Tag Archives: Twitter

“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncmg3bxtTB0

Posted on by Muggs

May 15, 2011:

@ChieftanMews “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncmg3bxtTB0

One of two links to Youtube Chieftan Mews sent out on the same day both linked Youtube videos of BBC Test Card F titled ‘BBC Test Card F (1978)’.

“The time now very nearly 3 o clock, the next program on bbc1 Songs of Praise follows at 3.15 after a trade test transmission…”

A Youtube commenter names the piece of music as ‘Finally, swing-time’ by Pit Fontana’s New Sound. According to TestcardCircle.uk that song was used during the 2nd half of 1978 to early 1979.

Mew’s tweeted a 2nd Testcard after this one ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6SmOBxP9-g ; Test 2 ), however the second tweet was not deleted until the 20th of March 2012. You can read more about it, and the history of Test Card F here.

Songs of Praise is a weekly religious program first broadcast in 1961 early on Sunday mornings. Consisting of church hymn’s it still runs today and is broadcast in a number of countries.

In 2007 Adam Buxton uploaded a parody of Songs of Praise providing his own subtitles to the program with amusing results:

Adam Buxton is British DJ and Comedian who in 2007 helped Radiohead with their Thumbs_Down webcast to celebrate the release of In Rainbows.

A fan of the band he wrote a nice long detailed blog post about the whole thing here on his website, and later in 2008 entered his own (rather hilarious) remix for the Reckoner remix competition:

Adam Buxton Reckoner Remix

On the 29th of November 2011 Adam Buxton ran a live BUG Music Video’s special evening focusing on Radiohead’s career, during which he screened some behind the scenes footage of the recording of Thumbs_Down, Previous video clips from the band and a interview with Jonny and Colin. Described as a ‘one off’ Adam repeated the event in Los Angeles on February 2nd 2012.


( Source : Yelp.com )

A Silly Blog carries a nice review and description of the event Here.

One of the most interesting bits of trivia from the program refers to a In Rainbows Scrapbook mentioned in the Bug Program notes as a ‘proposed but ultimately unreleased DVD ‘scrapbook’ from the In Rainbows period’.


(Source: Attributed to Ian Davies by Auntie Nubbins of A Silly Blog )

Adam Buxton is on twitter as AdamRealBuxton and is one of the accounts Chieftan Mews follows on Twitter.

At 0:36 I appear in the Zigg only to disappear and reflect to the dark side of the moon. http://t.co/Qw0PTnn stuck help #10 of 10 / #10: Please @ 1 song that makes you feel energetic & write about it in 1 sentence. (1 answer only, #10 expires August 11, 2011 at 00:00 GMT)

Posted on by Muggs

Aug 4, 2011:

@ChieftanMews: At 0:36 I appear in the Zigg only to disappear and reflect to the dark side of the moon. http://t.co/Qw0PTnn stuck help #10 of 10

@ChieftanMews: #10: Please @ 1 song that makes you feel energetic & write about it in 1 sentence. (1 answer only, #10 expires August 11, 2011 at 00:00 GMT)

On Facebook this read as:

#10: Please message me 1 song that makes you feel energetic. Write about it in one sentence. (1 answer per person or disqualified/blocked. #10 expires August 11, 2011 at 00:00 GMT)

Chieftan Mews first tweets a link to a video Servo posted to Chieftan Mew’s Facebook wall on August 1st:

Screenshot of Mew's Reply to a question on Facebook, August 1st, 2011.

Servo took the video loop from www.the-ziggurat.com and posted to Youtube on July 31st 2011. The link takes you to 0:36 in the film where a head can be seen to the bottom left of the picture outlined in green and blue.

On the 3rd of August Chieftan Mews replied to the video with:

My face emerges at the 30 second mark at the lower/central portion of the screen and then disappears a short time later. Please call a plumber or a lumberjack immediately.

Starting on July 6th 2011 Chieftan Mews stated that he’d been banished to The Ziggurart ( I am stuck in here with some juicy footage: http://www.the-ziggurat.com – Please call a medic or psychiatrist for me immediately. ␄ ) in return for removing footage of Supercollider from The King of Limbs – Live From The Basement ( that buck, took me out of the final cut so I took Supercollider & some juicy footage before being banished to the Zigg. Stuck.Help ) .

The Dark Side of the Moon is the title of Pink Floyd’s eighth album released in 1973, a album compared to OK Computer it also happens to show a prism separating a rainbow out of white light on it’s cover. In Rainbows being the band’s previous album for which the moving rainbow blocks video where made.


