Pitchfork

Say, have you heard that awesome new album Rainbow by the acclaimed rock band Radiohead? No? Here, just click on this link here and-- hey, wait a minute...this looks an awful lot like that catalog box set and creepy bear USB drive thingy. Neither of which, come to think of it, include the new Radiohead album. And isn't the new album actually called In Rainbows? WTF?

Here, let's attempt to set things straight. According to a Guardian Unlimited report today, folks who Googled the word "Radiohead" last week were presented with a highlighted, paid-for link that read as follows:

Radiohead - New Album
www.radioheadstore.com New Album "Rainbow" now available as Boxset inc. CD, USB, Digital

The above link, however, leads not to the In Rainbows deluxe discbox so often mentioned in these pages, nor to anything involving In Rainbows at all. Instead, it takes curious clickers to a page where they may purchase the previously reported Radiohead catalog set in physical, digital, and USB formats from EMI/Parlophone. Which, as you may recall, was not Radiohead's idea.

EMI/Parlophone, of course, is Radiohead's former label, and the fact that they're dropping a box set around the same time Radiohead delivers their discbox has already aroused suspicions. Now comes this Google ad-- rather plainly misleading, wouldn't you say?-- and the plot thickens.

Guardian Unlimited asked EMI whether they had indeed placed the ad, and received the following in response: "Parlophone were aware of the data source glitch and removed the link immediately." Data source glitch, right, gotcha.

The link has indeed been removed, and NME.com quotes a Radiohead spokesperson as saying, "We accept that it was a genuine error and that it has been rectified." Regardless of what exactly is going on here, I think it's safe to say Radiohead and EMI will not be on each other's Christmas card lists this year.

In Rainbows CD and vinyl, meanwhile, arrives in North America January 1 via TBD/ATO, in the UK December 31 via XL Recordings, and in Japan December 26 from Hostess Entertainment.

On a lighter note, Scott Plagenhoef's Radiohead webcast play-by-play should bring a smile to even the grinchiest of faces.