Negativland

The turn of the millennium ushered in a new, if generally lower-key, era to Negativland, with the group's most notable later work being a well-received tour, True/False 2000, featuring much newer material as well as an old standby or two, not to mention some amazingly nutty between-set skits and films (and, as always, Wills only turning up on video). In 2001, the band released a sort-of bootleg, These Guys Are from England and Who Gives a Shit, revisiting the whole U2 blow-up with numerous alternate versions (and the originals) of Negativland's most (in)famous effort. The following year saw the release of Death Sentences of the Polished and Structurally Weak, and in 2005 the band issued No Business and celebrated its 25th anniversary by curating an art exhibit in New York City called Negativlandland, which contained artwork inspired by the band's music, as well as Negativland music videos and original art created specifically for the event. Three years later, Thigmotactic, a full-fledged venture into songwriting, was released on Seeland. In 2014, Negativland and Seeland released one of their most ambitious projects, It's All in Your Head, a concept piece about the practice of religion and why people place their faith in a supreme being. The album was packaged in a specially repurposed King James Bible. Former member Ian Allen died from complications related to heart-valve replacement surgery in January 2015 at the age of 56. In July of that same year, Don Joyce died of heart failure; he was 71 years old. Another death in the Negativland family occurred on April 19, 2016, when Richard Lyons passed away due to complications of nodular melanoma on his 57th birthday. In October of that year, Negativland released The Chopping Channel, the ninth volume of CDs culled from Over the Edge broadcasts. Recorded before Joyce's death, he appears prominently on the album, and early pre-orders from the band's website were shipped out with audio carts he used during the broadcasts, as well as small samples of his cremated remains. True False, the first of two interconnected studio albums, was released in October of 2019, examining themes such as social media's effect on our mental health and perception of reality. The World Will Decide, a surrealist exploration of smart technology and security, followed a year later. The EP No Brain appeared in 2021, and Speech Free, containing instrumental versions of the previous three releases, came out at the end of 2022. ~ Ned Raggett & Paul Simpson, Rovi