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Bio • Discography • Media Quotes
Since 1980, the various Floptops known as Negativland, a multimedia collective originally from California’s Bay Area, have been creating records, CDs, video, fine art, books, radio and live performance using appropriated sounds, images, objects, and text.
Mixing original materials and original music with things taken from corporately owned mass culture and the world around them, Negativland surreally re-arrange these found bits and pieces to make them say and suggest things that they never intended to. In doing this kind of cultural archaeology and "culture jamming" (a term they coined way back in 1984), Negativland have been sued twice for copyright infringement.
While it is true that, after being sued, Negativland became more publicly involved in advocating significant reforms of our nation's copyright laws (even finding themselves being brought to Washington DC and Capitol Hill as citizen lobbyists for copyright and art issues), Negativland are artists first and activists second. All of their art and media interventions have intended to pose both serious and silly questions about the nature of sound, media, control, ownership, propaganda, power, and perception in the United States of America. Their work is now referenced and taught in many college courses in the US, has been written about and cited in over 150 books and legal journals, and they sometimes lecture about their work here and in Europe.
While their tactics and art practices have now become something a tween can do with a few clicks on their smartphone, Negativland is still interested in unusual noises and images (especially ones that are found close at hand), unusual ways to restructure such things and combine them with their own music and art, and mass media transmissions which have been sources and subjects for much of their work. Negativland covets insightful humor and wackiness from anywhere, low-tech approaches whenever possible, and vital social targets of any kind. Foregoing ideological preaching, but interested in side effects, Negativland is a subliminal cultural sampling service concerned with making art about everything we aren't supposed to notice.
More about Negativland
Negativland’s self tilted sound collage debut came out in 1980 when some of the members were still in high school. The album covers were handmade and numbered, with 15,000 one-of-a-kind covers (9000 vinyl and 6000 CD) eventually being made over the next 15 years. A vinyl re-issue is in the works.
Since 1981, Negativland and an evolving cast of characters have operated “Over The Edge,” a weekly radio show on KPFA FM in Berkeley, California. “Over The Edge” continues to broadcast, and over 34 years of shows are available at The Internet Archive.
A Big 10-8 Place came out in 1983. It was the groups third record and their first to be a concept album, a format they have more or less stuck to ever since. This tape splicing extravaganza, three years in the making, came in a wrap-around sleeve with poster, bumper sticker, inspection cards, hand embossed inner sleeve, and a baggie of lawn clippings (or beauty bark in the later CD version).
1987 saw the release of their seminal (and best selling) fourth album Escape From Noise, which contained fan favorite “Time Zones,” and the track “Christianity is Stupid,“ which lead to a startling ax-murder hoax that became the subject of 1989s Helter Stupid album.
1993 saw the release of Free, a reaction to the current state of affairs in the USA at that time, and in 1995 they released a 270-page book with 72-minute CD entitled Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2, documenting their infamous four-year long legal battle over their 1991 release of an audio piece entitled U2.
They were the subjects of Craig Baldwin's 1995 feature documentary Sonic Outlaws and created the soundtrack and sound design for Harold Boihem's 1997 documentary film The Ad And The Ego, an excellent in-depth look into the hidden agendas of the corporate ad world and the ways that we are affected by advertising.
1997’s Dispepsi was a high-concept collection of original music, songs, and collaged advertising that brought Negativland’s brand of thirsty cultural critique to the parched and dehydrated psyches of of young consumers everywhere. It focused on the impact of mass advertising via the idea of making a record that was about nothing but Pepsi, Pepsi, Pepsi (and a bit of Coke).
2002 saw the issue of Deathsentences Of The Polished And Structurally Weak. Actual wrecking yard detritus, found notes, cassettes, laundry lists, etc, formed the basis of a poignant 64-page full-color book with read-along CD soundscape. The album was a return to pure noise collage and closest in spirit to A Big 10-8 Place, but utterly unique in the Negativland canon... no words, just sounds.
In 2004 Negativland worked with Creative Commons to write the Creative Commons Sampling License, an alternative to existing copyrights that is now widely used by many artists, writers, musicians, film makers, and websites.
In 2005 they released the elaborately packaged No Business (with CD, 15,000-word essay, die-cut outer sleeve, and custom-made whoopie cushion), and debuted "Negativlandland" - a large visual art show of over 80 pieces of their "fine art" works, videos, home-made electronic devices, and a life-sized animatronic Abe Lincoln robot, at New York City's Gigantic Art Space. The exhibit traveled around the country, showing in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis, Houston, and Richmond, VA.
