The Residents: C/D;S&D

I'm scared to buy a Residents CD, because I'm afraid I'd fall into buying them all -- and there are, like, what... 173 albums or something?

That said, I'd say the new "Icky Flix" DVD (if you have a DVD player) is the best place to start, because it is an assemblance of their "greatest hits" to some degree. Plus the videos are insane.

Otherwise, "Third Reich 'n Roll", "Hell", "Eskimo" have all gotten high praise from the Residents fanatics I've consorted with...

Oh, and see them live if you can... (and can afford it... their shows tend to be a lil' pricey). You don't have to know their material to enjoy the live shows. You just have to tolerate a multimedia headfuck that accurately simulates bad dreams on bad acid.

The only album of theirs I own is "The Residents' Commercial Album". It's wonderful, and arguably the best distillation of their 'pop' side. I also have their debut ("Meet the Residents", was it?) and "Third Reich" on a tape somewhere. Both are okay, especially the former. I've never heard Eskimo (or Diskomo, for that matter) but would love to.

One other Residents-related sound recording you MUST search is a cassette tape starring Penn Gillette (this was way before Penn and Teller really took off). Basically he was locked in a windowless room for an extended period by the band (who's music he was totally unaware of hitherto), given one by one their entire back catalogue to listen to, and invited to make an audio diary of the experience. It's a classic!

When the Residents started on their composers series and the Mole trilogy, things started getting seriously dodgy, so I gave up on them. But I've read interesting pieces about their more recent projects, especially the ones involving other media than (just) music. Are there any decent critiques on the net of this later stuff that people could point me to? (i.e. not something by a bemused outsider banging on about eyeballs-for-heads)

Most of their output up to Commercial Album is worth hearing, tho 3rd RnR is one joke stretched over 2 sides of a record, thus a trifle wearing. Everything I've heard post-CA is pretty awful. It's like "we can afford all this technology now, see what we can do with it!" thus destroying all their string-&sealing-wax creativity (cf: Laurie Anderson).

That said, I don't listen to my Residents albums that much anymore, but I'm glad to have them around. Pretty much anything they did before the unfortunate "Mole trilogy" (beginning of the prolonged and dispiriting end) is worth hearing in my book.

the parodies of "george & james" i found grating after one listen. Both the "composer series" and the "mole series" seemed to be pushing the same musical plonking idea too far, and then they got into digital synths, which just sounded boring.

i think it's a pity that Snakefinger died. I saw them live once (13th anniversary tour), and while the Residents sounded sequenced (as has been mentioned), they were funny/ridiculous as a stage show, but Snakefinger stole the show with his witty-gritty guitar noises.

Not Available
The Commercial Album
Third Reich 'n' Roll

The following two are almost as good:

Duckstab/ Buster and Glen
Meet the Residents

I confess to being one of those idiots who owns most of what they have done, but the last album I bought was "Freak Show", which is a while ago now. "Hello Skinny" is the best music video I've ever seen.

I'm not sure they were trying to purposely parody Gershwin/James Brown, because they actually have a sincere reverence for them. I guess anything they cover is going to sound pretty strange. But anyway, I saw a show on their latest tour, for Demons Dance Alone, and surprisingly, the lead Resident had a poignant story about meeting James Brown as a child. Apparently, Brown and his entourage needed help with directions after a show, and the Resident guy and his friends helped them out, and when Brown thanked them, it was one of the most treasured moments of his life - but to Brown, it probably was just like any other day. It was an oddly personal moment in the show, which is ironic since of course we (supposedly) don't know who the Resident is or what his face looks like. Then some idiot in the audience shouted out "James Brown stole the eyeball!".

listening to "3rd r&r" made me realise that i was only just old enough to know some of those songs, but i found all the versions of songs i knew very funny, particularly "light my fire" and "sympathy for 'hey jude'", and i found the "eskimo" soundscapes inevitably comical, even if i wasn't strictly meant to. For me, my first "fake ethnic" album.

and forgot to mention, i've found the slightly out-of-tune analog attack of DS/B&Gs "Birthay Boy" perfect for anonymous answering machine birthday messages

It is terrible. They've carved up the original Warner Brothers Album tapes into horrible 4/4 loops, which they drop piecemeal & meaninglessly on top of some of the most tasteless drum loops imaginable. Like a drum library CDROM from 1999. Bad bad progressive house. It's a real disappointment. Two or three tracks are nearly okay, but it's so frustrating to have them put this out instead of the original tapes.

