Negativland is still in many ways defined by the
U2 debacle/smash success (depending on how you look at it), so it perhaps made perfect sense that ten years on the group would celebrate in perversely entertaining fashion with this release. Officially speaking, the original material is still unable to be re-released, which perhaps explains why this 11-track album is supposedly available on
Seelard Records rather
Seeland, and why there's an amusing pseudo-legal brief in the liner notes asking the bootleggers to cease and desist. Titled after one of
Casey Kasem's rants about
U2 itself,
These Guys Are From England collects both the many alternate versions of
Negativland's vivisection of
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and snippets from its memorable 1993 tour about the fallout. Turns out that the band had the essential idea a couple of years beforehand about tackling
U2,
Kasem, and much more beforehand -- the earliest version, taken from an Over the Edge broadcast, dates from 1989. Hearing
Wills trying to recite the lyrics while chaos unfolds around him is well worth it, as is an alternate live version from 1990 that demolishes
"Where the Streets Have No Name" instead (whoever is singing along with
Bono intentionally terribly deserves a medal). The two original EP tracks crop up next, followed by six efforts from the San Francisco date on the 1993 tour. Since no formal release of this material had ever appeared --
Negativconcertland was a bootleg, while only some parts were reused on
Fair Use -- finally hearing it, cleanly recorded, is a treat and a half, as
Kasem,
U2,
Island Records,
Greg Ginn,
SST and more are raked over the coals. A final "edited special edit radio mix" -- profanity carefully removed throughout -- concludes this great collection. ~ Ned Raggett
