So I’m driving down PCH and one of my favorite songs ever comes up on Deep Tracks, Pete Townshend’s "Pure and Easy". Originally released on Pete’s 1972 solo album "Who Came First", this is the extended eight minute take from the "Lifehouse Elements" CD that came out decades later.

Both versions have a homemade feeling. Like Pete cut them alone in his bedroom, which he kind of did. Neither release was accompanied by deafening fanfare. This was not a Who album, this was for FANS ONLY!

And I’m a fan. I traveled cross-country with "Pure and Easy". And "Let’s See Action" from the same initial album. I know every word, every lick, every note. And I’m sure some of you out there do too. You know the simple secret of the note in us all. But most don’t. My buddy riding shotgun had never heard this track, and he’s about my age. I felt he’d missed out, but I didn’t really care, I was in REVERIE!

And I started thinking how I’d like new music just like this. And then I realized that Pete had concocted a new Who album, just last year, AND NOBODY CARED!

You’re supposed to sign with a major label, and they’re supposed to carpet bomb your record into success. But their odds of doing so today are positively miniscule. For every Kanye West, there’s a million other albums that no one ever hears.

Radiohead has a fanbase. Many people HATE the band. But that makes no difference. Thom Yorke and company don’t give a shit about these people. They’re not going to release four singles in an effort to get somebody’s mom to buy their album at Wal-Mart. Radiohead is GIVING UP on the mainstream. That’s one of the stories being glossed over here. They DON’T WANT the major label’s effort, they don’t think it’ll pay off. As a matter of fact, they believe it will ALIENATE THEIR CORE FAN BASE!

Everyone’s focusing on the bread. But you only follow the money if you’re a businessman. Whereas Radiohead is comprised of artists. The music comes FIRST! What a concept. One that has been placed in the trash as the majors and the complicit media hype vapidity to the far corners of the earth.

Now if this were some flavor of the moment, throngs of people would be buying their new album download for 1p. They’ve got no relationship with the band. They’re into the DEAL! Fans don’t want a deal. They’re willing to cough up all their money to cement the relationship. They need the eighty dollar box less to listen to than as badge of honor, to show their friends.

It’s not about the penumbra, it’s about the CORE! Satisfy the CORE!

Radiohead’s core is not listening to Top Forty. They don’t have a radio station on either AM OR FM. They go directly to the source. They need no filter. And Radiohead is going directly to them.

Radiohead is niche. And niche survives. And except for the occasional train-wreck, everything will be niche in the future. It will be less about converting new people than holding on to your base. And, new people will be brought IN by this base, via their evangelizing. You see Radiohead is akin to a religion.

It makes no difference that you don’t like Radiohead. Makes no difference that they get no radio play. They’ve got their own cottage industry. Which they’re managing brilliantly. Rather than burn out the field, they’re not taking every opportunity, they’re letting certain aspects lay fallow. Who are endorsements going to reach? Oh, you get a check, but the newbies aren’t for keeping, and the core is thrown off. You’re THEIR band, not Madison Avenue’s, not Cadillac’s.

And there’s enough money in the core. Maybe not enough to get on the Forbes list, but what does that list represent, is that where you really want to be? Is our culture really winner take all? Is it really all about the money? Tell that to the Radiohead fan. He just wants to revel in the band’s music. That’s as good as sex to him. Maybe better if he’s not getting any.

Think about that. Radiohead has created something its fanbase can’t live without. And that’s the music. It’s a return to basics. We’re back where we once belonged.