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Sorry, I misspoke, it wasn't Ed.

 

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Stanley Donwood reveals why Radiohead's art is fit to print

 

Radiohead's 'sixth member', the artist Stanley Donwood, wants to revive newsprint as an artform. He tells Jon Severs why

 

Monday, 21 February 2011

 

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Stanley Donwood admits that his short attention span means he constantly does things in new ways. But you might expect that from an artist so closely associated with the world's strangest, big rock band: Radiohead.

 

Since 1996's The Bends, Donwood has produced all of the band's artwork and, just as Thom Yorke and Co push the boundaries musically, so does Donwood in the methods and materials he uses in his art.

 

Proof comes in his new show, Work On Paper, which started last week in London. It features screen prints of his Twisted Woods series and giclée (ink-jet) prints of a selection of art produced for Radiohead and Thom Yorke's The Eraser. Even in this snapshot, the variety is striking.

 

Over the weekend the band's new album, The King of Limbs, was made available for download and, naturally, Donwood has a surprise in store for the packaging of the physical release in May. It will be, according to the band, the "First (probably) newspaper album", which will incorporate "many large sheets of newspaper artwork, 625 tiny pieces of artwork and a full-colour piece of oxo-degradable plastic to hold it together."

 

Though it is a "new" development for music, the newspaper format is not a new direction for Donwood – papers are a constant of his career. His fascination with the medium began when he worked as a paper boy and found direction later in producing jokey newspapers for festivals.

 

From 2006, he found a more focused role for the format, using it to promote and explain his work. For example, for a 2010 San Francisco show he produced a special issue of his newspaper, Over Normal.

 

"I love the tactile nature of the newsprint," says Donwood. "I love the history of Fleet Street (which featured in The Eraser's art), the revolution that was moving type and how it meant that, for the first time, people were able to educate and inform themselves in an accessible way."

 

In his commitment to the format, of which the new Radiohead LP is the latest manifestation, Donwood is part of a growing movement of boutique news-printing – small-run, micro-focused newspaper publications. The popularity is such that The Newspaper Club prints news for anything from school papers and wedding souvenirs to corporate clients such as Liberty and Wired. Also printing are artists capitalising on the romance of newsprint, and the author Dave Eggers, who started his own bespoke San Francisco Panorama – a 320-page broadsheet featuring art and writing from the likes of Michael Chabon.

 

People harking back to newsprint in a digital age does not surprise Donwood. For him, papers are archives in a way websites cannot be. "A newspaper is a snapshot; a physical record of how things are. If you turned the electricity off, digital records would all disappear, but newspapers have the physical reality, the longevity, and that's brilliant."

 

 

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/stanley-donwood-reveals-why-radioheads-art-is-fit-to-print-2220592.html

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So it seems that Radiohead pretty much undoubtedly will release more music, especially according to this new Jonny interview where he says

 

 

“We are recording with Radiohead and rehearsing, playing and making music and working out what to do. We have stopped planning ahead very far, just making music and wondering where to go next and what to do.”

 

http://www.ateaseweb.com/2011/03/04/jonny-greenwood-radiohead-making-music-rehearsing-working-out-what-to-do/

^there's a 5 minute interview clip about it.

 

 

So I imagine more music being on the way, and probably shows since they are rehearsing.

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I would like to see them popping up every now and again with snippets of genius if it prolongs their existence as a group together, and also allows them to evolve into different areas of sound without having to be tied down to a whole album to do so and get each track to fit together in album form.

 

Rehearsing sounds good as they are perhaps planning on live projects too.

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There are more than 8 TKOL songs...

 

It should be pointed out that our conversation takes place well before the rushed release last month of The King of Limbs. "There are more than 10 [songs]' date='" he answers. "To me, it sounds like they're all 99 per cent finished. But my quality level is a little bit lower than everybody else's. I'm impatient, childish. But the others are like, 'No, this is nearly right. Let's get this right.' And looking at our old albums, they've been right in the past. They're probably right now."[/quote']

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/jonny-greenwood-lights-cameraindie-superhero-action-2233414.html

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From what I've been reading lately from what Jonny has said, it seems like they're still on a creative high. From hearing that small little interview from the BBC they are still into recording and working on new songs. So I don't know if we'll get a King of Limbs part 2 per-say, but definitely more music in the future, if not a completely different album not related to TKOL.

 

Also too, like I've said before 8 songs seems like way to few to have done.

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Other sites are starting to pre-order now

CD only: http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=8461797

Vinyl: http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=8461567

 

I'm a little confused by how inexpensive the vinyl product is. It even says there are 3 shipping items (I'm assuming they mean the two 10" vinyls and the CD); yet it's only sllightly more than just the CD. :confused:

 

Also there's a product listing for an import from Japan, and it's about 3 times the price. Not sure what that's all about.

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After a little over two weeks of listening, I feel I can give an accurate personal ranking of the tracks on TKOL.

 

1. Lotus Flower / Codex (couldn't decide, so it's a tie)

3. Give Up The Ghost

4. Little By Little

5. Separator

6. Feral

7. Morning Mr Magpie

8. Bloom

 

Yes, I put Bloom last. Go ahead - hate me.

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