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SURFPUNK Technical Journal 030
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 93 22:18:06 PST
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From: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (qverpgbe bs pvephyngvba nppbhagvat)
To: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (SURFPUNK Technical Journal)
Subject: [surfpunk-0030] NOIZIK: THE LETTER U AND THE NUMERAL 2
Keywords: surfpunk, negativland, SST, Island, U2
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Someone took me up on my request for portions of THE LETTER U AND
THE NUMERAL 2, the limited edition booklet by Negativland. I copied
the previous Negativland stuff to both FutureCulture and Subgenious
lists. Someone on FutureCulture typed all this in, in anti-violation
of its anti-copyright.
The interview with U2's Edge by R U Serious of Mondo2000 and Mark
Hosler & Don Joyce of Negativland is the most interesting thing in the
lot. Unfortunately there is only a summary of it here. You can
probably find this fall's issue of Mondo2000, which has a good portion
of it.
Notice this takes a small step backwards -- the Christmas Letter in
surfpunk-0025 is more recent than any of this.
--strick
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Source: FutureCulture
Date: Sat, 16 Jan 93 23:34:16 -0800
From: Brian Willoughby <sounds!brianw@nwnexus.wa.com>
Subject: U2 Negativland - The Event Synopsis
Re: The "U2" single from the band called Negativland
I wish I had a scanner so I could send the entire contents of
Negativland's magazine/press release collection. Apparently the
publishers have an anti-copyright on its contents to encourage copying
and distribution. It is titled:
NEGATIVLAND
THE LETTER U AND THE NUMERAL 2
You probably won't be able to find it - at least I had a great deal of
trouble. There were a limited number printed. You might be able to
order a copy from:
Negativmailorderland
109 Minna #391
San Francisco, CA 94105
Write them for more information.
Since it is unlikely that you will find a copy, I will summarize its
contents below (the first three items are from a different source, but
are included to flesh out the early history of the single). This
summary is far from the complete story, which could only be told by the
original documents in their entirety, but it is the shortest synopsis I
could manage and still cover the full scope of the events. Feel free
to distribute this (without editing).
HISTORY:
After a Negativland concert in Portland, Oregon, a fan hands the band a
tape of outtakes from Casey Kasem's American Top 40.
Mark Hosler finds an ad in the back of a music magazine offering
presequenced MIDI arrangements of top-40 songs including a disk with
U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".
"I have the /Joshua Tree/ album," Hosler says. "I like the record ...
there's a lot of /feel/ to the way they play their rock and roll, and
I figured it would translate into a computer really badly ... probably
badly in a way that's good, you know -- that we would like, and that
would be funny. Then I was /also/ realizing that if we got
[bandmember] David [Wills], otherwise known as The Weatherman, to do
the vocals ... if I gave him a version of the lyrics and I wrote it
kind of illegibly, I bet he would really mess them up, and I bet he
would butcher them in a really nice way."
Aug. 20, 1991:
SST Records releases Negativland's single titled "U2"
CONTENTS of Single:
Cover: (From largest to smallest)
The text "U2".
Photo of a U-2 spy plane.
The group's name: "NEGATIVLAND"
Two tracks.
Audio mix:
Casey Kasem outtakes from The American Top 40 Radio Show:
- TRACK ONE -
"This is American Top 40"
"Here's the first top 40 hit ..."
"... for the Irish band from Dublin who call themselves 'U2'."
"That's the letter /U/ - and the numeral /two/!"
"That's the /letter/ U - and the /numeral/ two!"
"What the hell's going on here?"
"Good Golly Miss Molly"
"Let the god-damn jingle ID this show. I ID the show whenever
there isn't a jingle, don't I? Don't I do it between every
god-damn record that we play?"
"That's the letter U - and the numeral two.
The four man band features Adam Clayton on bass, Larry Mullen on
drums, Dave Evans, nicknamed The Edge on ...
This is bullshit. Nobody cares. These guys are from England
and who /gives/ a shit?"
"Just a lot of wasted names that don't mean diddley shit!"
- TRACK TWO -
"Oh Fuck!"
"OK. I want a god-damn concerted effort to come out of a record
that isn't a /fucking/ up-tempo record every time I do a
god-damn /death/ dedication!"
"I want somebody to use his fucking brains to not to come out of
a god-damn record that is ... uh .. that's, that's up-tempo and
I've gotta talk about a fucking dog dying!"
"This is fuckin' ponderous, man."
"This is American Top 40, right here on the radio station you
grew up with, Music Radio 1 3 8 Oh Fuck!"
David Wills a.k.a. The Weatherman:
narration and an ad-libbed spoken rendition of U2's lyrics
Bono: excerpt from recorded (MTV?) interview:
"uh ... uh, the /last/ thing we wanted to do was sound like
anybody else."
