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.

My inbox is crammed with e-mails telling me how fucking slow the Radiohead site is running. Shades of the U2/fan club/ticketing debacle?

One thing I never forgot is a quote from Bob Reitman, who used to be GM at A&M. He looked me in the eye and asked, "Are you a writer or a publisher?"

I’m a writer. I’m incidentally a publisher.

Radiohead is a band. And right now they look like shitty businessmen.

They didn’t anticipate the crush? They didn’t buy enough server power? They aligned themselves with incompetents, people who hadn’t DONE IT BEFORE?

The Web… Funny how music rules it and the old wave bands are so retarded when it comes to it. LAY OFF THE FLASH! If it takes that fucking long for your page to come up, PEOPLE WON’T COME BACK! What do you want more, an award-winning design or return visits?

The Grateful Dead’s record company was run so ineptly that they went back to a major. Maybe Radiohead didn’t want to align with iTunes because the band only wanted its music sold as an album, but then why didn’t they make a deal with Amazon, SOMEBODY WITH ENOUGH INFRASTRUCTURE!

That’s what Apple and Amazon do all day. Fulfillment. Rag on TicketMaster all you want, but believe me, it ain’t easy to process all those requests. They ARE providing a service, however overpriced you might believe it is.

As are major labels. Chances are, if you’re savvy enough to do everything they do, you’re a shitty musician. They’re COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SKILLS!

If the majors had been smart, which they’re not, they would have become the distributors of choice. Made deals with EVERYONE! That’s their role. Releasing music and getting paid. No one does it better. It’s just now they want the lion’s share of the money and don’t want to account honestly regarding how much money came in. But, if there were a new company, operating transparently, on low margins, it would gain traction. Radiohead should not be doing this themselves. Sure, they’re breaking the mold, but they appear to be AMATEURS! And no matter how much you love them, your perception is eroded, they go down a notch in your book. You want to pay AND THEY WON’T TAKE YOUR MONEY?

Talk to Paluska. When he had those Phish festivals, not only were prices reasonable, THERE WERE ENOUGH TOILETS! The music might be the excitement, but it doesn’t get to shine unless all the other elements are in place.

Granted, the album’s not coming out for ten days. You can keep logging on. But as an e-mail said to me, what does this portend for the DELIVERY OF THE ALBUM? Is that gonna be as fucked up as the ordering?

This needed to be seamless. They should have been able to purchase enough server/computing power today. Someone there, whoever’s in charge, if there is someone in charge, has dropped the ball. Hire someone who knows what he’s doing. PRONTO!

I wasn’t even going to bother commenting about this. After the induction of Blondie and Patti Smith and the exclusion of the performance of David Lee Roth. But what’s fascinating to me is the BLOWBACK! All over the Net, people aren’t debating which of the nominees should get in, but who was LEFT OUT!

Donna Summer didn’t go rock until ’79, however much we love her, she belongs in the DISCO Hall Of Fame. Where Nile Rodgers and Chic should be enshrined also. Hell, want to honor Nile’s production work with the B-52’s, bringing them back from the dead, I’m all for it. But if it weren’t for Ms. Summer and Chic would there have BEEN that bonfire at Comiskey Park?

And the Beastie Boys… Well, rap is a bit closer to rock than disco, but who’s a bigger innovator… The Beasties or Alice Cooper?

I could go on and on about the unjust exclusions, but what’s fascinating to me is the cabal which runs this rapidly sinking organization/ship/museum seems to have NO CLUE how they’re fucking it up/eviscerating all its credibility.

If there are no more rockers to be inducted, DON’T! The Musee d’Orsay doesn’t install twenty first century paintings, that’s for a DIFFERENT MUSEUM! God, EXCLUSIVITY breeds credibility. It’s not about the annual induction ceremony, it’s about the Hall Of Fame itself. Which is less about the actual building than a state of mind. What kind of honor does it have when you induct people who DON’T EVEN ROCK?

Why not induct everybody who ever had a hit. Why not Liberace? He’s a predecessor of Elton John. And Frank… Sinatra’s hip amongst the young ‘uns now, and he was a teen star in his day, paving the way for everyone from the Beatles to the Backstreet Boys… Let’s let him in TOO!

God, they already let in Miles Davis, which proves that there’s no difference between jazz and rock… HUH? Tell THAT to a jazzbo.

