Radiohead‘s independent-minded multi-media assault continued last Friday (November 9) with a lengthy webcast on their channel, radiohead.tv.
The show was titled ‘Thumbs Down’ and featured the band making thumbs-down signals throughout.
“This is ‘Thumbs Down’,”explained singer Thom Yorke helpfully. “This is our way of celebrating the fact that we finished a record. We’ve been doing some stupid stuff really for a couple of weeks, knocking some stuff together. Don’t expect any quality level cos there is none, except when of course when the professionals are involved and there are a couple here because frankly we need ’em.”
Radiohead performed a bunch of songs from their excellent “In Rainbows”, plus cracking covers of New Order‘s “Ceremony” and The Smiths‘ “The Headmaster Ritual”.
Most of the action took place in their studio, though a clip for the track “15 Step” used an extended clip from the David Fincher movie “Se7en”, replacing Gwyneth Paltrow‘s head in the box with that of a cheerfully singing Thom Yorke.
The band also DJed throughout the broadcast. Here’s their playlist:
Burial: “Near Dark”
M.I.A.: “Pull Up the People”
Tomas Anderson: “Happy Happy”
!!!: “Heart of Hearts”
Kings of Leon: “My Party”
Asian Dub Foundation: “Model Apprentice”
Jorge Ben: “Take It Easy My Brother Charlie”
Les Baxter: “The Ancient Galleon”
The First Edition: “Just Dropped in (To See What Condition My Condition Was in)”
Iggy Pop: “Nightclubbin'”
Squarepusher: “My Red Hot Car”
Bauhaus: “Bella Lugosi’s Dead”
Iron and Wine: “Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car”
Captain Beefheat: “Sun Zoom Spark”
Bonnie Prince Billy: “Lessons From What’s Poor”
Asian Dub Foundation: “Naxalite”
Ray Charles: “It Should’ve Been Me”
Juana Molina: “Micael”
Fela Kuti & the Africa 70: “Alu Jon Jonki Jon”