"So with U2 ... got a challenge, musically speaking."
"You know, you've gotta find new sounds on guitar, you gotta
find a new way of approaching the four/four beat. y' y' you
know, rock-n-roll still needs innovation, you know, and there's
a lot, there's, there's a lot out there."
MIDI sequence of "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", legally
purchased and instrumented with various noises for the
percussion and kazoo for the melody.
Various live Ham Radio broadcasts
Various sampled sounds and voices and quotes from undetermined sources
... nearly exactly two weeks later ...
Sept. 3, 1991:
Island Records and Warner/Chappell Music publishers sue
SST Records and Negativland.
Sept. 5, 1991:
A 180 page legal document, Case #: CV 91-4735AAH (GHKX), is
filed at the Los Angeles branch of the U.S. District Court which
cost Island approximately $10,000 to produce.
Sept. 23, 1991:
Article in _San_Francisco_Chronicle_, page E4,
"U2's Label Stops Sales of Parody"
Sept. 24, 1991:
Article in _Village_Voice_, Rockbeat, "Reproduction or What?"
Oct. 8, 1991:
SST Records agrees, on Negativland's and their own behalf, to
enter into a settlement agreement to pay damages to Island and
Warner/Chappell. SST Records then proceeds to try to trick
Negativland into signing a separate agreement which will lay the
entire blame and costs upon Negativland, including any and all
costs incurred by SST Records, without any requirement for
SST Records to show accounting of these costs and without any
restriction that SST Records will not further sue Negativland.
Oct. 15, 1991:
Originally scheduled preliminary injunction hearing
Oct. 31, 1991:
Negativland responds to SST Records, refusing their demands but
offering to pay half the costs while sharing responsibility
(SST Records makes $6 for every $1 that Negativland makes on
sales of their records). Negativland further asks that
SST Records show accounting records as proof of their costs, and
that Negativland will not be held responsible if SST Records
does not fulfill their obligations under the release agreement
with Island and Warner/Chappell.
Nov. 10, 1991:
Negativland's First Press Release:
"U2 Negativland: The Case From Our Side"
Nov. 19, 1991:
Chris Blackwell, President of Island Records, sends a fax to
Negativland admitting that the members of U2 have given him a
huge amount of hastle (sic) not to press for payment. But Chris
still wants to be reimbursed for US$55,000 in legal fees.
Nov. 20, 1991:
Negativland responds to Chris Blackwell.
They point out that Island could have politely asked for a cover
change instead of instigating an expensive legal battle, and
also that SST Records is currently dumping all costs upon
Negativland. They further suggest that Island could:
1) release the single with their own cover, take their legal
fees from the profits, and then share the remaining profits with
Negativland under standard royalties.
2) release the less offensive track (#1) as a B-side of a U2
single, as suggested by Paul McGuiness, U2's manager, to avoid
any stigma of censorship attached to U2.
3) call off the settlement and allow SST to continue selling the
record, paying royalties to Island instead of Negativland, on
the condition that Island is free to design a sticker appearing
on the cover: "This Is Not A U2 Record" or whatever.
- Negativland further invites Island to suggest their own
variation for a solution.
Nov. 21, 1991:
Court delivers final judgement ordering SST Records and
Negativland to stop production, recall all copies from stores
and radio stations, and deliver absolutely everything to Island
for destruction - monitoring of the entire process to be under
the jurisdiction of the court.
Dec. 5, 1991:
Negativland sends a fax to Dermott Hayes, Irish Music Writer and
Friend of U2, upon his request, including copies of
Chris Blackwell's fax. They ask for help from Mr. Hayes with
both Island and the members of U2.
Dec. 11, 1991:
Negativland sends a severance letter to SST Records.
Dec. 19, 1991:
Negativland sends a fax to Island President: Chris Blackwell,
Island Vice President of Business Affairs: Eric Levine,
U2 Manager: Paul McGuiness, and U2 saying that they had no
involvement in SST Records' `Kill Bono' t-shirt and promotional
campaign. They also ask for mercy considering that SST Records
is holding Negativland responsible for all legal costs, and they
also bug Chris Blackwell to respond to their earlier fax.
Dec. 20, 1991:
SST Records makes their first press release, mixing fact with
fanciful fiction. They detail the case and costs, but unfairly
state that Negativland has paid no legal or other expenses (SST
is keeping 100% of Negativland's royalties from all of their
releases, which is a significant monetary loss), and they also
wrongly accuse Negativland of remaining silent (despite their
many faxes and press releases).
Jan. 21, 1992:
Negativland's Second Press Release, through Universal Media
Netweb, details the story so far and even includes copies of the
various faxes and press releases to date. It is pointed out
that SST Records owns most of Negativland's back catalog,
including a final EP, /Guns/, to be released in Feb. '92,
revealing to the thoughtful reader that SST has a significant
source of income at the expense of Negativland's right to their
contractual royalties.
