History Music / Negativland

* 1995 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Use:_The_Story_of_the_Letter_U_and_the_Numeral_2 Dead Dog Records'']][[note]]bundled with the book ''[[https://archive.org/details/NegativlandFairUseTheStoryOfTheLetterUTheNumeral2/page/n1/mode/2up Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2]]'' (free download at archive.org) features the Crosley Bendix bonus track "Copyright Infringement Is Your Best Entertainment Value" from ''Fair Use'''s first edition[[/note]]

* 1980 - ''Negativland''

* 1983 - ''A Big 10-8 Place''
* 1987 - ''Escape From Noise''
* 1989 - ''Helter Stupid''[[note]]split into ''Helter Stupid'' and ''The Perfect Cut''[[/note]]
* 1993 - ''Free''
* 1995 - ''Dead Dog Records''[[note]]bundled with ''Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2'', features the bonus track from this same pamphlet's first edition[[/note]]
* 1997 - ''Dispepsi''
* 2002 - ''Deathsentences of the Polished and Structurally Weak''
* 2005 - ''No Business''
* 2008 - ''Thigmotactic''
* 2014 - ''It's All in Your Head''
* 2019 - ''True False''
* 2020 - ''The World Will Decide''

* 1989 - ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_Edge_Vol._2:_Pastor_Dick:_Muriel%27s_Purse_Fund Pastor Dick]]''

* 2016 - ''The Chopping Channel''

* ContinuityPorn: Pretty much everything related to ''[=U2=]'' post-''[=U2=]'', namely the music video for "Special Edit Radio Mix" and the extended ''These Guys are From England and Who Gives a Shit'', have many things thrown into it regarding the [=U2=] plane incident, the single itself, lawsuits from both Island Records and [=SST Records=][[note]]as well as the "Kill Bono" T-shirt [=SST=] have sold shortly after ''Negativland'' parted way with them - without the latter's involvement[[/note]], Casey Karem's radio outtakes and the dog named Snuggles[[note]]portrayed by a Basset Hound; what breed the actual Snuggles was remains unknown[[/note]]. Snuggles's death may have also been the inspiration for "Dead Dog Records", the album ''Negativland'' bundled with the newer edition of "The Story of The Letter U and The Numeral 2".

** After Casey Karem's death, Negativland made the stems from both ''[=U2=]'' songs available on their website, for free. They've since pulled them off, but naturally, [[https://archive.org/details/NegativlandU2MultitrackMaster someone'd make a copy sooner or later]].

Joyce's KPFA program ''[[https://www.negativlandtruefalse.com/ote Over the Edge]]'' was (and is) devoted to themed mixes of sampled sound, commentary, and the all-important call-ins from listeners ("receptacle programming"), with snappy satire, crazed humor and a Firesign Theater-like cast of lunatic characters. You may still [[https://kpfa.org/program/over-the-edge/ hear it at kpfa.org]] on Thursday/Friday nights at midnight Pacific time, hosted by Leidecker or by Rob "Krob" Cole of the ''Puzzling Evidence'' show which usually follows ''Over the Edge''. Past episodes, including nearly all of Joyce's shows, are at the [[https://archive.org/details/ote Over the Edge Radio Archive]] (as of June 24, 2020, [[https://archive.org/details/ote?and%5B%5D=addeddate%3A2020 150 of the very earliest episodes have been uploaded]], and on July 24, 2020, 201 more were added!!) Keep checking back at [[https://archive.org/details/ote?tab=collection the Over the Edge radio archive]] as new (actually very old) episodes are added as they are discovered in people's collections. [[note]]Mark sez, "While the early Negativland live mixes on ''Over The Edge'' were truly freeform examples of media collage, they also show Don Joyce's penchant for labyrinthine, slowly evolving and densely scripted radio narratives from the outset. Every second of media collage featured on this program is in fact broadcast backwards in time, a memorial made out of audio artifacts left behind by Earth culture - artfully combined and recombined by humans and the machines that succeeded them, for the entertainment of [[HomeworldEvacuation those surviving remnants of humanity, circling our dead planet in a manmade orbital cube]]. That is to say: the Universal Media Netweb provides Receptacle Programming for [[TheArk The Star]]. Just enough of a thread for you to find your own way through these early episodes, all of which pioneered improvised culture jamming for a select group of early Monday morning maniacs - the likes of which many of us never thought we'd get to actually remember for ourselves. But don't trust your memory."[[/note]] and post-Joyce episodes are on the KPFA website.[[note]]Negativland also has copies of the more recent (post-Joyce) episodes, in 2021 temporarily unavailable while they change things at their website.[[/note]] Some of the best episodes were issued on tape and CD, and the band continues to make them along with the occasional in-studio album.

