Radiohead have officially joined TikTok.
A verified account for the alt-rock legends appeared on the video app earlier this morning, but the only thing they’ve posted so far is proving very difficult to parse. The short clip features Radiohead’s mysterious associate Chieftain Mews delivering some sort of dystopian news broadcast at a desk with the words “Mews” emblazoned on it.
The video is shot in black-and-white with a grainy, glitchy filter, and there’s some sort of strange logo on the wall behind Mews that resembles graffiti art. As always, Mews is wearing a bizarre bald cap that’s pulled down just above his eyes, and he’s rocking a suit — but no tie — a white undershirt, and dark-colored nail polish.
What he says makes even less sense. “Say something,” we hear an off-camera voice at the beginning. “Well what do you want me to say?,” Mews asks.”TikTok. Tick, tock, tick, tock,” he utters with a clock-like rhythm. Then some static cuts in and the video jumps to a new take. “This is your wakeup call,” Mews says with a grave tone. “Have a good day.”
That’s it. Keep in mind, today is April fool’s day, so it’s very possible that this is just an elaborate prank from the band who want to get a rise out of their diehard fanbase, who will dutifully study snippets like this in the way that archaeologists dust off ancient artifacts. It’s also worth noting that the video hasn’t been posted to their Twitter or their Instagram, so it appears that whatever they’re doing is TikTok-specific.
That’s all we know, but check out the video below and see if there are any hidden messages that the rest of the internet has missed.
A couple weeks back, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke revealed an acoustic remix of their notorious radio hit “Creep” for a Japanese fashion show. Last month, Consequence celebrated the 10th anniversary of the band’s 2011 opus The King of Limbs with a retrospective review.
And speaking of TikTok, while you’re on the platform consider following our own account.
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