'Warner Brothers Album', is apparently a 40 minute edited tape with 39 songs on it, edited from long group jams. I haven't heard that, but have a cassette dub of a 60 minute master reel that obviously contains elements that ended up on it, their versions of 'strawberry fields forever', 'maggie's farm', 2 versions of 'i hear you got religion', 3 versions of 'oh mommy oh daddy can't you see that it's true', etc. It's one mic in a room catching them playing, no overdubs, then spliced together onto a master reel. And while the vocals are maniacal, the young singing resident in full force, what's interesting is how normal they sound; they're just a bunch of maniacs in san mateo in 1970 'freaking out'. It also puts the myth to the idea that they can't play their instruments; they're not 'tight', but the guy on guitar can play quite well. Clearly, they had two options; to tighten up further, or 'unlearn' their instruments and figure out how to play them in new ways. 'Warner Brothers Album' is for fanatics only, but there are a lot of Residents fanatics out there, and it's wonderful to hear the roots of the band. At least as valuable as hearing the Beatles Hamburg tapes. Even the 'Get Back' sessions.

'Baby Sex' is a different matter altogether. It is a masterpiece, as good as any of the released studio albums and it's kind of upsetting to me that they haven't released an intact edition of it yet. Sections of it have been released on various limited edition fan club CDs through the 90's (the two Liver discs, the Snakefinger tribute and the 'History Mystery' disc of 'Huddled Masses'.) 'Hallowed Be Thy Ween'.

Douglas says above that the Residents work are very inconsistent, but I don't think that's true at all; I think they were absolutely solid from 1972-1981, every album, every ep, every single. In 1981 two core members left, leaving only the singing resident and the composing resident, and a lot of new MIDI hardware and sampling synthesizers; from 1981 onward, the discography grows spotty and the album concepts obviously come before the production of the actual music, the music is manufactured to order as an afterthought.

I have heard just about all the later stuff. I still like parts of 'Tunes of Two Cities', the Sousa side of 'Stars n Hank Forever', and a few tracks from 'Our Finest Flowers'. The 2 CD set 'Live at the Fillmore' documents the 1997 25th anniversary concerts, and has superior live versions of things from 'freak show' and 'gingerbread man', and ends with their fairly incredible cover of 'We Are The World'. The 'Liver' series has some great 70's tracks.

The absolute best best thing they've done since 1981 was their tribute to Snakefinger, 'Snakey Wake'.

oh, also any recording of the '13th Anniversary' show has good sections; generous helpings of Snakefinger. and the James Brown side of 'George and James' sounds _incredible_ when you play it at 45 rpm.

also, wanted to make it clear that I'm not the person responsible for filesharing the WB album; I received the tapes with the promise not to copy them and I've complied. But I'm personally very happy they've turned up online.

I saw them in I guess about 1990 on the King And Eye tour, which was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I liked that album, too, but haven't heard it in about a decade. The Residents are a group I respect a lot, but hardly ever want to actually listen to for pleasure.

also, their 90's CD ROMS set a very high, very strange standard for early interactive media.

Man, those CD-ROMs blew my mind (well, Freak Show and Bad Day on the Midway; Gingerbread Man isn't as interesting). The story of Ted in Midway - making artificial moths out of detritus, wanting to destroy ugliness in the world, then eventually hanging himself because he concludes that he is part of the ugliness - I mean, good lord. Wow. (This is a game?). And the "Harry the Head" story and the Human Mole story in Freak Show...amazing. A disembodied head on the floor, painting angels on a woman's skirt with a paintbrush in his mouth - I like that.

milton wrote: from 1981 onward, the discography grows spotty and the album concepts obviously come before the production of the actual music, the music is manufactured to order as an afterthought.

Yes...and this is a HUGE philosophical shift, for the band. Their lyrical songwriting got better and better, but their music became a lower priority. The epitome of this is God in Three Persons, the lyrics of which are so meticulously written...but the music is probably the dullest and most uninspired of any Residents album. They had forgotten the "Theory of Phonetic Organization":

http://www.rzweb.net/collab/n-senada.html#phonetic

Quote: According to this theory the musician should put the sounds first, building the music up from them rather than developing the music then working down to the sounds that make it up.

You can easily imagine how this theory was used to make music in the earlier days, like "Smelly Tongues" or Eskimo.

You're missing a real return to form with Wormwood and Demons Dance Alone then - best stuff they've done (that I've heard) since The Commercial Album (except possibly God In Three Persons).

