Modified Bear

Possibly related, but probably not... someone keeps posting these videos on YouTube tagged with references to "In Rainbows" and featuring some angry American guy with an eyepatch conversing with a rainbow. The most recent video seems to have one of the new Radiohead songs in the background as well, while the man and the rainbow discuss 2008 US presidential candidate Ron Paul:

If Radiohead has nothing at all to do with this, then it's still pretty amusing, and if they do, then this is one of the more bizarre examples of viral marketing I've ever seen.

Ok. So I ordered the discbox. I'm very excited. I paid $80 for it. Then got a blank confirmation email. I guess this is classic Radiohead, where everything is non-conventional. I just assume that I'll get another email with the download instructions before next Wednesday.

Not sure why yours was blank, my confirmation email had all your basic order info plus this:

"Discbox customers.

You goods will be shipped on or before 3rd December 2007 by post.

Information regarding the download (included with the Discbox) as per below.

Download customers.

You will receive a further e-mail shortly before the 10th October detailing your username and activation code. The e-mail will also provide the link to the download area.

We value your custom."

It is a wonderful marketing ploy at the very least and I hope it goes well for the band. They always seemed to strike me as a band with a lot more integrity and morals than a lot of others. I will definitely be buying this in some form or other. Will the website hold up under the demand on the day of release?

Hasn't held up today, on the day of all the pre-release press... I'm guessing once it's all reconfigured to handle the current traffic (and it looks okay right now), it will be set through next Wednesday and beyond...

has anyone heard this? and if so, thoughts?

There's been no leak, thanks to the band keeping the album under wraps until now. Quoth the great evil Pitchfork:

"What Radiohead's doing here is actually pretty cool. Rather than preface their new album's release with the usual three months of press ballyhoo, only to have it leak at some random time before it comes out, they've kept it completely under wraps, then essentially gone and leaked it themselves. What's more, they've turned this into a moral question of sorts, by giving us the freedom to pay actual money for what amounts to an album leak."

That said, nine of the ten songs on the album have been played live before (the only unfamiliar title is "Faust Arp," and it is still possible that's a new name for a known track). Based on those performances, I would call it a very promising record with a good mix of mellow Radiohead ("House of Cards"), rock-out Radiohead ("Reckoner") and everything in between.

Interestingly, some of the most beloved of the new songs have been relegated to the bonus disc (some speculated "Down is the New Up" might have been a lead single) -- six of those eight songs are also well known to Radiohead obsessives, so all in all this is definitely something to look forward to.

Just to clarify: the first ten songs are the album. The pay-what-you-want, digital download includes only the album proper. The other eight songs are considered bonus material and right now only come with the eighty dollar box set. Also, it looks like the double-vinyl edition in the box set will only encompass the main ten songs, believe it or not -- the two CDs will contain both the album and the bonus tracks.

Digital download available starting October 10, box set will be shipped out around the beginning of December, regular old-fashioned CD distribution likely to happen in early 2008 (unknown if that would include the bonus songs).

Your best bet if you like Radiohead, like owning a physical CD, and don't feel like shelling out $80 -- pay what you want for the digital download today (it's nearly free, so why not?), then buy In Rainbows on CD when it comes out next year.

I love that Rockpile record. I've always wished Wilco would cover "Pet You And Hold You" from it -- as I listen to it now, it seems so Wilcoey.

 

And Cryptique - 9/25 ... I'm there!

Lots of great moments on that Rockpile record... "Play That Fast Thing One More Time," "For Now and Always," that Squeeze cover... the collaboration of Edmunds and Lowe was too good to last, but a lot of amazing stuff sure came out of it.

You never can tell based on early live performances but... in spite of the band obviously trying to "rock" more, I'm not hearing any melodies or guitar riffs or beats that sound more inspired or memorable than anything they've done since Up. The real problem was never that R.E.M. stopped "rocking," to me, it just seems like they stopped caring about their songwriting. Listen to some of Stipe's amazing and unique vocal melodies on Lifes Rich Pageant, then listen to him just sort of aimlessly bleat the lyrics to the new songs.

