental work.

OK Computer and The Verve's final powerful alternative album – Urban Hymns – were regarded as a boost to the already dying Britpop movement, despite the fact that both records departed from the style. Nevertheless OK Computer is regarded by some as one of the greatest rock albums and still tops various charts. It defined Radiohead as top superstars and elevated them to the pantheon of the greatest bands of 90s, among such seminal acts as R.E.M., U2, Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

During this time, Radiohead also contributed two songs to Baz Luhrmann's 1996 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, "Talk Show Host" and "Exit Music (For a Film)". The former is b-side to "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" found also on the soundtrack to the film, while the latter was included in OK Computer.

(1999–2001) Knives out: Kid A and Amnesiac

Thom Yorke

Exhausted by their fame and on the verge of burning out, following the end of the "Against Demons World Tour" in middle 1998, the band spent the next year in relative quiet. Thom Yorke admitted that after the tour the band was close to splitting up, and that he himself had fallen into depression for a time. Colin Greenwood said: "It felt a bit like we were in a dead-end street and that was really frustrating." The band only appeared at the Amnesty International Concert in Paris (10 December 1998), and Thom and Jonny performed at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in Amsterdam, where a new song, "Pyramid Song", made its live debut. Thom Yorke claims that New Years Eve 1998 was one of the most depressing days of his entire life. During this time he began a big friendship with R.E.M.'s frontman Michael Stipe, who had a big influence over his mental health and artistic career. According to Thom, Michael helped him a lot to overcome the depression.

The band however were still working on the follow-up, but rather chaotically and were less organised than previous times. Thom said: "I think it was the first time we didn't have a clue what we were going to do, what we were doing. We were just experimenting. We've been in this state for about a year, just fooling around, trying out stuff and listening to what we did, then it finally started to get into shape... after about 18 months." But, after O'Brien's collaboration for the BBC drama series "Eureka Street" in middle 1999, the band holed completely in the studio to record. The amount of the material was huge – about 40 new songs, from which they chose 30 for their subsequent two records.

Radiohead refused to make a follow-up of OK Computer in the same musical vein and chose to be even more ambitious than before, creating an experimental electronic album with minimal guitar work that complemented the lyrical and musical hooks of their earlier work with a more minimalist style. Yorke explained that the band wanted "to experiment and find new angles, leave the old paths. We tried to treat the album like a song, let the album develop itself rather than giving it a shape and moulding it into a shape, and it worked. It was a completely different way we used for work and it was rather liberating."

File:Bear20Big.gif

Radiohead's "Specimen Bear" icon

Their fourth record, Kid A, was released in October 2, 2000 - three-and-half years after OK Computer. The band cited Alice Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Paul Lansky as influences, as well as the entire back catalogue of Warp Records. The album's arrangements have been likened to a meeting of Pink Floyd and Aphex Twin. Kid A received a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album just as its predecessor did, but some critics complained that the record was too self-indulgent and radio-unfriendly. Despite this, Kid A is now considered one of their finest records and greatest achievements. The online music publication Pitchfork Media [1] picked Kid A as the finest album of the first half of this decade.

The follow-up, Amnesiac, which was released in June of the following year, comprised further tracks from the same recording sessions. Conceived as two separate sequences of songs, the two albums are similar in style and influences; linked by two different versions of the song, "Morning Bell." Amnesiac is often viewed by critics as the less accomplished of the two works and has been criticised for its lack of cohesion. However, most fans and a growing number of critics refer to this lack of continuity as a deliberate device used by Radiohead to distinguish Amnesiac from Kid A. The album did not quite match Kid A's sales, but came close. There is some argument among fans over which of the two albums is better.

After its release, the band staged their own mini-festival in Oxford's South Park, featuring Beck, Sigur Rós, Supergrass, Humphrey Lyttelton (who played trumpet on "Life in a Glass House", the closing track on Amnesiac), and themselves. Initially the band wanted to release "I Might Be Wrong" as their new single after "Pyramid Song" and "Knives Out", but soon the idea expanded into a fully-fledged live record. In the fall of 2001, they released their first live album: I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings, featuring performances from Berlin, Paris, London and a couple of other concerts as well as one unreleased track, "True Love Waits".