Just because Jann Wenner created a magazine that once captured the zeitgeist of the sixties, that doesn’t mean he’s relevant NOW! Certainly "Rolling Stone" isn’t. If he wants to create a museum of popular culture, the US Hall Of Fame, since he owns that rag, so be it. Why does he have to fuck up OUR Hall Of Fame?

Yes, it’s ours. Just like the Iraq war is ours. Even though Bush started it, he doesn’t get to stay in office to finish it. We want someone new. Oh, the RULES say we get someone new. Aren’t there any rules dictating that Wenner’s run has been LONG ENOUGH?

Radiohead In Rainbows

Is this real?

I’m standing in Gelson’s, shopping for dinner, and my BlackBerry starts to go wild. All with the above link. About a new Radiohead record.

Then I get in front of a computer and I read that there’s been a hoax. That the site purporting to count down to Radiohead’s release is fake. But now everybody is saying the story at the ABOVE link is REAL! That the new Radiohead album comes out in ten days and you can pay whatever you want. It’s even on the Record Of The Day site.

Huh?

I got a call from the AP just last week. Asking me what Radiohead would do. I said they’d use the English indie model. License the record to a major for a limited period of time for a ton of bread. You see majors OWN physical distribution. And that’s where the lion’s share of recorded music revenue still is, in CDs, at Best Buy/Wal-Mart and the other brick and mortars left. The majors can get the product in the store and you can get paid. They need the billing. You still can’t do it alone, even though it’s been thirty plus years since the Dead failed with "Wake Of The Flood". Hell, PEARL JAM made a deal with a major.

But what if they’re not? What if RADIOHEAD is giving the major labels the middle finger? What if they’re saying WE’RE RICH ENOUGH! That the Net allows you to go straight to your audience. FUCK the middleman who says he’s so necessary.

R.E.M. went for the cash They could have gone indie. Turns out re-signing with Warner was a good move, for they never sold tonnage again, despite getting PAID for selling tonnage. Springsteen went for the check. As did Neil Young.

But none of the foregoing acts are in their prime. They’re riding off into the sunset. They don’t have a hold on the younger generation. Boomers in Bimmers are the fans of these acts, none of whom can sell big numbers anyway. They’re all on victory lap tours, raking in the dough for retirement. Radiohead doesn’t have their dough…shouldn’t they be going for the CHECK?

Isn’t that the majors’ advantage, they’ve got the money, they can write the CHECK?

Who leaves money on the table. Certainly not the agents. They don’t want StubHub to steal a single dollar from their bottom line. Fuck image and credibility, THAT’S MY MONEY! I’m gonna make a deal with Cadillac. I’m gonna whore my product out on TV. Radio won’t play my music, I can’t get it on the Top Forty, MY HANDS ARE TIED!

It’s not like Radiohead’s living in a different world. But they’re playing by a different rule book. One that says the money flows from the music, that people have to believe in you, that you’ve got to treat them right.

Shit, you can barely get a ticket to a Radiohead show. The venues aren’t big and the demand is incredible. They’re doing it all wrong, don’t they see??

Well, obviously they don’t.

This is big news. This says the major labels are fucked. Untrustworthy with a worthless business model. Radiohead doesn’t seem to care if the music is free. Not that they believe it will be. Because believers will give you ALL THEIR MONEY!

This is the industry’s worst nightmare. Superstar band, THE superstar band, forging ahead by its own wits. Proving that others can too. And they will.

This is what happens when you sell twenty dollar CDs with one good track and sue your customers for trading P2P. This is what happens when you believe you’re ENTITLED to your business. This is what happens when music is a second-class citizen only interested in the bottom line.

There’s no testimonial to Jimmy Iovine on inrainbows.com. No thanks to Rick Rubin, never mind Lyor Cohen. Radiohead doesn’t need those stinkin’ badges. They’re THINKING FOR THEMSELVES!

What did that button say back in the sixties? "Question Authority"? That’s what Radiohead is doing here. They’re not holding back, saying their hands are tied, but are forging into the future.

You can’t make a TV show by yourself. Certainly not a movie. Not that anyone can see. But you can make a record all by your lonesome, it doesn’t cost that much. And you can say exactly what you want, you don’t need to clean it up for Wal-Mart. And, you can distribute it yourself online. That’s what Radiohead is doing.

Will they make a deal with a major for physical distribution? Will they do it themselves? Or will they leave ALL that money on the table? Shit, that would blow MY mind.

new Radiohead album available to pre-order now – and you can choose how much you pay for it
You can pay as little as 1p for the download album, but a 45p credit card charge will be added.