( Original cover for Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of The Moon – Source : Wikipedia )

Similar to the Ziggurat film was a videoclip for Videotape made for the end of the 2007 Thumbs_Down webcast featuring Thom Yorke’s face turning into a mess of coloured blocks.

Thom ended up uploading the video to Dead Air Space on the 12 of February 2008 with the following message:

RED BLUE GREEn +

had a niggling feeling that this never really got seen much.
Its a kind of video thing to go with Videotape using lots of wierd techniques we were messing with.
Nigel and I really enjoyed making it at the end of last year.
It appeared at the end of a webcast which i think was lost due to transmission problems.
So here it is (roughly) for you to see again.
x
Thom

The original video on DAS is gone but you can still watch it on Citizen Insane.

The #10 of 10 suggested that there was a series of 10 tweets to come, this proved to be correct as it was followed by the first of ten weekly questions asking for fans to respond with their own answers.

Fan’s where given a choice between responding on Facebook or Twitter, two of the most popular Social Networks as of 2011.

@ is a symbol used to direct a message on Twitter therefore requesting fans to tweet him directly with @ChieftanMews.

With Facebook it seemed he wished to receive the replies as Private Messages, of which he would take only 1 per person on threat of banning them so they could no longer send him messages or view his Facebook page.

The difference has to do with a design limitation that on Twitter you can only send messages to people who follow you. This means that while Chieftan Mews was able to send Direct Messages (DMs) to fans following him they would not be able to reply or send their own without Mew’s following them first.

While ’1 answer per person or disqualified/blocked.’ on Facebook seems to suggest a competition to date there’s been nothing suggesting that Mew made direct use of the answers offered to him by fans, or that there was any organized prize for answering his messages correctly.

Though he has been known to Directly Message or reply to peoples Facebook Posts on his wall from time to time it’s unknown if Chieftan Mew’s replied to any of the suggestions given to him in response to his questions.

All up the questions where:

Aug 11, 2011:
@ChieftanMews: #9 of 10: What is your personal definition of: ‘freedom’? (exp. 18-Aug)

Aug 18, 2011:
@ChieftanMews: #8 of 10: http://t.co/IAEHtG1 Have you really considered that you have been lied to constantly since you were born? (Expires Aug 25 or so)

Aug 24, 2011:
@ChieftanMews: #6/10: Which artist of today reminds you of the John Heartfield of yestercentury? (#7 expires Sept 1, #6 expires Sept 8) #rigid #tkol

Aug 25, 2011:
@ChieftanMews: #7/10: No more hiding: “The atom had a positive, a negative & a neutral” & “Later for the date than the hadron collider” & “I am open.” ??

Sep 8, 2011:
@ChieftanMews: #5/10: What’s on agenda at the World Policy Forum in Yaroslavl? Congrats to PJ for answering last week, you won a prize.

Sep 15, 2011:
@ChieftanMews: 4/10: Leaves fall & then grow again. From the same branches. The sounds they make can change too. .. … Kid is now an Adult?

Sep 21, 2011:
@ChieftanMews: 3/10: You all snap snap snap. Expect a rabbit out of my ass. Please don’t judge me. Are you feeling Feral? Snap snap snap all you: 10/3

Sep 27, 2011:
@ChieftanMews: 2/10: Why do some assume this is a countdown instead of a quiz?

Oct 7, 2011:
@ChieftanMews: 1/10: Was/Is this all a w.a.s.t.e. of your/our time? Stay detuned.. .. .. .. .. .␄

After which Mew’s tweeted that he was now free of the Ziggurart (Like you, once again, I am a free fugitive of life..

We’d love to hear what answers other people sent to Mew’s ‘quiz’!
Let us know in the comments or email muggs@ersmenoo.com.

Come To Florida http://t.co/2WE81HE @jerkyboysjohnny : IMS MENOO : @ghostfacekillah http://t.co/dFDtCMd

Posted on by Muggs

Feb 23, 2010:

@ChieftanMews: Come To Florida http://t.co/2WE81HE @jerkyboysjohnny : IMS MENOO : @ghostfacekillah http://t.co/dFDtCMd

Mew’s tweeted this while Radiohead where due to kick off the start of their 2012 World Tour in Miami Florida.

The first part of the tweet is addressed to Johnny Brennan the creator of Jerky Boys and Family Guy.

