Emergency Broadcast Network

Last updated
Emergency Broadcast Network
OriginProvidence, Rhode Island
Genres Electronica, techno [1]
Years active1991 (1991)–1999, 2011 (1999, 2011)
Labels TVT Records
Past members
  • Joshua Pearson
  • Gardner Post
  • Brian Kane
  • Ron O'Donnell
  • Greg Deocampo
  • Tracy Brown
  • Mark Marinello

Emergency Broadcast Network is a multimedia performance group formed in 1991 that took its name from the Emergency Broadcast System. The founders were Rhode Island School of Design graduates Joshua Pearson, Gardner Post, and Brian Kane (author of the Vujak VJ software). Kane left EBN in 1992. The EBN Live Team included DJ Ron O'Donnell; video artist-technologist Greg Deocampo, founder of Company of Science and Art (CoSA); founding CTO of IFilm.com), artist-designer Tracy Brown; and programmer-technologist Mark Marinello.

Contents

History

The first EBN video project was a musical remix of the Gulf War, created in 1991 as the war was still ongoing. Pearson cited their interest in how the media turned information about the war into entertainment as an inspiration for the band. [2] The VHS tape of the remix project, which contained the George H. W. Bush "We Will Rock You" cover, became a viral underground hit, and was distributed widely by fans as bootleg copies. In the summer of 1991, EBN traveled with the first Lollapalooza tour, distributing tapes and showing their videos on a modified station wagon with TVs on the roof. [3] The group also became well known for their media sculptures and stage props which were created by Gardner Post. [4]

Bono of U2 took notice of their work and hired them to provide visuals for their Zoo TV Tour. EBN's video work featured prominently into the show, and their "We Will Rock You" cover was played at the beginning of each show. [2] EBN also produced visuals for The Edge's performance of "Numb" on the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards. [5] In addition to the visuals, audio from those clips were featured in the live performance to create rhythmic effects. In 1997, EBN collaborated with U2 for an MTV miniseries, ZooTV: The Television Program, which featured satirical videos and remixes. [6] In 1998, EBN returned to the MTV Video Music Awards fold by designing the respective montage videos for the 1998 nominees announced in their signature "video scratching" style.

In 1996, the group contributed to the AIDS benefit album Offbeat: A Red Hot Soundtrip produced by the Red Hot Organization.

In 2011, EBN collaborated with Nico for the 10th Year anniversary of the EJ Midi Turntable at First Avenue[ citation needed ].

Commercial Entertainment Product

Commercial Entertainment Product was released in 1992 on TVT Records. Spin called it "dizzyingly hypnotic, politically subversive sound-and-vision barrage that renders superfluous its repeated exhortation to 'try psychoactive drugs!'". [7] Videos included a cover of "We Will Rock You" by Queen, with a vocal track made up of remixed clips of George H. W. Bush, who made announcements about the Gulf War.

Track Listing

  1. Psychoactive Drugs
  2. Get Down, Get Down
  3. Station Identification
  4. Don't Back Down
  5. I Will Teach You
  6. Behavior Modification / We Will Rock You
  7. I Am A Man
  8. Lawrence Welk Is Dead
  9. Watch Television
  10. Syncopated Ordinance Demonstration #1
  11. Operational Report

Telecommunication Breakdown

The album Telecommunication Breakdown , released in 1995, was one of the first Enhanced CDs ever produced, and contained contributions from Bill Laswell, Institute of Technology, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Brian Eno, and Jack Dangers. [8] Among the videos released are "Get Down" and "Electronic Behavior Control System", which mocks the way television controls our lives. The band used a video/audio sample of R. Budd Dwyer's suicide in "Get Down". [9] Wired.com described the band's use of samples on "Get Down" as "the video equivalent of Public Enemy's Bomb Squad". [10]

Style

Josh Pearson, EBN's charismatic front man and principal performance artist, was also EBN's music composer and main video editor. He says that the band are not musicians but use sampling technology to create multimedia performance art. [11]

The EBN modus operandi was to take cable television broadcasts and remix them with a funky beat, often having the lyrics "sung" not by a singer but by half-second sound clips from TV, spliced together. For example, the lyric "electronic behavior control system" would be created with a clip of Ross Perot saying "electronic", followed by a clip of George H. W. Bush saying "behavior", then Ted Koppel saying "control", and finally a clip of Bill Clinton saying "system". [2] This technique has been named video scratching.

