So just to report back, the bonus MP3 is just an hour chunk from a late period Don show featuring material that would be refined for the new album - particularly the 'Certain Men' song. There is lots of anti-capitalist propaganda, some vintage Weatherman stuff and a VERY cranky Don having all kinds of technical problems. It's hard listening to these late period shows since seeing the Doc because I know now how much Don was struggling, but the content is still definitely there. One of the highlights sounds like a recording from a Militia Man's recruiting picnic. Scary. Anyway, nothing earth shattering but always interesting.
I saved a Don show from the day Obama was re-elected(2012), and it has quite a bunch of that woman who was 'BORN on the 4th of July!!!"....Now, THAT was some scary stuff!
I still love Over The Edge and listen to it weekly. Very unique and always interesting. Thanks for all the backround info. I don't know much about the personalities behind the show. But always enjoy it.
Well, that wasn't like anything I've ever experienced... [spoilers ahead] I was one of the first to arrive as I wanted a seat, so I got to talk to other fans as we waited outside for the soundchecks. We got to hear lots of Negativland samples, then opener for both nights Yuko Araki shook the foundations after setting up her equipment. 'Why is it the small people who make the most noise?' someone outside the venue asked. I was glad for my earplugs brought for the performance. Once inside, things moved at a brisk pace and she was soon on - at reduced volume, I felt. Was this the old soundcheck-sounds-great-but-you-can't-upstage-the-headliners schtick? Probably not, I reckon someone had a word about the noise levels between soundcheck and performance. It was good, I wore earlplugs, my friend liked it, it sounded like Metal Machine Music plus a loop of the first two minutes of 'Here Come The Warm Jets' by Eno. 'Metal Mishima Music' some wag commented. Next up briskly was People Like Us - is this a reference to the Talking Heads film True Stories, wherefrom Radiohead took their name? Ms Us is incredible, her set starts with a mash up of 'The End' by the Doors and 'The Hills Are Alive...' from The Sound of Music. As well as the tunes, the screen has a witty combination of the hilltop singing scene and the helicopters from Apocalypse Now, so that Maria seems to be cheerleading the napalming of villages. The audience goes wild. The rest of the performance combines horror films, avant-garde, and more Julie Andrews - scenes from Cocteau, Hitchcock, D'Argento, plus Freddy Krueger, Hammer Horror, and Close Encounters. There was a great combination of the scene in The Birds where the house is attacked by birds down the chimney and the chimneysweep scene from Mary Poppins - it looks like the sweeps are rolling out of the fireplace and attacking people. Lots of long walks in a spooky house from Carnival of Souls and Suspiria mashed up, and a lot of scenes in church from the Hammer films The Devil Rides Out and To The Devil A Daughter. It was all very thoughtfully put together and immersive. She ends with the scene from The Magic Christian in which Ringo and Peter Sellers fill a huge vat with liquid manure then shovel money on top and then watch the eager public splash around trying to get rich. A personal favourite Soon Negativland set up and get going with a brief piano introduction, then the main set, which is all about your relationship with your computer. And your phone. Should you upgrade, and what if the device wants to upgrade you? There are some samples from the new album,but most of this seems to be new stuff, at least to me, a newbie. Visuals are interesting and different - they are quite old-school in design, with two artist/technicians manipulating back-projected materials and cut-ups, one of them alters images on a computer screen by interacting with a camera held in place over the screen. For those of us over 50, it recalls the overhead projector (OHP) style of a lot of classrooms and lectures. Early on Mark Hosler, who started proceedings admitting he was nervous although everyone else isn't, gets frustrated with a section of his gear, and goes to talk with Jon Leidecker and a tech guy about the problems, but nothing stops, the show marches on like a juggernaut. You know when artists say 'we want everything that happens to be subsumed into the entirety of the experience' and it means nothing? Well, here it really does seem to happen - everything wants to be part of the meditation on the technology/human theme: the malfunctions, the audience members trying to film without being noticed, the audience members shouting slogans and samples back to the sound system, the many bits of equipment on stage that may or may not be involved... Towards the end Spoiler: Surprise Guest The Weatherman appears on screen live from the US - he asks a series of questions of Google, Siri, Alexa, etc and receives some not very helpful or relevant answers. He gets more and more irritated and confused, then says he will return tomorrow evening and blips out... As an encore, there is another improvisation and Jon Leidecker tells the visual team 'black and triangular' and off they all go. Then it is over, 80-90 minutes of reality disjoined. And a promise that the next night's set will be almost entirely different. If there are any other reviews I will find them and post here.
Wow! Totally jealous.....You painted quite a picture there..... As a long-time fan, I can only wish they take this to somewhere close to where I live! thank you for the review...and thanking you in advance for other reviews, if any!
Really enjoying the new album. They haven't really done anything like this in quite awhile and it's fun to hear that classic Negativland 'sound'. It's great to hear David back in the fold and fun to see them re-working classic material like Cadillac. Based on the material here, I am going to guess that the companion album is going to be some kind of re-working of Big 10-8 Place. Mark had announced that they were going to do a deluxe vinyl version of that and I wouldn't be surprised if they re-tooled it to go along with the retrospective flavor of True False. As I said before, it all feels like a summing up, so it will be interesting to see how/if they continue after this. Also heard the new PLU album and must say I was very impressed. I have not really been into the song reconstruction stuff Vicky has been doing lately, but here she really does some interesting work. Very engaging.
SOooooooo... Looks like I missed out on the 'secret sale'...... Apparently, Mark found some copies of the original SST stuff to sell....including!!!!! OUT OF STOCK U2 CD 145.00 The cassette went of $80 each! Both have sold out already....of course!
In the Neg FB page, Mark has stated that, while there are only east-coast dates lined up, we all could personally e-mail him, if we know of any places they could play... My wife knows the owner of The Golden Tiki, and she gonna ask him if we can request a day for them to play here! If you know of any places where they might be welcome for some US dates, e-mail him at: [email protected]
You get an email - it's just a link to a condensed OTE show where many of the albums themes are generated. It's interesting but the album is better.
I watched Arise! The Subgenius movie last night. Not only is it a visual barrage similar to OTE's sound barrage but Puzzling Evidence is featured as the man who assassinated Bob Dobbs. I always knew his show was Subgenius related but I missed that part when I first read all the Subgenius stuff back in the 80's. He worked on a few OTE's and I think even covered for Don once in awhile. He looks like kind of a maniac, which is appropriate for an assassin, I guess. Interesting stuff!
Correct. I think it's a link on their old website. You could probably just find the entire OTE show on Internet Archive though. They've got everything now.
I always found Phineas Narco (also a SubGenious member) to be a better 'preparer' of sound than Puzzling! National Cynical Network News
That's funny! I have some of Phineas old tapes. He and Ronald Redball used to annoy the living shyte out of Don. Boy that is ancient history.
Last night's "OTE" was a little nostalgic . Wobbly played an old Don ep., in which he focused on.... NEGATIVLAND! Including some live recordings I had never heard before!
Wow - out of sheer boredom I found the funding site for the Negativland documentary. No updates since 2016 and lots of complaints that the film makers absconded with a good deal of fan money and no further response or result. Anyone know anything abou this? Bummer if true.
Yeeesh! That's not good... glad I wasn't rich enough to donate! In other news, the old "Copyright Infringement.." T-shirt has become available..again! COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS YOUR BEST ENTERTAINMENT VALUE 2020 TOUR T-SHIRT 20.00 100% preshrunk cotton t-shirt. White ink on black shirt.