Is that fact - because I think the singing Resident IS the composing Resident and that, musically, The Residents is now a one man band. In fact, I think what you have in The Residents now is the musical Resident and the design/multimedia Resident. I could be wrong of course.

I can't be positive, but I'm pretty sure, both from reliable conversation and listening to the records. Listen to 'Stars and Hank' for the clearest example, it's basically a split solo album, each getting a full side.

put on WB:RMX again last night. it's not quite as terrible as I initially thought, it's just that the drum loops are so repellent I couldn't hear through them, there are some interesting things going on if you give it time. still, fans only.

from http://www.jahsonic.com/PierreSchaeffer.html

He also described the composer of musique concrete as one who"...Takes his point of departure the objets sonore, the sound objects, which are the equivalent of visual images, and which therefore alter the procedures of musical composition completely...The Concrete experiment in music consists of building sonorous objects, not with the play of numbers and seconds of the metronome, but with pieces of time torn from the cosmos." (3)

Those '70s albums seem to take apparently seperate 'tracks' within songs and use them as layers, and by then blurring them, twisting them, deftly tweaking the whole nervous system going right up and especially right down the octaves with those beautifully warm tones, these are masterful displays of synth playing, both virtuosity and creativity.

that those 'songs' can have very sharp noises and very curvy noises co-existing with so much else often going on in the mix, i say the residents were quite a way ahead of Kraftwerk (who spring to mind as aprox. peers). The Kraftwerk work rate just doesn't compare to the Residents. So many deft tweakings per song ! Such precision with bass width and sequencing. ! Humour ! Cultural critique ! One of the earliest 'indie' labels !

my point: Stereolab can get as much timbral twist, but they can't wrench as much humour or perversely human/ alien width-of-purpose out of the same machines.
That New Order became the poster people for the post-analog MIDI sound really evidences how retarded synth music became with the new polyphonic toys of the '80s. The wretched 'chorus' effect -- i first saw one on a synth on the Juno 6 and listening to that synth it really sounded like it sucked. Reverb and chorus and the implicit overtone rich chorus-like impact of polyphony itself, as used by Van Halen and New Order (two very similar sounding bands), these early '80s 'digital synth' moments, they have a tenth of the warmth and none of that continual musical rates-of-change sound that make the '70s residents records _the_ synth pop records for the technologies of the times, and still charming and unique (antique as any '60s psych band is saying nothing).

How ironic that people buy analog synths on eBay today precisely to try and regain that level of control the residents always had, and that the '80s and '90s were blighted by digital synths, with all the noises pretty much sounding the same, all the while the digital synths seen as 'progress'.
(or more importantly, except for a couple of brian eno records, there are no other '70s 'art pop' records containing the sheer sonic detail and invention of the residents artful displays of synth virtuosity and inspiration)

and if you can think of other music with as much timbral artfulness per-beat,
tell me about it please :
(here will do)

somehow the residents got their records distributed. i suppose they were any early college radio favourite. if it is satire or parody, it's not as if that feels predominant or forced. it's nice to think of the residents existing out of CA in the US since the times of Nixon, and managing to annoy him. sound effects are a guilty pleasure, but i do find them danceable. the faster material is earlier in their career. i like that some of them have been around doing that in one form or another for this length of time. like some running gag. i think critics sometimes find it easier to beat up on things that are meant to be funny, but there is still generally goodwill for the residents, even if fans sometimes feel a little let down. i think there's enough fun stuff to happily outweigh their bad stuff.

THE RESIDENTS
BRAND NEW ALBUM RELEASE
ANIMAL LOVER - OUT 14th FEBRUARY 2005

"Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people, who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate in their object-relations." - Sigmund Freud

The Residents have announced details of a brand new album, their first for Mute, to be released on Valentine's Day 2005. "Animal Lover" follows the 25th Anniversary re-release of the Commercial Album in the Autumn of 2004.

When Charles Darwin first proposed in the late 1800's that homo sapiens had evolved from and were in fact a species of animal, many humans were horrified. Humans had an unusual need to feel superior, something their fellow animal associates had never quite understood. When Sigmund Freud, a few years later, destroyed the accepted opposition between sanity and madness by locating "normality" on a sliding scale, the poor humans were even more shocked. Taking a step beyond Darwin, Freud believed that the human was an animal in conflict, and informing the human of that very simple concept seemed to only increase the conflict.