Jan. 28, 1992:
Paul McGuinness, U2's Manager, sends Negativland a confused,
hand-written, and rather lame fax which seems to attempt to turn
the focus away from U2 and Island.
Feb. 1, 1992:
Article in _Rolling_Stone_, Random Notes, showing the single's
cover and quoting Paul McGuiness and Mark Hosler.
Feb. 3, 1992:
SST Records makes their second press release, accusing
Negativland of spreading misinformation. They state that their
legal costs would not be recouped until 2257 AD based upon
Negativland's current sales. The press release includes
language from Greg Ginn, the owner of SST, saying "I contend
that Mark Hosler is a lying motherfucker", and suggests a lie
detector test between the two. (Although Greg states that
Negativland previously agreed to take full responsibility for
their releases, he describes situations which should have
alerted SST to the potential problem such that they could have
easily avoided the situation) Greg goes on to tell a sob story
about how poor SST Records is compared to the members of
Negativland with their "cushy" corporate jobs which allow them
to treat music as a hobby. Greg repeatedly uses the terms
"cushy" and "motherfucker" throughout the four page press
release. His edited history conveniently omits the first
Negativland press release to support his earlier claim that they
had remained silent.
Feb. 12, 1992:
Negativland responds to Paul McGuinness regarding his strange
fax, but they keep their usual businesslike, to-the-point style.
Negativland calmly reminds him of the situation and makes a few
reasonable requests and observations. They also point out that,
despite U2's highly visible good public relations with
Greenpeace and Amnesty International endorsements, how Island
Records is owned by Polygram, and Polygram is owned by Philips,
and that Philips, besides manufacturing audio equipment, is
ranked 66th out of 100 defense contractors, is in the top 50
contractors in the U.S. Department of Defense, and has a
significant presence in South Africa (about 4000 employees).
Feb. 17, 1992:
Negativland's Third Press Release is again through Universal
Media Netweb. and they have now taken on a tongue-in-cheek
approach. Apparently, their press releases have entered into
the realm of creative art.
Feb. 26, 1992:
SST Records Hires Expensive Corporate Entertainment Lawyer to
Sue Negativland. Although the layer's letter contains
convincing legalese, it appears to mostly be a threat to settle
out of court within ten days - or else. In addition to
insinuations with respect to a previous legal agreement which is
not actually quoted, there is also mention that SST Records
expects Negativland to deliver two new releases which "belong"
to SST Records.
Mar. 4, 1992:
Negativland's Fourth Press Release continues the style of
humorous media art creations characteristic of their other
Universal Media Netweb press releases.
Mar. 5, 1992:
Negativland sends a well-constructed response to SST Records'
Expensive Corporate Entertainment Lawyer. They basically refuse
to be steamrollered by threats, but are willing to act
responsibly and legally and maintain their original offer of a
50/50 split. They also (again) review the course of events so
far.
Mar. 10, 1992:
Negativland sends an appeal directly to U2, during their
/Zoo TV/ tour, that the members ask Island to return the single
so that Negativland can change the cover and re-release it to
pay off the mounting legal fees.
Mar. 24, 1992:
Eric Levine of Island sends a fax to Paul McGuiness, U2's
Manager, stating that the single cannot be returned to
Negativland under threat from the lawyers of Casey Kasem that
Island will be sued as a result of any kind of release or
transfer of rights of said recording.
Apr. 1992:
Casey Kasem (interviewed outside Las Vegas, Nevada, by KUNV and
KAOS radio stations regarding Negativland's use of the recording
of his voice): "I'm against censorship of any kind. Even
Casey Kasem. If they want to censor me, fine. But that's not
fine, You can't censor me because I believe in the First
Amendment. Nobody should be censored"
Apr. 14, 1992:
Negativland writes a 'Letter to the Editor' of BAM Magazine
responding to their publication of the SST Records' press
release, which had curiously been edited to remove obscenities
and was in other ways not a fair representation of the facts.
Apr. 21, 1992:
Negativland procures a credit report on SST Records which proves
that the company is worth a cool $1.205 million, expects
annual sales of $5 million, and has enjoyed a net annual income
of $821,956.
Apr. 29, 1992:
Casey Kasem's Attorneys, Armbruster, Adler, Briskin & Glushon,
respond to Negativland's Apr. 21, 1992 letter to Mr. Kasem
requesting permission to release the U2 Negativland single. The
letter states that Mr. Kasem will _not_ grant such permission
and will pursue all legal remedies in the event of release of
the single or any other use of the outtakes of Mr. Kasem from
the American Top 40 Radio Show. The lawyers copied Chris
Blackwell, Eric Levine, Paul McGuinness and Casey Kasem to make
sure that there can be no mistake about the matter.
