Escape from Noise

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Escape from Noise
Escape from Noise cover
Studio album by Negativland
Released 1987 (original)
1999 (reissue)
Genre Avant garde
Experimental
Sound collage
Alternative rock
Comedy rock
Punk rock
Length 42:12
Label SST/Seeland Records (original)
Seeland (1999 "un-remixed" reissue)
Producer Mark Hosler
Professional reviews
Negativland chronology
Over the Edge Vol. 1: JAMCON'84
(1985)		 Escape from Noise
(1987)		 Helter Stupid
(1989)

Escape from Noise is a 1987 album by Negativland. It marked the band's first break on a "name-brand" independent record label, SST Records. On this album, they continued to develop their experimental, surrealist style, this time throwing some pop sensibilities into the mix (with shorter tracks and more conventional melodies). "Christianity Is Stupid", a track featuring samples from the propaganda movie If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?, layered over a buzzing and droning hard rock groove, would prove to be an enduring signature song. The band and the release gained widespread attention due to a press release falsely implying that murderer David Brom had listened to "Christianity Is Stupid" before killing his family members.[1]

Contents

[edit] Release

Even though the songs "Nesbitt's Lime Soda Song" and "Backstage Pass" use profanity heavily, the album, due to it being released and reissued on indie labels, does not have the Parental Advisory sticker.

In 1999, due to Greg Ginn's decision to remove "Methods of Torture" from the SST pressing, Seeland Records reissued the album in an "un-remixed" edition, adding no bonus tracks and blowing up the photo on the LP cover to the front cover and the original LP cover's words from Crosley Bendix into the booklet. A sticker was placed on the album, saying:

An old album from Negativland: Digitally exacto-remastered 33 1/3 RPM compact disc re-issue of Negativland's classic 1987 LP with no added bonus tracks of any kind! Don't let the new cover design fool you - your audiophile friends might think that such classics as "Car Bomb" and "Christianity Is Stupid" sound crisper and cleaner on this newly un-remixed edition, but they're dead wrong! And even though there are no longer eleven time zones in the Soviet Union (and no Soviet Union, either) this re-release sounds exactly the same as the original. The only thing different is the sticker you are reading right now.

The original LP is still in print on SST Records, even though the band re-released the record in 1999 on Seeland.

[edit] Controversy

In February of 1988, a 16-year-old from Rochester, Minnesota named David Brom murdered his entire immediate family (both parents, a brother, and a sister) with an axe. When Negativland was forced to cancel a planned tour in support of their album Escape from Noise for financial reasons, the band issued a press release claiming that they had been "advised by Federal Official Dick Jordan not to leave town pending an investigation into the Brom murders." The press release implied that Brom had listened to Negativland's song "Christianity Is Stupid" before the fatal quarrel with his religious parents.[1]

In reality, there was no official named "Dick Jordan", and Brom did not possess any Negativland music. The murder investigation later discovered that he was on SST's mailing lists, but he only owned "Zen Arcade" by SST artist Hüsker Dü.[citation needed] Nevertheless, careless pundits and journalists took the press release at face value, and the hoax received widespread media coverage.[2] Negativland encouraged the spread of the story by steadfastly refusing further comment, supposedly on the advice of their attorney "Hal Stakke", another fictional person invented by the band. Much of this media coverage was negative, and band member Richard Lyon's home in Oakland, California was pelted with rocks by an unknown vandal.[1] Negativland subsequently used samples from the media frenzy in their 1989 album Helter Stupid.[3]

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Announcement"
  2. "Quiet Please"
  3. "Michael Jackson"
  4. "Escape from Noise"
  5. "The Playboy Channel"
  6. "Stress in Marriage"
  7. "Nesbitt's Lime Soda Song"
  8. "Over the Hiccups"
  9. "Sycamore"
  10. "Car Bomb"
  11. "Methods of Torture"
  12. "Yellow Black and Rectangular"
  13. "Backstage Pass"
  14. "Christianity Is Stupid"
  15. "Time Zones"
  16. "You Don't Even Live Here"
  17. "The Way of It"
  18. "Endscape"

[edit] Personnel

  • Mark Hosler: Singing, synthesizers, guitars, voice tapes, percussions, rhythm loops, bomb parts, David manipulation, tiny metal banjo, recorder, lots of other noises, mix
  • Don Joyce: Yelling, talking tapes, electric tympani, synthesizer, lyrics, singing, Booper bee, bomb parts and assembly, noises everywhere, mix
  • Chris Grigg: Drums, synthesizer, singing, computer & software, field recordings, mix
  • David Wills: Talking, shortwave, family tape, bomb parts, regular Booper
  • Richard Lyons: Singing, lyrics, voice
With contributions from

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c PRANKS! - Pullout - Music Quarterly - The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper
  2. ^ Reviews - Escape From Noise
  3. ^ Guerrilla culture-jam (Metro Times Detroit)

[edit] External links

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Negativland
Mark Hosler | Don Joyce | David Wills | Johnathan Land | Richard "Pastor Dick" Lyons | Peter Conheim | Chris Grigg | Ian Allen
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Over The Edge