The link takes you to a youtube video taken from The Jerky Boys 2 that appears to be a prank call asking for ‘Pablo Honey to Please come to Florida’

The Jerky Boys are an American comedy duo from Queens, New York, whose routine consists of prank telephone calls and other related skits. Formed in 1989, The Jerky Boys were made up of childhood friends Johnny Brennan and Kamal Ahmed.[1] After Kamal left the act in 2000, The Jerky Boys continued on as a solo act featuring only Brennan, before going on hiatus after the 2001 release of their final album, The Jerky Tapes. The project was resurrected in 2006 and remains active today.

The calls were made by ringing up unsuspecting recipients, or in response to classified advertisements placed in local New York-based newspapers. Each call was made in character, usually with over the top voices influenced by the duo’s family members.[1]

According to their current record label, Laugh.com, the act has sold over 8,000,000 CDs since their 1993 debut.

(Source: Wikipeida )

These days Pablo Honey is better known as the name of Radiohead’s First Album.

According to FeelNumb.com Pablo Honey was named after this skit as ‘Jonny Greenwood got a bootlegged tape of The Jerky Boys in the early ’90s and he and the band listened to it non-stop. They even sampled a snippet in the song “How Do You?” ‘

The second link is to the videoclip for Daytona 500 by Ghostface Killah. The Videoclip is made of footage from Street Racer a cult Anime tv Series from the 80s.

Ghostface Killah – Daytona 500

RapExclusiveHD gives us the following information about the video:

“Daytona 500″ is the solo debut single by Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ghostface Killah, featuring The Force M.D.s, Raekwon, and Cappadonna from his 1996 solo debut album Ironman. The title is taken from the most important and prestigious race on the NASCAR calendar: Daytona 500. Released unofficially, the song didn’t chart on any charts but is considered a longtime favorite among Wu-Tang fans. The song was later added to his greatest hits album, Shaolin’s Finest.

Ghostface Killah doesn’t have a website but you can check him out here or on Last.FM

Mew’s states that IMS MENOO.. meaning ‘He’s Mental‘ (clearly in a good way) and addresses the tweet to Ghostface Killah’s Twitter Account.

Within 24 Hours he had deleted the tweet along with two others from the same day.

@stanleydonwood @nigelgod : You can’t see this message

Posted on by Muggs

Jun 29, 2011:

@ChieftanMews: @stanleydonwood @nigelgod : You can’t see this message

Chieftan Mew’s negates himself here, by tagging both Stanley Donwood and Nigel Godrich (@nigelgod) in his message he assures that both can see and will be notified of his message.

Instead it’s more likely that he’s informing fans of Nigel’s new twitter account as his disused former account of @nigelgodrich has no tweets.

@radioheadperu Are you joking with Mews? Space? I won’t even get dead air space from them!

Posted on by Muggs

Jul 1, 2011:

@ChieftanMews: @radioheadperu Are you joking with Mews? Space? I won’t even get dead air space from them!

Mew’s tweeted this in response to @radioheadperu who asked:

@ChieftanMews so they finally gave you air space? what about your buck?

Dead Air Space is of course the name of the blog section of Radiohead’s Official Site located at http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace.

Dead Air is the name for a unexpected gap in Radio or Television broadcast usually due to a operator error or technical fault. In a era of 24 hour news-cycles and broadcasting Dead Air is the one thing media organizations strive to avoid.

It is also the title of a 2002 novel by Iain Banks.

The Guardian review of it states that:

Dead Air is narrated by Kenneth Nott, a shock-jock on commercial radio who takes a swollen pride in his contrarian opinions. We first meet him at a drug-fuelled loft party in the East End of London, where everyone, for some reason, starts chucking fruit and furniture off the balcony. Ken’s girlfriend, Jo, does PR for a snotty young British indie band called Addicta; he is also sleeping with a woman called Celia (or “Ceel”), who happens to be married to a dangerous gangster.

You probably wouldn’t like to meet Ken. He is one of those annoying, professionally opinionated people who are never off duty. Large portions of the novel are dedicated to expounding his reactions to the latest topics of media discussion, whether he is on air or just chatting in a pub: gun control (“Guns for nutters only; makes sense”), American imperialism, CCTV cameras, Euroscepticism, the death of Diana (“put on a fucking seatbelt”), all get extended libertarian rants. It is a tribute to Banks’s chatty prose skill that these discussions are largely entertaining, if superficially argued.

