Movie Reviews from
By John Ruch
© 1996 CM Media, Inc.
Sonic Outlaws (1996)
“Sonic Outlaws” is Craig Baldwin’s mildly revealing trip into the underground of artists who dabble in audio collage, music sampling and radio piracy.
It’s an artistic area that raises all sorts of new questions. As copyrights, cyberspace, home taping and pop culture all collide, the notions of plagiarism and fair use become hard to define.
“Sonic Outlaws” hangs its investigative hat on the Negativland-U2 lawsuit that’s had the indie music scene in a tizzy for years.
Negativland are four
In 1991
they put out a record called “U2,” which poked fun at the pop group using
samples of its own music. It featured samples from a rare tape of Casey Kasem screwing up an introduction to a U2 song, saying,
“This is bullshit, nobody cares. These guys are from
U2’s record company promptly sued Negativland, as did Negativland’s own label, SST, an indie stalwart formed by ex-Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn under the motto “Corporate rock still sucks!” We’re talking total punk rock scandal, kids.
The film is the video equivalent of a Negativland album: a rapid montage of strange snippets from a variety of film stocks, chosen more for quirkiness than any particular utility. It lacks voice-overs, relying on silly clips from commercials and TV shows for commentary. Amid the wash of imagery, you get the rare treat of hearing some of the banned record, including Kasem’s ranting.
A major point the film fails to make is that Negativland’s “songs” are not very interesting, rhythmic or clever, which can be said for most products of this manic MTV genre.
“You turn the barrage (of mass media input) back on itself,” is how one Negativland member describes their work. Actually, what they—and this film—mostly do is duplicate the tiring jerkiness and jabber of TV. It’s exhausting to watch.
But you may catch some important ideas whizzing through the mix. One is how naïve and wussy these media pranksters are, who seem genuinely surprised that when they make trouble, they also get into trouble. When they get U2’s guitarist on the phone, they actually ask him for a loan.
Some oddballs show up saying semi-interesting things about how copyright stifles the folk music-style evolution of artforms, which rely on borrowing. But boy, is it hard to figure out who’s saying what. As I’ve said in nearly all my media-themed reviews, knowledge is power but context is omnipotence, and there ain’t a lot of context here.
Still, it
did put me in the spirit of things. So send me a blank tape, and I’ll send you
a free copy of my Negativland album.