(2002–2004) Backdrifting: Hail to the Thief

File:Radioticket.jpg

A Radiohead concert ticket stub, from the Hail to the Thief tour

On the heels of the Amnesiac tour the band took their new material on the road in Portugal and Spain during July and August 2002 prior to recording it. The recording process of the album was more like the Bends-sessions, rather than the slower Kid A/Amnesiac sessions. With the songs fleshed out and finalised during the tour, the band completed the album in a Los Angeles studio in a fortnight. In 2003 the band released their sixth album Hail to the Thief, which was rooted in less overt experimentation than its two immediate predecessors but was still a long way from their earlier guitar-driven material. The album's title was seen as a comment on the 2000 U.S. presidential election. Even though the band denied that it had any reference to George W. Bush's election 'win', and the subsequent Bush presidency, the view that it was might be seen as appropriate when taking into consideration the artwork and themes of some of the songs on the album, such as the Orwellian-referenced "2+2=5".

Hail to the Thief gathered lukewarm reviews on release, mainly based on the fact that it was not considered 'genre-redefining' to the extent Kid A and OK Computer were analysed to be. However, in the greater scheme of popular music, many fans and critics consider it to be an on a par with Radiohead's previous work. The record revisits every era of Radiohead's sound, varying from experimental electronica to crunching guitars, and is infused with a certain swagger that band members attribute to the quick, energetic recording sessions.

After the release of Hail to the Thief, Radiohead embarked on a vast international tour, lasting about a year. The band showed a relaxed attitude during interviews and press conference and at the stage shows, they were dancing and grinning. The tour saw the band visiting Australia and Japan for the first time since their OK Computer tour in 1997–1998, more than 6 years previous. Many Australian fans were deeply upset by the cancellation of the last show merely hours before its scheduled start due to problems with Yorke's throat. Radiohead again, in June 2003, headlined the main (Pyramid) stage on the Saturday of the Glastonbury Festival. Like in 1997, the perfomance was greeted to huge crowd acclaim and positive press reviews. Also in 2003, Jonny Greenwood, with the help of his brother Colin Greenwood, recorded and produced the soundtrack to the avant-garde documentary Bodysong.

About one year after the release of Hail to the Thief, Radiohead released a new EP titled COM LAG (2plus2isfive), while on their 2004 tour in Australia and Japan. With 10 tracks, COM LAG is longer than the average Radiohead EP. It features live takes, remixes, and different versions of Hail to the Thief-era songs, as well as a handful of acoustic and electronic numbers. The band finished touring and promoting Hail to the Thief in mid-2004 with an acclaimed performance at the Coachella Festival.

(2005–2006) Current recording sessions

At first, the band stated that it's natural to record some more material on the heels of the previous record and started jamming in their Oxford based studio. This didn't last long, as Ed and Colin were expecting children, and the band wanted some time off after a three-album cycle. Free of any contractual obligations, Radiohead spent the rest of 2004 resting and devoting themselves to solo projects and recordings with other artists, only recording sporadically. They released the DVD version of their webcast television show, The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth Of All Time, in December 2004. Jonny Greenwood and Phil Selway had cameo roles in the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, for which they recorded three songs, but their fictional band The Wyrd Sisters, fronted by Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, only got a few minutes of screen time. Jonny became a composer for the BBC, charged with creating classical pieces. He and Thom collaborated with many other artists for the Band Aid 20 project, playing guitar and piano, respectively.

