Negativland Presents Over the Edge, Vol. 3: The Weatherman's Dumb Stupid Come-Out Line

Dedicated to the doings and persona of Negativland's most beloved member — David Wills: cable TV repairman, cleanliness obsessive, and ham radio operator — this edition of the Over the Edge radio show archive series is dedicated to another apparent part of his personality. Namely, he's gay — though as everything else in Negativland's universe, what is reality and what isn't is one heck of a mystery. Wills invites callers to "come out" on the air like himself, and with that as the prompt, the group once again makes merry havoc with perceptions on various levels, from what homosexuals are supposed to sound like to snippets of music and interviews and more referring to perceptions of gay life in general. The Village People, Pink Floyd, Jim Stafford, intensely angry preachers, Star Wars aliens, and robot-Satan voices all add to the chaos. At the center of it all is Wills himself, whose relaxed but quizzical responses to what unfolds around him — sounding more than once like he's as unsure of what's going on as most of the callers — provides some of the best, most deadpan comedy ever recorded. His fits of temper when coffee isn't provided, not to mention an extremely salacious encounter at the end of the first disc, are both hilarious and more than a little freakish. Then there's his incarnation on the second disc as the Clorox Cowboy, a treble-obsessed crystal-mic-wielding character even nuttier than the Weatherman. Him giving a recitation solo would be a treat; him in the midst of Negativland mania is just ridiculously wonderful — though his tales of sex with oscillators might scare more than a few. Bonus points as well for the appearance of Pastor Dick, who merrily drives someone to suicide — "it must be the mean streak in me."