** ''Escape From Noise'' is about noise incursion and noise pollution of all kinds.

* BrokenRecord: As expected from sound collagists. One particularly obvious example is "The Gun and the Bible" that repeats and echoes the word "wilderness" for a good minute - taken from the song's namesake:

* Ryan Worsley has created several short films with Negativland-produced soundtracks, plus an affectionate documentary about Don Joyce's life and art, ''How Radio Isn't Done''. You can see all of these on Vimeo.

* DVDCommentary: ''Our Favorite Things'' doesn't have any for its' main course - aside from a completely separate extra, "Gimme Miranda", in which a young girl reacts to (or, more accurately, narrates what's going on the screen) the "Gimme the Mermaid" music video. Then there's the "At Home With The Weatherman" extra that has not one, but two commentary tracks!

* {{Feelies}}: ''A Big 10-8 Place'' came with a bag of lawn clippings. They later took this to another level with pre-ordered copies of ''Over The Edge Vol 9: The Chopping Channel'' which came with two bags: one containing an original radio cart made by late member Don Joyce, the other containing a portion of his ashes. [[https://vimeo.com/187211091 Here's a promotional video]] showing Jon Leidecker as "Dave" spooning Don's ashes into plastic bags.[[note]]"This is not a hoax. We've decided to take the Chopping Channel concept to its logical conclusion by 'productizing' an actual band member. It is also a celebration of the degree to which no idea in art was ever off-limits to Don, and offers a literal piece of him, and of his audio art, for the listener to repurpose and reuse. We are pretty sure he would have wanted it this way." And from [[https://clrvynt.com/negativland-interview/ Mark Hosler in an interview]] with ''Clrvynt'''s Dan Weiss in December 2016: "What he was concerned about was that Negativland kept going. That’s a conversation we had with him very directly. It was a weird one to have, but given that he was a very important part of the brain trust, we asked him, "When you're gone, what should we do?" He was the most fully committed human to his art practice of anyone we've ever known. I always felt like a flake by comparison. He lived it, he breathed it."[[/note]]

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: ''Deathsentences of the Polished and Structurally Weak'' devolves from Negativland's usual parody output and goes back to their musique concrete era. Fittingly, the music was designed for the 64-page pamphlet the album came with, with images of wrecked cars on every single one of them.

* Retraux: "Visit Howland Island", featured as an extra on ''Our Favorite Things'', despite being obviously sentence mixed, with stock footage that '''very''' vaguely relates to what the narrator is saying, looks convincingly like it came from the sixties - even the title cards look like they're from that specific era. Granted, the overlay of the Howland Island map, in the first scene, doesn't, but that's probably on [[{{Kayfabe}} the people who re-edited it]].

** "Guns" and "wilderness", sparsely used in at least a few of their America-themed collages.

** "Happy Hero" on ''Dispepsi'' may or may not feature one towards [[Music/MichaelJackson Michael Jackson]], who was accused of child molestation for a long while - that's the one bit Negativland "bleeped out" on that song.

* WritingAroundTrademarks: Not risking to have another lawsuit bomb on the scale of ''[=U2=]'', Negativland decided to not explicitly feature Pepsi's name anywhere on ''Dispepsi''[='s=] packaging - it's only there in anagrams. The album's actual title could either be unscrambled by reading the front cover letter-by-letter, from biggest to smallest, or by calling Word-of-the-Mouth hotline set up specifically to give you the name outright. It's worth mentioning that Pepsico did previously sue Tad Doyle for his song "Jack Pepsi" for allegedly denigrating the brand - which is kind of what Negativland were doing with their album, and why they resorted to anagrams in the first place. Even after Pepsico appreciated the parody and allowed the band to call the album what it was called, the ''Dispepsi'' block on ''Our Favorite Things'' flip-flops between this for the genuine Pepsi branding, and outright showing the word "DisPepsi" on the bum [=CEO=]'s T-shirt.

