Over the weekend, Radiohead made waves in the rock world by suddenly erasing their entire Internet presence. Their Facebook page went blank. So did Thom Yorke’s Twitter feed. Their website gradually faded to white. What did it all mean?
The answer was revealed Tuesday, when the band released an excellent stop-motion video for their new single, “Burn The Witch.” At a time when artistic music videos are getting attention thanks to Beyonce’s “Lemonade,” Radiohead picked the right time to unveil a video that takes a page from horror movie history. Directed by Chris Hopewell, the animated video is a toy-like remake of the classic 1970s British film “The Wicker Man.” A police sergeant arrives in a village looking for a missing girl, and is shocked to find that the entire village is a pagan cult. After being shown around town by the cult leader, the sergeant is taken to a festival surrounding a giant wicker-man statue, where he realizes too late that he’s to be sacrificed to the pagan gods.
Radiohead teased the video on social media last night, with clips of a chirping toy bird and a girl about to be sacrificed posted on Instagram. With the full macabre video now available, we can see how Yorke and co. have blended two elements of British pop culture into what feels like a horror tale for the preschool crowd. At least the poor policeman in the music video gets a gentler ending than the one suffered in “The Wicker Man.”
“Burn The Witch” will be available on all digital platforms starting tonight at midnight.
6 of Prince's Most Virtuosic Guitar Solos (Videos)
This unreleased video from 1995 shows Prince playing one of his earliest songs, "Bambi." After getting a few vocals out of the way, Prince starts putting on a guitar clinic, using every technique many guitarists spend years trying to master.
During the Super Bowl halftime show in 2007, Prince nonchalantly ripped out multiple frenetic solos while playing the "Purple Rain" highlight song, "Let's Go Crazy." Before an audience of hundreds of millions, in the middle of a thunderstorm, he doesn't miss a beat or lose his onstage poise for a second.
Maybe it's a little bit too far fetched to say that Prince is Jimi Hendrix reincarnated. But it's easy to believe after listening to him use Hendrix's string-bending techniques in "She's Always In My Hair."
Few fan videos of Prince's songs remain on YouTube, but this guest appearance with Stevie Wonder shows Prince's genre versatility. He slides into Stevie's R&B style easily, breaking into a bluesy solo at 6:30.
But while he can adjust to songs, Prince can also transform them into something new. Take this fan video of him performing with Cee Lo Green, for example. His collab performance of "Crazy" replaces the original song's thumping dance beat with smooth jazz and Santana-esque guitar melodies.
Since Prince's death, the view count on his collaboration performance of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" has skyrocketed, and for good reason. Prince's solo transforms the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tribute to George Harrison from a nice little number into a transcendent masterpiece.
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Prince would have turned 60 today. Let’s watch him do one of the many things he did best
This unreleased video from 1995 shows Prince playing one of his earliest songs, "Bambi." After getting a few vocals out of the way, Prince starts putting on a guitar clinic, using every technique many guitarists spend years trying to master.
