In these days of scientifically coordinated marketing campaigns, rare is the act with no qualms about risking commercial gain to maintain its creative self-government. But "highly unusual" is Radiohead through and through.
The U.K. group is preparing to release its hotly anticipated fourth album, "Kid A," with some typically nontraditional tactics. There'll be no single, no conventional video, and no North American tour, at least not until next year -- and by then, there could even be another Radiohead album.
"Kid A" -- due Oct. 2 in Europe and a day later in North America -- is the long-awaited follow-up to 1997's "OK Computer," which has sold 1.2 million copies in the U.S., according to SoundScan, and 4.5 million worldwide by label estimate.
"We'd rather not make a record than make another record that sounds like 'OK Computer,' " guitarist Ed O'Brien tells Billboard's Paul Sexton in the Sept. 16 issue. "We've done that. What's the point, unless you're in it for the lifestyle? We've done this record this way because we want to carry on making a record a year, and we haven't been in that position because the industry doesn't let you."
It has been an open secret that the recording of "Kid A" was often fraught with creative infertility, and O'Brien's postings to the band's Web site became the focus of much industry attention. But after more than a year of recording, more than 20 songs had been completed, some of which may see the light of day as early as next summer.
Earlier this week, approximately 200 journalists and 400 lucky fans -- some of whom had waited overnight in a line that spanned a city block -- filled the Sony IMAX theater in New York's Lincoln Square for the first North American playback of "Kid A." The music was accompanied by a 3D film of the ocean floor, projected in glorious detail on the theater's signature, 80-foot-high screen.
Radiohead is currently previewing its new material in the flesh on a European tour that hits Copenhagen tonight (Sept. 8), and Billboard can reveal that the band has plans to play one U.S. show in October in addition to its Oct. 14 appearance on "Saturday Night Live." For more about "Kid A," including a track-by-track description, see the Sept. 16 issue of Billboard.
The U.K. group is preparing to release its hotly anticipated fourth album, "Kid A," with some typically nontraditional tactics. There'll be no single, no conventional video, and no North American tour, at least not until next year -- and by then, there could even be another Radiohead album.
"Kid A" -- due Oct. 2 in Europe and a day later in North America -- is the long-awaited follow-up to 1997's "OK Computer," which has sold 1.2 million copies in the U.S., according to SoundScan, and 4.5 million worldwide by label estimate.
"We'd rather not make a record than make another record that sounds like 'OK Computer,' " guitarist Ed O'Brien tells Billboard's Paul Sexton in the Sept. 16 issue. "We've done that. What's the point, unless you're in it for the lifestyle? We've done this record this way because we want to carry on making a record a year, and we haven't been in that position because the industry doesn't let you."
It has been an open secret that the recording of "Kid A" was often fraught with creative infertility, and O'Brien's postings to the band's Web site became the focus of much industry attention. But after more than a year of recording, more than 20 songs had been completed, some of which may see the light of day as early as next summer.
Earlier this week, approximately 200 journalists and 400 lucky fans -- some of whom had waited overnight in a line that spanned a city block -- filled the Sony IMAX theater in New York's Lincoln Square for the first North American playback of "Kid A." The music was accompanied by a 3D film of the ocean floor, projected in glorious detail on the theater's signature, 80-foot-high screen.
Radiohead is currently previewing its new material in the flesh on a European tour that hits Copenhagen tonight (Sept. 8), and Billboard can reveal that the band has plans to play one U.S. show in October in addition to its Oct. 14 appearance on "Saturday Night Live." For more about "Kid A," including a track-by-track description, see the Sept. 16 issue of Billboard.
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