RADIOHEAD fans - prepare to shit brix ...

From "10 Mind-Blowing Easter Eggs Hidden in Famous Albums" by Maxwell Yezpitelok
& M. Asher Cantrell on Cracked.com :

Radiohead's 2000 album Kid A, a follow-up to the hugely successful OK Computer, seems to be particularly good at spawning conspiracy theories. In an article in The New Yorker, British novelist Nick Hornby called it "commercial suicide," speculating that the band may have intentionally made it weird and experimental as way to piss off the label and get out of their record contract (too bad it went on to be a bestseller). And then there's Spin magazine's Chuck Klosterman claiming that Kid A unintentionally foreshadowed 9/11 a year before it happened.

Oddly enough, Kid A did include creepy clues to the future, but not on the album itself -- they were hidden in the actual packaging. You see, besides the regular cover booklet with the usual stuff like lyrics and credits, there was a second, slightly more disturbing booklet hiding behind the album's tray. The tray was all black, so the extra booklet wasn't immediately visible. It featured strange art and snippets of lyrics, as well as some other pieces of text that seemed to be random bits of poetry.

But it turns out those pieces of text weren't just random writings from the band -- they were actual lyrics from their next two albums, 2001's Amnesiac and 2003's Hail to the Thief. Yep, the satanic-looking secret booklet printed the lyrics for songs that wouldn't come out for three years. Granted, it's pretty common for bands to leave songs off of albums and re-use them later, but it's still very cool that those who found the booklet got a preview of the future.

And what do you know, after Hail to the Thief, Radiohead was finally free of their recording contract and went independent for their next album, 2007's In Rainbows. And speaking of In Rainbows ...

In Rainbows came out on 10/10/2007, 10 years after OK Computer, and there are 10 letters in the names of both albums. Additionally, OK Computer's original working title was Zeroes and Ones, or "01," (the mirror image of "10" ... obviously). Even that last part alone is enough to make Radiohead fans start looking for a crazy conspiracy, as you're probably aware if you've ever had to spend a long car ride sitting beside one. The scary part? This time they'd be totally right.

There's a way to combine the tracks from OK Computer (hereinafter referred to as 01) and In Rainbows (hereinafter referred to as 10), to form one huge mega-album. As Puddlegum explains, "To create the 01 and 10 playlist, begin with OK Computer's track one, "Airbag," and follow this with In Rainbow's track one, "15 Step." Alternate the albums, track by track, until you reach "Karma Police" on OK Computer, making "All I Need" the tenth track on the 01 and 10 playlist." It's not that they sound nice together; it's that these songs were definitely meant to make us shit our pants when played like this. In the way that "Golden Slumbers," "Carry That Weight" and "The End" all flow into each other on The Beatles' Abbey Road, these songs all flow into one another as well, as if they were all recorded in one big session.

Don't believe us? Just listen to it. To get the full effect, you need to set your player with a 10-second crossfade between tracks (more 10s!), but you can notice most stuff without doing that. Then shit your pants.

This blogger points out that the song "Nude" (10 album), starts with the reverb from "Subterranean Homesick Alien" (01 album) still lingering, and the beats at the end of "Airbag" (01) set the tempo for "15 Step" (10). There's nothing unusual about that ... except when you consider that those songs were written and recorded 10 years apart. The pants-shitting synchronicity also applies to the lyrics. Puddlegum gives some examples and says: "There appears to be a concept flowing through the 01 and 10 playlist. Ideas in one song [are] picked up by the next." In fact, one of the songs from In Rainbows was originally written for OK Computer and not used for 10 years, and the title of another seems to sum up the whole thing: "Jigsaw Falling Into Place."

Remember all that "10" stuff we mentioned up top, about the date, the time between albums, the number of letters in the titles and whatnot? Want more? Radiohead themselves announced In Rainbows only 10 days before it came out (which is rather unusual), and the announcement was followed by a series of 10 cryptic messages posted by the band on their website. That's nothing new: Cryptic messages might be the only way alternative rock musicians know how to communicate. But then Radiohead fans, being Radiohead fans, noticed that the messages emphasized the letter X (one image was titled "Xendless Xurbia"). And, say, isn't "X" the Roman numeral for 10? Plus, let's take a look at this cover art real quick.

Oh, look, two 10s. Huh.

The band has never officially confirmed any of this, though Puddlegum claims Thom Yorke was annoyed by how long it's taken people to figure it out. Come on, dude -- not all of us are insane alien geniuses.



