About a month ago we interviewed mashup artist Girl Talk, who has received a lot of positive attention lately for the way his albums, Night Ripper and Feed the Animals, combine samples of a gazillion pop songs to create his own booty shaking mix of socio-emotional commentary. But this way of creating music has landed Gregg Gillis in the courtroom and in Senate committee hearings, as well as in sold out sweaty venues.

Mark Hosler knows a thing or two about the complications of sampling copyrighted material, as his band Negativland ended up in a draining legal battle in the early 1990s concerning their (out of print) EP, U2.

Negativland has been releasing their sonic collages since the late 1970s, long before Gillis made it popular and danceable. Negativland’s aspirations were less about infiltrating the mainstream than commenting on it. Top 40 radio, former presidents and unapologetic commercialism are just a few of the topics which have come under Negativland’s scrutiny over the past few decades. Not surprisingly, Hosler and co. are huge proponents of appropriating surrounding media to create new works of art, whether mashup soundtracks or YouTube videos. When Hosler came into town last week (prior to the election) to speak with Senate and judiciary committees on this issue, DCist got the opportunity to sit down with him and discuss his thoughts on the RIAA and music industry heavy hitters, how digital distribution has hurt consumption of Negativland’s older material, and why he doesn’t like Pitchforkmedia.com.

Photo from Negativland’s MySpace page