Radiohead releases single under cloud of intrigue

By Amy Tennery

(Reuters) – British rockers Radiohead returned to the Internet on Tuesday with a new music video, after the band stumped fans by deleting all posts on their Twitter account over the weekend.

The critically acclaimed band previewed the release of the new single “Burn the Witch” early Tuesday, posting short bursts of footage from the video on Instagram.

Both “Burn the Witch” and “Radiohead” quickly became two of the top 10 trending terms on Twitter in the United States Tuesday after the video was unveiled.

UK film director Edgar Wright (@edgarwright) tweeted on Tuesday, “Love the Trumpton / Camberwick Green style video for Radiohead’s ‘Burn The Witch’.”

It was unclear when Radiohead might release a new full-length album, though the group is scheduled to begin its next world concert tour later this month, according to a schedule that was linked to the band’s website.

Adding to the intrigue, the group appeared to have scrubbed its Twitter account of any posts that appeared previously to those published Monday that related to the new single.

“‘Sorry I can’t come to work tomorrow. Radiohead just deleted all their tweets, so something Earth changing is about to happen,'” tweeted D.D. Walker (@desmondalan) on Sunday.

“Radiohead just deleted all of their tweets + their website and profile pictures are completely blank,” tweeted Peter Sharkey (@iPeterSharkey) on Sunday. “They sure do know how to build hype.”

Over the weekend, music review website Pitchfork reported that several Radiohead fans in the UK had received cryptic leaflets in the mail that read, in part, “BURN THE WITCH/WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE.”

Radiohead, an alternative rock group, is best known for hits like “Creep” and “Paranoid Android.”

(Reporting By Amy Tennery; additional reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York and Piya Sinha-Roy in Los Angeles; Editing by David Gregorio)