You may have caught wind that world-famous art rockers Radiohead have a special event scheduled for Friday in celebration of the physical release of A Moon Shaped Pool, their ninth studio album, but it’s not just that the record will finally be available to Spotify subscribers. In fact, the band will pipe themselves into record stores worldwide, presenting a day of curated playlists, as well as a two-hour set of performances from their most recent tour.
But that’s not all: The band will also give away some extremely special free swag to attendees, including claymation figurines from Chris Hopewell’s Burn The Witch music video, screen prints by visual artist Stanley Donwood, and even a 35mm celluloid print of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Daydreaming video — though most fans would have no way to play it.
In terms of music, it will be a mishmash of sounds throughout the day from the enigmatic British band. But the website associated with the event, which lists participating locations by country, also provides insight into at least some of what fans can expect: Guitarist Jonny Greenwood will play the two hours of live tracks from the band’s recent performances at London’s Roundhouse, keyboardist Colin Greenwood and guitarist Ed O’Brien will play some of their favorite tunes, and frontman Thom Yorke will play a long playlist based on something he calls his “office charts.”
In addition to musical contributions from the band, Donwood has created an, “Inconsequential Pamphlet” — presumably available at many participating locations — about the experience he had crafting the group’s latest album cover.
All this pomp and circumstance is likely to fuel the fervor surrounding Radiohead’s latest release, which is a spiritual follow-up to 2005’s smash success In Rainbows, and is considered by many critics — ourselves included — to be among the best albums of the year so far.
For more information about the live streaming event, we recommend taking a gander at Radiohead’s website.
