W♥M (Archive)

R.I.P. Prince

Read More Prince Though he and band 3rd Eye Girl managed some hit-and-run random concert dates, mostly in Europe and there were sporadic gigs back home at Paisley Park … Negativland I had to explain the story behind Negativland to a friend recently, when I discovered the original U2 single in a CD collection. I told her that it was quite rare …

You have all heard that Prince is dead. TMZ broke the story at 10am this morning, but I didn’t learn of his passing until noon. I just couldn’t believe it.

There were signs of illness last Friday when Prince had to make an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois, and taken to the hospital. He downplayed his illness by appearing on stage at Paisley Park’s dance party on Saturday... ensuring fans that he was well. He is quoted as saying, “Wait a few days before you waste any prayers.”

Today has been pretty insane. It rained all day, as if the sky was weeping purple tears. There are also no shortage of tributes to Prince. Everywhere I went (especially in Minneapolis), there were digital billboards showing purple, website turning icons to purple, radio stations playing Prince all day, and, especially in Minneapolis, there will be an all-night Prince block party by First Avenue.

Also, not to overshadow other celebrities’ passing, but WWE’s Chyna and Negativland founder Richard Lyons (aka Pastor Dick) both died this week.

Lyons lost his battle with cancer on April 19th. To this day, I still have that rare U2 single that Negativland released (read all about it here).

The band defended their music as fair use (and I feel they are in the right), but record label Island Records (and Casey Kasem) would disagreed... so it is actually pretty hard to come by the original CD single.

Below are more deaths for the month of April - for the full death list: Musicians who died in 2016.

April (19)

[21 Apr 2016] Prince, 57, not known

[20 Apr 2016] Victoria Wood, 62, cancer

[19 Apr 2016] Richard Lyons (Negativland), 57, cancer

[19 Apr 2016] Pete Zorn (Richard Thompson), 65, cancer

[18 Apr 2016] Brian Asawa, 49, not given

[16 Apr 2016] Ismael Quintanaa, 78, not given

[16 Apr 2016] Peter Rock, 70, serious illness

[13 Apr 2016] Gib Guilbeau (Flying Burrito Brothers), 78, not known

[07 Apr 2016] Jade Lemons (Injected), ?, drug overdose

[07 Apr 2016] Jimmie Van Zant, 59, unknown

[06 Apr 2016] Dennis Davis (David Bowie), 64, cancer

[06 Apr 2016] Merle Haggard, 79, pneumonia

[06 Apr 2016] Leon Haywood, 74, unknown

[04 Apr 2016] Irma Bule, 29, cobra bite

[04 Apr 2016] Getatchew Mekurya (the Ex), 81, not known

[03 Apr 2016] Jeff McLaren (Flat Out Refusal), 19, murder

[03 Apr 2016] Bill Henderson, 90, natural causes

[03 Apr 2016] Lola Novaković, 81, not known

[02 Apr 2016] Gato Barbieri, 83, pneumonia

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Negativland - Our Favorite Things

Audio 180 Gs - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For 180 Gs Band Members ♥ Mark Hosler ♥ Don Joyce ♥ Richard Lyons ♥ David Wills ♥ Peter Conheim ♥Tim Maloney ♥Jonathan Land ♥Tom Koch ♥Stukke and Stakke Links Negativland - U2 (Special Edit Radio Mix) http://weheartmus... I had to explain the story behind Negativland to a friend recently, when I discovered the origina... Footnotes [1] Youtube: Negativland - "No Business"

Negativland: Our Favorite Things

I'm really happy to announce that, we have an advance copy of Negativland's Our Favorite Things in house for review (we previously mentioned them here before). According to Amazon, the release date is October 23, 2007, you can get a discount if pre-order the DVD/CD on their website.

What's cool about this DVD release is that it also comes with a CD by the 180 Gs, which I'm not sure who they're trying to fool, but I think it's just the Negativland people. Their obviously fake biography on the 180 Gs is that they're a five-brothers Gospel R&B Doo-Wop acapella group. They were discovered in Detroit by Reverend Al "Sugar" Sweet in 2001.

I don't know who the real singers were, but the 180 d'Gs to the Future CD is quite interesting. It's basically acapella versions of Negativland's songs.

I'm going to include their version of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" to compare that to what I posted earlier.

The DVD has over 80 minutes of Negativland's videos of all their "hits". If you're a die-hard Negativland fan, this DVD has more extras than the program running time (over 90 mins)! The pricing is also just right, since if you consider that the average cost of a normal (new) DVD is $20, you're only paying a little more - but you get the 180 Gs CD.

Most of the videos were pieced together by Negativland, but there were a lot of other filmmakers and animators involved as well. Just an example, the video of "No Business" was made by James Gladman and Negativland, using public domain footage.^[1]

The video to "Favorite Things" was put together by Negativland and Aaron Kruse, using clips from The Sound of Music move, manipulating it so that she sings something very different than the original song. My favorite line from the song is:

Lashes that sting on colored girls tied up with blue sati sashes

Since the DVD cover is a parody of The Sound of Music, it made me think of Takashi Miike's The Happiness of the Katakuris.

Enjoy the video to "Favorite Things":

 

�September 12, 2007 10:08 PM� vu my♥posts vu@weheartmusic.com negativland.com

Negativland - U2 (Special Edit Radio Mix)

 

Negativland - U2 (Special Edit Radio Mix)

U2/Negativland

I had to explain the story behind Negativland to a friend recently, when I discovered the original U2 single in a CD collection. I told her that it was quite rare (I just checked the numbers, there's roughly about 7,000 copies were sold).

So, the story that was told to me, back in the 90s, was that Negativland was sued by Island Records for unauthorized usage of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" sample, as well as misleading the single as a U2 release. So upon release, the single was immediately pulled from store shelves, and the value of the CD went through the roof. It even spawned some bootleg singles, so be careful when buying on ebay!

The "song" itself wasn't that inspiring, it just features samples of "I Still..." and "America's Top 40" host Casey Kasem foul-mouthed-rant. If you're easily offended by the word "sh*t" and "godd*mn", then please avoid listening to the song. Negativland made their song available for download on their website under the The Forbidden Single section.

Trivia: The Guns single was released shortly after their run-in with the lawyers, which had nothing to do with the U2 single, but featured a very similiar artwork. You can read more details about this controversial story over at foetusized.org

NEWS FLASH: Apparently Bono was Knighted the other day!

Some additional useful comments:

kitty wrote: Mar 30, 2007 at 2:45 PM

I haven't heard this classic for years - thanks!

Stay Free magazine (www.stayfreemagazine.org) put out a free cd of illegal music a few years ago with this on it, along with many others. If I can find my copy, perhaps I'll share something...

Angry Tiki wrote: Mar 30, 2007 at 2:52 PM

Great CD.

It is available here with the liner notes as to why each track caused a fuss:
www.illegal-art.org/audio/liner.html

girlafraid wrote: Mar 30, 2007 at 4:09 PM

Wow. I remember reading about this in Bill Flanagan's U2 book back when I was an obsessed fifteen-year-old. I had no idea they still existed.

deusdiabolus wrote: Mar 30, 2007 at 4:33 PM

There is also a CD called THESE GUYS ARE FROM ENGLAND AND WHO GIVES A SH*T on the suspiciously-named Seelard Records which contains the two original mixes plus a number of live performances and variations on the same theme. You can gleefully pay money for it here:
www.negativland.com/nmol/cds.html

 

vu