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Radiohead Stanley Donwood

Stanley Donwood Art Show in San Francisco

Stanley Donwood is having an art show in San Francisco, CA from September 2 to October 27th at FIFTY24SF Gallery. Here’s the press release:

FIFTY24SF Gallery Presents “Over Normal”
New Works by Stanley Donwood

Fifty24SF Gallery presents “Over Normal”- a solo exhibition by Stanley Donwood and his first ever showing in the United States.

When thinking of iconic imagery in music from the last 20 years, Stanley Donwood’s work with Radiohead invariably comes to mind – and for good reason. Where Radiohead’s music stretched the auditory horizons and painted musical sceneries of mans place in the modern world, Donwood’s imagery and packaging forced us to face the gravity of the music from the minute the album hit our hands; and by creating cryptic, academic and (at times) dystopian layouts, the albums themselves became as striking and relevant as the music they contained.

Although Stanley Donwood generally avoids the grandeur of media and would prefer to be undersold, to speak only in terms of his work with Radiohead would be a disservice. From his exhibitions of intricate etchings at Lazarides Gallery in London, to the vibrant works that made up his show at Iguapop Gallery in Barcelona, Donwood’s gallery work has consistently mixed personal and political emotions with modesty and humor.

For “Over Normal”, the catalyst for the large works featured in the show is in Los Angeles, where Stanley began to notice (with equal parts amazement and distress) that the advertisements bombarding him on the multilane highways were made of seven basic colors, immediately grabbing viewers’ attention in a primal way. More recently, Stanley noticed a parallel between the use of those colors and an influx of spam emails that promised everything from more fruitful sex lives, to cheap foreclosed properties at the expense of someone else’s misery. The word’s that were used in the emails were formatted in the same fundamental way as color in the advertisement’s had been used: to grab unconscious attention and tell a story without the viewer knowing it. Marrying the immediate words used in these emails with the attractive and distressing colors of the advertisements, Stanley has produced a line of seven vibrant, original pieces for this exhibition.

Stanley has also produced a 12 page newspaper to accompany the show, this explains how he came about putting together a neuron firing sound installation in an artificial neural network which is also featured in the show and is entitled ‘The Overnormaliser’.

“Over Normal” will run from September 2nd – October 27th with an opening reception occurring on September 2nd from 7:30PM – 10:00PM.

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Relevant Links:
FIFTY24SF Gallery: http://www.fifty24sf.com
Stanley Donwood: http://www.slowlydownward.com/
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Here are some examples of the artwork that will be shown:

Categories
In Rainbows Radiohead tour

Radiohead Tour Roundup

Radiohead in San Francisco
(image by www.alucinante.net)

Radiohead performed the first ever amplified concert at night in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park last evening. To read reviews of the show, or to leave your own, please visit our gigography.

Here are links to all the recent shows:
8/22/08 – San Francisco Outside Lands Festival
8/20/08 – Auburn, WA
8/19/08 – Vancouver, Canada
8/15/08 – Toronto, Canada

More dates….

Categories
Radiohead tour

The post where we ask Radiohead to play “Creep” in San Francisco

Radiohead, Creep
(photo by riskybaby)

In all honesty, we’re just as tired of “Creep” as the band is, but let’s not forget that it is the song that made them famous and allowed them to go on and make the rest of their albums the way they wanted to make them.

Personally speaking, I remember my high school girlfriend listening to “Creep” in 1993 and thinking, “this is such a crap song.” It wasn’t until she dumped me that I realized how great it was, and from that point on I was hooked. In the dozen times I’ve seen the band live, they’ve only played it once and that was in 1995 opening up for R.E.M. It’s because of this that I am selfishly requesting they play it at the Outside Lands Festival on Friday, August 22nd in San Francisco.

But wait, there’s another reason why I want them to play it in SF. Let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we?

