With the death of legendary “American Top 40” DJ Casey Kasem resurrecting interest in their infamous “U2” single, the Bay Area culture-jammers Negativland tonight announced they’re paying tribute to the beloved radio host whose profane tirade anchors the controversial track by inviting fans to remix the song using the original multi-track master.
Related: Casey Kasem’s greatest hit: Negativland and ‘the letter U and the numeral 2’
To that end, Negativland is offering free downloads of the multi-track master of the two mixes of the song from the hastily deleted 1991 single, with each version broken into eight individual .wav files.
The purpose, according to a statement released by the band (see below), is to allow “for re-mixing, re-purposing and re-inventing in whichever way the listener may choose. Negativland encourages the re-contextualization of this seminal work for whatever reason, whatsoever.”
Negativland — which has a new album, It’s All In Your Head, due out in October — released a statement from their attorney, Hal Stakke, regarding Kasem’s passing on Saturday, the band’s “U2” single and the new effort to bring light to the deleted track by asking fans to re-imagine it.
Below, that statement — and the link to download the multi-track master of Negativland’s “U2”:
DOWNLOAD: Negativland, “U2” original multi-track master
From: Hal Stakke, Legal Counsel/Seeland Records
Subject: In Memoriam, Kemal Amin “Casey” Kasem (27 April 1932 – 15 June 2014): Negativland releases “U2” tracks for remixing and reuse
One of the most beloved voices in music radio, Kemal Amin “Casey” Kasem, died on Fatherʼs Day 2014 after a long illness, and also a very public family squabble over his continuing care. Negativland pays tribute to this broadcasting legend by reaching into its vaults and presenting what is perhaps Kasemʼs best-known work, on Negativlandʼs long-unavailable “U2” maxi-single, offering up for public consumption (and now, for creative reuse) what has been hidden from view for 23 years.
In 1991, Negativlandʼs “U2” single had one of the shortest releases in music history, squashed like a bug after less than ten days on store shelves, under legal fire from the Irish rock band U2ʼs music publisher (Warner/Chappell) and then-record label (Island). The history of this fracas was detailed in Negativland’s book and CD release, “Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2” (Seeland 013).
Now, instead of merely reissuing the “U2” record itself, Negativland presents, for free digital download, the original un-mixed studio multi-track tape for re-mixing, re-purposing and re-inventing in whichever way the listener may choose. Negativland encourages the re-contextualization of this seminal work for whatever reason, whatsoever. In keeping with the working methods and philosophy of Negativland, and the Fair Use provision in U.S. Copyright Law (Section 107, www.copyright.gov/fls/
fl102.html), the group offers up this raw material in the hopes that entirely new versions of the work are created and disseminated. Listeners / remixers are encouraged to post their creations in these locations: www.negativland.com and www.facebook.com/
Negativlandland. The original record as briefly released in 1991 may be heard via the band’s website here or via YouTube here. Negativland is a San Francisco Bay Area-based group which has been making music and collage since 1980, releasing more than 25 albums on CD and LP on their own Seeland record label. Their newest work, Itʼs All In Your Head, a long-form “collage documentary” about belief in God, will be released on Seeland in October.
The original single artwork:
There’s a fascinating book written by Negativland on the whole U2/Kasem fiasco. Definitely worth a read.
I’m a longtime Negativland fan, but this just seems desperate and sad on their part. The U2 single is undoubtedly a classic, but I think people would have found it on their own without a press release.
Where exactly on their website are we supposed to post our remix? Here’s mine: https://soundcloud.com/robert-rabinowitz/u2-negative-land-rr-remix
Yeah…. did you actually download the samples? They aren’t a lot of usable samples if you want to do much with them. Some of the “tracks” have multiple instruments on them, so there’s not much isolation you can do with them. Some of them it’s just general audio clips. I mean of course there’s infinite things you could do with this – in the sense that there’s infinite things you could do with anything. But there isn’t too much that is musically usable that isn’t just noise – the sampling has use mainly as “reference” as opposed to musical usage (so people can SAY they used the tracks). So I guess this is what they call a marketing gimmick?
A little late to this party, but yo Andy, This was recorded to 8 track, so this is all there is, except for the original song and the bootleg Kasey Kasem tapes.
This sucks. straight up. sorry if you’re a fan of it. Sorry for you.
I’ll add – it’s kinda tasteless – did Kasem’s death really reignite interest in this? Or is this just trying to capitalize on someone’s death. The reference to the family squabbling, and calling this a tribute, it’s kinda making me feel sick.
These guys are from england and who gives a shit
Since when is San Francisco in England?
Oh, Digii, please do give the album a listen, or at least a brief read of the wiki ;)
Since when is Ireland in England?
(or is that the “joke”?)
Negativland killed Kasem!
Their names will be forever connected!
Seriously, when I heard of Casey’s passing, I did instantly think of Negativland.
Casey Kasem was a good dude.
http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2014/06/15/3449222/casey-kasem-scooby-doo-vegetarianism/
I’d like a piece of meat!
Here’s one I did. Not all that inventive, but your guy speaking a version of the lyrics really cracks me up …
http://justjohn-jj.tumblr.com/post/89327605998/in-honor-of-casey-kasems-passing-negativland
And to Andy, who said, “it’s kinda making me feel sick” …. You DO realize you’re posting to a site named slicingupeyballs.com, right?