This interview appeared on Pitchfork.com today Monday May 2nd, 2011:

When Radiohead announced that their new album, The King of Limbs, would be released in a “newspaper” version, it left people with lots of questions. Like: What the hell is a “newspaper album,” anyway? Photos of the deluxe set started rolling in last week, and Jon Severs of PrintWeek sat down with the band’s longtime artist Stanley Donwood to talk about the ideas behind the unusual packaging. The interview and scans from the King of Limbs art are below:

Jon Severs: Was this newspaper concept driven by the music?

Stanley Donwood: [laughs] I haven’t heard the album yet– not properly, not finished, not since it was being made. I’m waiting for the record company to send me a 12″ version! But when I was listening to it being made– because I work alongside the band when they are making the music– I loved hearing it emerge. I was hearing these shufflings and bangings becoming this sonic space that you can almost walk into. As I listened, I had this vision of these old churches where you had these huge ceilings of overarching, intertwined colors, and this led me to painting all these colored trees.

JS: So the newspaper album concept is something that the band inspired?SD: The whole idea of this album was to have something that was almost not existing, so we chose clear vinyl and the newspaper format. [In Rainbows] was this big, heavy, substantial thing– if you were determined, you could have killed someone with it! It was very much a definitive statement, and that isn’t where the band are at the moment. Where they are now is more transitory. When a newspaper comes out, that doesn’t mean news stops, what you have is just a snapshot of how things were at the moment that newspaper was printed. And similarly, this album shows where Radiohead are at the moment the record was released. The music is a continuing thing. And we wanted to make the album representative of that.

I also really love newspapers. They are disposable. They are recyclable. They fall apart so easily. They are not like iPads or Kindles that can’t be disposed of and end up on some third-world shore. And I love the heritage of them, the whole history of mass communication. Newspapers changed the world from being a really class based, feudal system to people being able to cheaply get information that informed them.

Read the entire article here

Thanks to Tyler for sending this to me!

More artwork inspired by The King Of Limbs

He has designed one of these for each track on The King Of Limbs and they can be viewed here.

Wil Morrill, a graphic designer and video artist living near Seattle, WA. Each piece was meant to visually express the sound and feel of each song on the album. It was created while listening to each song on repeat. The colors and textures were all based on the feeling and style of the song.

Follow me on Twitter here.

I have added a page of covers from The King Of Limbs.  Check it out here

I am  looking for a volunteer on the site.  I need some help changing the layout and  a few other things on here.  So, if you have experience with WordPress and HTML please contact me.  Also, if there is anyone interesting in contributing to the site feel free to contact me.

Thanks again to Jak River for the artwork for my new Twitter picture.  Be sure to check him out on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.

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