Moved!

This blog is now at http://districtofnoise.org/

More Sonic Circuits Video

Hal McGee live in Washington DC Sept. 15 2007



Masters of the Ungentlemanly Art live in Washington DC Sept. 15 2007

Sonic Circuits

For those of you who missed it, or want to relive those long and crazy nights...







Stream video from the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage performance by Ida Lundén and Sara Lundén; and Arturas Bumšteinas.

Its all in your head...

Negativland @ The Warehouse

Legendary trickster band Negativland brings a new version of their weekly radio broadcast (Over the Edge, on the air since 1981) to the live stage for the very first time, mixing music, found sounds, found dialog, scripts, personalities, and sound effects within a "radio" theater-of-the-mind. "It's All In Your Head FM" is a two-hour-long, action-packed look at monotheism, the supernatural God concept, and the all-important role played by the human brain in our beliefs. Dr. Oslo Norway is your "radio" host, and Christianity and Islam are the featured religions, as Negativland asks you to contemplate some complex, serious, silly, and challenging ideas about human belief in this audio cut-up mix best described as a "documentary collage". "IAIYH FM" is a compelling and uniquely fun presentation of sticky theological concepts, which has actually been known to provoke arguments for days after the show is over.

Negativland
http://www.negativland.com

Since 1980, the 4 or 5 or 6 Floptops known as Negativland have been creating records, CDs, video, fine art, books, radio and live performance using appropriated sound, image and text. Mixing original materials and original music with things taken from corporately owned mass culture and the world around them, Negativland re-arranges these found bits and pieces to make them say and suggest things that they never intended to. In doing this kind of cultural archaeology and "culture jamming" (a term they coined way back in 1984), Negativland have been sued twice for copyright infringement.

Over the years Negativland's "illegal" collage and appropriation based audio and visual works have touched on many things -- pranks, media hoaxes, advertising, media literacy, the evolving art of collage, the bizarre banality of suburban existence, creative anti-corporate activism in a media saturated multi-national world, file sharing, intellectual property issues, wacky surrealism, evolving notions of art and ownership and law in a digital age, and artistic and humorous observations of mass media and mass culture.

While it is true that, after being sued, Negativland became more publicly involved in advocating significant reforms of our nation's copyright laws, Negativland are artists first and activists second. All of their art and media interventions have intended to pose both serious and silly questions about the nature of sound, media, control, ownership, propaganda and perception. Their work is now referenced and taught in many college courses in the US, has been written about in over 30 books (including NO LOGO by Naomi Klein, MEDIA VIRUS by Douglas Rushkoff, and various biographies of the band U2), cited in legal journals, and they often lecture about their work here and in Europe.

Since 1981, Negativland and an evolving cast of characters have operated "Over The Edge," a weekly radio show on KPFA FM in Berkeley, California. "Over The Edge" continues to broadcast three hours of live, found sound mixing every Thursday at midnight, West Coast time, with online access. In 1995 they released a 270-page book with 72 minute CD entitled "FAIR USE: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2." This book documented their infamous four-year long legal battle over their 1991 release of an audio piece entitled "U2". They were the subjects of Craig Baldwin's 1995 feature documentary SONIC OUTLAWS and created the soundtrack and sound design for Harold Boihem's 1997 documentary film THE AD AND THE EGO, an excellent in-depth look into the hidden agendas of the corporate ad world and the ways that we are affected by advertising. In 2004 Negativland worked with Creative Commons to write the Creative Commons Sampling License, an alternative to existing copyrights that is now in widespread use by many artists, writers, musicians, film makers, and websites. In 2005, they released the elaborately packaged NO BUSINESS (with CD, 15,000 word essay, and custom made whoopie cushion), and debuted "Negativlandland" - a large visual art show of over 80 pieces of their "fine art" works, video, and home-made electronic devices, at New York City's Gigantic Art Space. That exhibit continues to travel and appear around the country. More recently Negativland have been touring a new performance piece called "It's All In Your Head FM", a two-hour-long audio cut-up mix about monotheism, the supernatural God concept, and the all-important role played by the human brain in our beliefs. Christianity and Islam are the featured religions, as Negativland asks it's audience to contemplate some complex, serious, ridiculous, and challenging ideas about human belief in a show best described as "documentary collage."

Negativland is interested in unusual noises and images (especially ones that are found close at hand), unusual ways to restructure such things and combine them with their own music and art, and mass media transmissions which have become sources and subjects for much of their work. Negativland covets insightful humor and wackiness from anywhere, low-tech approaches whenever possible, and vital social targets of any kind. Foregoing ideological preaching, but interested in side effects, Negativland is like a subliminal cultural sampling service concerned with making art about everything we aren't supposed to notice.

Sunday, August 5
Warehouse Theater
1017 7th St NW WDC
http://www.warehousetheater.com
$15, all ages!
doors at 8pm, show at 9pm

QUEERING SOUND 07 : DIS LO CA TION

Documentation and overview of this year's edition of Queering Sound Festival of Experimental Audio+Video by GLBT artists, Saturday 02 June 2007 at the Warehouse Next Door.

July-August Shows

thursday, July 26

Neg-Fi
This Is My Condition
FFFFs
Ultimate VAG

611 Florida Ave. NW.
Washington, DC.

$5 / 8pm

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friday, July 27

Video Hippos
Barkitecture
Flying

HOUSE SHOW
101 Harvard St.
Alexandria, VA.

8pm / bring money

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Sunday, July 29

Transparent Productions Presents:

MICHAEL BISIO

1ST Set
MICHAEL BISIO – Bass

2nd Set
MICHAEL BISIO QUARTET
MICHAEL BISIO – Bass
AFRAM FEFER – Reeds
STEPHEN GAUSI – Reeds
JAY ROSEN - drums

Sangha
7014 Westmoreland Ave
Takoma Park, MD 20912
(301) 891-3214

7:00PM / $15

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monday, July 30

OCDJ
Mothfight

DC9
1940 9th St. NW.
Washington, DC.

9:30pm / $8

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sunday, August 5

The Electric Possible presents:

Sejayno
Aaron Leitko

George Washington University
Phillips Hall - Rm. B120
801 22nd St. NW.
Washington, DC.

8pm / $5

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sunday, August 5

Negativland

Warehouse Theater
1021 7th St. NW.
Washington, DC.

$15 / doors at 8pm / All Ages

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saturday, August 11

T. A. Zook
The Picture is Dead
The Bang

The Red and The Black
1212 H St. NE.
Washington, DC.

$8 / 9:30pm

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wednesday, August 15

THE CUTEST PUPPY IN THE WORLD
MIKE TAMBURO
TUSK LORD
KOHOUTEK DRUM ENSEMBLE

Velvet Lounge
915 U St. NW.
Washington, DC.

9pm

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thursday, August 16

Caution Curves
Capillary Action
Zdrastvootie

Velvet Lounge
915 U St. NW.
Washington, DC.

9pm