Radiohead’s In Rainbows and Maynard’s Puscifer
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
There has been a lot of interesting music news in the past few days. I’m just going to mention two things. One is really good news and the other is . . . I was going to say “bad” but it’s more like . . . WTF news.
The good news is: The new Radiohead album In Rainbows will all-of-a-sudden be available on October 10. I’ve been keeping up with latest tidbits via Green Plastic, my favorite Radiohead information source. Since Radiohead’s deal with EMI expired with 2003’s Hail to the Thief album, they are releasing In Rainbows without a record label. And doing it however they want, even outside of iTunes, and without advances and promos for radio stations and reviewers. Seems like they are leveling the playing field and making a quite-obvious political statement about the music industry. Which is a curiously timed discovery for me considering two of my most recent blog posts are about disliking Apple’s iTunes and most of the corporate rock released by major record labels. Best Week Ever says: “Radiohead Bends Record Industry Over Conference Table And Goes To Town.” Awesome.
You can preorder a “Download” or “Discbox” of In Rainbows at inrainbows.com. The download is free . . . that’s right, Radiohead is giving away their album for free . . . if you choose to be a cheapskate, that is. You can donate whatever amount you like to legally download In Rainbows. 
The discbox, however, is everything the Radiohead enthusiast could want, including a second disc of music, but it’s quite expensive (£40.00, which, right now, converts to more than $80, thanks to the collapsing US dollar). (By the way, the Canadian dollar is worth exactly the same amount as a US dollar right now. Can you believe it?)
Anyway, looking at the In Rainbows track listing, I’ve noticed that quite a few previously unreleased favorites/neglecteds have made it onto the two discs of this album, including “Nude,” “Last Flowers,” and “Reckoner” (which I saw live when it was first played at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington, on June 23, 2001 . . . probably the best show I’ve ever seen).
I’m very excited for new music from my favorite band.
The WTF news is: Maynard James Keenan is releasing a new album on October 30!
But hold on, don’t get all excited. It’s not what you might think. This is not a Tool album. This is not an album by A Perfect Circle. This is a Puscifer album, Maynard’s other side project. Yes, that’s the band that had a couple of decent songs on the Underworld soundtracks. The Puscifer album is titled V is for Vagina and the first singles are “Cuntry Boner” (no that’s not a typo, but you may wish it was) and “Queen B.” Maynard has certainly hinted at this aspect of his personality before with his involvement in the Bikini Bandits crap, but this is a full-fledged album, apparently. Go investigate this further on your own if you want, because I’m done thinking about this random and goofy expenditure of Maynard’s creative capital for a while.