Radiohead Open ‘Public Library’ With Rarities, Videos, Hard-to-Find Merch & More
The repository of rarities includes the band’s debut EP, “Drill,” plus a 2011 remix DP, “TKOL RMX8.”
Radiohead threw open the vaults on Monday morning (Jan. 20) with a new project dubbed Radiohead Public Library, which gathers together nearly three decades of the band's artistic output, including rare tracks, live music, remix EPs (TKOL RMX 1234567 and TKOL RMX 8), galleries with art work, unseen in-studio photos, links to buy and stream their albums and live performance footage.
Fans who dig around might also find the group's debut EP, 1992's Drill, and 1993's Anyone Can Play Guitar three-song single, the earliest dispatches from their W.A.S.T.E. online merch store/fan network, the full 1998 Meeting People is Easy documentary, links to old newsletters, video ephemera of the band rehearsing and DJing during a webcast, rare merch and much more.
https://t.co/Gk4BUXwjsg has always been infuriatingly uninformative and unpredictable. We have now, predictably, made it incredibly informative.
We present: the RADIOHEAD PUBLIC LIBRARY. pic.twitter.com/H7Ft6lNuuN
— Radiohead (@radiohead) January 20, 2020
"“The internet as a whole has never been a reliable resource for detailed or even accurate information re: Radiohead,” the band said in a statement. “Many sites that attempted to provide some measure of service have long since gone dark as well. The overall effect has been ‘Radiohead’ search results that yield random and/or abbreted shards: songs and album titles unaccompanied by detailed artwork or any additional context, low quality videos preceded by advertisements and shuffled algorithms, and so on… That ends with the unveiling of the Radiohead Public Library.”
All you need to do is make your own library card for the free site and then do a deep dive into videos, music, artwork, TV performances, their legendary Bonnaroo sets, the 2002 "Inside Out Night" two-hour Christmas webcast, a gallery of longtime collaborator Stanley Donwood's artwork, old versions of their official websites and out-of-print merch. The good news is that much of the rare music, including the 2005 song "I Want None of This" from the Help! A Day in the Life charity project, is now also available on streaming services. All five of the band's members will take turns as librarians during the first week, each curating their own mix of materials.
Check out some of the rarities below.