negativland

Escape from Noise


No Business


You Must Choose


Freedom's Waiting


Aluminium or Glass


The Greatest Taste Around


Gimme the Mermaid


Mashin' of the Christ


My Favourite Things

NEGATIVLAND BIO

Since 1980, the 4 or 5 Floptops known as Negativland have been creating records, fine art, video, books, radio and live performance using appropriated sound, image and text. Mixing original materials and music with things taken from corporately owned mass culture, Negativland re-arranges these bits and pieces to make them say and suggest things that they never intended to. In doing this kind of cultural opposition and "culture jamming" (a term coined by Negativland in 1984), Negativland have been sued twice for copyright infringement.

Okay, but what, you still ask, is Negativland exactly? That's hard to answer. Negativland definitely isn't a "band," though they may look like one when you see their CDs for sale in your local shopping mall. They're more like some sort of goofy yet serious European-style artist/activist collective - an unhealthy mix of John Cage, Lenny Bruce, Pink Floyd, Bruce Connor, Firesign Theatre, Abbie Hoffman, Robert Rauschenberg, 1970's German electronic music, old school punk rock attitude, surrealist performance art, your high school science teacher…and lot's more.

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...
- NEW YORK TIMES

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…
- NEWSWEEK

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. Negativland are media addicts who see society suffering under a constant barrage of TV, canned imagery, advertising and corporate culture...the band's latest project is razor sharp, microscopically focused, terribly fun and a bit psychotic.
- WIRED MAGAZINE

For more than 20 years, Negativland has earned renown for manipulation of both tape and media.
- LOS ANGELES TIMES

Collage pioneers...genre-defying, densely layered, strangely accessible...
- WASHINGTON POST

Negativland argues persuasively that creators should be able to appropriate bits and pieces of anything and incorporate then into their work without fear of legal action.
- UTNE READER

Negativland isn't just some group of merry pranksters; its art is about tearing apart and reassembling found images to create new ones, in an attempt to make social, political and artistic statements. Hilarious and chilling.
- THE ONION

Scathing and entertaining...they believe that the sheer volume of advertising is degrading to the mental and physical environment
- BUSINESS WEEK

Twisted genius...compelling...parody and satire as a grass roots weapon of consumer resistance.
- ROLLING STONE

Brutally hilarious...a compelling argument for the anti-copyright movement.
- VILLAGE VOICE

Better known for media pranks than records.
- TIME MAGAZINE

Cut n' paste collage par excellence...always subversive...
- MUZIK

Fearless artistes or foolhardy risk-takers.... by constantly haranguing the audience with authentic advertising spiel and highlighting its transparency, they kill the messenger, kill the message and produce highly entertaining art simultaneously.
- L.A. WEEKLY

Negativland are at it again...13 tracks fuse jingles, dialogue and music in a parody of soft drink marketing.
- ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

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, in or out of "pop" music.
- TUBA FRENZY

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?
- SPIN

It's no "Abbey Road", but it's a pretty good listen.
- PEPSI SPOKESMEN

excerpt fr negativeland.com

to learn more about negativland, visit www.negativland.com