Negativwobblyland Live at UC Davis 1 November 2011 01-09 - Set 1 10 - Encore 11 - Student Demonstration link to zip file of 11 mp3 files link to the instant gratification of a soundcloud page This is a recording of the second concert by Negativwobblyland, performed at the Technocultural Studies building at UC Davis, California on November 1st, 2011, at the invitation of Bob Ostertag. The headlines and photographs of students being sprayed at point-blank range with a chemical weapon have already travelled around the world, and I've already talked to a few friends who understandably felt that they did not need to watch the eight and a half minute youtube video of young people being assaulted and arrested. These chemical weapons are being used precisely to discourage turnout to future demonstrations, and most of the news coverage to date focuses on the simple fact that students were hurt, which only amplifies this message. What the complete video actually shows is an armed group of military police slowly surrounded by several hundred college students on three sides, slowly backed away from student-occupied public space, and forced to comply with their instructions: 'You can go.' The outrage over the police action should not overshadow the fact that the police were routed through non-violent resistance. The youtube clip has already been watched over 1.2 million times in under two days. A transcription of the events on that video can be found here. Professor Bob Ostertag's editorial for the Huffington Post, 'Militarization of Campus Police', can be read here -- and his interview on ABC news can be seen here. Another widely watched clip of non-violent demonstration against the UC Davis Chancellor can be watched here. Negativwobblyland makes music using handmade electronic feedback instruments. Feedback is unpredictable by nature, and you quickly develop a relationship with your instrument based less on virtuosic mastery than careful and active listening; it is inherently improvised music with no guarantees. Our concert took place one week after the crowd dispersal by tear gas at #occupyoakland, and the topic was being discussed by students after the show as we casually demonstrated the instruments to interested parties (this instrument demo is included as the final track). Several students asked us if we'd be interested in playing at Oscar Grant Plaza (answer = yes), and I saw those students again at the Maritime Port at the General Strike in Oakland the next day. So, although this is abstract music and obviously of contained appeal relative to the size of this movement, it has by default become a soundtrack to our last month as the movement accelerates and is shared here to any interested audience as such. It is dedicated both to the audience present at the concert, and in solidarity with the students who were present on the Quad on November 18th, 2011.

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