Radiohead of state
It's also the title of a book about U.S. President George Bush's controversial election victory in Florida.
But guitarist-vocalist Ed O'Brien said so far there has been no American backlash.
The much-praised, Oxford-based art-rock band prepares to perform at the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan this Thursday night to launch Thief. (The concert is being broadcast live in Canada at Famous Players theatres, including the Paramount on Richmond Street, at 10 p.m.)
"Our publicist (in the U.S.) said no one's batted an eyelid," said O'Brien, in town for promotion yesterday with drummer Phil Selway, who was conducting interviews in another hotel room.
"And I think there are far more people in America who've said far more contentious things. You know, and our album, it's not just an anti-Bush record. We never would single out somebody like that in an album title.
"But I don't know what to expect. I think people like Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins and Sean Penn and Dixie Chicks, they've all (voiced criticisms) and they're Americans. We have to be careful - we're Brits - because it's not our country, and people get a bit uppity if you start slagging off."
O'Brien said the album, which comes on the heels of Radiohead's so-called "twin" adventurous albums, 2000's Kid A and 2001's Amnesiac, is more reflective of the current climate of fear about the future.
"George W.'s got to hold his hand up, and his administration's got to hold (their) hands up and say they're playing a major part in this."
O'Brien said he concurs with what was said on a recent trip to Britain by Saul Zaentz, an American film producer: "America's a country now governed by the few for the few."
"And the trouble is," O'Brien said, "is that those few have, at present, such a strong influence upon what goes on in the rest of the world, vis-a-vis money. It's very frightening."
So, then, what about British Prime Minister Tony Blair's high-profile support of Bush in the invasion of Iraq? O'Brien said he was initially disappointed in Blair's decision, but in time it could be seen as something else entirely.
"Maybe history will say, 'Listen, Blair had to be Bush's poodle.' Blair's a funny one. I think he's well-intentioned, but he has this ability to make himself believe anything he wants to believe, which is quite frightening. But maybe history will be kind and say, 'Listen, he reigned in George W.'
"There was a joke that he was the second most powerful politician in America. But the problem is that if you're dealing with that regime, it's kind of like, 'Are you going to be tainted?'"
Thursday's show in Manhattan will be the first North American date for Radiohead in support of Thief.
O'Brien said the group will tour this summer - including Aug. 16 at the Molson Amphitheatre, as reported last Friday in The Toronto Sun - but in two shorter intervals of three weeks apiece. Why? Because three of the five band members now have children.
"We used to do everything, and that's fine. If you've got families and stuff like that, you can't do it like that, you can't be everything to everyone. Ten years ago we were to playing as many people we could across Canada and America, and now the responsibilities (change), obviously, when people become fathers."