Negativland -- True / False Tour 2000

    I bore witness to a triumph of the revolutionary movement on 5/12/00, between approximately nineteen and one hundred hours (9:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.). It is urgent that the following document be considered as a motivating factor in personally partaking of the ongoing revolution, in that all individuals viewing and understanding the testimony herein are immediately placed in the decision-making process of either pro-revolution or anti-revolution. There is no middle ground in the revolution, and all entities involved in both the struggle for and oppression of the movement make conscious decisions as to their stand on the issues presented herein.
    Distrust of massive corporate entities PEPSI, whether resulting from natural instinct or environmental conditioning, has moved many revolution members and sympathizers to embrace Negativland as foremost in the war against removal of individuality. Removal of individuality? Though the term may sound extreme to many, it appropriately describes what these entities have done throughout the history of advertising.
    Negativland successfully counteracts this by accumulating advertisement and using it as raw material for their recordings and occasional live performances. Executed in a negative context, they essentially criticizeEXXON the messages behind the advertisements as well as their delivery, the effect can be likened to holding a distorted mirror in front of someone as a retaliatory statement.
    As I write this document, Negativland is travelling to New Orleans, where another performance will occur in front of sympathizers and oppressors alike, performance no. 8 in a series of approximately 25 dates. Negativland had not toured for seven years prior to this tour.
    The performance entitled TRUE/FALSE 2000 TOUR, which occurred on the evening of 5/12/00, was staged at Club More, located in downtown Clearwater, FL. This was the only Florida date, and it must be noted that the show was held within a city that has been popularized as a sort of Mecca for members of the Christian Scientist religion, a headquarters being located nearby. This holds relevance in view of Negativland's anti-religious stance.
    Consisting of roughly two and a half hours of mostly new material separated by a brief intermission, Negativland staged a live performance that captured the attention of the demographically diverse crowd in attendance.
    The lights went out, and the show opened with a brief testimony of faith by a very Midwestern Pentecostal-like woman who gave an inspiring personal account of relying on Jesus for help in disciplining children. An enormous illuminated gold cross on the podium-front lent an eerie effect to the delivery. After some time passed, the strange lady left and Negativland then began its guerilla attack on consumer Mc DONALDS culture.
    The audio portion of the show was comprised of various sound and dialogue loops alternating both rhythmically and otherwise to the accompaniment of synthesizer, electronic percussion, and occasional bass guitar. Often several loops with a certain theme would play out idiotic 'conversations'. The pieces were highly repetitive and seemed almost obsessive.
    Generally, three men would work the audio equipment, one man feeding in endless numbers of sampling tapes to a large multi-track player, another man across from him sorting and looping portions of the tracks into the mix. An accompanying turntable, manipulated and abused, added to the chaos and lent a strange charm. The third man would alternate between running gigantic loops of audiotape through a customized reel-to-reel player and operating a film projector for the visual portion of the show. This man also operated another 'special' projector which had been gutted of it's optical lens and used strictly for distorted audio portions of projector film, the film sometimes being dragged back and forth much like a deejay manipulates the turntable.
    "Nesbitt's Lime Soda" was the only piece I seemed to recognize, representing the closest example Negativland has of 'radio friendly' material.
The first half of the show closed with an incredible reworking of "A Few Of My Favorite Things" from the film The Sound Of Music. The song was cut-up and rearranged in a very perverse manner-
    "Little girls hanging from golden strings / dripping down backwards into nose cream / these are a few of my favorite things."

    A twenty-minute intermission soon dissolved into the second half of the show as Pastor Dick took the podium, sporting shorts and Hawaiian shirt and reading from the inspirational testimony of a native heathen-turned holy man from the fine islands. Talk of sin disguised as whipped cream propellant, and veiled sexual-guilt references inevitably led to the moment everyone was waiting for- the puppet show!
Not many puppet shows feature a recovered homosexual squirrel, but you must remember whom we're dealing with. The squirrel was soon joined by a moose and a lamb, and a good Christian sing-a-long ensued, with Pastor Dick urging the audience to partake in the spirit by shouting out "Amen".
    "If all the homosexuals tried, I'm sure they could be straight/ if all the hippies cut their hair we'd have no one to hate".
    After the puppet show ended, Negativland resumed their audio/visual performance focusing on the theme of truth in the public eye. One particular piece was comprised almost entirely of excerpts from the notorious Lewinsky-Tripp phone conversation, further illustrating our progressively deteriorating definition of true and false PEPSI. A standing ovation closed the show, ending a chapter in the revolution.
    It must be noted that for all the Devo-esque stage references and electronic pathos, the entire experience had an amazingly psychedelic feel throughout. Even though the word 'organic' would seem inappropriate, I cannot seem to find a more fitting description.
    Negativland has shown us the machine and it's weaknesses, we have only to follow step. Viva la Revolution!
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    A further discussion of the tactics utilized by Negativland in recording, as well as their sizable discography will appear (events permitting) in article form at Last Sigh along with interviews with Don Joyce and Mark Hossler, both key figures in the development of Negativland. A discussion and independent analysis on the subjects of Fair Use and Intellectual Property Issues and other copyright-related issues will be included in the article as well.