In The Residents' "Animal Lover", the creatures who don't really mind if they are animals take an existential look at the upright animal whose normality is sliding toward the wrong end of the spectrum. The human beasts live in a world of primal darkness, their heads forever stuck in the ground like frightened ostriches living in a constant murky dream state.

In creating this picture book of animal tales, The Residents wanted to include a soundtrack that related directly to "animal love." The result is an imaginative CD whose rhythm tracks are based entirely on animal noise mating patterns generated primarily by cicadas and frogs. Also the actual sounds of mating whales and humans were used for longer tonal passages. They weren't mating with each other, by the way.

So the world is filled with tubular entities. Food goes in one end and shit comes out the other. Sperm goes in and babies come out. It's all we've got. That and love.

Animal Lover is released on Mute on 14th February 2005.

The Residents Bog

Of course if the collection had been compiled more recently and included material from Demons Dance Alone and Wormwood (and also didn't fail to include anything from the God In Three Persons album, which is a strangely indefensible omission too imho) it might help to remedy the impression of the material gradually deteriorating in quality as you move backwards though time.

I love the Concentrates on Our Huddled Masses (especially the one for Reich). The editing in some places is so dense that they almost qualify as new pieces. In any case the 4 CD version is worth $60 for the 15 minute excerpt from Baby Sex alone.

That said, I think they're awful--I mean I have respect for anyone trying to do anti-music, and they succeed. But I don't mean it as a compliment; it's not only anti-music but anti-anti-music. I find them very, very puerile, and their later stuff seems infused with some sort of melancholia I don't think they earn at all. My buddy here listens to a lot of stuff I don't like, many things I do, and he's always draggin' out the Residents or the Firesign Theater (not the classic '60s stuff but their later shit, which is just actively unfunny). And I feel the same way about the Residents--they're not funny, their videos are totally geeky (except for the very early short ones), they're a total one-joke band. That whole thing with the eyeballs is just totally lame, they should've stopped that shit years ago. I think they're from Shreveport or somewhere--well, I say Louisiana's pop combo John Fred and His Playboy Band were both more avant-garde and certainly more listenable.

However, I kinda like "Eskimo," in a way; but none of it is anything I listen to for pleasure

Not to mention funnier. The Residents couldn't pull off "Judy in Disguise" if their eyeballs depended on it.

Obviously, they had a certain style. But that's an easy (and inaccurate) criticism that someone might make about any comedians that they didn't happen to like. I mean, if someone didn't like the Marx Brothers, couldn't they make the same allegation?

It's not true of the Residents, anyway. Just thinking of the first album, "Boots" is not the same joke as "Smelly Tongues," which is not the same joke as "Rest Aria," which is not the same joke as "Spotted Pinto Bean," which is not the same joke as "Seasoned Greetings," etc.

No, sorry, I just expressed myself badly - I think / agree that (with the notable exception of the album God In Three Person, which isn't represented on the comp.) there is a distinct overall downward trend between about 1980 and 1997 (when Our Tired Our Poor Our Huddled Masses came out)

"So how would more recent music correct this impression, as you suggest?"

I think 1998's Wormwood and 2002's Demons Dance Alone are major returns to form both in terms of both quality and "relevance" (or, at least, contemporaneity).

Early tapes make it clear that they actually can play instruments, they just made a point of taking instrumental technique apart at the exact moment the rest of pop was calcifying into stadium rock gloss & empty virtuosity. Taking the formulas of glossy, shallow pop, and making it all gloriously ugly and wrong, but still recognizable. And sometimes, so utterly, bafflingly wrong that it comes out far more mysterious and beautiful.

Beautiful Residents: Not Available, Eskimo and "Six Things To A Cycle", the main theme of which is probably my favorite thing they've ever done.

http://www.theresidents.co.uk/articles/books/art_cutler.html

An extraordinarily large number of people have described Trout Mask Replica as ".... possibly the worst album I've ever heard"; so it's entirely possible that - at least as far as I'm concerned - your description may be the highest possible accolade.

It goes for upwards of $50 used when you can find it these days, I should have xeroxed my friend's copy...

http://www.rzweb.org/books/sonic.html

40-something rock critics are loving the album though, so who knows. (I don't think most Residents fans are 21 years old.)

Because I have a great friend/Residents fanatic whose musical taste is very different from mine but with whom I share a lot of likes, I've heard a ton of Residents music over the years. I still find it, no matter how eloquently he defends it, puerile.