It is widely accepted that in 1992/93, San Francisco radio station Live 105 “discovered” Radiohead and brought “Creep” to the masses in the U.S. From there, the single spread like wild fire across the country and everyone and their girlfriend was listening to them. You can read more about this here, if you’re interested.

So, what do you say, Radiohead? You owe it to us.

PS. If not “Creep”, then how about “Lift”?

Categories
Colin Greenwood Jonny Greenwood

Greenwood News

The brothers Greenwood are in the news today. First up, it was announced on music composer James Lavino’s MySpace blog that Colin Greenwood is contributing to the soundtrack of the Alex Karposvksy’s film Woodpecker. The soundtrack is apparently out now digitally and the film has been making the festival rounds since March.

In other news, Jonny Greenwood’s Popcorn Superhet Receiver is making its West Coast debut on August 21 at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre. As you may know, Greenwood won the 2006 BBC British Composer Awards for this piece. As Pitchfork reports, Popcorn is billed as having “surprise guests” so it could be that Jonny may actually be part of the performance since the band will be in San Francisco the day after for the Outside Lands Festival. This is just a guess and not by any means official.

More about the performance:

JONNY GREENWOOD: POPCORN SUPERHET RECEIVER
THE MAGIK*MAGIK ORCHESTRA
BENJAMIN SHWARTZ, CONDUCTOR
JOAN JEANRENAUD, CELLO
WILLIAM WINANT, PERCUSSION

Our San Francisco debut and the surprise finale of the 2007-08 season. The night before Radiohead takes the stage at the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival, Wordless Music will present the West Coast premiere of Jonny Greenwood’s Popcorn Superhet Receiver for string orchestra. Conductor Benjamin Shwartz will lead the Magik*Magik Orchestra in a program of music by Arvo Part, a major influence on the music of Jonny Greenwood and Radiohead, along with Bay Area composers Fred Frith, Mason Bates, and John Adams. Tickets on sale via cityboxoffice.com.

(thanks to Pitchfork and AtEase)

Categories
In Rainbows Radiohead tour

Tickets for Outside Lands Festival on sale

Tickets for the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park August 22,23, and 24 have gone on sale by w.a.s.t.e., 6 days earlier than the general sale this Sunday.

They are only selling 3 day passes for $233 plus $20 handling charge. To get yours, head on over!

For a lineup of bands/artists performing, check out the official website.

Categories
In Rainbows Radiohead tour

Rumor: Radiohead to play San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park?

Well, color us excited. Rumor has it that Radiohead will be playing Golden Gate Park as part of the Outside Lands Festival the weekend of August 22nd.

All Shook Down has the deets:

Today an industry source confirmed Radiohead, Tom Petty, and Jack Johnson will headline the first-ever “Outside Lands Festival” in Golden Gate Park August 22-24. The precise, nightly order of the headliners remains unknown. Tickets prices and on-sale dates remain unknown. The source, who operates outside the festival organization and who requested anonymity, says the 160,000-person, three-day inaugural Festival represents a huge coup for local promoting powerhouse Another Planet Entertainment (in conjunction with Superfly), as well as a major boost to San Francisco’s festival profile. Outside Lands will come just weeks before the highly esteemed, 2nd Annual Treasure Island Music Festival.

The source’s info corroborates circumstantial evidence relating to:

1) Size. According to government documents, APE expects up to 160,000 people over 8.22-24 in GG Park the week before Burning Man for a “major headliner”.

2) Timing. The first two dates of the proposed event, Friday Aug. 22 and Sat. Aug. 23 come just a day before Radiohead is rumored to be playing L.A. on 8.24 and 8.25.

4) Location. Radiohead cares about carbon-neutral touring, and wants to site shows at places with transit; like GGP.

5) Experience. APE booked Radiohead before, and they’ve booked the Park before. They are among the best and the brightest in the Bay, and if anyone could do it, it’s them.

We await a statement from the Outside Lands Festival organizers confirming or denying our source’s information. They said they have no statement at this time. -David Downs (Oscar Medina contributed to this story.)