Friday Music News

Can you believe it's been 20 years since OK Computer was released?! In honor of that special anniversary, Radiohead are releasing a special deluxe reissue called OKNOTOK. The album will feature three previously unreleased songs, along with the record's original 12 tracks and eight B-sides. One of those new tracks was revealed yesterday to be called "I Promise" and now there's a corresponding video. Directed by Michal Marczak the video follows a nighttime ride on the tram with an interesting twist at the end. Marczak has previously worked with Radiohead on last year's "Identikit" vignette and on Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard's single "Beautiful People." Last night, BBC Radio 6 host Steve Lamacq premiered “I Promise,” saying he’d heard the band were “especially pleased to find [the song] in the vaults, because they thought it’d been lost over the years.” OKNOTOK will be released June 23rd on XL Recordings. [ Pitchfork ]

North Carolina's premier indie rock band and Merge Records founders Superchunk have released a new split-single on Bandcamp, the proceeds of which will go to benefit Planned Parenthood. A-side is "I Got Cut" and the B-side is a cover of "Up Against the Wall" by the Tom Robinson Band. Frontman Mac McCaughan said of the release, "All people should have access to reproductive health care. All people should have control over their own bodies. ‘I Got Cut’ was inspired by images like the photograph of our current president surrounded by a bunch of other ancient white guys, all smiling as they took away access to reproductive health care for women all over the world...I felt like making a record in the punk rock tradition we grew up with, including the collage I created for the sleeve. Likewise, when we presented the concept to the artists involved, we proposed that the art be the size of an unfolded 7-inch sleeve, mirroring the style of all the singles we put out when we first started Merge over 25 years ago. As they were in 1989, the sleeves were printed by Barefoot Press in Raleigh (and they donated these to help the cause). We also put these together by hand like we did then." [ Consequence of Sound ]