Year: 2004

     Apparently there exists a black and white video for Radiohead’s “We Suck Young Blood,” shot by director P.T. Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia). Here are the details, from Thom Yorke:

     “Paul Thomas Anderson came into the studio and he brought this camera with him, it was exactly the same camera model that they shot the Nosferatu in, basically this camera is a box and you wind it, and you have to have a tempo to wind it to and if you wind it fast or slow you get this extraordinary movement, and we wanted to shoot this really over the top vaudeville b-movie thing with it, because that to me is partly where it was coming from, and also it was really sick and sexual in a really peverse way, very L.A. as far as I’m concerened. I think that was the reason why we went to L.A., because ‘we suck young blood’ was our take on Hollywood really. in fact, we went out to a party that night everyone was dressed as mad hatters, it just fit completely. we went to this place, it was just… [whispers] you people are so silly. and it was like that’s how they dressed every day to create an impression. it was brilliant. we felt like old people, maybe we’d missed something.”

     This quote comes from a relatively rare promo interview CD [cover], discussed in a thread in the P.T. Anderson forum at xixax.com, which I found via this posting on metafilter. Posters in the same thread appear to have determined that the clip does not appear on the latest Radiohead DVD, “The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth of all Time“.

 Also of note is the bad blood that apparently exists between the band and director extraordinaire Michel Gondry:

     “I generally find a good way of communicating to prevent clash, but I had one terrible experience with Radiohead,” he says of his 2001 video for “Knives Out.” Gondry, going through a breakup at the time, transferred his despair to a character played by lead singer Thom Yorke, grieving anxiously in a crowded hospital room.

     “I showed him a storyboard and every single detail: he was completely excited and happy for it – and then, it turned out, they all criticize me for being selfish and putting my own views on it and my own introspection,” says a still peeved Gondry. (Yorke and Radiohead declined to comment for this story.) “And they didn’t let me use my video for my DVD!” he adds, his voice rising.

     “And I’m really mad at them for having done that to me, that they abuse their power! It did not go smooth, but if it went smooth, it would be mediocre.”

     Oh man, a snowstorm closed work today, so I got to lay in bed and watch cartoons (The Venture Brothers and Tom Goes to the Mayor Xmas specials) until I was sufficiently awake. I found one more MP3 to post for christmas, so here it is:

North Coast Noel – ‘Enter Snowman’
From: North Coast Noel (2001)

     It’s a fusion of Metallica’s biggest hit and Frosty the Snowman. The rigorous recreation of the intro is a bit tedious, but if you skip ahead to 1:12 where the vocals kick in, it’s pretty good. It took my roommates and I awhile to figure out what was being said in the chorus – it’s “Thumpity thump thump.” The Hetfieldian exclamations during the “truck hitting the bed” part are pretty good, too.