Airbag/How Am I Driving?
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| Airbag/How Am I Driving? | |||||
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| EP by Radiohead | |||||
| Released | April 21, 1998 | ||||
| Recorded | 1996 - 1997 | ||||
| Genre | Alternative rock Art rock |
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| Length | 25:33 | ||||
| Label | Capitol 58701 | ||||
| Producer | Nigel Godrich Radiohead |
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Airbag/How Am I Driving? is an EP by Radiohead, released in 1998 specifically to the North American market. It includes most of the songs that had been issued as b-sides on Radiohead's CD singles from OK Computer in the previous year, and is effectively a sequel to that album. Despite its placement here, the song "Airbag" was never released as a single to radio stations. The same recording found on OK Computer also opens this EP, simply fading out rather than transitioning to "Paranoid Android."
The contents of Airbag/How Am I Driving? differ slightly from the EP No Surprises/Running from Demons, released a few months earlier only in Japan. Among other songs, Airbag includes "Meeting in the Aisle," which is both Radiohead's first released instrumental and first wholly electronic-sounding song, featuring programming by Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker of the group Zero 7. "Melatonin" is a synthesizer lullaby, and "A Reminder" builds up a minimalist texture prescient of Radiohead's later albums like Kid A and Amnesiac. The sampled voices and crowds at the start of the latter song are a recording from the Prague mass transit system. The female voice of the metro's automated announcement system states "Finish getting on and getting off, the doors are closing" and that the next stop will be Jiřího z Poděbrad. "Pearly*" and "Polyethylene" are fan favorites from this EP and among Radiohead's best known b-sides, but only rarely played live by the band. An early version of the song "Palo Alto" had been entitled "OK Computer." Though still dominated by anthemic guitars, to some extent the b-sides compiled on this EP bridge the gap between the progressive-alternative OK Computer and Radiohead's experimental future sound, much as the My Iron Lung EP of 1994 had foreshadowed The Bends and OK Computer.
On the EP cover, the number 1426148550 is given. It was indeed a working U.K. telephone number, and the voice on the other end, which simply said, "Hello?" was Radiohead singer Thom Yorke's. Fans could even leave a message, and some of the content was used in later productions. This number has been disconnected for years. Calling it, as of 2008, yields BT's standard "The number you have dialed has not been recognised" message. Yorke, in concerts at the time, who joked that it is the number to call to report bad drivers.
The Airbag/How Am I Driving? EP, although only 25 minutes long, gained the odd distinction of being nominated for a 1999 Grammy for Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance, up against full-length albums by other artists.
The EP was re-issued in the Netherlands and the U.K. in early 2007.
[edit] Track listing
- "Airbag" – 4:46
- "Pearly*" – 3:33
- "Meeting in the Aisle" – 3:09
- "A Reminder" – 3:51
- "Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2)" – 4:22
- "Melatonin" – 2:09
- "Palo Alto" – 3:43
All songs written by Radiohead.
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