I think you're probably right - indeed, I suspect that the reason the last couple of Residents' projects (Wormwood, Demons Dance Alone) have shown such a long overdue return to form is that they did seem to have stopped trying to produce all-singing all-dancing fully-integrated multi-media conceptual arts projects, and were just concentrating on making music for it's own sake again.

Let's hope Animal Lover doesn't represent a step in the wrong direction.

Besides Buster and Glen (have it also on a 3 incher in the euro ralph 2fer) I haven't really heard anything else. What do I need NOW? Is this the catchiest stuff? I really have no idea. To me it's THE monolith of fucked avant rock.

The Commercial Album sounds interesting...

But if you're loving this, you can't go wrong with any of the albums released 1980.

Fingerprince, Not Available, Third Reich and Roll -- 100% guarenteed

my favorite is Not Available. whenever one of the other ones isn't busy being my favorite.

I remember the first time I heard 'the executioner', when the guitar solo kicked in, I remember being so repulsed and horrified that sitting there thinking 'this is the ugliest music I've ever heard in my life, do I really want to go here? do I even want to be someone who owns this record?' then the guitar faded into the funeral march and it was too late

which album would you recommend to someone interested in them because of the Tuxedomoon connection?

Can't help you, never heard Tuxedomoon

A friend mentioned Residents to me recently and it occurred to me I've never actually tried to listen to their stuff before, which struck me as a bit odd. I just know them from bits I heard on college radio.

you pretty much can't go wrong with any Residents album 1972-1980. for tunes try either Duck Stab or Commercial Album. for concept albums try Fingerprince or Third Reich and Roll. Not Available is the emotional one.

you know what's good out of the recent stuff? Tweedles pulls off the whole literally stated narrative project they've been trying since God In 3 Persons -- but the music is better and the narrative's honed down to the ugliest essentials, I think it's the best thing they've done in 15-20 years.

Anyone know where I can hear The Bunny Boy? Prindle reviewed it today but I can't find a single place to download/stream it. Strongly debating whether catching them on the upcoming tour is worth the money.

for archeologist fans of 'Santa Dog' curious about sample sources: http://closetcurios2.blogspot.com/2008/11/concert-percussion-for-orchestra.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadeo_Roldán

The fifth and sixth of his Rítmicas (1930) appear to be the first works in the Western classical music tradition scored for percussion alone. -- take that, Varèse

which album would you recommend to someone interested in them because of the Tuxedomoon connection?

just picked this one up used at amoeba... http://www.discogs.com/release/339929

it's a good starting point for that sound, and obviously hearing tuxedomoon alongside some residents and snakefinger tracks will help cement that connection. as a whole it's a great listen with quite a lot of variety; one record is selected by ralph records mail-order subscribers and the other by the label/artists themselves.

also, i'm surprised that snakefinger's solo output hasn't been mentioned more on this thread. i'm quite a fan of 'manual of errors'

How is "Not Available"?

LOL @ polite OLD ILM "I have disagree with you there"

New fucking rude and snarky answers please

Don't know if this has been discussed elsewhere in ILM but the Ralph Records webstore is closing down : http://www.ralphamerica.com/

As of August 15, Ralph America will be closing due to the general state of the music business and the expanding cost of creating physical products. It's been a great ride. Thanks for all your support over the past 11 years.

started a POX thread to commemorate: POX Ralph Records

one of the earliest, weirdest, most important independent record labels in the history of the country and I felt like giving up on this place when only one other person contributed a list, but at least sleeve gave a pretty great list

Not Available is fantastic, everything from 1971-1980 is five stars

All I have is Icky Flix. All I need is Icky Flix.

milton totally OTM, but kids are too hip to be weird these days so whatevs.

'Not Available' is one of the best early 'difficult' records and a big gnarly concept album like Residents doing Tarkus.

N.A. has a lovely gauzy sound, possibly due to a primitive recording setup, it sounds kinda plaintive and wistful in places, which I would say is unusual for the Rez.

aw Milton I am glad my Chasms Accord fandom kept you from losing faith completely.

will rep for this song all day everyday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDDVXlEG-_I

my god, this is so cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p3hdT4vmBg

does anyone know is this is on any of their studio albums? i've been on Residents burnout for a while now but this is like the coolest thing I've ever seen

i guess "cool" aint the right word but it's the right balance of awesome and freaky and catchy, something the Residents don't achieve much

It's on The King and I. From the late 80s, I think.

it's the right balance of awesome and freaky and catchy, something the Residents don't achieve much

well, they certainly haven't often achieved it this side of the 70s.

