"Nude" Radiohead Video Hits Web, Thom Yorke Responds to EMI's Airing of Dirty Laundry

While everyone else was enjoying the long weekend off, Radiohead were busy making headlines that no one reported on, so we're going to bring you up to speed. First, above, you'll see the slow-motion, feather-heavy video for "Nude," the second clip the band has shot for In Rainbows. The video seems to have been inspired by hours of watching those Japanese YouTube videos of objects getting slowed down to ridiculous effect; it was also the grand finale of the band's New Year's Eve broadcast called "Scotch Mist," which featured Radiohead playing the entire In Rainbows in a previously recorded intimate live setting (watch that performance in its entirety here).

The broadcast, which aired on Radiohead.tv as well as Al Gore's Current TV channel, came one day before the physical release of In Rainbows in U.S. stores. Talking to the BBC, singer Thom Yorke said it would have been "stark raving mad" to release the album only in its pay-what-you-want MP3 form, insisting that eighty percent of people still actually buy albums because "it's really important to have an artifact as well, as they call it, an object." While Yorke has usually had his jaw clenched when discussing the business side of In Rainbows, he did use the band's Web site to blast a Times UK report that Radiohead asked their previous label EMI for £10 million and their back catalog to re-sign.

In a December 29th post, Yorke says, with rabid capitalization, "we did not ask for a load of cash from our old record label EMI to re-sign. that is a L I E" and "whAT we WANTED WAS some control over OUR WOrK and how it was used in the future by them- that seemed REASONAblE to us, as we cared about it a great deal," and ultimately called the label "a confused bull in a china shop." The band eventually signed with XL Recordings and Dave Matthews' ATO Records, as evidenced by the markings on the compact discs, which are on shelves now.

Related Stories:
• EMI Reveal Radiohead's Contract Demands
• Radiohead Team Up With Al Gore for NYE Webcast
• Radiohead's "In Rainbows" CD2: A Track-By-Track Analysis

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