Palo Alto, California, is home to many of America's large corporations, including Xerox and a few computer companies. When the band played there in March 1996, they were given a several tours of these temples of economical and technological advancement. Thus, the song is about the "city of the future" - the motto of Palo Alto, which is situated in Silicon Valley- and ponders the friendly attitude of the people the band members met there; Thom greets those people in the chorus. It was finally recorded in the UK in November 1997.

The band have never worked out how to play it live properly. This song was originally known as 'OK Computer' but was ditched pretty early on in the recording of that LP, to be revived and overhauled for release as a B-side.