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Brand new, received direct from the label. 
""Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die." -Mel Brooks
Negativland and David Brom's ax murder of the latter's family is an example of Mr. Brooks' argument. Brom's frequent arguments with his piously Catholic parents over what music he was allowed to listen to as a teen possibly led to his deed. After reading about the February 1988 murder that took place in Rochester, Minn., musique concrete-rockers Negativland decided to make the best of their financially doomed and cancelled tour. They submitted a bogus press release that claimed the feds placed the Bay Area band under house arrest until the investigation of the Brom murders begins. Negativland's college radio chart-topper "Christianity Is Stupid" possibly caused the fateful argument in the Brom household, the band implied. Once the virus was released, the news media banged on their door-- with the band usually declining to comment and the reporters too lazy to fact check. Whatever band interviews commenced were sexed up and edited to fit the news. Somehow, Negativland's recontextualized sample of Rev. Estus W. Pirkle's sermon where he sarcastically declares, "Christianity is stew-pid; communism is good!" was responsible for the ax murder. In short, the media fell into an open sewer.
Did Negativland fall in the sewer as well? "Our act of creating a false association with such a tragedy will remain open to ethical interpretation," the band concluded in its liner notes for the 15th anniversary reissue of the Helter Stupid, their document of the Brom case. This reissue now makes the case rather quaint in our time when musicians immediately deny influencing tragedies (i.e. Marilyn Manson and Columbine).
Is the band offering the album as a lesson in the mass media's vulnerability to manipulation or are they laughing at the past? It is difficult take Helter's two tracks seriously as one moment finds a Rolling Stone reporter calling to ask a band member (off the record) if subliminal messages are planted in their music-- "NOW IT BEGINS!" someone shouts. In the 18-minute title track, the infamous "Christianity is stew-pid!" becomes a happenin' break for a disco-schmaltz number that can teach elderly couples the Hustle at the rec center.
A deftly edited collage of newsbites and an advertising producer battling with his engineer, saying, "Doesn't it bother you that evil messages creep into our commercials when you play them backwards?" then follows. Corpses pulled out of the sewer are the props here. It is difficult to determine if Negativland deserves acclaim for displaying a mirror to the crassness of ratings-driven news or dismissal for enjoying that same decadence. If an artist were to pull the same gimmick today, to the wolves that person goes. Negativland could be rewarded for their bravery,\xCAbut publicity stunts can only go so far.
Included with the Helter EP is The Perfect Cut, the band's satire of 70s pop music reduced to disposable commercial dreck. Pastor Dick Vaughn, host of Negativland's long-running "Over the Edge" radio show, presents his "Moribund Sounds of the 70s" as interjected with sampled audio sales pitches for the most marketable music to reap millions with. The music gets the typical "Over the Edge" treatment-- media soundbites all orchestrated like a Carl Stalling Looney Tunes score. The Perfect Cut is more of an amusement than a critique as the loud horn blasts and the irritating choirs attest; yet, the satirical target is peanuts compared to our age where music is only believed to be made popular by what the test marketing and focus group data suggested. A finger cut." - Pitchfork