7 posts tagged “u2”
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Negativland's first song-based album in over 28 years is released today, July 15th on their record label, Seeland Records. The album goes by the silly name of Thigmotactic and after first pass at listening to the album, I did enjoy its mix of original music and lyrics, mixed with samples.
In celebration of Thigmotactic, they are making two rare public appearance:
- 07/17/08 Wham City’s Whartscape in Baltimore, MD
07/20/08 H.O.P.E. (Hackers of Planet Earth) conference in NYC
If more dates should appear, I'll update it here. More information can be found on our press announcement page.
Formed in 1979 by their two founding members, Mark Hosler and Richard Lyons, it would seem that Lyons' have taken a seat back with this latest release (however, he does contribute on one song, "Influencial You" on Thigmotactic).
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They first rose to fame with that infamous U2 EP incident. Released in 1991, the song featured Casey Kasem blowing his top off, mixed with samples from U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". Not surprisingly, they went through a long lawsuit battle with U2's record label Island Records, resulting in having the EP deleted. Although that didn't stop people from getting a hold of "bootlegs".
What's interesting to note, in today's context of the remixed generation, is that it's become somewhat normal for people to take things in the media and producing mashups... In some ways, Negativland predate the "viral" media of today with "U2".
So, back to Thigmotactic, this is possible the most accessible album to date. There's something for everyone, but I think the silly sex songs would get people's attention, like "Your Skin is Gelatin" is about vaginas or "Lying on the Grass" is about an unspoken homosexual desire that would cause you to rewatch Brokeback Mountain.
One thing I will say is that it's really hard to use one or two songs to really describe Negativland, as they are always evolving. I ended up using "Richard Nixon Died Today", the song is available for download on their myspace. The song uses excerpts from Dick Nixon's last address speech at the White House, which I believe is public domain.
Their copy/paste music style ranges all over the board, in fact, there's even a 50s inspired song, "Steak on a Whim" that sounds very similar to The Chordettes' "Mister Sandman" (but it's not this song). Most of the music and lyrics on this album is original, which stands apart from their previous releases.
Another thing I wanted to mention is that their liner notes to this CD includes an original art by Hosler for every song. Each artwork reflects each song, for instance, here is the artwork for "By Truck" a fun song about where milk comes from.
Thigmotactic can be bought directly from Negativland, I would recommend the CD version as it comes with a very nice sleek 36 lyric book (with artwork that I previously mentioned in the paragraph above).
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I don't normally do an all-out video posts, but after watching the hilarious Bill O'Reilly blowing his top off and having it "remixed" in a techno dance song, I was inspired to write about it.
So, if you didn't know, O'Reilly lost his temper after having some issues with the teleprompter and somehow the video got leaked on youtube. Like all things online, it's the subject of various parodies and the best one is this dance remix.
This video reminds me of some internet guy taking apart a George Bush speech and making it sound like Bush is singing U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday".
The source of this video is originally taken from the 2003 State of the Union Address, however the crowd shots were not from the same union address. There's no additional information, but you can try and contact the original creator: thepartyparty.com.
And speaking of politics, remember that Barack Obama music video from will.i.am, from The Black Eye Peas? All the lyrics from this song was based on excerpts from Obama's speech from January 2008 at the New Hampshire presidential primary election. You can find all the details at yeswecansong.com.
What I love is that G4TV parodied this video for Cobra Commander (from G.I.Joe). The song made reference to outrageous Cobra plans for world domination and is written by Jonathan Mann, aka GameJew. He's also the person responsible for writing the music to the the hilarious X-Men: The Musical.
COBRALALALA!
Links:
weheartmusic.com
The songs on the album seem very personal and emotional. There were three tracks that stood out upon first listen. "Mine to Remember" is about wanting one last chance to say "I love you" to the woman he truly loves and hoping will stay. "Why Can't We" is from his father's perspective and is summed up in the chorus — "why can't we stay in love" — which is referring to his parents. And in "She's Gone" he's trying to cope with the woman's absence. The Sweet Bye and Bye is a solid, gripping debut from an up and coming singer-songwriter. For more information on WAZ, visit his website.