"burning love" originally appears on the king and eye (1989).

[wot EZ said]

hmm, i'm not digging that version at all; the one I posted is so much more upbeat, this one is just a painful drawl like 80% of their other material

all I wanted is for them to make a few more records like Duck Stab

you and me both

the cover of their latest album is total O.o

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/bc176122c13f9d1266b6ffb81746582c/3673501.jpg

they certainly seems to have sped up their release schedule in the last 5 or so years. is any of it good?

i have friends who are serious fans, but haven't followed them myself, so i'm not really the best person to ask. i will say that they've expanded their musical palette considerably in the last half decade, at least trying to expand beyond the the clonking rhythms, painful drawling and atonal synths. you get some tuneful female vocals and genuinely moving moments on demons dance alone and animal lover. not really my thing, but much more intriguing than the bulk of their 80s/90s work.

I loved the concept behind "The Commercial Album" so much but it was sort of the point where I realized that they have like 60 albums out and only really do one thing, so if they change up things AT ALL that's a good sign. I mean an actual album of 40 fake commercial jingles would be awesome

that version of 'Burning Love' is closer to the live version documented on 'Cube E', one of their stronger 80's/90's projects. part 1 = cowboy music, part 2 = african american gospel / work songs, part 3 = Elvis

never really documented in full except on this live album that came out in 1994 which is worth tracking down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cube_E:_Live_in_Holland

now that I'm looking on discogs, looks like they released a DVD of it in 2006 as well as an online only 'full' edition last year.

as well as something like 12 full length albums in the last three years! good grief. they're just going for it. a lot of this seems like compilations of between-project overflow, which is fine, except that it does make it impossible to keep track of which ones are the real 'albums'. and I'm going to have to hunt down that 'Cube E' DVD -- I was there for the 1989 SF show and I loved it

yeah RYM's residents page has become unreadable since they documented all the Talking Light albums, now the 2006-2011 portion of the discography is longer than everything else combined

a similar thing is happening with Tangerine Dream, the last 5 years have been a flurry of odd releases, between remixes of old stuff, bootlegs, special projects, albums full of spillover, then like genuinely new stuff, but nobody really seems to be paying attention anymore

from what i can tell, these are their "proper albums" post Y2K:

demons dance alone (2002)
animal lover (2005*)
tweedles! (2006*)
the river of crime (2006 - "radio show" style storytelling)
the voice of midnight (2007*)
the bunny boy (2008)
the ughs! (2009 - debatable, as it seems to consist of repurposed demos)
coochie brake (2011)

looking at the package design for these albums, along with the non-performative visual component of their work over the past 25 years or so (packaging, videos, etc.), it's hard not to see the residents as a band done in by consistently hideous design as much as by the grating sounds and jokes that haters usually single out. for artists whose rep is so heavily dependent on the eye candy appeal of their theatrical live shows, their overall design aesthetic is fucking horrible. if the shit looked better, i bet they'd get a bit more respect.

* on mute, which i find surprising for some reason

like frogs, i'd appreciate a knowledgeable but critically-distanced rundown of the recent stuff

Didn't keep up with the recent stuff either.

FYI: they've just released ERA B4-74 by the way (as a download), which contains original (= non-remixed) songs from the Warner Bros Album and even material from Ballad of the Stuffed Trigger. Stuff the band claimed would never officially be released. Would their financial situation be that dire nowadays?

The Bunny Boy album is supposed to be in the vain of Duck Stab by the way, in that it contains 'poppy' songs. It is indeed very upbeat and to-the-point; compared to all those storytellers albums that came before it (Tweedles/River/Voice).

>ERA B4-74

thank you for letting me know about this. looks like it has bits from Baby Sex as well as the long '69 Jamboree session (which perhaps is also known as Stuffed Trigger, dunno as I've never heard that or Rusty Coathangers).

Baby Sex really is good enough to be released intact -- I actually think it's stronger / weirder than Meet The Residents. Warner Brothers Album is interesting but I haven't spent as much time with it.

Yeah, ERA b4-74 contains the Hallowed by thy Ween section from Baby Sex.

Are you familiar with the Oh Mummy Oh Daddy Can't You See? show? They've released that as a download too, last year. Snakefinger is on fire on that take-no-prisoners early recording.

see, why they gotta put out these things download-only when they're pressing copies of five to ten new albums every year

thank you for sounding the alarm, that sounds great

I believe that the band is seriously dying. They've been touring like crazy over the last years and release, like, at least one new download release every month. They don't sell enough hard copy anymore to release everything on CD. I personally would love to see a CD-box that contains all the pre-1974 material; but that moment seemed to have passed.