2007 saw the release of Our Favorite Things, a feature-length DVD collection of Negativland’s many years of collaborative film work, and in 2008 they surprised themselves and everybody else by putting out a toe-tapping all-singing song project of one member's compositions called Negativland Presents Thigmotactic.
2014’s It's All In Your Head found the group tackling their biggest subject ever: why so many humans believe in God.
This ambitious and densely-crafted double CD was packaged inside of an actual King James Holy Bible, repurposed into a "found" art object. Negativland mixed found music, found sound, found dialogue, guest personalities and original electronic noises into a compelling musical essay on monotheism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, neuroscience, suicide bombers, 9/11, cola, war, shaved chimps, and the all-important role played by the human brain in our beliefs. The audio was first presented in over 35 stage performances as a live radio broadcast (modeled after the “Over the Edge" radio program), with the album itself being assembled from tracks recorded live in front of blindfolded audiences, documenting the unique style of live collage performances that Negativland has been presenting on stages and radio since the formation of the group.
In late 2016, Negativland released a new CD entitled The Chopping Channel, volume 9 in an ongoing series of albums edited from their ongoing live mix radio show, Over The Edge. The first record released since the 2015 and 2016 deaths of long-time member Don Joyce and co-founder Richard Lyons, The Chopping Channel was a manic collage work about the ravenous commodification of every last aspect of our physical and emotional lives, and was completed in the months before Don died. Taking the packaging to its ultimate and logical conclusion, 1000 copies of the CD included actual “cremains” (ashes) of deceased member Don Joyce himself, and came with the gift of one of Don's unique, handmade audio tape carts, used in the creation of “Over The Edge” and Negativland live performances as his “main instrument” from 1981 up until his death. As a statement from beyond the beyond, the release is perhaps the ultimate end game in Negativland’s history of found art, appropriation, repurposing and productizing. The “release” of Dons ashes in this manner kept with his lifelong devotion to the creation of art above all else, speaking to the degree to which virtually no idea in art was ever off-limits to him.
True false?
True False was Negativland’s 13th studio album and a return to all original music that you could mistake for actual songs, albeit ones being sung by dozens of sampled vocalists who have never met. The first of two (or is it three?) interconnected double albums, True False tackled concerns that will be familiar to any surviving fans of the band: our nervous systems, our realities, and the evolving forms of media and technology that orchestrate our perceptions. Shootings, bees, the right's rules for radicals, climate control, dogs pretending to be children, the oil we eat, capitalism, and the right of every American to believe whatever they want to believe ….all were explored. It was the first Negativland album to come with a lyric sheet, and a reminder that we need more than just one memory before we can safely tell anyone else that this is not normal. Juxtaposing Occupy mic checks with US militia rallies, FOX news hosts and ecoterrorists, and your own sanity with the home viewing habits of Negativland's lead vocalist, the Weatherman. As we witness the entrenched political beliefs of the left and the right cleanly switch sides in under a generation, when putting the word 'True' next to the word 'False', a broader reality reveals itself.
And what is "The World Will Decide"?
The mirror image sequel to 2019's True False, The World Will Decide turns the focus away from our very human inability to accurately define reality, and towards the technologies being built to do a better job at it. If sorting true from false seemed like a full time job back when all we had to keep track of was our own minds, life alongside the machines built to connect us only seems to multiply these uncertainties. On this album those uncertainties are made almost deliriously danceable: a hallucinatory netweb of densely sampled voices melting speech into music and back again, into what we can all agree are the real questions — Did that firefly really land on your finger? Would you like to be arrested? Does this app connect you to people, or replace them? Is this post an example of inauthentic behavior? Do people have to die? Or, as one of the many sampled voices on this work will assure you: we can really feel like we’re here.
And, finally, just who is even in Negativland these days? Didn't half of you die a few years ago?
For the creation of True False and The World Will Decide, Negativland consists of current core members Mark Hosler, David Wills, and Jon Leidecker, as well as Peter Conheim and our dearly departed Don Joyce, Richard Lyons and Ian Allen, who are just as sonically present on those albums as the rest of us who are still breathing. Containing found sound tapes from the earliest years of the band (including dozens of samples that will be very familiar to regular listeners of “Over The Edge”), True False and The World Will Decide fold the decades on top of each other until they finally resemble all of the feelings that tomorrow has for today.
Other members of the extended Negativland family include live cinema artist SUE-C (Sue Slagle), film maker Ryan Worsley, film maker/animator/OTE archivist Tim Maloney, digital artist Dan Lynch, designer Shawn Wolfe, Seeland Records HQ traffic controller Jennifer Bennett, and angel archivist Taylor Jessen. We couldn’t do this without you.
