Radiohead becomes newspaper publisher

Open publication

The rock band Radiohead has been many things in its two-decade career. Add newspaper publisher to that list.

Radiohead this week released "The Universal Sigh," a print and digital "newspaper" that's a companion to the band's new album, "The King of Limbs." For reasons that only Radiohead can figure out, the band has termed "The King of Limbs" "the world's first newspaper album."

There's not much "news" in "The Universal Sigh" and no one is really sure what the goal of the publication is/was, other than an odd form of promotion and to share some alternative voices with the world. But that's Radiohead for you.

"Soundcheck" chatted with Brooke Gladstone, co-host of NPR's "On the Media" (stream below) and she wasn't able to add much insight from a journalistic perspective. The only real takeaway appears to be that for the first time in ages, people were lined up to get copies of a newspaper. Oh, for a return to those days.