Legacy

Though recognizing a long tradition before EBN, author and academic Holly Willis traces modern VJing to them. [12]

Following his departure from EBN, Kane co-developed video sampling software Vujak . [13] Kane has since worked a number of times with British AV artists Addictive TV on many of their projects, both live and recorded, including Mixmasters and at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Deocampo founded Company of Science and Art, which developed After Effects . [14] He continues his video remixes independently today, using footage from the 2003 invasion of Iraq (which he refers to as Gulf War II). In 2006, Deocampo started working with a trio of London video turntablists, Eclectic Method: Jonny Wilson, Ian Edgar, and Geoff Gamlen.

Joshua Pearson is Senior Editor at Outpost Digital / RadicalMedia, [15] and has edited numerous commercials, television shows, and documentary films, including Under African Skies: Paul Simon's Graceland Journey, and Whitey: The United States V James J. Bulger, both of which were Sundance selections. In 2015, he edited What Happened, Miss Simone? , directed by Liz Garbus, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature and won an Emmy for Outstanding Documentary.

Gardner Post has continued to work in sculpture [4] and audiovisual performance, including the band United Content Providers. [16]

Related Research Articles

A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. These videos are typically shown on music television and on streaming video sites like YouTube, or more rarely shown theatrically. They can be commercially issued on home video, either as video albums or video singles. The format has been described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip", "film clip", "video clip", or simply "video".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Head Like a Hole</span> 1990 song by Nine Inch Nails

"Head Like a Hole" is a song by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released as the second single from the group's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine. It enjoyed heavy rotation on the radio at the time of its release, eventually reaching number 9 on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MTV Europe Music Awards</span> Musical awards

The MTV Europe Music Awards are awards presented by Paramount International Networks to honour artists and music in pop culture. It was originally conceived as an alternative to the MTV Video Music Awards, which are hosted annually in the United States. The Europe Music Awards are held every year in a different country; it has been hosted mostly in the United Kingdom and Germany. The annual presentation ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and the presentation of those awards that have a more popular interest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Where the Streets Have No Name</span> 1987 single by U2

"Where the Streets Have No Name" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the opening track from their 1987 album The Joshua Tree and was released as the album's third single in August 1987. The song's hook is a repeating guitar arpeggio using a delay effect, played during the song's introduction and again at the end. Lead vocalist Bono wrote the lyrics in response to the notion that it is possible to identify a person's religion and income based on the street on which they lived, particularly in Belfast. During the band's difficulties recording the song, producer Brian Eno considered erasing the song's tapes to have them start from scratch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoo TV Tour</span> 1992–93 concert tour by U2

The Zoo TV Tour was a worldwide concert tour by rock band U2. Staged primarily to support their 1991 album Achtung Baby along with their subsequent 1993 album Zooropa, the tour visited arenas and stadiums from 1992 to 1993. Intended to mirror the group's new musical direction on Achtung Baby, the Zoo TV Tour departed from the band's previously austere stage setups by providing an elaborately staged multimedia spectacle, satirising television and media oversaturation by attempting to instill "sensory overload" in its audience. To escape their reputation for being earnest and over-serious, U2 embraced a more lighthearted and self-deprecating image on tour. Zoo TV and Achtung Baby were central to the group's 1990s reinvention.

