Now back to the news:

A live version of Idioteque is featured on the latest MTV2 Handpicked album. [thanks OKTransatlantic] If you want to buy the album or if you want a full tracklisting, click here.

Because there isn't that much Radiohead news available at the moment, I'd like to take the opportinity to introduce you to the new Supersub album. The band's third album, 'Mighty Baby' has just been released and features 10 excellent tracks. For a preview of the album, check the digi-sampler. For more info check their website at www.supersub.net.

Early Radiohead (On A Friday) Demos online! [Monday 19-08-02]

Some exclusive, ultra-rare On A Friday tracks are finally available for download. Radiohead were named 'On a Friday' before the band signed a record deal at EMI in 1992. Here are the tracks

1. Keep strong
2. Somebody else
3. I want to know
4. I'm coming up
5. Jerusalem
6. What is that you say
7. Something to hate
8. I can't
9. Without you
10. Give it up
11. How can you be sure
12. Everybody lies through their teeth
13. Rattlesnake in the big city
14. The new generation

You can download them here, here and here.

Also, the full 08-05-02, Palacio de congresos, Salamanca Spain gig is available for download, here: http://www.injektilo-ftp.com/Mp3.htm [thanks Marc]

Stereophonics on Radiohead [Friday 16-08-02]

In a Hot Press interview (note: Hot Press is a very good Irish magazine, the only fiercely anti-Radiohead person being the guy that did this interview, Stuart Clark)

As a fellow subject – and Sabbath obsessive – I have to say, “No, it bleedin’ ain’t!” Now that we’ve got them warmed up, have the boys changed their views vis à vis Radiohead and other monstrously rich bands who whine on about how awful and corrupt the music industry is?

“While cashing their latest royalty cheque?” Kelly Jones inquires. “We can all relate to that video – y’know, having to do a hundred fucking idents for radio stations – but that doesn’t mean you’ve got to walk round and be a miserable twat to everybody. Which is what Thom Yorke is mostly. I’ve seen him at festivals looking like the world’s about to end.”

“I suspect that Thom Yorke was a moany bastard long before Radiohead,” Stuart Cable opines. “The business only changes you if you let it. They can step off the treadmill any time they want. If being in Stereophonics was effecting our sanity that much, we’d tell V2, ‘Sorry lads, we’re off on holiday’.”

“With them, you can tell they’ve never had a proper job,” is Richard Jones’ contribution to the debate. “We had to work for money, whereas they’re from well-to-do-families. They never had to get up at 7.30 in the morning and do shit. Or if they did, it was probably a part-time job so they could go off skiing with their mates at Christmas. Believe me, coming from our background, being in a band is the best fucking job in the world!” [thanks uptight]

There There video & Salamanca audio [Thursday 15-08-02]

The video of 'There There', recorded in Porto is now back online in the video section of multimedia. But in the audio section, you can check out an amazing recording of the last show of the tour in Salamanca.

Q Magazine: Thom Yorke loves to skank [Monday 12-08-02]

New songs are 'music you can imagine shagging to' says Thom Yorke
Radiohead recently spent two weeks in Spain and Portugal unveiling a batch of powerful new songs intended for their 6th studio album.
Following their recent electronic experiments there have been whispers of Radiohead's 'return to rock'. But how does a group famed for never repeating themselves 'return' to anything? The new material's unstrained dynamism goes a long way in answering this question.
Kicking off the tour in Lisbon's beautiful Coliseu dos Recreios on 22 July, the group opened a two and a half hour set with a first section consisting solely of 8 unreleased numbers, all based around guitars and/or piano. To open the show, guitarists Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien each walked on carrying a large pair of beaters and pounded out the driving tribal rhythm of ThereThere from tom-toms at either side of the stage. Meanwhile, Thom Yorke scratched out a psych - rock riff on a semi-acoustic guitar.
The songs that followed took in surreal soul ballads, Bob Dylanish ranting, funky rock riffing and what Thom Yorke describes as 'music you can imagine shagging to': a claim rarely made for Kid A.
Far from reviving the monumental anthems of OK Comuter, this nimble brazenly emotional music suggests a more sensual, groove based progression from recent guitar based tracks such as Optimistic and Knives Out. Yorke's vocals are full-blooded and often unashamedly lovely.
After a short intermission, the audience were treated to a marathon selection of older material until well after midnight. The following night, after deciding that this first set was too long, the band repeated the block of new material but dispensed with the intermission. Returning for a second encore,the volume of the audience's roar forced Yorke to clasp his hands to his ears.
When a faulty sample halted proceedings, he advised the audience: 'Just go and cop off with somebody.' After a volley of screams, he replied 'I'm afraid I'm busy'.
Returning to their hotel bar, Yorke absent-mindedly picked out chords on a white grand piano while unwinding from the show. 'Thats two and a half hours plus two hours soundcheck. Four hours onstage !' he mused ' My throat's going to be shot tomorrow.'
The new tracks, he explained, were picked from 16 songs worked up over 9 weeks of rehearsals. In marked contrast to the improvisational techniques employed for Kid A and Amnesiac, Yorke sent some bare ideas he'd prepared earlier to each band member. There were no ground rules for the sessions, but he said, ' We've got this idea that we dont want to use computers'.
Last year's live mini-album, I Might Be Wrong, presented recent Radiohead material in a different light, and in the same experimental spirit these 14 Iberian shows were partly planned to expose the nascent songs to public scrutiny. However, given that the band have still to enter a studio, the songs appeared well developed.
'They still might be half formed, we dont know yet', said Ed O'Brien. 'That's why its so important playing them to an audience. Apart from Kid A, its the way we've always done it. You find out Paranoid Android's not good at 14 minutes. That 4 minute organ solo at the end doesnt work.'
Given their apparently relaxed state, is this 'Radiohead in laidback album sessions shocker '? 'those 9 weeks in rehearsal weren't easy at all,' countered Yorke.
Recording begins in September with a fortnight booked in Los Angeles. According to Parlophone boss Keith Wozencroft, producer Nigel Godrich hopes to complete the recording in that time. Yorke remained more cautious; much could still change in the studio, particularly as his current listening tastes switch between glitch techno and Bob Marley. He even expressed a longing to attempt Jamaican dancehall. 'I'd love to be able to do that, I'd love to skank',he exclaims, before approximating some ragga toasting.
Indication, perhaps, of both singer and band in rude good health.
[thanks Jack]

Check out this article on Radiohead's videos from the newest edition of Postmodern Culture: Radiohead's Antivideos: Works of Art in the Age of Electronic Reproduction [thanks Jim]

Radiohead on XFM's X list [Monday 12-08-02]

5 Radiohead tracks have been nominated for London radio station Xfm's X List of most requested tracks in 2002: Creep, Just, Karma Police, Paranoid Android, Street Spirit (Fade Out)

You can vote to shape the final rundown of 104 tracks which will be played out on Xfm on Aug 26th. To vote for Radiohead, go to www.xfm.co.uk/thexlist2002 or send a text via SMS to 07786 20 1049 with a message containing just the number of the track you're voting for:
75 for Creep, 76 for Just, 77 for Karma Police, 78 for Paranoid Android, 79 Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Closing date for all votes: 22nd August. 'Just' was #1 in 2000 but Radiohead was beaten by Nirvana in 2001, so get voting!!

Listen to Flaming Lips covering 'Knives Out' [Friday 09-08-02]

As reported earlier The Flaming Lips recorded a Radiohead track for KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic". The band did a version of 'Knives Out'. You can listen to the song here.

Radiohead end tour with audience requests! [Thursday 08-08-02]