Read more (including stuff about Tool & Aphex Twin) here:
http://www.cracked.com/article_18896_10 ... z18CVXYVdO

Last edited by Alice on Wed Dec 15, 2010 10:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

nice find Alice.

my friend Karl Danner from Philly is in a radiohead tribute band called "Meeting in the Aisle".

i sent this along to him to peruse.

ha. i remember finding the hidden booklet... i saw the case on the side and wondered, "what the hell is this?" then i went through all my other cd's and found nothing (well a few had more artwork if you took off the case)

Interesting. I've never really been a fan, but this makes me want to listen to those two albums with the songs staggered.
Also, in that link the Aphex Twin spectrograph face was kinda cool!

I liked this in the Comments:

"That Radiohead thing is pretty damn cool.
Too bad "In Rainbows" is one of the worst albums ever recorded.
I guess that's one way of hiding something:
create an album that is so bad that nobody will ever want to listen to it."

KID 17 anyone?
The National Anthem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp_Nb-51gY4
Idioteque: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R9rbgQcDIg
Morning Bell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCs63lh7pH4
O.O

& Thom gets the last laugh:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_puc6kC16I

did you know that Thom's left eye blinks 10x faster than his right?

Just for clarification . . . Thom Yorke in no way represents the average British male! I've never been into their daydreamy drivel or the band so was blissfully unaware of him, his afflictions, mannerisms and various social disorders . . . what a fuckin' freak!

you can do this with a few songs off of 10,000 days as well, but in that case you layer the songs over top of each other and the songs give a more layered effect and compliment each other nicely

What about Pablo Honey?

....Interesting read and it's pretty cool if they 'intentionally' used samples from 'ok computer' to create a connection with 'in rainbows' but was it to be an intentional hidden Easter egg? I wonder if Thom used the samples with an intention to create a link or was it some random act...Is he some mad genius that plotted this 10 year gap to make a secret hidden album? Or did he sample his own stuff to make sure their was a cool connection and link to his new album on his new independent album. I don't know. I admire their music and they are my favorite band but who knows. I'll give it a try.

I just want them to release their new album before May. I liked Harry Patch and These are my twisted words but I need a new album.

did you know that Thom's left eye blinks 10x faster than his right?

mind = blown
O.O

I need a new album.

Did you try any of those "Kid 17" tracks?
(just search 'radiohead kid 17' on YouTube.)
Apparently they've been around a while, but it was a new one on me,
and they DO sound ... well, different.

I need a new album.

Did you try any of those "Kid 17" tracks?
(just search 'radiohead kid 17' on YouTube.)
Apparently they've been around a while, but it was a new one on me,
and they DO sound ... well, different.[/quote]


head explode!!!

this crazy

@ Scary Andy ~ The "average British male" nowadays? :





I'll take Thom Yorke,
kthnxbai!

@ Scary Andy ~ The "average British male" nowadays? :





I'll take Thom Yorke,
kthnxbai!

1) This is cool.

2) I like In Rainbows. A LOT.

Some of the ordering of the Bubblegum playlist works, but some really doesn't at all. I've always thought of the first two tracks of OK Computer as really one track without a break. Inserting the first song from Rainbows breaks up the nice transition. One pairing that works well for me is Weird Fishes/Let Down.

For the most part, the two albums go together style-wise, but I don't hear anything mind-bending.

This made me chuckle:

über CHAV SLUT Pixie Lott in an interview with The Times' Kevin Maher:

"Doing drugs isn't a symbol of success to me. It's actually kind of loserish.
Whereas alcohol? Yes, I drink with my friends.
I think if you've got alcohol, I don't see the need to do anything else."

I'm sure the 140,000,000 alcoholics worldwide would agree with her.
Pixie is from Essex, in case you couldn't tell.

yo yo yo.

just in case you didn't know

http://www.thekingoflimbs.com/

wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwant

About time.... 8 songs though? I know it's quality over quantity but I'm a bit surprised considering they've been working on this for a few years.

In case you guys didn't hear, you can download the Radiohead record NOW from the site if you purchased it. GO GO GO!

Any initial reactions to the songs?

My initial reaction is that it reminds me a little of Kid A, but a little brighter and with real instruments. And the second half of the record feels more like songs whereas the first half seems more abstract. I'm liking it so far, but it's not immediately grabbing me the way HTTT did the first few listens.

Sadly, I feel kinda "meh" about this stupid record. I'm hoping a few more listens will make it better.

Live stream of the entire album from Los Angeles radio station KROQ:

http://pitchfork.com/news/41623-radiohe ... lable-now/