by Debbie Dub and the band, Negative Trend was recorded and mixed in June 1978, in a process which took only two days.
Release
Negative Trend was originally released in September 1978 on the label Heavy Manners in 7-inch vinyl disc format. Only 1,000 copies of this edition were pressed.
Critical reception
Matt Whalley of AllMusic retrospectively lauded the EP as being some of America's finest punk music and credited it as being "a surprisingly powerful and gifted piece of American punk history". He gave it 4 out of 5 stars, concluding that Negative Trend "is a complete package that puts one of America's least appreciated punk bands on display".
Reissues
In December 1983, Negative Trend was reissued by Subterranean Records, this time in 12-inch vinyl disc format, under the title We Don't Play, We Riot and featuring alternate cover art, taken from a Negative Trend flyer done by band's bassist Will Shatter for a gig, shared with Readymades and Avengers, held at the Mabuhay Gardens on December 30, 1977. In April 2006, a new edition, remastered by Steven Tupper at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, was released on CD via Henry Rollins' label 2.13.61 Records. In 2005, Rollins said about this release:
All previous editions went out of print. As of 2006, individual tracks were made available as digital downloads. In late 2013, 35 years after its debut, Negative Trend was remastered, again at Fantasy Studios, but this time by its chief mastering engineerGeorge Horn, for a reissue, in its original 7-inch vinyl disc format and cover art, on Superior Viaduct, an archival record label.
Re-recordings
In November 1978, "Mercenaries", "Meathouse" and "Black and Red" were re-recorded, along with the new songs "I Got Power" and "Atomic Lawn", all of them as demo versions, by the third lineup of Negative Trend, featuring Richard Elerick on vocals, and Tim Mooney on drums, in a six-hour session produced by Robbie Fields from Posh Boy Records at Media Art Studio in Hermosa Beach, California. This was the last time the band went into a recording studio. In mid-1979, the L.A.-based Upsetter Records issued the Tooth and Nailcompilation, featuring Chris Desjardins and Rik L Rik's remixed versions of the Posh Boy demo recordings of "Mercenaries" and "I Got Power". Following that, Posh Boy decided to remix all five demos from the November 1978 session, adding bassoverdubs, as well as a new guitartrack on "Atomic Lawn", by Jay Lansford. Shortly after, Posh Boy issued the single "Meat House", initially conceived for Negative Trend, as the first Rik L Rik stand-alone release after he quit the band. This 7-inch pressing on white vinyl featured the Posh Boy remixed versions of "Meathouse" and "I Got Power". In the summer of 1979, the five Posh Boy remixes were included on the label's compilation LPBeach Blvd. The recordings were credited to Rik L Rik. In 1982, Rik L Rik, backed by members of the Gleaming Spires, re-recorded "Mercenaries" and "I Got Power" for the soundtrack of a horrorshort film titled The Bishop of Battle, starring Emilio Estevez as a video game-addicted teenager who listens to punk rock. Written by Christopher Crowe and directed by Joseph Sargent, the story was originally conceived and shot for the short-lived Universal TelevisionTV seriesDarkroom, but it was never broadcast because its producers deemed it too intense for TV audiences. However, in 1983, the following year after the show was canceled, the tale was included, along with other three never-aired Darkroom episodes, in Sargent's anthology filmNightmares, released theatrically in September of that year. The music featured in the movie has never been released on a soundtrack album. In 1997, Rik L Rik re-recorded "Meathouse" and "I Got Power" with New Jersey band Electric Frankenstein for their albumRock 'n' Roll Monster released by Australian label Au Go Go Records. The following year, the live EP Electric Frankenstein with Rik L Rik, issued by the Spanish label Munster Records, featured live versions of "Meathouse" and "I Got Power". In November 2011, Posh Boy compiled the two Negative Trend tracks on Tooth and Nail, along with their five cuts from Beach Blvd, as a downloadable digital audio collection titled November 1978.