Radiohead returned to recording sessions in early 2005, although they recorded on and off in during the hiatus. The band got together back in January 2005 and Thom played a bunch of his new songs for the others. Having never heard the material before, the rest of the band just jumped in and started adding their own parts. The whole recording process has been portrayed as "unorganised" and very different than the usual ways Radiohead has recorded before. Later Thom described this change to NME as the way the band worked during the gap of OK Computer and Kid A. It's unknown whether close collaborator Nigel Godrich will participate in the making of the album, as the bandmembers are capable enough to produce it themselves. At the moment Nigel is doing work on the new album of Travis. It's been reported that he is frequently visiting the studio, where the band is recording, and that Thom gave him a tape with some new songs. It's known that regular graphic artist "in charge" Stanley Donwood will be painting for them again.

File:Thomyorke 150405 37.jpg

Thom Yorke, at the Trade Justice vigil, Westminster, April 2005

It's been revealed that it's unlikely that the band would re-sign with EMI. Their management also dismissed rumours that Warner Music were lining up to sign the band, saying: "The band (are) not looking for a record company in any way, shape or form. They are out of a contract, but they're not actively looking for another one. They're getting on with doing what they do."

In March 2005 Thom and Jonny played at the Ether Festival, unveiling a new song "Arpeggi", in the process. A month later, in April, Thom played an acoustic solo gig at the Trade Justice vigil at Westminster, playing a new song, "House of Cards", and three 'lost' songs, "Big Ideas" (from the Kid A/Amnesiac sessions), "Last Flowers" (shelved from the OK Computer era) and "Reckoner" (between the Kid A/Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief).

In early September, the band recorded a new song; "I Want None Of This", for the War Child album Help - a Day in the Life. It is a simple piano-based song, with a minimalist style & some haunting backing vocals. On September 30, Thom posted a photo on their own on-line blogof what seems to be a list of 21 songs for the band to work on. A list has been extrapolated by members of the ateaseweb.com fansite. Not all of these songs will make the cut and probably these are not all the songs that Radiohead are currently working on. Although it is unknown how many songs will land on the new album, it is likely that the remaining songs will either be used as b-sides, or remain on the back burner for further releases. It is possible that some songs may be scrapped completely, but unlikely as the band rarely does so. Tracks touted for the new album include the aformentioned "Big Ideas" (aka "Nude"), dating back from the Kid A-sessions and "Last Flowers" - an OK Computer leftover.

Other titles for tracks which are being considered for the new album from the sessions, which is expected some time Summer 2006, include "Rubbernecks", "Bodysnatchers", "Solutions", "A Pig's Ear", "Burn The Witch", "Suit Don't Fit", "Down Is The New Up" (speculated to be a prospective title for the new album), "Morning Mi' Lord", as well as the already mentioned "House Of Cards", "Reckoner" and "Arpeggi". The band are already discussing next year's tour dates, although no dates are confirmed. Thom said the following on the official site messageboard: "Next year we will play some small gigs. Actually maybe a couple of large ones too...".

On 22 October, 2005, Thom and Ed made another appearance at the blog and messageboard. Apparently, Radiohead have finished two weeks of non-stop recording sessions, making one track a day, afterwards the band will take November off and will return in December to record until Christmas. As it is already December 2005 it can be assumed that the band are currently in the studio recording final touches of their upcoming album.

Discography

===Studio albums=== (6 albums with 71 tracks (72 in the US))

