Flour Power

I got a nice surprise from Radiohead when I checked my email this morning. It was a message thanking the fans who bought their latest album – The King of Limbs – and giving away the two tracks from Radiohead’s Record Store Day 12” Supercollider/The Butcher that was released over the weekend.

So if you’ve ordered the Newspaper Album/Digital Album you should head over to your Order Tracking page at the official King Of Limbs store for this little bonus.

Los Angeles’ indie-pop group Robotanists did what seems to me like the quickest turnaround on an album cover ever. They basically released their own version of Radiohead’s The King of Limbs a mere 24 hours after the album was released. Their version can be streamed online here. Read more about the process in their blog.

This Radiohead album is gathering more attention than I’ve seen any album get. In a little more than a week the album already has been fully covered and some remixes and mash-ups have also been released. And speaking of mash-ups, I just discovered Jaydiohead, and even though I’m not a fan of Jay-Z (or any rap, for that matter), it sounds great.

Just last week Radiohead released The Kings of Limbs, their 8th album. With it, a video for one of the songs, Lotus Flower, which I’m embedding below:

What did you think when you watched it? I thought “that’s some funny dancing by Thom Yorke”. And then I moved on with my life.

But some people have richer imaginations and way too much time in their hands, so the parodies started. So they started dubbing the Radiohead’s video with other songs, and the results are quite funny. Enjoy watching Thom Yorke dancing to Ke$ha’s We R Who We R, Beyoncé’s Single Ladies, or We No Speak Americano. Oh, the Internet…

And them some French ones came up with a “Course on Body Language with Thom Yorke” (in French), which is brilliant and hilarious in so many ways:

fig. 1: the shower head
fig. 2: the egyptian
fig. 3: the buffoon
fig. 4: the rag
fig. 5: the wall pocket
fig. 6: the karateka
fig. 7: the lotus
fig. 8: the acorn
fig. 9: the prayer
fig. 10: the fan

Oh, and one thing that wasn’t made as a joke, but I think it’s spot on. This guy thought that the crazy dancing would go well with the eclectic beat in Radiohead’s 15 Step. And I think he’s quite right:

Looking forward to see what else people will come up with.

UPDATE: Here’s some more good ones: Thom getting Rick Rolled, the Surfin’ Bird, and Benny Hill’s theme song.

Radiohead’s latest album, titled The King of Limbs, is now available for pre-order, and it comes in two versions.

The digital version is available in both MP3 (320kbps) and WAV formats. The price is £6.00 for the MP3 version and £9.00 for the WAV version.

The physical “Newspaper Album” version comprises two clear 10″ vinyl records in a purpose-built record sleeve, a compact disc, many large sheets of newspaper artwork, 625 tiny pieces of artwork, and a full-colour piece of oxo-degradable plastic to hold everything together. It will be shipped on May 9th. A digital version is also included in this “Newspaper Album”. All this will cost £30.00 for the one with the MP3 digital copy and £33.00 for the WAV version.

The digital version of The King of Limbs will be available for download on February 19th (that’s next Saturday!).

The album goes on general, old-fashioned release on March 28th.

I miss the good old days when Radiohead released In Rainbows as a pay-what-you-like download, but am feeling quite tempted to get the “Newspaper Album” edition. A band that I’ve been listening for so long surely deserves the money.