See a 90-minute presentation on Negativland's work, history, copyright activism, and fair use, as shared at the 47th Ann Arbor Film Festival,
titled "Adventures in Illegal Art":
BIG TIME MEDIA QUOTES ABOUT NEGATIVLAND'S WORK THAT MAKE THEM SOUND LEGIT
“If you want to be inspired by individuals who dare to bust down the doors of art’s gatekeepers, then STAND BY FOR FAILURE, the new documentary about Negativland, is the way to go. ”
“Negativland’s music is at a high point, so much so that Laurie Anderson called their recent album THE WORLD WILL DECIDE her fourth favorite album of all time. With their rattling societal critique, it’s clear that their inner drive isn’t for art or the fans or pre-pandemic normality, it’s to meet the terrifying contemporary moment. This group has acknowledged the dystopia perpetually since the late 70s, making them more relevant, and all the better, as the world slides incrementally into meltdown.”
“Negativland’s catalogue runs deep. Its records form a dastardly through line, along which the twentieth century’s cynical media environment and corporate-ad saturation, that leads to the groups current target on THE WORLD WILL DECIDE: surveillance and the lack of self in an Internet hellscape.”
“It may at first seem that Negativland’s sound collage is an unlikely candidate for a Tiny Desk concert, but honestly, how many bands can you think of making music since the late 1970s while sitting pretty much at their desks?
Formed in the Bay Area, Negativland are proud subverters of culture, causing trouble while having fun. The found sounds of Negativland take aim at the media and how technology alters our perception of the world, and you can hear that on their new album, THE WORLD WILL DECIDE.”
“THE WORLD WILL DECIDE is a tremendous step forward for a band that has always broken new barriers. The new normal never feels so real as when Negativland screams it at us.”
“Negativland created a masterful album with THE WORLD WILL DECIDE, which encompasses the uncertainty of being human in a newfound digital world. The bits and pieces that make up the sound collage create a really impactful story, if one listens close enough. It combines the fear of the unknown, as well as the beauty within it.”
“Negativland may be in a loop, but they’re not in a rut. TRUE FALSE is a continuation of the anarchic style of satire and culture jamming they’ve been tinkering with for more than four decades. Seated atop a mountain of garbage, veteran collagists Negativland deliver a brutally candid commentary on consumer society. ”
“TRUE FALSE shows that the loveable and dark collective has lost none of its irreverence or intelligence across the last 40 years.”
“Declared heroic by their peers for refashioning culture into what the group considers to be more honest statements, Negativland suggests that refusing to be original, in the traditional sense, is the only way to make art that has any depth within commodity capitalism...”
“In the world as it is today, now seems to be the perfect time to face up to Negativland’s aesthetic and acclimatise to it, while you can. No one does this better. Not even the people who do it for real.”
“Negativland isn’t just some group of merry pranksters; its art is about tearing apart and reassembling found images, objects, and sounds to create new ones, in an attempt to make social, political and artistic statements. Hilarious and chilling.”
“Negativland is arguably the preeminent audio collage collective of our time.”
“It’s an often ignored request, but you may pay more attention to the phrase “Please remember to take all your belongings” after seeing Negativland’s eerily mesmerizing new project... ”
“Negativland, longtime advocates of fair use allowances for pop media collage, are perhaps America’s most skilled plunderers from the detritus of 20th century commercial culture...the band’s latest project is razor sharp, microscopically focused, terribly fun and a bit psychotic.”
“For more than 40 years, Negativland has earned renown for manipulation of both tape and media.”
“Musical collage pioneers... genre-defying, densely layered, strangely accessible...”
“Negativland... known for their media pranks...”
“Negativland are at it again... a parody of soft drink marketing.”
“Scathing and entertaining... they believe that the sheer volume of advertising is degrading to the mental and physical environment.”
“A provocation and a punk-inspired commentary on our mercenary culture…eloquent and impassioned spokesmen for ideas like a “creative commons”…it’s salutary to see these smart and influential guys get a gallery show.”
“Fearless artistes or foolhardy risk-takers... by constantly haranguing the listener with authentic advertising spiel and highlighting its transparency, they kill the messenger, kill the message and produce highly entertaining art simultaneously.”
“Disorienting and hilarious, Negativland’s records and live performances will dazzle and enlighten you. ”
“Twisted genius... compelling... parody and satire as a grass roots weapon of consumer resistance.”