• 
  Pablo Honey
  February 22 1993
  (UK), #25 (UK), #32 (US);
  Singles: "Anyone Can Play Guitar" (#32 UK), "Pop is Dead" (#42 UK), Creep" (#7 UK, #34 US), "Stop Whispering" (US only) Sold: 2,000,000+
• The Bends March 13, 1995 (UK) - #4 (UK), #88 (US); Singles: Planet Telex / High & Dry" (#17 UK, #78 US), Fake Plastic Trees" (#20 UK), Just" (#19 UK), The Bends" (Ireland only), "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (#5 UK)
  The Bends
  March 13, 1995
  (UK) - #4 (UK), #88 (US);
  Singles: Planet Telex / High & Dry" (#17 UK, #78 US), Fake Plastic Trees" (#20 UK), Just" (#19 UK), The Bends" (Ireland only), "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (#5 UK)
• OK Computer June 16, 1997 (UK) - #1 (UK), #21 (US); Singles: "Paranoid Android" (#3 UK), "Karma Police" (#8 UK), "No Surprises" (#4 UK)
  OK Computer
  June 16, 1997
  (UK) - #1 (UK), #21 (US);
  Singles: "Paranoid Android" (#3 UK), "Karma Police" (#8 UK), "No Surprises" (#4 UK)
• Kid A October 2, 2000 #1 (UK), #1 (US); No singles released
  Kid A
  October 2, 2000
  #1 (UK), #1 (US);
  No singles released
• Amnesiac June 4, 2001 #1 (UK), #2 (US); Singles: "Pyramid Song" (#5 UK), "Knives Out" (#13 UK),
  Amnesiac
  June 4, 2001
  #1 (UK), #2 (US);
  Singles: "Pyramid Song" (#5 UK), "Knives Out" (#13 UK),
• Hail to the Thief June 9, 2003 #1 (UK), #3 (US); Singles: "There there" (#4 UK), "Go to Sleep" (#12 UK), "2 + 2 = 5" (#15 UK)
  Hail to the Thief
  June 9, 2003
  #1 (UK), #3 (US);
  Singles: "There there" (#4 UK), "Go to Sleep" (#12 UK), "2 + 2 = 5" (#15 UK)

EPs

• Drill (1992)
• Itch (1993, Japan/New Zealand)
• My Iron Lung (1994, #24 UK)
• Live Au Forum (1995, France)
• The Bends Pinkpop (1996, Netherlands)
• No Surprises/Running From Demons (1997, Japan only)
• Airbag/How Am I Driving? (1998, #56 US, US only)
• Amnesiac College EP (2001, US college radio)
• I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings (2001, #22 UK, #44 US)
• COM LAG (2plus2isfive) (2004, #37 UK, Japan)

Multimedia

Videos

• Live at the Astoria (1995, VHS/DVD)
• 7 Television Commercials (1998, VHS/DVD)
• Meeting People Is Easy (1999, VHS/DVD)
• The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth Of All Time (2004, DVD)

Books

• Radiohead: An Illustrated Biography by Nick Johnstone (1997, ISBN 0711965811)
• Radiohead: From a Great Height by Jonathan Hale (1999, ISBN 1550223739)
• Radiohead: Hysterical and Useless by Martin Clarke (2000, ISBN 0859653323)
• Exit Music: The Radiohead Story by Mac Randall, (2000, ISBN 0385333935)
• Radiohead: Back to Save the Universe by James Doheny (2002, ISBN 1560253983)
• Radiohead: A Visual Documentary by Tim Footman and Billy Dancer (2002, ISBN 1842401793)
• The Music and Art of Radiohead edited by Joseph Tate (2005, ISBN 0754639800)

Themes of Radiohead's Music

Radiohead by others

• Australian musician Frank Bennett gave an unconventional makeover to Radiohead's song "Creep" on his 1996 album "Five O'Clock Shadow", performing it in the style of Frank Sinatra. The album is out of commercial distribution, but The Official Frank Bennett website provides mp3 downloads of his recordings.

• In September 1998, American jazz pianist Brad Mehldau included his version of Radiohead's "Exit Music (For a Film)" on his album The Art Of The Trio, Vol. 3. In August 2002 he released the album Largo which featured Radiohead's "Paranoid Android". Both of these tracks are taken from OK Computer. The Anything Goes album, released February 2004, includes a re-working of the track "Everything in its Right Place" from Radiohead's Kid A. All three albums were released by Warner Brothers. His Live in Tokyo album from 2004 (on Nonesuch) includes a 19-minute, live rendition of "Paranoid Android". The Brad Mehldau Trio's 2005 album Day is Done features a cover of "Knives Out" from Amnesiac.

• In 2000, spoof act Richard Cheese included a lounge-music restyling of the song "Creep" on his first album Lounge Against the Machine. The song culminated in a partial rendition of Fitter, Happier.