( Source : Guardian Review: It’s all in the initial )

For all his hard years of service Chieftan Mews has only gotten this brief mention by Ed O’Brien on Dead Air Space on March 5th, 2005 in a post titled ’1 2 3 4 …. Chieftain Mews anyone?’:

For those who don’t know or remember, Senor Chieftain Mews,as he likes to be addressed now, was our slightly disturbing host on ‘the most gigantic lying mouth of all time’ …. Well, his comrade in arms and occasional masseuse, Chris Bran (who has also been hugely involved in our webcasts since we started them back in 2000), has a pilot out of his new comedy called ‘This is Jinsy’ .. it went out last Monday night on BBC 3 and you can still watch it on the BBC iplayer, but only for a few more days… hurray whilst stocks last… Go check it out .. It’s mental:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00r8z4r/This_Is_Jinsy/

( Source Dead Air Space )

Interestingly this is the only time Mew’s has had his name spelled ‘Chieftain’, it’s probably a typo.

Mew’s has previously tweeted a Youtube video from This is Jinsy named ‘Types of Wood’, and follows them on Twitter.

@gillespeterson : Please help me find Twain & Wildwood. They don’t have facebook or twitter accounts so I am unaware of what they are eating

Posted on by Muggs

Aug 19, 2011:

@ChieftanMews: @gillespeterson : Please help me find Twain & Wildwood. They don’t have facebook or twitter accounts so I am unaware of what they are eating

Gilles Peterson is the host of Gilles Peterson Wordwide on BBC Radio 1, at the time of the tweet he was scheduled to do show with Thom Yorke on the 29th of November. He did not respond to Mew’s message.

You can listen to the show on BBC iPlayer Here or just check out the playlist which featured a previously unreleased Jamie xx remix of Bloom that didn’t make the cut for TKOL-1234567.

Mew’s tends to refer to any kind of material in terms of food and in the past has urged fans at the beginning of a episode of The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth of All Time to ‘Eat’ what was to come (So sit back, relax, and eat. Eat. Eat.).

In this case he’s searching for Stanley Donwood (Twain) and Thom Yorke (Wildwood) who both have twitter accounts at @Stanleydonwood and @ThomYorke respectively. He ends up resorting to Facebook in his search where he registered on the 4th of March 2011.

25 years. Jericho. Friday. Woods. Saturday. Living. Project. Phil’s harmonica. Ago. Carrots&sticks. Bluebook. Mobile Devices & Birds Chirp.

Posted on by Muggs

Sep 8, 2011:

@ChieftanMews: 25 years. Jericho. Friday. Woods. Saturday. Living. Project. Phil’s harmonica. Ago. Carrots&sticks. Bluebook. Mobile Devices & Birds Chirp.

Unscrambled you could read it as ’25 Years. Ago. (this?) Saturday. (On a) Friday. Jericho (Tavern with) Phil’s harmonica.’ in rather a Cluedo who/where/how style.

2011 marks the 25th anniversary of On a Friday’s first gig at the Jericho Tavern a pub and music venue in Oxford. Jonny Greenwood originally joined the band on harmonica before playing keyboard and ending up as the lead guitarist.

On a Friday is of course the name Radiohead used until 1991 when they signed to EMI.

September 8, 1986 is not a Saturday it’s a Monday, nor is September 8, 2011. This suggests that Radiohead’s first gig must have been on Wednesday September 10th, 1986 however finding any source to confirm has been difficult as most sites only say the band performed in the 2nd half of that year (well except some that insist it was 1987 pft).

The rest of the tweet is more modern.

Carrots&sticks. is of course a idiom for the idea of combining a reward and punishment in order for a certain behaviour.

It appears on a Kid-A era tour poster titled ‘Fear Stalks the Land’ along with the line ‘Mobiles Chirping’ from Idioteque, Abbatoir noises and ‘Our Name is Legion’ a which Mew’s has also tweeted.

(Source: Rockfeedback.com)

it also appears in artwork from the additional hidden art booklet as “CHECKS AND BALANCES CARROTS AND STICKS” in 1st edition Kid-A cds reprinted on a T-shirt as SEX WORK DEATH in 2000 and in Dead Children Playing a picture book by Stanley Donwood & Dr. Tchock (Thom Yorke) featuring artwork from OK Computer though to Hail To the Thief.


(Source: Dead Children Playing)

Bluebook is of course a nod towards Facebook’s logo.

Birds Chirps is another way of saying Birds Tweet ala Twitter.

and Mobile Devices.. all three ways to keep in touch.

Woods relates to Bad Woods and Twisted Woods which are both sets of prints by Stanley Donwood, the first forms part of the artwork for The King of Limbs with the second being the artwork for These Are My Twisted Words.


Bad Woods I (Source: Creativereview.co.ok )


Twisted Woods (Source: Highstreet Blog)

On Facebook Mews got himself into a bit of a conversation when a fan replied to his question with the answer “25 years ago at the jericho tavern… on a friday?”, he accused them of being a bot for replying so quickly.