“Negativland: a sense of humor, brilliant collage work (especially on a purely aesthetic level), and great cultural criticism. These qualities have long been the cornerstone of an artistic and activist career which is second to none…”
“The band hilariously juxtapose and layer sound bites and jingles... to help their targets hang themselves. What if the Pepsi execs actually like the album? ”
“Negativland were definitely not what the EDM kids at Bumbershoot were expecting. The experimental Bay Area sound collagists don’t make music as much as sonic mayhem: audio think pieces that are subversive and enlightening, vexing and revelatory. Negativland are political to the core.”
“It’s no “Abbey Road”, but it’s a pretty good listen. ”
Discography
Negativland Studio
Albums & EPs:
NEGATIVLAND
1980
POINTS
1981
A BIG 10-8 PLACE
1983
ESCAPE FROM NOISE
1987
HELTER STUPID
1989
U2 (EP)
1991
GUNS (EP)
1992
FREE
1993
DEAD DOG RECORDS (as part of the Fair Use book)
1995
TRUTH IN ADVERTISING (EP)
1997
DISPEPSI
1997
HAPPY HEROES (EP)
1998
THE ABCs Of ANNARCHISM [with Chumbawamba] (EP)
1999
DEATH
SENTENCES OF THE POLISHED AND STRUCTURALLY WEAK (book and CD)
2002
NO BUSINESS (book and CD)
2005
THIGMOTACTIC
2008
IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD
2014
TRUE FALSE
2019
THE WORLD WILL DECIDE
2020
NO BRAIN (EP)
2021
Negativland
Presents Over the Edge CD series:
Over The Edge Vol. 1: JamCon ’84
1984
Over The Edge Vol. 1 1/2: The Starting Line with Dick Goodbody
1985
Over The Edge Vol. 2: Pastor Dick: Muriel’s Purse Fund
1986
Over The Edge Vol. 3: The Weatherman’s Dumb Stupid Come-out Line
1989
Over The Edge Vol. 4: Dick Vaughn’s Moribund Music of the 70’s
1990
Over The Edge Vol. 5: Crosley Bendix: The Radio Reviews
1993
Over The Edge Vol. 6: The Willsaphone Stupid Show
1993
Over The Edge Vol. 7: Time Zones Exchange Project
1994
Over The Edge Vol. 8: Sex Dirt
1995
Over The Edge Vol. 9: The Chopping Channel
2016
Negativland DVD Releases
No Other Possibility (now as part of the A Big 10-8 Place reissue)
1989
Our Favorite Things
2007
Books with CDs
Fair Use: The Story of the Letter 2 and the Numeral U
1995
Deathsentences of the Polished and Structurally Weak
2002
No Business
2005
Over 4000 hours of Negativland's weekly radio show, Over the Edge:
Over The Edge Radio Archive 1981- 2015
2015
Albums and EPs
1980 - Negativland
1981 - Points
1983 - A Big 10-8 Place
1984 - Over The Edge Vol. 1: JamCon ’84
1985 - Over The Edge Vol. 1 1/2: The Starting Line with Dick Goodbody
1986 - Over The Edge Vol. 2: Pastor Dick: Muriel’s Purse Fund
1987 - Escape From Noise
1989 - Helter Stupid
1989 - Over The Edge Vol. 3: The Weatherman’s Dumb Stupid Come-out Line
1990 - Over The Edge Vol. 4: Dick Vaughn’s Moribund Music of the 70’s
1991 - U2 (EP)
1992 - Guns (EP)
1993 - Over The Edge Vol. 5: Crosley Bendix: The Radio Reviews
1993 - Over The Edge Vol. 6: The Willsaphone Stupid Show
1993 - Free
1994 - Over The Edge Vol. 7: Time Zones Exchange Project
1995 - Over The Edge Vol. 8: Sex Dirt
1995 - Dead Dog Records (as part of the "Fair Use" book)
1997 - Truth In Advertising (EP)
1997 - Dispepsi
1998 - Happy Heroes (EP)
1999 - The ABCs of Anarchism [with Chumbawamba] (EP)
2001 - These Guys Are From England And Who Gives A Shit (10th anniversary “U2” compilation)
2002 - Deathsentences Of The Polished And Structurally Weak (book and CD)
2005 - No Business (book and CD)
2008 - Thigmotactic
2014 - It's All In Your Head (Bible or Qur’an version and 2xCD)
2015 - Over The Edge Radio Archive 1981- 2015 (over 4000 hours of Negativland's weekly radio show)
2016 - Over The Edge Vol. 9: The Chopping Channel
2019 - True False
2020 - The World Will Decide
2021 - No Brain (EP)
2022 - Speech Free: Recorded Music For Film, Radio, Internet and Television
