Radiohead Ready "Thief" Followup

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has remained relatively mum when it comes to discussing the band's material for the follow-up to 2003's gold-selling Hail to the Thief. But the alternative giant has recently become confessional about his creative process -- if still a bit cryptic.

"Listening back to things we are doing and looking through the lyrics today and stuff it feels like we are finally getting somewhere," Yorke writes in "Dead Air Space," his online diary on the group's Web site. "There are lots of songs. Too many to get together straight away. So we will be furiously rehearsing and writing as we go.

"There's a lot of baggage about the old way of doing things that is hard to get over," he continues. "All the 'album' crap. Just this level of pressure that is ridiculous. We're just going to do what feels right at the time. Quite into the idea of singles at the moment (that don't get on the radio). No grand design . . . Some of the random stuff we have at the moment could be the most exciting. Trying to figure out how on earth we will be able to play some of it."

The Grammy-winning band is currently recording with producer Mark "Spike" Stent, who's previously worked with Oasis, Madonna and Keane. While no official release date has been set, Radiohead are preparing to road-test new material during a European tour next month, and may release several tracks online. Working titles include "Nude," "15 Step," "House of Cards" and "Arpeggi," the band recently told NME.

Yorke is also at work on his first solo release -- with one of his tracks to be included in the soundtrack for Richard Linklater's film adaptation of the sci-fi classic A Scanner Darkly, due July 7th.

In their only scheduled American appearance thus far, Radiohead are slated to headline this year's Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, on June 17th.

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

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