No description of Negativland is really complete without mention of the "Super Booper" circuit bending electronic oscillator. Invented by David Wills (the Weatherman), and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtqm4cu7TsQ explained by him here]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahdTFZqjWD8 here]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXY5v9nD5dg more detail by him and Mark Hosler here]], it's an inherent part of the Negativland ''oeuvre''. Don Joyce, David Wills and others use it quite often on ''Over the Edge'' and in live shows (especially by Mark Hosler, to [[https://folioweekly.com/stories/beeps-boops,21039 create musical soundscapes]]); it's "an electronic noise-making device that creates unstable feedback using multiple transistors and an FM radio receiver. The resulting sounds are different each time they are played but are sure to excite the ears and engage the mind."

* 1989 - ''Helter Stupid'' (split into ''Helter Stupid'' and ''The Perfect Cut'')

* 1995 - ''Dead Dog Records'' (bundled with ''Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2'', features the bonus track from the pamphlet's first edition)

* 2022 - ''Speech Free: Recorded Music for Film, Radio, Internet and Television''

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: This was Pepsi's reaction to ''Dispepsi'', the group's album-length TakeThat against celebrity endorsement in general and Pepsi in particular. It came as a relief to the group, who had thought Pepsi might try to sue them.
* AIIsACrapshoot: Discussed (and mostly PlayedForHorror) throughout ''The World Will Decide,''

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: ''Deathsentences of the Polished and Structurally Weak'' devolves from Negativland's usual parody output and goes back to their musique concrete era. Fittingly, the music was designed for the 64-page pamphlet the album came with, with images of wrecked cars on every single one of them.

** "Happy Hero" censors the F-word for comedic effect - or, more accurately, splices a long beep into the middle of the word "fucking".

* ContinuityNod: ''Escape from Noise'' comes with a "Car Bomb" bumper sticker. The song "Car Bomb" ends with the only surviving car driving away - with a different sticker on its' bumper that reads "No Other Possibility". That sticker was real, and included with some copies of ''A 10-8 Place''.

** Some editions of ''Escape from Noise'' (mostly the vinyl ones) have one, a minute after "Endscape". Negativland themselves, whenever they perform it live, call it "Fire Song".

** Both the front and the back covers of ''Escape from Noise'' are boxed into an informational pamphlet, not unlike musical publications of its' time. The rereleased CD version un-boxes those, bringing you the full artwork in its' full glory.

** The title track of ''Escape from Noise'' bleeds into other songs on the album a few times: once as an intro for "Michael Jackson" and then twice as... basically the same song with a different arrangement on "Stress in Marriage" and "The Way of It".

* StuffBlowingUp: The premise of "Car Bomb," which replicates this trope in glorious detail.

* WritingAroundTrademarks: Not risking to have another lawsuit bomb on the scale of ''[=U2=]'', Negativland decided to not explicitly feature Pepsi's name anywhere on ''Dispepsi''[='s=] packaging - it's only there in anagrams. The album's actual title could either be unscrambled by reading the front cover letter-by-letter, from biggest to smallest, or by calling Word-of-the-Mouth hotline set up specifically to give you the name outright. It's worth mentioning that Pepsico did previously sue Tad Doyle for his song "Jack Pepsi" for allegedly denigrating the brand - which is kind of what Negativland were doing with their album, and why they resorted to anagrams in the first place. Later on, however, Pepsico gave them greenlight to call the album by its' actual name. Even then, the ''Dispepsi'' block on ''Our Favorite Things'' flip-flops between this for the genuine Pepsi branding and outright showing the word "DisPepsi" on the bum [=CEO=]'s T-shirt.

