Negativland

Negativland
Negativland performing in 2007
Background information
Origin	Concord, California, United States
Genres	Experimental, sound collage, industrial, plunderphonics, avant-garde
Years active	1979–present
Labels	Seeland, SST, Revolver/Midheaven Mailorder (distributor)
Website	negativland.com
Members	Mark Hosler David "The Weatherman" Wills Peter Conheim
Past members	Ian Allen Don Joyce Richard Lyons

Negativland is an American experimental music band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They took their name from a Neu! track, while their record label (Seeland Records) is named after another Neu! track. The current core of the band consists of Mark Hosler, David Wills, a.k.a. The Weatherman and Peter Conheim.

Negativland has released a number of albums ranging from pure sound collage to more musical expositions. These have mostly been released on their own label, Seeland Records. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, they produced several recordings for SST Records, most notably Escape from Noise, Helter Stupid, and U2. Negativland were sued by the band U2's record label, Island Records, and by SST Records, which brought them widespread publicity and notoriety.

Negativland started in Concord, California, in 1979 around the core founding members of Lyons and Hosler (who were in high school at the time), and released an eponymous debut in 1980.

A number of releases followed in the early 1980s, but it wasn't until after the release of their breakthrough sample and cut-up sonic barrage Escape from Noise in 1987 that Negativland gained wider attention. Vinyl copies of the album came with "CAR BOMB" bumper stickers, in reference to the album's song "Car Bomb."

Following the somewhat unexpected success of this album, Negativland faced the prospect of going on a money-losing tour in 1988. To prevent this, they created a press release which said Negativland were prevented from touring by "Federal Authority Dick Jordan" because of claims that Negativland's song "Christianity Is Stupid" had inspired 16-year-old mass murderer David Brom to kill his family. The press release went on to vigorously deny the purported connection between Negativland and the murders. While Brom had in fact argued with his father about music shortly before Brom killed his family, no one had ever claimed that Brom was spurred to murder by Negativland's music. The claim that Brom's crimes were inspired by Negativland was disseminated and discussed in the mass media, seemingly with little to no fact-checking. Soon the world was informed of the "Killer Song" that caused a kid to murder his parents with an ax.