Mew's conversation on Facebook

Italo Rossi ‎25 years ago at the jericho tavern… on a friday?
8 September 2011 at 15:08 · Like · 4

Chieftan Mews Italo Rossi is a bot.
8 September 2011 at 15:10 · Like · 13

Italo Rossi absolutely not, sir. I’m a living human being. prove me wrong.
8 September 2011 at 15:11 · Like · 2

YFAN ‎”I’ll see you in 25 years.” – Laura Palmer, Twin Peaks. David Lynch is reviving Twin Peaks and Radiohead will be providing the score?
8 September 2011 at 15:11 · Like · 5

Chieftan Mews Meanwhile. Farewell and be alert or not.
8 September 2011 at 15:12 · Like · 9

ZFAN I choose death before more bad mews.
8 September 2011 at 15:12 · Like

Chieftan Mews When I cry, lightning strikes. Reality has now become a fantasy. I have proof. Meanwhile. Wham chose life. Farewell and be alert or not.
8 September 2011 at 15:18 · Like · 9

Bot’s are a name for software that runs a automated set of tasks usually at high speed. Such tasks may be to analyse websites such as the ‘web crawlers’ utilized by search engines like Google, for fraud/crime or to perform some level of basic AI such as ‘Chatbots’ which aim to mimic the experience of talking to a real person.

Later he responds to another fan with “When I cry, lightning strikes. Reality has now become a fantasy. I have proof. Meanwhile. Wham chose life. Farewell and be alert or not.”

The line ‘When I cry, Lighting strikes’ may be a nod towards Lightning Crashes by Live from Throwing Copper, it was released in the UK in 1996.

‘Wham chose life’ refers to the ‘CHOOSE LIFE’ t-shirts worn by WHAM when performing ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’ on BBC’s Top of the Pops in 1984.

Finally each of the Facebook messages is signed off with ‘be alert or not.’ suggesting that Mew’s may, or may not be active again soon.

The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth of All Time?

Posted on by Muggs

How do you know when someone’s telling the truth? Let alone a non-verified twitter account by a self confessed liar?

Ever since the discussions started people have questioned the authenticity of Mews, the matter growing more complicated as fakes and copycats emerged. Yet there is strong evidence that Mews is genuine.

1. Followers and Following:
On the day The King of Limbs was released Chieftan Mew’s only had 100 or so followers and was only following a couple of accounts (at the time Stanley Donwood and Radiohead) while he has a bad habit of deleting past tweets he had tweets from as far back as 2010 – long before TKOL was released.

A few days after the discussions started on forums and Mew’s follower count had climbed over 300 Mew’s left the following message:

Mob Likens Fight ** If XXXX Links, Beg ** Fib Me, Ghost Link! ** ␄

After which his account was set to private. Possibly this was to avoid the media following him as being private allows him to accept or deny each follow request and offers him the ability to send them messages.

2. Timezones:
Mew’s tends to be quite regular about tweeting, however he will tweet earlier or later depending on movements, while Radiohead where in the USA he was tweeting a day later then when he was in Europe.

3. Language:
From the very first video Mew’s has had a unique way of speaking which has been translated to twitter. He often mixes up song lyrics or obscure references to places, band trivia and recordings both new and old. While some have attempted to parody and copy his style (see Chieftan Meows for one hilarious example) inside knowledge such as the exact meaning of Ims Menoo/Ers Menoo and their use quickly separates Mews from imitators.

4. Operator 3:
Lurker originally posted this discussion with a W.A.S.T.E customer support person last year:

[Visitor] is the twitter account “ChieftanMews” http://twitter.com/#!/ChieftanMews in any way affiliated with the band. the reason i ask, this account accurately predicted radiohead’s “japanese tweet” as well as the video for lotus flower
[Operator 3]we know of chieftan mews
[Visitor] so this isn’t a troll?
[Operator 3] no, this is all i can say

5. Stanley Donwood:
Stanley has referenced Mew’s a number of times in tweets (and Mew’s has returned the favour in kind) with the two giving some amusing banter on who is following who.

Joining Facebook:
Mew’s Joined Facebook late last year as ‘The Chieftan Mews’ as his usual title was already taken by a impersonator. As with his first tweets his first two posts consisted of links to himself on The Greatest Lying Mouth of All Time followed by similar to identical messages to those posted on Twitter. He’s also been known to like posts and send messages bringing his activity in line with that on Twitter.