-

Book of Radiohead-inspired art intrigues and disturbs

Date published: 8/28/2008

By Matt Cameron

Radiohead is kind of a big deal in the music world.

From their constantly evolving creative ideas to the revolutionary marketing methods behind their latest CD, "In Rainbows" (allowing fans to download it for free and pay what they wanted to), everything the band has done recently has been trend-setting and trailblazing.

Thus it should come as no surprise that Thom Yorke, the group's heralded frontman, teamed up last year with artist Stanley Donwood to release a picture book titled "Dead Children Playing," inspired by the album art that Donwood has done for the band over the past decade.

Of course, before mentioning Yorke in the first paragraph, there probably should've been a spoiler alert, since the book is technically authored by Donwood and a mysterious "Dr. Tchock," which is actually Yorke's alter ego.

That may sound like a slightly pretentious move on the part of Yorke--and it is--but it's all part of the package. Once Yorke's curious pen name and the equally intriguing book title get your mind churning, the pictures begin to confound things even more.

At first they are merely baffling, with depictions of inhalers and abstract snowy landscapes (from "Kid A") filling the pages. But they quickly become more disturbing, with crude drawings of demonic bears showing up in unlikely places, as well as a page devoted to instructions on how to handle your new pet dead bird ("feeding is unnecessary").

Next come the "OK Computer" drawings, and then things get really weird. Donwood shifts from the abstract and austere to the downright apocalyptic as the pictures continue. The one recurring feature seems to be the evil bear, who greets readers with a menacing grin until he finally speaks directly through an equally disturbing poem: "And the wind won't blow/ And I won't know/Because I will be dead."

Date published: 8/28/2008