Plagiarhythm Nation, sometimes stylized as Plagiarhythm Nation, Vol 2.0, is the second full-length album by Mark Gunderson's experimental music project

The Evolution Control Committee The Evolution Control Committee (The ECC) is an experimental music band based in Columbus, Ohio. The ECC was founded by Mark Gunderson (a.k.a. TradeMark G.) in Columbus in 1986. They create music that falls within the borders of the sound coll ...

. It was released on

Seeland Records Seeland Records is an independent record label created by Negativland in 1979 to release their own recordings. It is a reference to the song "Seeland" by the band Neu!, who also gave Negativland the basis for their name, Sea-Land Corporation, a ...

on April 15, 2003.

Legal controversy

The album's fifth track, "Rocked by Rape", which combines clips from

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's television news broadcasts with

AC/DC AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal, although the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formativ ...

's song

Back in Black ''Back in Black'' is the seventh studio album by Australian rock band AC/DC, released on 25 July 1980, by Albert Productions and Atlantic Records. It was the band's first album to feature Brian Johnson as lead singer, following the death of the ...

, attracted considerable attention, both positive and negative. The song was originally released as a single in 1999, after which

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

gave it a provocative and favorable review, describing it as "a wicked language poem, backed by an endless AC/DC drone." It was also reviewed favorably by

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events, online media company and a distributor of up and coming music CDs, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music ...

's Douglas Wolk, who praised it as a "stroke of genius". CBS later sent a cease-and-desist letter to Gunderson accusing him of copyright infringement in producing "Rocked by Rape", to which he replied that the song was a parody and therefore compliant with US copyright law. In spite of CBS attempting to limit the song's popularity with their letter to Gunderson, the song became considerably more popular than it previously was, with the song being played by

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program in 2000. Also in 2000, ECC themselves posted copies of the song online, disguising them to look like unreleased tracks by famous artists.

Critical reception

''Plagiarhythm Nation'' received mixed reviews from critics. Sean Carruthers of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

gave it four out of five stars and described it generally favorably, likening it to a greatest-hits collection; but he also wrote that "There are a few rough patches," citing "Fearsome as Odd Danger" and "Nasha" as examples.

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

gave the album a "choice cut" rating (which corresponds to a bad album with one or more good songs), identifying "The Fucking Moon" and "Rocked by Rape" as the only good songs on the album.

Will Hermes Will Hermes (born December 27, 1960, in Jamaica, Queens, New York City) is an American author, broadcaster, journalist and critic who has written extensively about popular music. He is a longtime contributor to ''Rolling Stone'' and to National P ...

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

gave the album a B grade and wrote that it "turns garage-sale detritus, voice-mail jabber, and pop shrapnel into a musical comedy record where the absurd and the sophomoric duke it out."

Track listing

# Star Spangled Bologna 1:18 # The Fucking Moon 1:57 # Hello 0:16 # I Want A Cookie 3:40 # Rocked By Rape 4:28 # Spandau Filet 1:31 # Don't Miss The Great Snatch 4:19 # Breakfast 0:43 # Donations #1 1:35 # Toot 0:30 # Nearly No Time For Yes 0:44 # No Time For Yes 3:04 # Lunch 0:45 # Donations #2 1:28 # 5000 Bc 0:37 # Arrhythmic Nation 1:19 # The Big Noodle Song 0:38 # Prick 0:18 # Sex Re-Education 2:21 # Dinner 1:00 # Donations #3 1:23 # Candy Wrapper 1:36 # Fearsome As Odd Danger 7:30 # Arrhythmia's Gonna Get You 0:59 # I Don't Care 1:21 # Nasha 5:08 # Dedication 0:08 # The Christmas Wrong 1:31 # Goodbye 0:10

References

{{Authority control Seeland Records albums 2003 albums