I was driving around today listening to the local modern-rock station (104.9 XFM, but their website won't work on Mac browsers, bah), and I had a real teenage moment. The DJ had got his hands on a bootleg of Radiohead's Hail to the Thief, to be released June 9, and was playing the tracks as fast as he could one after another, saying he'd been told there was an incoming cease-and-desist. Radio normally isn't like this any more, what a pity.
First, genuine excitement about a new record. Second, unscripted anarchic behavior from the DJ. Third, cavalier overrides of the traffic reports and commercials that were supposed to be on the air. Fourth, he was playing the tracks he liked more than once. For those too young to remember, this is what rock radio used to be like; I remember like yesterday the Toronto CHUM-FM DJ getting his hands on the Talking Heads' More Songs About Buildings and Food for the first time, and playing Take Me To The River twice in a row. Of course that was like 25 years ago now, sigh.
The DJ was pretty funny: “Those record company jerks are gonna order me off the air, whatta they think I'm doing except selling records for 'em, idiots just don't get it, normally they're hounding us to play their crap all the time, and now they're gonna stop me promoting their band, what doofuses,” etc etc etc.
I was having so much fun that I drove around a few extra blocks to delay getting back to the office.
As for that Radiohead record, here are some tracks to watch for: Where I End and You Begin, I Will, and There There. Google tells me that you can get 'em right now on yer favorite file-sharing network, and I think I'll be buying that one come June.
Update, 9:40PM: Duncan Mak writes, on the subject of Radiohead file-sharing: “I'm disappointed. Looks like most of the 3+ Meg files out there are all actually just 30sec clips of the songs.”