Films/DVDs
1989 - No Other Possibility (now as part of the "A Big 10-8 Place" reissue)
2007 - Our Favorite Things
2021 - It’s Normal For Some Things To Come To Your Attention Concert Film (directed by Ryan Worsley)
Books (w/CDs)
1995 - Fair Use: The Story Of The Letter U And The Numeral 2
2002 - Deathsentences Of The Polished And Structurally Weak
2005 - No Business
Compilations and Remixes
1984 - Yogi Cometbus Audiocassette Magazine - "Seventy Dreams"
1985 - Local International - "One Through Twenty"
1987 - Northern California Is A Noisy Place Indeed - "Paul McCartney's Penis"
1987 - Objekt 3 - "Radio Advertising"
1987 - Zamizdat Trade Journal - "General Cavendish"
1987 - Unsound magazine- "Play It Again"
1987 - Potatoes - "Perfect Scrambled Eggs"
1987 - Mashed Potatoe - "A Mashed Version Of Potatoes"
1990 - Live At The Knitting Factory Volume Three - "You Must Choose"
1991 - SST Acoustic - “Nesbitt's Lime Soda Song”
1992 - Bob's Media Ecology² - "Tribal Mandate"
1997 - Resonance magazine - "Fast Talk"
1998 - Staalplaat's The Sound of Music 3" CD - "The Weatherman's Big 10-8 Doof"
1999 - Knitting On The Roof - "Tevye's Dream"
2000 - Hate People Like Us - "What's Music?"
2000 - Etoy's Toywar - "Clowns and Ballerinas Extended Version"
2001 - Yo-Yo A Go-Go 1999 - "The Immortal Words Of Casey Kasem"
2002 - Tracks From The Best Dance Albums Of All Time - "Christianity Is Stupid"
2003 - Ikebana: A Tribute to Merzbow - "An Actual Attack"
2003 - Dubtometry - "Asphalt"
2003 - Adbusters: Live Without Dead Time - “Why Is This Commercial?”
2006 - Musicworks - "No Business"/"Favorite Things"/"It's All In Your Head FM" (rehearsal)
2017 - Ghostship Benefit Compilation - “Destroying Anything (live in Oakland version)”
Retrospective Art Shows
2005 - "Negativlandland" Gigantic Art Space, New York, NY
2006 - "Negativlandland" Consolidated Works, Seattle, WA
2006 - "Negativlandland" Creative Electric Studios, Minneapolis, MN
2010 - "Thigmotactic" Sean Pace Gallery, Asheville NC
2010 - "Our Favorite Things" Nau-haus Gallery, Houston, TX
2012 - "Our Favorite Things" La Luz De Jesus, Los Angeles, CA
2013 - "Our Favorite Things" Ghost Print Gallery, Richmond, VA
2019 - “This Is Not Normal” Cinema Nova, Brussels, Belgium
Other art shows in US and Europe
2001 - "Pixelplunder" year01.com, 2001 Toronto Canada
2002 - "The New Gatekeepers" Columbia University School Of Journalism, New York, NY
2002 - "Deathsentences" Cornish College, Seattle, WA
2002 - “Persistence” Shack Obscura/Van De Griff-Marr Gallery, Santa Fe, NM (w/ Steina Vasulka)
2002 - "Version 2.0" Chicago MOMA, Chicago IL, Nov
2003 - "Illegal Art" CBGB Gallery, New York, NY
2004 - "Illegal Art" SF MOMA, San Francisco, CA
2004 - "Illegal Art" Resource Center for Activism and Art, Washington DC
2004 - "Illegal Art" In These Times, Chicago
2004 - "Co-lage" Matthews Gallery, Tampa FL
2005 - Projections on side of the World Intellectual Property Organization Building, Geneva, Switzerland
2006 - "Illegal Art" Pacific NW College of Art, Portland, OR
2006 - "Illegal Art" Art & Culture Center of Hollywood, FL
2006 - Scope/Art Basel, Miami FL
2007 - Sonar, Barcelona, Spain
2007 - "System Error" Siena, Italy
2007 - "Homegrown" Southeastern Center of Contemporary Arts, Winston Salem, NC
2007 - "Madonna and Child" Madison County Arts Council, Marshall, NC
2007 - "In Appropriations" Gulf Coast University Museum, Ft. Myers, FL
2009 - "Motion Graphics Festival" Chicago IL, Boston MA, Atlanta GA, Austin TX
2010 - "Dead Fingers Talk: The Influence of William Burroughs" IMT Gallery, London, England
2011 - “World Fair Use Day” Washington, DC
2016 - "Mash Up," Vancouver Art Museum, Vancouver Canada
2016 - "Void California" Wattis Gallery, San Francisco, CA