Message 265: From the Basement

From the Basement, Nigel Godrich’s online music series launches on the 18th December. One guest will be Thom Yorke singing two new Radiohead songs, “Videotape” and “Down is the New Up.”

In the trailer, Yorke sings lyrics previously posted to Dead Air Space on April 5, 2005:

when im at the pearly gates
thisll be on my videotape
when Mephistopholis is just beneath
and he’s reaching up to grab me
this is one for the good days
and i have it all here in red blue green
you are my centre when i spin away
out of control on videotape

And, presumably, these photos from February 6 show the band working on “Videotape.” Sasha Frere-Jones has described a live version of the song: “The lovely “Videotape,â€? which invokes death and Mephistopheles (Yorke opens with “When I’m at the pearly gates, this’ll be on my videotapeâ€?), slowly ramps up and then down, the guitars and the drums bobbing around Yorke’s piano chords, emphasizing different beats of the rhythm, as if three songs were slowly becoming one.”