* 2002 - ''Death Sentences of the Polished and Structurally Weak''

* BuccaneerBroadcaster: At least once, Lyons played "Jack Diekobisc" (pronounced Dick-o-bitch), in a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropower_radio micropower radio]] culture jam featuring [[http://www.dreamshore.net/bluejay/soundclips/2002-09-12-RichardLyonsDickingClearChannel.mp3 an extremely nasty takedown]] of Clear Channel, KJR-FM Seattle, and its program director Bob Case. KJR advertised itself as playing ''only'' music from the '60s and '70s, but even a casual listener could hear plenty of tunes from the '80s as well, in an attempt to [[http://diymedia.net/old/graphics/kjrcd.jpg attract a younger money demographic]]. [[https://www.diymedia.net/mosquito-fleet-stings-nab/2395/ Explanations about Richard and his 'Mosquito Fleet' microradio pals here]], and [[https://wrfu.net/ucimc-archive/dadaimc/feature/display/7653/index.html more here]]. (KJR ''did'' get the message, and changed its playlist accordingly.)

** "Happy Hero" censors the F-word for comedic effect - or, more accurately, splices a long beep into the middle of the word "fucking", leaving it... faux-censored, effectively.

** Mocked even harder in "Christianity Is Stupid", which samples Estus Pirkle yelling "Christianity is stupid! Communism is good! Give up!" over a piece of straightforward IndustrialMetal. Naturally, that was carried over into "Helter Stupid".

** Both discs of ''It's All in Your Head'' are packaged into paper envelopes, themselves packaged into real copies of [[Literature/TheBible ''King James's Bible'']] or, in rarer cases, [[Literature/TheQuran The Qur'an]]. That album was released in very limited quantities - and it wasn't until 2023(-ish) that Negativland decided to reissue it in the exact same packaging.

* ContinuityGag: ''Escape from Noise'' comes a "Car Bomb" bumper sticker. The song "Car Bomb" ends with the only surviving car driving away - with a different bumper sticker that reads "No Other Possibility". That sticker was real, and included with some copies of ''A 10-8 Place''.
* ContinuityPorn: Pretty much everything related to ''[=U2=]'' post-''[=U2=]'', namely the music video for "(Special Radio Edit") and the extended ''These Guys are From England and Who Gives a Shit'', have many things thrown into it regarding the [=U2=] plane incident, the single itself, lawsuits from both Island Records and [=SST Records=][[note]]as well as the "Kill Bono" T-shirt [=SST=] have sold shortly after ''Negativland'' parted way with them - without the latter's involvement[[/note]], Casey Karem's radio outtakes and the dog named Snuggles[[note]]portrayed by a Basset Hound; what breed the actual Snuggles was remains unknown[[/note]]. Snuggles's death may have also been the inspiration for "Dead Dog Records", the album ''Negativland'' bundled with the newer edition of "The Story of The Letter U and The Numeral 2".

* SoundEffectBleep: ''These Guys Are From England And Who Gives A Shit,'' a retrospective based on the ''U2'' EP, ended with a painstaking edit of the notorious "Special Edit Radio Mix" in which every single obscenity (and there were a lot of them) was replaced by the sounds of, among other things, breaking glass, dogs barking, and horns.

* BrokenRecord: As expected from sound collagists. One particularly obvious example is "The Gun and the Bible" that repeats and echoes the word "wilderness" for a good minute.
* BookEnds: ''Dispepsi'' starts with the sound of a Pepsi can being opened, and it ends with the sound of a Pepsi can being crushed and thrown on the ground. Its' companion EP, ''Happy Heroes'', begins and ends with commercial jingles for Mertz, (fictional) brain-stimulating pills from (also fictional) Fridol Labs.

* CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDfrrgqy_Eo Christianity Is Stupid]]" takes the piss out of [[Film/IfFootmenTireYouWhatWillHorsesDo a terrible Christian propaganda film]] ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5o_LwqX77I see it here]]) by {{Sampling}} a sermon by Rev. Estus Pirkle. The preacher describes what he thinks the U.S. would be like under totalitarian Communist rule, with loudspeakers constantly blaring "Christianity is stupid! Communism is good! Give up!". The track repeats these words obsessively and completely out of context over a musical backing of insistently pounding drum machines and ominous HeavyMetal guitars.