<i>Amp</i> (TV series) 1996 American TV series or program

Amp is a music video program on MTV that aired from 1996 to 2001. It was aimed at the electronic music and rave crowd and was responsible for exposing many electronica acts to the mainstream. When co-creator Todd Mueller left the show in 1998, it was redubbed Amp 2.0. The show aired some 46 episodes in total over its 6-year run. In its final two years, reruns were usually shown from earlier years. Amp's time slot was moved around quite a bit, but the show usually aired late at night or in the early morning hours on the weekend. Because of this late night time slot, the show developed a small but cult like following. A few online groups formed after the show's demise to ask MTV to bring the show back and air it during normal hours, but MTV never responded to the requests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Numb (U2 song)</span> 1993 song by U2

"Numb" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the third track from their eighth album, Zooropa (1993), and was released in June 1993 by Island Records and PolyGram as the album's first single. The song features a monotonous mantra of "don't" commands spoken by guitarist the Edge amidst a backdrop of various sound effects and samples. The noisy composition and lyrical concept for "Numb" were inspired by the theme of sensory overload, which had prominently been incorporated into the Zoo TV Tour. Lead singer Bono and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. provided backing vocals on the track.

<i>American Edit</i> 2005 remix album by Dean Gray

American Edit is a mashup album released by Party Ben and Team9 under the shared alias Dean Gray. Its primary basis is the Green Day album American Idiot—the name "Dean Gray" is a spoonerism of "Green Day".

TMF was a 24-hour music channel operated by Viacom International Media Networks in the Netherlands. The channel was previously in every standard TV package, but it ceased operating on 1 September 2011. The channels operations were based in Amsterdam. The channel was previously known as TMF6 and TMF9.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Point Theatre</span> Venue in Dublin, Ireland

The Point Theatre (sometimes referred to as the Point Depot or simply as the Point) was a concert and events venue in Dublin, Ireland, that operated from 1988 to 2007, visited by in excess of 2 million people. It was located on the North Wall Quay of the River Liffey, amongst the Dublin Docklands. The Point was closed in the middle of 2007 for a major redevelopment and underwent a rebranding as The O2 in July 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VJing</span> Broad designation for realtime visual performance

VJing is a broad designation for realtime visual performance. Characteristics of VJing are the creation or manipulation of imagery in realtime through technological mediation and for an audience, in synchronization to music. VJing often takes place at events such as concerts, nightclubs, music festivals and sometimes in combination with other performative arts. This results in a live multimedia performance that can include music, actors and dancers. The term VJing became popular in its association with MTV's Video Jockey but its origins date back to the New York club scene of the 1970s. In both situations VJing is the manipulation or selection of visuals, the same way DJing is a selection and manipulation of audio.

<i>Telecommunication Breakdown</i> 1995 studio album by Emergency Broadcast Network

Telecommunication Breakdown is an album by Emergency Broadcast Network. It was released in 1995 by TVT Records. The CD includes three video tracks in addition to the audio, and a floppy disc includes an interactive press kit.

<i>Mortal Kombat: More Kombat</i> 1996 compilation album by Various Artists

Mortal Kombat: More Kombat is a compilation album featuring primarily exclusive music from a number of metal, industrial and electronica bands inspired by the first Mortal Kombat film. It is not an actual soundtrack to the movie, however. Cubanate's "Oxyacetylene" had already been released as a single from their 1994 album Cyberia, and would later be included in instrumental form in the soundtrack for non-Japanese releases of Gran Turismo. Babylon Zoo's "Spaceman" had already been released as a single in 1995. Alien Factory's "Higher" later turned up in the second movie, Mortal Kombat Annihilation, and Juno Reactor's "The Journey Kontinues" was later released under the title "Biot Messiah" on the single "God Is God" (1997). Psykosonik's "It Has Begun" and Sister Machine Gun's "Deeper Down" appeared in the animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm. Track 16 is exclusive to the cassette release and was taken from the EBN's album Telecommunication Breakdown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vujak</span> Video editing tool

VuJak is an early video sampler, a VJ remix and mashup tool created in 1992 by Brian Kane, Lisa Eisenpresser, and Jay Haynes. The original name of the project was Mideo, but it was later changed to VuJak.

