Career
The Vaughn character was killed off in a fictional plane crash. While looking through used records in a thrift store in the mid 1980s, Lyons discovered a 1968 LP by Baptist preacher Estus Pirkle entitled If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? Another song from Escape From Noise, "Nesbitt"s Lime Soda Song", was composed and sung by Lyons. lieutenant also claimed that Negativland had been "advised by Federal official Dick Jordan not to leave town pending an investigation into the Brom murders".
Lyons came up with the idea for the press release when Negativland could not afford to go on tour in support of Escape From Noise.
Lyons prepared the phony press release and mailed it out to various news outlets, many of whom took it at face value. The hoax received widespread media coverage, inspiring Negativland"s next album Helter Stupid.
After taking a brief hiatus from the group, Lyons composed and sang several songs on Negativland"s 1997 album Dispepsi, including "Happy Hero" and "The Greatest Taste Around". He also created an art piece using letters found in junkyard cars.
He compiled and arranged the found letters with photographs of the wrecked cars to create a Xeroxed book that he distributed to friends.
Lyons recorded a segment about his book for an episode of This American Life entitled "Other People"s Mail". In 2002 the book was released by Negativland with an accompanying soundtrack Civil Defense as Deathsentences of the Polished and Structurally Weak. Lyons traveled with the band during its "True or False" tour, doing a mid-show version of "Pastor Dick"s Treehouse".