I also sense a certain disappointment in their work. They had this Bunny Boy Internet series, that slowly bled to death visitors-wise. Mute Records put a halt to their deluxe treatment of the classic Residents material. And their new music doesn't sell well enough anymore to put on actual CD. Point is: in the old days the band would use this to their advantage, would create a story around it, giving the idea that it was intended to be like this, because they are avantgarde and always go against the grain. But now it just feels like defeat and giving in.

That being said, I personally adore all their pre-1982 stuff (and there are some gems after that too) and will always be interested in anything that resurfaces from that period.

This is what I know about the recent output:

demons dance alone (2002)

The bands' response to the 2001 terrorist attacks. Dark electronic music with some pop sensibility and surprisingly personal and emotional lyrics.

animal lover (2005*)

Another 'pop' album and a return to form regarding to many fans and critics. People that were into the band in the past and want to see if they can re-enter start here.

tweedles! (2006*)
the river of crime (2006 - "radio show" style storytelling)
the voice of midnight (2007*)

Storyteller albums in the vain of God in 3 Persons, except that the music doesn't contain hooks or songs, it just sets the mood for the dark themed stories (that contain many characters).

the bunny boy (2008)

Upbeat 'pop' album with many short songs that could appeal to lovers of Duck Stab and Commercial Album, though it isn't just a carbon copy of that.

In addition to this the band released on CD and or download an abundance of left-over tracks, instrumental mixes and live recordings, including the ughs! (2009) - which is ugly and weird like The Big Bubble.

My personal problem with post-1982 Residents is that the music is not really band material anymore but mainly keyboard based; which not only dates quickly but also sounds very ugly. The Residents like a particular harsh electronic sound which I personally can't take, no matter how good the performed music may be.

this thread just reminded me that i found the diskomo 12" in one of the 20 boxes in my closet!

i've have these on CD already for some time -

Meet the Residents
Not Available
The Third Reich 'n' Roll
Eskimo
Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses [1997 double disc comp.]

just picked up these -

The Commercial Album
The Tunes of Two Cities
Mark of the Mole

(1) are the ones i just bought any good?? tried to stick to early '80s stuff, based on what i've heard about post-82/83

(2) what else is worth getting & essential that i'm missing?

Duck Stab/Buster & Glenn is a must!

Intermission is really good in my opinion. It's mostly instrumental which makes it easier to take for non-devotees

Snakefinger - Greener Postures

it's the best residents album imo

"James Brown stole the eyeball!"

yeah, Duck Stab/Buster & Glen is a must have, also the Satisfaction and Beatles singles.

commercial album is great though

Everything they did up till the start of the Mole Trilogy is worth having imo, they really were amazingly consistent

"Commercial Album" is very "how to make a really personal album while dressed up as nutters so no-one notices"

That being said, I personally adore all their pre-1982 stuff (and there are some gems after that too) and will always be interested in anything that resurfaces from that period.

― Sebastian (Royal Mermaid Mover),

$100,000 and you're all set.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/dec/07/residents-new-box-set-3m

God, I wish I was a millionaire.

Would've bought the Merzcar, too.

The box contains first printings, but it doesn't look it contains any exclusive music, let alone anything before Santa Dog. How cool with it be if they throw in a original cassette copy of baby Sex?

The Residents want some retirement money, it seems.

I was kind of assuming that they didn't really expect anybody to buy this. Maybe I'm naïve?

It think the Residents see themselves more as artists than musicians. So these are art objects and sold as such. In that way, a hundred grand is reasonable, I guess. But I have no clue if they will sell any of these.

The fact that they are willing to sell stuff from their personal archives (first pressings, genuine eyeballs, etc.) means they most be strapped for cash?

Well, yeah, I figured it was more of an art project... I just guessed that it was a satirical art project, rather than "here is our art, please buy it".

"here is our art, please buy it"

Like their albums of the last 20 years, emphasis on the "please"

i'm with emily.

i too thought this was all some kind of satirical dig at the recent flood of ultra limited ott deluxe editions

I think that if you have the money to spare you can definitely get one for real.
We'll see what happens on Christmas day, then.

I would not be surprised if it was all satire.
I would not be surprised if they sell zero.
i would not be surprised if they sell all ten.

