33 1/3 announces Radiohead's Kid A book
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 11:50 am
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Publication Date: DECEMBER 2010
RADIOHEAD
Kid A
By Marvin Lin
Ten years ago, Radiohead released their fourth full-length album, Kid A. While the album received mixed reactions upon its initial release, it is now being cited as one of the most influential albums of the last decade, topping lists by everyone from Pitchfork and Rolling Stone to Stereogum and The Times. Kid A even re-entered the Billboard charts earlier this year.
For the latest book in the acclaimed 33 1/3 series, author Marvin Lin attempts to unpack Kid A by examining closely its music, artwork, critical reception, promotion, and more. From discussions about Napster and WTO protests to Marcel Duchamp and Marshall McLuhan, the book is as much about debunking myths as celebrating the listening experience as a site of socio-political importance. More cultural critique than journalistic documentation, Lin's Kid A serves to remind listeners how music is not simply a commodity to purchase, but an activity through which social meaning is performed. And Kid A perhaps reveals more about ourselves than meets the eye.
Marvin Lin's Kid A is now available for pre-order through Amazon and Continuum. It will be released around December 2010.
• 33 1/3 blog: http://www.33third.blogspot.com
• Continuum: http://www.continuumbooks.com
• Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/ ... usnoise-20
Marvin Lin is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of music webzine Tiny Mix Tapes. He has served as an editor at Pitchfork and at the University of Minnesota's student-run independent magazine, The Wake. He lives in Minneapolis with his family.
From the book's back cover:
It was virtually impossible to ignore Radiohead's Kid A when it was released in early October 2000. But the album was more than just a ten-track collection of songs written by five musicians from Oxfordshire, more than the “weird” follow-up to the critics' fashionable go-to record of choice OK Computer, more than what the Village Voice described as “the biggest, warmest recorded go-fuck-yourself in recent memory.” Kid A was an event.
By pulling Kid A from its canonical status and grounding the album in various contexts, Marvin Lin explains not only why Radiohead suddenly adopted a new songwriting methodology, but also how properties like 'genre' and 'authenticity' distracted us from understanding our reactions to it. From bovine growth hormones and neurological impulses to Dada poetry and bandwidth throttling, the book articulates the politics behind both Radiohead's music and our listening experiences. But in a period of socio-political unrest, is listening to Kid A a waste of time? In and through the album, Lin seeks to answer this question by examining what Kid A does to us over time, what Kid A tells us about the future, and whether it's possible (or even desirable) to use Kid A to transcend time altogether.
Publication Date: DECEMBER 2010
RADIOHEAD
Kid A
By Marvin Lin
Ten years ago, Radiohead released their fourth full-length album, Kid A. While the album received mixed reactions upon its initial release, it is now being cited as one of the most influential albums of the last decade, topping lists by everyone from Pitchfork and Rolling Stone to Stereogum and The Times. Kid A even re-entered the Billboard charts earlier this year.
For the latest book in the acclaimed 33 1/3 series, author Marvin Lin attempts to unpack Kid A by examining closely its music, artwork, critical reception, promotion, and more. From discussions about Napster and WTO protests to Marcel Duchamp and Marshall McLuhan, the book is as much about debunking myths as celebrating the listening experience as a site of socio-political importance. More cultural critique than journalistic documentation, Lin's Kid A serves to remind listeners how music is not simply a commodity to purchase, but an activity through which social meaning is performed. And Kid A perhaps reveals more about ourselves than meets the eye.
Marvin Lin's Kid A is now available for pre-order through Amazon and Continuum. It will be released around December 2010.
• 33 1/3 blog: http://www.33third.blogspot.com
• Continuum: http://www.continuumbooks.com
• Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/ ... usnoise-20
Marvin Lin is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of music webzine Tiny Mix Tapes. He has served as an editor at Pitchfork and at the University of Minnesota's student-run independent magazine, The Wake. He lives in Minneapolis with his family.
From the book's back cover:
It was virtually impossible to ignore Radiohead's Kid A when it was released in early October 2000. But the album was more than just a ten-track collection of songs written by five musicians from Oxfordshire, more than the “weird” follow-up to the critics' fashionable go-to record of choice OK Computer, more than what the Village Voice described as “the biggest, warmest recorded go-fuck-yourself in recent memory.” Kid A was an event.
By pulling Kid A from its canonical status and grounding the album in various contexts, Marvin Lin explains not only why Radiohead suddenly adopted a new songwriting methodology, but also how properties like 'genre' and 'authenticity' distracted us from understanding our reactions to it. From bovine growth hormones and neurological impulses to Dada poetry and bandwidth throttling, the book articulates the politics behind both Radiohead's music and our listening experiences. But in a period of socio-political unrest, is listening to Kid A a waste of time? In and through the album, Lin seeks to answer this question by examining what Kid A does to us over time, what Kid A tells us about the future, and whether it's possible (or even desirable) to use Kid A to transcend time altogether.