Radiohead, leave us alone: release dates, webcasts, more

Dearest Radiohead,

We are reasonable men and women, get off our case, get off our case. Did we not lavish enough attention on you the last time you released an album? This time, you had to scrap and rebuild the entire music industry in your image, and we've been hearing nothing about you and your staggering genius ever since. Seriously, can we voluntarily select the number of Radiohead news items that arrive each week?

No? Well, okay, here's another...

As rumored, Radiohead has signed with Dave Matthews' ATO Records to help distribute its new album, In Rainbows, in North America. The band's own TBD Records will also have a hand in shipping the physical copy of Rainbows to record stores throughout the continent on Jan. 1. Finally, the Radiohead label jigsaw has fallen into place.

Another rumor came true at the end of last week, as Radiohead mesmerized viewers the world over with a free-form live webcast. Included were live renditions of Rainbows cuts, covers (The Smiths, New Order), DJ sets and general Radiohead weirdness. Want the full glory of the fuzzy video feed? Pitchfork has you covered... in spades!

Finally, a couple of updates to previous Radiohead bulletins. The group disputes a previous report on its digital sales of In Rainbows. The group called data mining site Comscore.com's sales numbers on the album "wholly inaccurate." So... could we have the real numbers, then? That would make another great news item!

Also, that Radiohead box set? Not the group's idea. It's all an EMI plot, apparently. After all, if the band had planned it, you'd have to think there'd be something spectacularly newsworthy about it.

Related links:
Radiohead's Dead Air Space
ArsTechnica.com: Radiohead controversy shows limited knowledge in an Information Age
YouTube: Radiohead - "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" (webcast video)

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