** ''Free'' is about concepts of freedom.
** ''Dispepsi'' is about corporate advertising and celebrity endorsement.

** ''The World Will Decide'' is about humanity's relationship with technology, its' role in the themes explored by ''True False,''' and the narrowing boundary between human and machine.
* ContinuityPorn: Pretty much everything related to ''[=U2=]'' post-''[=U2=]'', namely the music video for "(Special Radio Edit") and the extended ''These Guys are From England and Who Gives a Shit'', have many things thrown into it regarding the [=U2=] plane incident, the single itself, lawsuits from both Island Records and [=SST Records=][[note]]as well as the "Kill Bono" T-shirt [=SST=] have sold shortly after ''Negativland'' parted way with them - without the latter's involvement[[/note]], Casey Karem's radio outtakes and the dog named Snuggles[[note]]portrayed by a Basset Hound in the newly-recorded footage[[/note]]. Snuggles's death may have also been the inspiration for "Dead Dog Records", the album ''Negativland'' bundled with the newer edition of "The Story of The Letter U and The Numeral 2".

* TheNewRockAndRoll: Mercilessly parodied on "Christianity Is Stupid," which samples Estus Pirkle yelling "Christianity is stupid! Communism is good! Give up!" over a piece of straightforward IndustrialMetal. Further brought into "Helter Stupid".

** "Guns" and "wilderness", used in at least a few of their America-themed collages.

* RedScare: Three examples, all from ''Escape from Noise'':

* BlackComedy: Practically their trademark once they brought Don Joyce on--compare for example, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-VMcRh165g the studio cut of "Four Fingers"]] from ''A Big 10-8 Place'' to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAs96NzuSO0 live versions from the 1990s.]] Founding member Richard Lyons was no slouch in this department, either: he was the one responsible for the media hoax which alleged axe murderer David Brom had been listening to Negativland's "Christianity is Stupid" song.

** "Happy Hero" censors the F-word for comedic effect - or, more accurately, splices a long beep into the middle of the word "fucking".

* DerangedAnimation: When their music videos aren't clip shows or sped-up, they usually fall into these. Special mention goes to Tim Maloney's videos for "Gimme the Mermaid" and "Aluminum or Glass (The Memo)" which, much like ''Negativland''[='s=] cut-and-paste music, use plastic-looking CGI models[[note]]that constantly bend and warp like they're in a [[VideoGame/GarrysMod Garry's Mod]] [[{{Machinima}} videos]], even though "Gimme The Mermaid" predates those by a decade[[/note]], cutouts of The Weatherman and scenes from Indian mythology, badly-drawn cartoons and [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ariel]], all in one video. That last one's not surprising, as the man '''used''' to work for Disney.

** Some editions of ''Escape from Noise'' (mostly the vinyl ones) have one, a minute after "Endscape". ''Negativland'' themselves, whenever they perform it live, call it "Fire Song".
** ''Our Favorite Things'' features a post-credit sequence with a beat and numerous news anchors spliced in.

* NoTitle: None of the tracks on their self-titled debut have titles.
* ParodyProductPlacement: ''Dispepsi'' constantly repeats the brand name Pepsi as a way to satirize product placement in media. Mark Hosler said he wanted people to be sick of hearing the word Pepsi by the time the album is over.

** Both discs of ''It's All in Your Head'' are packaged into paper envelopes, themselves packaged into real copies of [[Literature/TheBible ''King James's Bible'']] or, in rarer cases, [[Literature/TheQuran The Qur'an]]. That album was released in very limited quantities - and it wasn't until 2023(-ish) that ''Negativland'' decided to reissue it in the exact same packaging.

** ''Dead Dog Records'' is a big one to the corporate music industry - and specifically to [=SST Records=] that published ''Negativland''[='s=] albums up until ''U2'' and ''Guns''. ''Negativland'' had since fallen out with the record's owner, Greg Ginn, since he knowingly published lawsuit bait (even though his lawyer apparently advised him not to) and used that to attempt to drive the band into paying him up. Made even more obvious with "Gimme the Mermaid" and The Weatherman singing the chorus to [[Music/BlackFlag Black Flag's]] "Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie" for a good minute - no prizes for guessing who sung that originally.
** "Happy Hero" on ''Dispepsi'' may or may not feature one towards [[Music/MichaelJackson Michael Jackson]], who was accused of child molestation for a long while - that's the one bit ''Negativland'' "bleeped out" on that song.

