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.
I 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 love Negativland. Very interesting use of samples. Their album with Chumbawumba is really cool
Same! Their radio show is an incredible piece of art!
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 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
The fucking moon.
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.
playing tomorrow at the Internet Archive in San Francisco!
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.
Gimme the Mermaid is a work of art.
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!
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.