Negativland, Culture Jamming, and the Art of Making Something New
blog.archive.orgI love the track from Escape From Noise (1987) that predicts our current housing crisis and criticizes the hypocrisy of anti-development mindsets and Prop 13 and all of that by comparing it to the way people talk about firearms prohibitions.
“When no more can be sold, you can see that the majority of adults will be virtually prohibited from ever owning one” — “so if you've always admired parts of Piedmont or Orinda…” — “well you could buy one, if you could convince someone to sell you his, and if you're willing to pay his price” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vPCIWbCOyY
(I will be at this irl btw)
There was a housing crisis in 1987, too: https://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/02/opinion/l-time-to-be-seri... I'm not sure there ever was a time without a housing crisis.
I'm not sure there ever was a time without a housing crisis.
There really hasn't been.
As bad as it is, the current housing crisis isn't nearly as bad as it was back in the 1930's and 40's.
Back then it was so bad that the government ran ad campaigns begging people to rent out their spare bedrooms, dens, garages, etc.
That sounds like a different type of crisis - people paying an acceptable price but not having as much house as they'd like. In current year there's a regulatory floor on how much house you can pay for.
I played Negativland on my radio show which was played on pirate radio in LA through Killradio.org
I remixed them, music, and dense political talks for a one hour show.
I love Negativland. Very interesting use of samples. Their album with Chumbawumba is really cool
I once changed a person's mind on flock cameras by showing them the More Data music video.
Evolution Control Committee had some wild stuff too in a similar vein. Totally not on Spotify, sooooo many copyright issues.
a good album— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarhythm_Nation
Don't forget Rebel Without a Pause
The fucking moon.
I love their albums! I was lucky enough to see them live 1-2 years ago. They performed their latest album and they still got it! Their satirical approach to sampling translates well to the 2020s.
playing tomorrow at the Internet Archive in San Francisco!
Negativland is a name I haven't heard in about 30 years. They were comparatively famous in the 90s, I guess, due to using the U2 samples.
Gimme the Mermaid is a work of art.
I have Negativland in my music collection. If you can, treat yourself to Escape from Noise and The Playboy Channel from the 1987 album Escape from Noise. Unforgettable.
This guy was an internet friend of mine, claimed to be mentored by one of the Negativland guys, and definitely carries the flame with his weekly(-ish) releases. They used to play hella late night Thursdays on KPFA, not sure if that's still going. Give it a listen!
> “This guy was an internet friend of mine…”
Was? Did you have an internet failing out? Or did one of you stop using the internet?
I accidentally got New Coke, I poured it down the drain.
Damn, makes me want to jump on a plane to SFO tomorrow morning...
Doesn't sound like many of them are going to be there, so I wouldn't feel the need to as well.