* WritingAroundTrademarks: Not risking to have another lawsuit, definitely not on the same scale as what they had with Island and [=SST=], Negativland decided to not explicitly feature Pepsi's name anywhere on ''Dispepsi''[='s=] packaging - it's only there in anagrams. The album's actual title could either be unscrambled by reading the front cover letter-by-letter, from biggest to smallest, or by calling Word-of-the-Mouth hotline set up specifically to give you the name outright. It's worth mentioning that Pepsico did previously sue Tad Doyle for his song "Jack Pepsi" for supposedly denigrating the brand - which is kind of what Negativland were doing with their album, and why they resorted to anagrams in the first place.

** ''The World Will Decide'' is about humanity's relationship with technology, its role in the themes explored by ''True False,''' and the narrowing boundary between human and machine.
* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning:

* DerangedAnimation: When their music videos aren't clip shows or sped-up, they usually fall into these. Special mention goes to Tim Maloney's videos for "Gimme That Mermaid" and "Aluminum or Glass (The Memo)" which, much like ''Negativland''[='s=] cut-and-paste music, use plastic-looking CGI models[[note]]that constantly bend and warp like they're in a [[VideoGame/GarrysMod Garry's Mod]] [[{{Machinima}} videos, even though "Gimme The Mermaid" predates those by a decade[[/note]], cutouts of The Weatherman and scenes from Indian mythology, badly-drawn cartoons and [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ariel]], all in one video. That last one's not surprising, as the man '''used''' to work for Disney.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:The bunny]] in the music video for ''OverTheHiccups''. Also lowkey qualifies as TheCoverChangesTheMeaning.

** "Yellow, Black and Rectangular" samples a badly-acted therapy session with a psychiatrist and a woman who keeps seeing fallout shelter symbols everywhere and [[AbsurdPhobias feels incredibly worried about it]]. Naturally, those were introduced in the wake of Cold War, which is when this [=PSA=] came out.

** "Happy Hero" on ''Dispepsi''

* DrivenToSuicide: ||The bunny|| in the music video for ''OverTheHiccups''. Also lowkey qualifies as TheCoverChangesTheMeaning.

* EnhancedForDVD: ''Our Favorite Things'', despite being named after a song featured in ''No Business'', is made up of ''Dispepsi'' material for at least a third of it. Aside from several back-to-back music videos, the ''Dispepsi'' block also features a lot of things not featured on the album proper, including The Weatherman narrating One World Advertising's proposal to Coca-Cola and Pepsico to pace out their ad campaigns[[note]]already featured in full, in text form, in the album's liner notes[[/note]], interludes taken from Coca-Cola's promotional movie filmed in the TheFifties, the "Try It, Buy It" prelude to "Why is This Commercial?" and a remix of "Humanitarian Effort".

** ''Helter Stupid'' has an 18 minute title song that focuses on the media and their obsession with sensationalistic stories -- in this case, about the supposed connection between rock and roll and murder. (See Gone Horribly Wrong, below.) This is the longest song they have made.

* HarshNoise: Negativland is about making weird noises and collaging it all together.

** The title track of ''True False'' is 10 minutes long.

** "Hyper Real" is under a minute
** "Humanitarian Effort" clocks in at 32 seconds. The mix featured on ''Our Favorite Things'' is only slightly longer, at 36 seconds.
** "No Business Again" is 36 seconds long.
** "Either Or" and "Secret Win" on ''True False'' are both under a minute.

**

* 1989 - ''Helter Stupid''

* 1995 - ''Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2''

* PackagedAsOtherMedium: ''Dispepsi'' has its' boxart fashioned like a genuine Pepsi product, complete with the nutritional facts table for its' track listing and the CD label resembling the top of an aluminium can, revealing a pool of cola underneath. ''Happy Heroes'' does something similar, but uses a tin of brain-stimulating pills instead - this time not based on any real branding.

* RedScare: "Christianity is Stupid" turns the reverend Estus Pirkle's description of an imagined Communist invasion of the US into a VoiceClipSong. The song that follows, "Time Zones", takes a [=KABC=] radio broadcast hosted by Ray Breim - specifically a segment in which he was assuring the caller that the United States is nowhere near as powerful as the Soviet Union.

