Date: Mon, 18 Jan 93 22:18:06 PST
Reply-To: <surfpunk@osc.versant.com>
Return-Path: <cocot@osc.versant.com>
Message-ID: <surfpunk-0030@SURFPUNK.Technical.Journal>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
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

                     | Dear Subscriber,
                     | 
                     | Your satisfaction as a customer is of paramount
                     | importance to us, and we make continuing efforts
                     | to improve our service to you. . . .  As always,
                     | we welcome your questions, comments or any
                     | suggestions that will help us provide you with
                     | the best of service.  Thank you for being our
                     | customer.
                     |             Sincerely,  Paul G Ingels
                     |             Director of Circulation Accounting
                     |             San Francisco Newspaper Agency
                     |________________________________________________ 


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 ]

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

The SURFPUNK Technical Journal is a dangerous multinational hacker zine
originating near BARRNET in the fashionable western arm of the northern
California matrix.  Quantum Californians appear in one of two states,
spin surf or spin punk.  Undetected, we are both, or might be neither.
________________________________________________________________________

Send postings to <surfpunk@osc.versant.com>, subscription requests 
to <surfpunk-request@osc.versant.com>.  MIME encouraged.  
Xanalogical archive access soon.  Thank your for being our customer.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________




                     Your Hold Sequence is: ^o^l^l or <SI><FF><FF>.
                     Your Disconnect Sequence is: ^o^k^l or <SI><VT><FF>.