June, 1992:
U2's publicist in L.A. contacts /Mondo 2000/ magazine on behalf
of the group's guitarist. The Edge, with the idea of doing a
rare interview concerning the group's /Zoo TV/ tour and its use
of technology. /Mondo/ editor R. U. Serius then, without
The Edge's knowledge, contacts his friends Don Joyce and Mark
Hosler of Negativland with an invitation to participate in the
interview.
June 20, 1992:
Negativland's Fifth and Final Press Release through Universal
Media Netweb. The humor of mass media as art is at its highest
and most creative.
June 25, 1992:
Negativland joins R. U. Serius to await the interview call from
The Edge in Dublin.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
The Edge: "Well, I just like the magazine. I've seen a few
issues. And its just so boring, the usual magazine kind of
angles, so well-trodden. I just thought you might have an
interesting angle on what we're doing which would be a little
bit more imaginative."
The interview begins with the un-introduced Mark and Don
discussing issues with The Edge such as U2's initial discomfort
with the idea of being a big band, their concept of Zoo TV as a
live remix of the satellite video airwaves during concert, their
attempts to remain an "irreverent" influence, and the issues of
re-broadcasting copyrighted TV broadcasts in a live venue where
people paid for a ticket. The Edge maintains that fragmentary
use is acceptable, and even cites a case where dance records
have sampled a U2 drum loop. It is at this point that
R. U. Serius interjects to announce that Mark and Don, aside
from being occasional contributors to Mondo 2000, are members of
a band called Negativland.
A big "Ahhhhhh!" from The Edge.
As the discussion continues, The Edge admits limited knowledge
of the events, but seems to think that Island's actions were
understandable, if not in agreement with U2's wishes after the
fact. As Mark and Don tell the full story, The Edge exudes
surprised exclamations which seem to indicate that he was not
aware of the full story. They discuss how unfair Island's
economic sledgehammer was against such a small band, they
discuss the two-faced Casey Kasem, they discuss the lack of
willingness of the other parties to accept Negativland's
reasonable compromises, they discuss the public domain and new
ideas for the extent of copyrights, they discuss the future of
folk art. Negativland even admits that the cover art was their
own design.
The Edge seems to think his band powerless to control Island,
but Negativland argue that they should have a lot of pull as the
largest moneymaker with Island (14 million copies of "The Joshua
Tree", the first CD to sell in such numbers). Negativland also
states that U2's management insulates them from the real world
and that U2 cannot claim to be uninterested in legal concerns
since they are hooked up with legality in a big way.
Just as they are discussing how Negativland was dealing with
bureaucratic company business, the phone disconnects.
The Edge earns good points by immediately phoning again.
The discussion continues with what happened versus what the
group could have done regarding this and future copyright
issues. Negativland asks The Edge if he has heard of the book
called /Hit Men/ by Frederick Dannen, which he admits he owns
but has not read, and then urges him to read it. They go on to
discuss how U2 had been sued because Bono made some live quotes
of only one or two phrases of copyrighted material. When the
'Kill Bono' t-shirt from SST Records comes up, The Edge says he
wants one!
The interview ends with Negativland touching upon the negative
press which U2 has received, how Island must have anticipated
this, and then Mark finally asks The Edge for a $15 to $20
thousand dollar loan, repayable with 10% interest after 9
months, in order to fund their own record company - and also to
allow U2 some great publicity.
July 31, 1992:
Negativland writes to Casey Kasem alerting him to the impending
publication of this U2 interview and asks him to reconsider
permitting Island to release the single to Negativland since it
would probably result in a better public image for Mr. Kasem.
Negativland includes a copy of the interview, their Final Press
Release, the transcript of Kasem's interview with radio stations
KUNV and KAOS, and the letter from Kasem's lawyers Armbruster,
et. al.
Aug. 20, 1992:
The magazine, NEGATIVLAND THE LETTER U AND THE NUMERAL 2, goes
to press and so far: The Edge never lent Negativland the money,
Casey Kasem has not responded, and SST is still threatening to
sue Negativland.
Fall, 1992:
Mondo 2000 publishes a large excerpt from the U2 interview,
circulation 100,000.
---
Brian Willoughby Software Design Engineer, BSEE NCSU
BrianW@SoundS.WA.com Sound Consulting: Software Design & Development
NeXTmail welcome
[ To subscribe to FutureCulture, send a "Subject: help" to
<future-request@nyx.cs.du.edu>. Warning: this is a high-volume list!
--strick ]
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The SURFPUNK Technical Journal is a dangerous multinational hacker zine
originating near BARRNET in the fashionable western arm of the northern
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