* SoundEffectBleep: "These Guys Are From England And Who Gives A Shit," a retrospective based on the "U2" EP, ended with a painstaking edit of the notorious "Special Edit Radio Mix" in which every single obscenity (and there were a lot of them) was replaced by the sounds of, among other things, breaking glass, dogs barking, and horns.

** "Humanitarian Effort" is only 32 seconds long, meaning its their shortest song.
** "No Business Again" is 36 seconds long, its the closure to ''No Business''.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: "U2" infamously samples an outtake of Creator/CaseyKasem introducing a record by the Irish group U2 (in a longer version of the clip, he even mentions them being from Dublin) and exclaiming "These guys are from England, and who gives a shit?". Ireland is not even part of the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom, let alone part of England.

* BookEnds: ''Dispepsi'' Starts with the sound of a Pepsi can being opened, and it ends with the sound of a Pepsi can being crushed and thrown on the ground.

** "Happy Hero" censors the f word for comedic effect.

* TheNewRockAndRoll: Mercilessly parodied on "Christianity Is Stupid," which samples Estus Pirkle yelling "Christianity is stupid! Communism is good! Give up!" over a piece of straightforward IndustrialMetal.

* RedScare: "Christianity Is Stupid" turns the Reverend Estus Pirkle's description of an imagined Communist invasion of the US into a VoiceClipSong.

* RedScare: "Christianity Is Stupid" turns the Reverend Estus Pirkle's description of an imagined Communist invasion of the US into a StupidStatementDanceMix.

* StupidStatementDanceMix: One of their specialisms. Probably their most famous one is "Christianity Is Stupid", which samples a preacher in a Christian propaganda movie claiming the title phrase is a communist slogan.

* DreamTeam: Played straight ''and'' parodied on ''Escape From Noise''; the album features many prominent, highly respected local names in music and counterculture alike (including Mark Mothersbaugh and members of Music/TheGratefulDead), a few of whose contributions are absolutely minor, or have nothing to do with their talents (e.g. Music/JelloBiafra flushing a toilet[[note]]Mr. Biafra later explained that he had worked pretty hard to record various sounds and recitations for potential use on ''Escape from Noise'' and the toilet flush was the only one they ended up using. He was none too pleased.[[/note]], a member of Big City Orchestra running a leafblower, a random vocal sound from Church of the Subgenius Reverend Ivan Stang).

Joyce's KPFA program ''[[https://www.negativlandtruefalse.com/ote Over the Edge]]'' was (and is) devoted to themed mixes of sampled sound, commentary, and the all-important call-ins from listeners ("receptacle programming"), with snappy satire, crazed humor and a Firesign Theater-like cast of lunatic characters. You may still [[https://kpfa.org/program/over-the-edge/ hear it at kpfa.org]] on Thursday/Friday nights at midnight Pacific time, hosted by Leidecker or by Rob "Krob" Cole of the ''Puzzling Evidence'' show which usually follows ''Over the Edge''. Past episodes, including nearly all of Joyce's shows, are at the [[https://archive.org/details/ote Over the Edge Radio Archive]] (as of June 24, 2020, [[https://archive.org/details/ote?and%5B%5D=addeddate%3A2020 150 of the very earliest episodes have been uploaded]], and on July 24, 2020, 201 more were added!!) Keep checking back at [[https://archive.org/details/ote?tab=collection the Over the Edge radio archive]] as new (actually very old) episodes are added as they are discovered in people's collections. [[note]]Mark sez, "While the early Negativland live mixes on ''Over The Edge'' were truly freeform examples of media collage, they also show Don Joyce's penchant for labyrinthine, slowly evolving and densely scripted radio narratives from the outset. Every second of media collage featured on this program is in fact broadcast backwards in time, a memorial made out of audio artifacts left behind by Earth culture - artfully combined and recombined by humans and the machines that succeeded them, for the entertainment of those surviving remnants of humanity, circling our dead planet in a manmade orbital cube. That is to say: the Universal Media Netweb provides Receptacle Programming for The Star. Just enough of a thread for you to find your own way through these early episodes, all of which pioneered improvised culture jamming for a select group of early Monday morning maniacs - the likes of which many of us never thought we'd get to actually remember for ourselves. But don't trust your memory."[[/note]] and post-Joyce episodes are on the KPFA website.[[note]]Negativland also has copies of the more recent (post-Joyce) episodes, in 2021 temporarily unavailable while they change things at their website.[[/note]] Some of the best episodes were issued on tape and CD, and the band continues to make them along with the occasional in-studio album.