Scratch video was a British video art movement that emerged in the early to mid-1980s. It was characterised by the use of found footage, fast cutting, and multi-layered rhythms. As a form of outsider art, it challenged many of the establishment assumptions of broadcast television, as well of those of gallery-bound video art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bad Girl (Danity Kane song)</span> 2008 single by Danity Kane featuring Missy Elliott

"Bad Girl" is a song recorded by American girl group Danity Kane. It was written by Mary Brown, Jim Beanz, Devin "DLP" Parker, Danja and Missy Elliott. Produced by Danja and featuring guest vocals by Elliott, the song was released by Bad Boy Records on July 1, 2008 as the second and final single from the band's second studio album, Welcome to the Dollhouse (2008). It peaked at number 85 on the US Billboard Pop 100, marking the last release from the group before their early 2009 breakup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2001 MTV Europe Music Awards</span>

The 2001 MTV Europe Music Awards were held in The Festhalle, Frankfurt. The ceremony attracted the largest television audience for the awards until 2007 and was one of the first entertainment broadcasts following the September 11 attacks in New York City.

<i>U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky</i> 1984 concert film by U2

U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky is a concert film by Irish rock band U2. It was recorded on 5 June 1983 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, United States, on the group's War Tour. Originally released in 1984 on videocassette, U2 Live at Red Rocks was the band's first video release. It accompanied a 1983 live album entitled Under a Blood Red Sky, on which two tracks from the film appear. The video was directed by Gavin Taylor and produced by Rick Wurpel and Doug Stewart.

Shredder Orpheus is a 1989 film by Robert McGinley that has later become a cult classic, based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. It was Amy Denio's film debut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MTV Pulse (French TV channel)</span> Musical pop and rock television channel

MTV Pulse was a musical pop/rock television channel owned by MTV Networks France, launched in November 2005 only for France, dedicated to young adult audience. MTV Pulse broadcast pop and rock music videos, live performances, interviews and special programs entirely dedicated to this musical universe.

References

  1. ↑ "Emergency Broadcast Network". Allmusic . Retrieved 2015-06-14.
  2. 1 2 3 Kenny, Glenn (1995-08-18). "Emergency Broadcast Network's mutated ads". Entertainment Weekly . Archived from the original on 2017-11-06. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  3. ↑ Gillen, Marilyn A. (March 11, 1995). "EBN Expands The Multimedia Envelope". Billboard . Vol. 197, no. 10. p. 60.
  4. 1 2 Nalepa, Steve (2007-08-28). "Made On Earth — Grand Master Video". Make . Archived from the original on 2015-06-15. Retrieved 2015-06-14.
  5. ↑ Stokes, Niall (2005). U2: Into the Heart: The Stories Behind Every Song. Da Capo Press. p. 206. ISBN   9781560257653.
  6. ↑ Atwood, Brett (April 12, 1997). "U2's ZooTV Finds A Home On MTV". Billboard . Vol. 109, no. 15. p. 75.
  7. ↑ Stathis, Lou (March 1993). "This Is Only A Test". Spin . 8 (12): 26.
  8. ↑ Frere-Jones, Sasha (February 1995). "Emergency Broadcast Network: Telecommunication Breakdown TVT". CMJ (18): 21.
  9. ↑ emn_agent_g. "EBN Theme, Get Down - MedicineFIlms".
  10. ↑ Kreth, Will (1993-02-01). "Scratch Video". Wired.com . Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  11. ↑ Bessman, Jim (May 22, 1995). "Interactivity Spurs Different Views". Billboard . Vol. 105, no. 21. p. 76.
  12. ↑ Willis, Holly (2005). New Digital Cinema: Reinventing the Moving Image. Wallflower Press. p. 70. ISBN   9781904764250.
  13. ↑ Russell, Deborah (January 14, 1995). "VuJack Heralds New Era Of Video Sampling". Billboard . Vol. 107, no. 2. p. 32.
  14. ↑ Gottlieb, Lori; Jacobs, Jesse (2002). Inside the Cult of Kibu: And Other Tales of the Millennial Gold Rush. Da Capo Press. p. 260. ISBN   9780738206912.
  15. ↑ LaPorte, Nicole (2003-08-18). "Video artist in at Outpost". Variety . Retrieved 2015-06-14.
  16. ↑ Hood, John (2010-04-01). "Head Spins: Tom Laroc". Miami New Times . Retrieved 2015-06-14.

Interviews

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.