Radiohead’s Thom Yorke Dishes on CD Hatred and the Music Industry

Thom Yorke isn’t the kind of guy you’d accuse of having the gift of the gab, so I don’t get my hopes up too far when a new interview with the Radiohead singer hits the web. Today, however, we’ve got a Q&A that—thanks to Yorke’s jet lag—will be fuelling the blogs and news beast clear through the weekend.

“I’m happy to see the CD format disappear. But what about laser discs?” Yorke facetiously asked The Believer in this revealing talk. Before that joke, though, he was more specific on his opinions of physical formats that hold digital media: “I mean, I always hated CDs. Me and Stanley [Donwood] always hated CDs. Just a fucking nightmare,” he ranted, adding later, “there’s a process of natural selection going on right now. The music business was waiting to die in its current form about twenty years ago. But then, hallelujah, the CD turned up and kept it going for a bit. But basically, it was dead.”

Yorke refused to leak details of Radiohead’s forthcoming release plans, but he did say that they’re flirting with the idea of releasing EPs and singles instead of full albums in the future.

Then there’s also this interesting bit on setbacks to free online music distribution: “I don’t spend my fucking life downloading free MP3s, because I hate the websites,” Yorke said. “No one seems to know what they’re talking about. I’d much rather go to sites like Boomkat, where people know what they’re talking about.”

There’s a lot more on Jonny Greenwood’s penchant for “wrong notes,” how Radiohead will never have a return to form because they’re “formless motherfuckers,” and how Yorke prefers releasing albums before reviewers have their take, so I suggest clicking here for the best Radiohead interview of the past 6 months (you have to subscribe for the full story). Now Boomkat better pray their servers can handle the impending traffic.