04/21/2008 03:14:58 jason my♥posts myspace.com/waz
Audio
[1] Youtube: Negativland - "No Business" |
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
Before you stop reading I have no intention of lecturing you on the situation in Darfur. So you can read on safe in the knowledge I won't be mentioning the state-run genocide that has destroyed one country and risks dragging neighbouring countries into the conflict. You certainly won't learn anything about the two million people forced into refugee camps. Nor will I bring up the estimated 200,000 people who have died in the genocide. And so you can sleep peacefully at night, I won't even wax lyrical about the awful abuse of women and the use of rape as a tool of war. This is a music review site after all.
Darfur pops in and out of the UK media and I assume it gets a mention in the USA so you'll all be well-versed in the matter. However, if you want to know more about the situation then I suggest a good starting point is the BBC Q&A.
Regardless of your opinions on mixing politics and music, this album is full of little treasures combining the songwriting genius of John Lennon with the vocal stylings of some of my favourite contemporary artists including Regina Spektor, The Flaming Lips, Postal Service, Jack Johnson, Snow Patrol, U2, REM and Christina Aguilera. Ok so I am not a fan of Aguilera.
My personal favourites include the smooth and sexy sound of Youssou N'Dour singing "Jealous Guy" and a rather funky rendition by Aerosmith with Sierra Leone Refuge All-Stars of "Give Peace a Chance".
Recently a truck load of albums with a similar setup to this one have been released sans the political campaign. The list includes albums covering the songs of the likes of Joni Mitchell, the Beach Boys, Leonard Cohen and Daniel Johnston. All of them featured some musical gems and some all out failures.
With that in mind, this album is surprisingly good. It is designed to cater to the masses but that doesn't stop it containing some interesting takes on the back catalogue of John Lennon. Even if you couldn't give a damn about Darfur, this album is still a great purchase. Even better for those of you looking to gain some redemption for a life timing of sinning then this is guaranteed to give you some instant good karma (Sorry, I couldn't resist).
Seriously though, the situation in Dafur is fucked up and completely preventable. If you do one thing today, check out the Instant Karma website for advice on how you can help with the campaign - Ryan
According to Holidays on the Net, today is Fred Astaire's birthday. So, I thought I'd post a song he's made popular that many musicians have covered.
"Night and Day" was written by Cole Porter and is part of the Great American Songbook. It was written for the 1932 play Gay Divorce and was featured in the 1934 film adaptation, The Gay Divorcee. Fred Astaire sung it in both the play and the film. In 1946, a movie called Night and Day was made starring Cary Grant as Cole Porter and Alexis Smith as Linda Lee Porter. It's about "the fictionalized biography of composer Cole Porter from his days at Yale in the 1910s through the height of his success to the 1940s." More information about the song can be obtained from the Wikipedia entry.
Now,
for the goodies... below is an overload of the various covers of the
song including Fred Astaire's and Cole Porter's versions. If you can
believe it, there are even more! Sorry for the odd alignment, but I can't seem to get everything aligned the way I intended. Vu came to the rescue.
Jason :: "Night and Day" on Wikipedia | Lyrics
| Kymberlie R. McGuire wrote: May 10, 2007 at 11:43 PM |
[this is good] I love this song! I posted two of my own covers of it here, if anyone's interested.
| lolibrarian wrote: May 11, 2007 at 11:59 PM |
Over at We♥Music there are a ton of versions of this song. Check it OUT.
It's not there, but this one is my favorite.
(this one is by Everything But the Girl)
| Jellynail wrote: May 14, 2007 at 10:53 AM |
I just had to join in on the fun they're having over at the WeHeartMusic blog... hope I'm not too late! This has been my favorite version since forever of this song.
(This one is by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66)
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
