Late last year, experimental veterans Negativland released True False, one of two interconnected double albums the band plans to release within the year. It samples vocalists who have never met and contemplates the absurdity of everyday life, particularly the surrealism of the current political situation in America. In the songs, Negativland samples things like Fox News hosts, Occupy microphone checks, and ecoterrorists.
Formed in San Francisco, Negativland made a major impact not only on experimental music, but popular culture and mass media as a whole. Negativland coined the term "culture jamming" to describe their style of subversive media manipulation, similar to composer John Oswald's concept of plunderphonics. Assembling much of their work out of found and re-appropriated material, particularly easily recognizable sounds and images from advertisements and other mainstream media, the group create dense, semi-musical collages which provide surreal commentary on topics ranging from religion to celebrity culture to intellectual property issues.
Back in 2014, I saw Negativland perform at Seattle's Bumbershoot festival.
In Seattle Weekly, Dave Lake wrote of that performance, "Negativland were definitely not what the EDM kids were expecting." As Dave Segal further described in Seattle's weekly paper, The Stranger, "Negativland's subtlety is too humorous for a festival crowd, and it sent the jackass kids who were yelling 'Drop a beat!' and 'Let's get it!' scattering after 10 minutes."
Hilariously, Negativland punctuated their set with faux advertisements, like this one:
They worked about three of four of these "commercials" into their Bumbershoot set, each as specific and as sarcastic as this one. That is not normal.
Formed in San Francisco, Negativland made a major impact not only on experimental music, but popular culture and mass media as a whole. Negativland coined the term "culture jamming" to describe their style of subversive media manipulation, similar to composer John Oswald's concept of plunderphonics. Assembling much of their work out of found and re-appropriated material, particularly easily recognizable sounds and images from advertisements and other mainstream media, the group create dense, semi-musical collages which provide surreal commentary on topics ranging from religion to celebrity culture to intellectual property issues.
Back in 2014, I saw Negativland perform at Seattle's Bumbershoot festival.
In Seattle Weekly, Dave Lake wrote of that performance, "Negativland were definitely not what the EDM kids were expecting." As Dave Segal further described in Seattle's weekly paper, The Stranger, "Negativland's subtlety is too humorous for a festival crowd, and it sent the jackass kids who were yelling 'Drop a beat!' and 'Let's get it!' scattering after 10 minutes."
Hilariously, Negativland punctuated their set with faux advertisements, like this one:
They worked about three of four of these "commercials" into their Bumbershoot set, each as specific and as sarcastic as this one. That is not normal.
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