Currently enjoying “Behavior Modification/We Will Rock You” by Emergency Broadcast Network

Emergency Broadcast Network was a performance art group founded by a trio of Rhode Island School of Design students in 1991. Their first multimedia project was a “remix” of the Gulf War, which combined beats and cable news coverage using an early and influential style of video scratching.

The standout “track” from this project was EBN’s cover of “We Will Rock You,” featuring a vocal track assembled from clips of various addresses by George H. W. Bush. The video became a hit on the pre-Internet bootleg circuit, to the point that U2 would soon secure the rights to play it as an introduction to the shows on their Zoo TV Tour. Various versions exist, including a duet with Bill Clinton that the group dubbed a “Bipartisan Mix.”

It’s inevitable, in a sense, that the group’s 1992 CD single Behavior Modification/We Will Rock You only hints at the impact and the humour of the original video version. But musically, at least, it’s an interesting expansion on a lot of its themes. Containing three versions of the title track and two versions of EBN’s “Psychoactive Drugs,” it’s not always an easy listen, but it’s definitely worthwhile.

And when you take into account the fact that it was put together by a bunch of design students from Rhode Island nearly twenty years ago – long before their experiments in video scratching would become a genre for which they can largely take credit – it’s nothing short of remarkable.

Posted in Currently Enjoying