Song · In Rainbows era (2007–09)
These Are My Twisted Words
A song that turned up on a BitTorrent tracker wrapped in ASCII art and a poem, five days before the band released it themselves.
12 aug 2009
the leak that was not quite a leak
It appeared unannounced on the private tracker What.CD on 12 August 2009. The torrent carried a text file with ASCII artwork, a cryptic poem, and a date: 17 August. The Guardian and Rolling Stone both wondered aloud whether the band had put it there themselves, which after the In Rainbows release was not an unreasonable question.
On 17 August it went up free on the band's own site and through a torrent hosted by Mininova, with artwork by Yorke and Stanley Donwood and a suggestion to print the pieces on tracing paper. Jonny Greenwood's blog post announcing it said the song had only just been finished and did not mention the leak at all.
The text file also contained the phrase “Wall of Ice”, which set off a week of speculation about an EP that never existed. Fourteen years later the band's side project the Smile released an album called Wall of Eyes.
the sound
motorik
It runs on a motorik beat from Philip Selway, in five, with layered guitars over the top and the vocal arriving late. Rolling Stone heard krautrock and a family resemblance to “Weird Fishes / Arpeggi”.
2009–2017
seventeen nights
Pölten on 21 August 2009, four days after the release, then mostly on the 2012 King of Limbs tour, eleven times that year.
on stage
Thom Yorke without the band, at Zermatt Unplugged, 2022.· karindgrwatch on youtube →
takes(2)
Live history
| Times played | 17 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Friday 21 August 2009 · St. Pölten |
| Last played | Saturday 8 April 2017 · Seattle |
| Longest absence | 4 years · back on Saturday 8 April 2017 · Seattle |
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
sources6
- “Was the new Radiohead song leaked by the band?”, The Guardian, 14 August 2009.
- Sean Michaels, “Radiohead officially release ‘These Are My Twisted Words’”, The Guardian, 18 August 2009.
- Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone, 13 August 2009, and “20 insanely great Radiohead songs only hardcore fans know”, 7 March 2016.
- James Montgomery, “Radiohead put Wall of Ice EP rumors to rest, for now”, MTV, 17 August 2009.
- Ryan Dombal, “Radiohead: ‘These Are My Twisted Words’”, Pitchfork, 24 August 2009.
- Mac Randall, Exit Music: The Radiohead Story.