Fixation Focus: Radiohead

I mean, really, does anything else need to be said about this band? I just got home after a nite out on the town (i.e. Wal-mart) and discovered that Radiohead's seventh LP, In Rainbows, was emailed to me just as prescribed.

After all of the hub-ub about how they are screwing over the record industry by releasing an album themselves, how they are not charging a thing for a pre-release download, how they are not DRMing it (meaning you can burn it as much as you want, there are no restrictions) - after everything that was said in the past 10 days, the "finished" product is finally here. There was no doubt in my mind that I had to stay awake until it was in my inbox. I was dragging home on the drive, but I never forgot about what potentially waited for me. While I was all sleepy-eyed minutes ago, as soon as the zipped file finished its business and In Rainbows opened in iTunes, I knew I was set for the next hour or whatever it takes for this album to finish playing.

I really feel like I'm a part of something special right now because of the hoopla surrounding this release.

For those who aren't into this, here's the deal. One of the world's mega-bands, without being a "mega-band", Radiohead, announced last week that their seventh album, In Rainbows, was complete and ready for the world. As a result, the band, without a record deal right now, decided to take everything into their own hands. On their website, they let anyone pay whatever they want for the download that would take place 10 days later.

Twenty dollars? Ten? Fifty cents? Nothing?! Any way you want it, you can have it. Completely unprecedented. I mean, we're talking about RADIOHEAD here - like this was really that unexpected. Sure, the concept is just nutty, but leave it to the wackiest band in the universe to do something like this.

Now that October 10th has arrived, the album is here. I'm currently on track five, "All I Need", and with the first four tracks (as well as this one, apparently), I'm taken aback. Maybe it's the drowsiness, maybe it's the fact that I haven't been this excited about a release like this EVER because, actually, there hasn't quite been a release like this, well, EVER. Either way, this is just an incredible listen at 355AM.

The Left of Center channel on Sirius (channel 26) has been prepping this record for the past week, saying that throughout this week, they will feature tracks from In Rainbows. Well, sorry LoC and Sirius - as much as I love ya, you're taking a backseat for a few days, possibly weeks.

Certainly there is more to come on this topic. Let's face it, it's all I'll hear and read about for the next few days/weeks/months, so I'm definitely gonna write my fair share on the matter. This blog was once devoted to my indie music after all!