No description of Negativland is really complete without mention of the "Super Booper" circuit bending electronic oscillator. Invented by David Wills (the Weatherman), and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtqm4cu7TsQ explained by him here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXY5v9nD5dg more detail by him and Mark Hosler here]], it's an inherent part of the Negativland ''oeuvre''. Don Joyce, David Wills and others use it quite often on ''Over the Edge'' and in live shows (especially by Mark Hosler, to [[https://folioweekly.com/stories/beeps-boops,21039 create musical soundscapes]]); it's "an electronic noise-making device that creates unstable feedback using multiple transistors and an FM radio receiver. The resulting sounds are different each time they are played but are sure to excite the ears and engage the mind."

* BuccaneerBroadcaster: At least once, Lyons played "Jack Diekobisc" (pronounced Dick-o-bitch), in a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropower_radio micropower radio]] culture jam featuring [[http://www.dreamshore.net/bluejay/soundclips/2002-09-12-RichardLyonsDickingClearChannel.mp3 an extremely nasty takedown]] of Clear Channel, KJR-FM Seattle, and its program director Bob Case. KJR advertised itself as playing ''only'' music from the '60s and '70s, but even a casual listener could hear plenty of tunes from the '80s as well, in an attempt to [[http://diymedia.net/old/graphics/kjrcd.jpg attract a younger money demographic]]. [[https://www.diymedia.net/mosquito-fleet-stings-nab/2395/ Explanations about Richard and his 'Mosquito Fleet' microradio pals here]]. (KJR ''did'' get the message, and changed its playlist accordingly.)

* BlackComedy: Practically their trademark once they brought Don Joyce on--compare for example, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-VMcRh165g the studio cut of "Four Fingers"]] from ''A Big 10-8 Place'' to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAs96NzuSO0 live versions from the 1990s.]]

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Joyce's other characters, most of whom were involved with UMN, included psychiatrist Dr. Oslo Norway, Chairman of One World Advertising; "cultural critic" and ""Director of Stylistic Premonitions" Crosley Bendix; Izzy Isn't, music historian who ran the years-long "How Radio Isn't Done/How Radio Was Done" series on ''Over the Edge'' (the last character he played before his death); Creator/WalterCronkite-like reporter Leland Googleburger; lugubrious moon-base computer voice Wang Tool; right-wing host Rolin Royce, from a bizarre early episode where KPFA (seemingly) converted to a conservative talk radio format; auto expert Bud Choke; on-the-scene reporters Rex Everything, Omer Edge and Waxley Molding. Lyons played Rev. Marsha Turnblat, a fanatical [[MoralGuardians Moral Guardian]]; Rev. Richard "Pastor Dick" Seeland, a low-key ministerial counselor; master debater Dick Bush; auto expert Dick Goodbody[[note]]in RealLife Richard bought, reconditioned and sold old cars[[/note]]; media personality Dickie Diamond, "star of stage, screen and satellite"; and Dick Vaughn, a Dick Clark-like host who was (actually) partly responsible for the creation of the '70s Nostalgia radio format. UMN's biggest competitor is ABS, the American Broadcasting System, which runs "The [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Piddle Diddle Report]]", investigating and criticizing Friday and his empire. Jon "Wobbly" Leidecker continues this tradition, playing Mike Worm, aspiring President of General Injectables and Signals, and possibly others.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: ''Thigmotactic'' is just humorous songs (and a couple of instrumentals) with no particular theme, hardly any social commentary, and very little sampling.

* BlackComedy: Practically their trademark once they brought Don Joyce on--compare for example, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-VMcRh165g the studio cut of "Four Fingers"] from ''A Big 10-8 Place'' to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAs96NzuSO0 live versions from the 1990s.]]