I would love for the upcoming record to be a real comeback, but I'm not betting on it.

Eels' "Electro-Shock Blues" is my number one grieving album. It's a really emotional and personal record -- to the point where I can't bring myself to listen to the whole thing very often -- but it's ultimately very uplifting and has helped me through some rough times more than probably any other record.

"Automatic for the People" qualifies, too, in spite of and not because of "Everybody Hurts."

I've been interested in getting Pure Pop for Now People, but it's out of print. I did buy Rockpile's Seconds of Pleasure and didn't enjoy it too much, though.

Pure Pop for Now People = Jesus of Cool, which is probably easier to find though technically also apparently out of print. It is brilliant.

Didn't like Seconds of Pleasure though? Really?

R.E.M.'s aforementioned and ridiculous five-classics-in-five-years period (Murmur, etc.) is, I'd say, unbeatable.

But does anyone agree with this:

Cool for Cats

Argybargy

East Side Story

Sweets from a Stranger

Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti

Too obscure? Or just wrong?

On first listen the album kind of blew right past me. It's not as "hooky" as previous NP's stuff, and certainly much more mellow -- a couple tracks almost sound like Sufjan Stevens. The immediate standouts are the Dan Bejar songs, which sound very much like they were written at the same time as Destroyer's Rubies.

A couple more spins, however -- and I really recommend a full-attention headphones listen if you have the time -- and Challengers starts to reveal itself. Newman's rhythms and harmonies are insanely involved on this record, and once I started to follow what he was doing more closely I discovered it's all pretty brilliant. Challengers is also more of an "album" than anything else the NP's have done -- pace and sequencing really affects the whole in a big way, unlike the "alternate dimension greatest hits collections" that were Mass Romantic and Electric Version. I think you just have to go in prepared for a different kind of record.

I still think the big centerpiece song, the epic "Unguided," might be deeply flawed. But I enjoy listening to it anyway, because Newman seems to be having so much fun experimenting in a new, bombastic, epic format. Not every experiment can work out.

Point is, don't give up on this one too quickly, it's gorgeous but it requires something of the listener.

I agree with others that you've provided some great insight here, in fact it pretty much summarizes a lot of my feelings towards the record as well. Still an enjoyable record, but I'm hoping for better next time round. Here's to hoping the songs really take to the live setting.

I'm really looking forward to hearing the songs live in Boston later this month -- in the context of older material and with everything being played in the same sound space, it might be easier to figure out how I actually feel about the individual songs. None of those "where are the spacy Jay Bennett noises?" production questions to get in the way of just appreciating the songwriting.

And for the record, yeah, Side with the Seeds already pretty much floors me with every listen.

I'm one of the fans who's not been floored by SBS. I'm continuing to listen to it quite a bit, and there are individual tracks/moments that definitely strike me as genius, but the whole of it has yet to really connect. I don't agree with those who critique it as "safe" or, as I think Pitchfork put it, "dad rock," though I think I can see where that perception comes from -- SBS is plenty experimental structurally, but fairly straightforward sonically. That is, songs like "You Are My Face" and "Impossible Germany" have tons of Wilco idiosycracies, but it's all in the chord progressions, countermelodies, rhythms, etc. We're used to hearing this experimentation more in the arrangement and production, I'd say -- "Misunderstood" and "Via Chicago" being two examples that jump immediately to mind, both being fairly straightforward as far as songwriting but offering mindblowingly unexpected and thrilling takes in how those songs are delivered. What makes YHF such a deeply affecting album for me isn't just the quality of Jeff's songwriting but the unique and moving way that the three chords of "IATTBYH" are constructed to expand and wander and build...

Anyway, SBS seems to do almost exactly the opposite. The band has put as much detail and effort into the tracks as ever, but now that's all focused within the songs themselves, and the delivery of those songs is what I think strikes some people as Eagle-esque, or whatever. I think personally I am still trying to get my brain around this new Wilco sound, but that doesn't mean SBS won't grow on me, and I certainly give Tweedy and company credit for continuing to play in new territory record after record.

Can I get a ruling here - was "Sick of Myself" a Top 40 single?

Only reached #58, sadly.