• The Section, a popular music string quartet, released two albums (on independent record label Vitamin Records) covering Radiohead: 2001's Strung Out On OK Computer, a track for track reprise of OK Computer; and 2003's Enigmatic, which draws mostly from Kid A and Amnesiac with a few tracks from The Bends.

• In 2003 classical pianist Christopher O'Riley recorded True Love Waits, a collection of Radiohead tracks from various albums arranged for solo piano. It was published by Sony Music. On 12 April 2005 Christopher O'Riley released his second Radiohead tribute. "Harmonia Mundi" is the name of the new label for the True Love Waits follow-up. Hold me to this contains 14 new piano interpretations of Radiohead songs.

• At the 2003 Download Festival glam rock band The Darkness first performed their heavy rock cover of "Street spirit (fade out)". The cover greatly increases the tempo of the original song, and is performed on electric guitars with heavy distortion. This was met with much praise from the general public and Darkness fans, but with a mixed response from Radiohead fans - many of whom thought this heavy cover betrayed the maudlin roots of the original song.

• British pop-jazz artist Jamie Cullum included a cover of "High and Dry" in his 2003 album "Twentysomething".

• American singer-songwriter John Mayer has performed the song "Kid A" live numerous times, and included it on the "Bigger Than My Body" single.

• Radiohead is mentioned in the Comedy Central sitcom South Park in episode 501, "Scott Tenorman Must Die". Scott Tenorman likes the band Radiohead, and one of the show's characters explains it further by saying, "You know, the band has that song - 'I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo...'". Radiohead are later summoned by Cartman to come to South Park, where they play a very important part of the plot. South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have frequently said that they are big fans of Radiohead.

• The Japanese rock band Plastic Tree is reputed to have adopted their name from Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees."

• The jazz trio The Bad Plus has covered "Karma Police" live in their trademark "deconstructive" fashion.

• Californian musical comedy duo Hard 'n Phirm, comprising Chris Hardwick and Matt Phirman, released a bluegrass medley of over 15 Radiohead songs entitled "Rodeohead" on their debut album Horses and Grasses. Hard 'n Phirm website.

• In 2003, electronic musician Moby, who was the closing artist at the Glastonbury Music Festival, did a cover of the Radiohead song "Creep". After a long introduction, Moby closed the festival with this song. At the same festival, Damien Rice also covered the song.

References

• Ross, Alex (August 20 and 27, 2001). The Searchers: Radiohead's unquiet revolution. The New Yorker.
• Rock On The Net: Radiohead

See also

• List of songs in triple meter (1990-1999)

External links

Collector links

• RHDiscog.com - Radiohead Discography – The most comprehensive Radiohead discography on the internet.
• Track Resource – A list of every officially released version of every Radiohead song. Includes scans of the releases from which each version is found.

General links

• Radiohead.com – The official Radiohead website. The Messageboard has gathered a cult following. Members of the band occasionally post there.
• W.A.S.T.E. Products Ltd. – Official Radiohead merchandise store.
• Talk In Maths: 'A Not Even Remotely Official Radiohead FAQ'. – Site packed with general information and facts about the band.
• Radiohead News – Latest headlines on Radiohead.
• At Ease – The largest fansite with detailed information on the band. Has an extremely popular message board.
• Green Plastic – Another large Radiohead fan and news site.
• ne pas a.v.a.l.e.r. – The main French fansite very detailed section on songs and discs. Very active forum.
• Radiohead Perú Sitio web peruano sobre Radiohead con contenido en español.
• Dead Air Space – Radiohead's blog for its 7th LP
• The Radiohead Backlash Article

Lyrics links

• Radiohead Lyrics @ Rare-lyrics – Unofficial collection of Radiohead lyrics (various errors and typos, though).
• Monkey Picture Soundtrack – An independent transcription and analysis of Radiohead's lyrics, devoted to demystifying Yorke's unclear vocal deliveries.
• Pulk-Pull – An on-going investigation of the band's music and art.
• [2] – Comprehensive list of all songs and their lyrics