Did it strike anyone as being weird that the CD's looked like Japanese editions with the obi strips, and the call from Edgar J from Tokyo n'all

Anyone ordering the £62,000 edition will get beaten up, personally, by Edgar J for being a 'lightweight'..

These might be the contents:

http://www.crypticorp.com/indexarchive/archives/

Note that it does mention Bay Sex.
That would be something; especially if this means the original cassette with cover art (!) is included.

I'm assuming you mean Baby Sex and not some previously unknown concept album about erotic goings on in the Bay Area

Yep!

Also see this Spin article: http://www.spin.com/articles/the-residents-100000-ultimate-box-set-video
It says "563 songs...40 vinyl LPs, 50 CDs, and dozens of singles, EPs, DVDs, and CD-ROMs plus other releases."
The video says "over 100" items.

According to Popsike.com, people have paid over $3000 for *Santa Dog* alone:
http://www.popsike.com/php/quicksearch.php?pagenum=1&searchtext=residents&incldescr=&sortord=dprice&thumbs=&currsel=

Sebastian, thanks for sharing that link. However, I think that is the inventory of the *entire* Cryptic Corp archive, and *not* the contents of the $100K Ultimate boxed set. Notice the note at the top that says "Homer removed some items for the Fridge project 8-13-12. Subtracted from total." I have my doubts that the *B.S.* cassette would be included in the Ultimate boxed set.

So what's in the $5 mil box? If I were to guess, I might say that the buyer gets the ownership of all things Residents and the Cryptic Corporation.

Also, the Spin article says: Last year the group (now a trio) "revealed" their identities as singer "Randy," keyboardist "Chuck" and guitarist "Bob."

Of course those are fake names, too. Chuck is "Charles 'Chuck' Bobuck"...like the Name Game. Chuck Chuck Bo Buck. But it seems like they're hinting towards a big reveal.

This happened last year: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/the-scene/events/Residents-co-founder-Homer-Flynn-Art-Show-Up-in-Oakland-121331089.html

They're doing a 40th anniversary tour early next year. After that, I would not be surprised if they reveal their identities, thus ending the existence of the Residents.

Not these guys then?

http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1307/4663379322_1bc4e23d12_z.jpg

I have my doubts that the *B.S.* cassette would be included in the Ultimate boxed set.

I doubt that too, if only for the risk of them getting arrested. (Come to think they even pressed T-shirts with the cover art, back in the day!) Note that both Baby Sex and the Warner Brother albums seem to carry the number 43. Would that be the amount of copies they still got in possession? What format is the WB Album on then? Also, no trace to be found of Coathangers and Stuffed Trigger. Maybe they really never existed (except for the occasional song).

Early pressing Rez stuff sells for huge chunks, indeed, so it really is not impossible that some of these fridges will be moving. In addition, from all their subscription releases, none carry a number below 50. But these fridges will carry those numbers. Big deal for collectors, me thinks. Also: a genuine eyeball head.

As far as I can gather, the guys have been touring their asses of over these last few years (because album sales alone will not pay the bills anymore). They seem to be enjoying themselves, but as they really are getting on in years, how much longer can they keep such grueling schedules up? I do think this is a serious attempt at getting some retirement money in. Including a gamble: is there a nut out there who is willing to pay them 5 million bucks?

I don't think there is a need to reveal their identities in the end. Then again, as made up the names of Chuck and Randy are, the stories they tell with these characters may be based on a lot of truth. Randy of his blog, with all those (I think genuine) old pictures. And Chuck with the long story behind his solo album.

Would that be the amount of copies they still got in possession?

Instead of being the # of copies they have, in that case I think 43 is the box number, for the warehouse system they have. The key at the top says "title data media box total". Also the note at the top says "Most recent update - August 13, 2012 current box is 55 some 56".

how much longer can they keep such grueling schedules up?

I hear ya. Earlier in this thread, you also wrote: I believe that the band is seriously dying.

And Milton Parker wrote: something like 12 full length albums in the last three years! good grief. they're just going for it.

Totally. A last burst before they retire. The Residents Wikipedia page says that they moved to California in 1966. Let's say that the *youngest* they would have been then is 18. So in 2013, that would make them 65 years old at least. Retirement age.

Philosophically, I think they would be ok with revealing their identities at the end, as long as they did not make any new material as The Residents. I can't help but think of *Not Available* which was created under the intention of not releasing it, as adhering to the "Theory of Obscurity" (Wikipedia sez: Senada's "Theory of Obscurity" states that an artist can only produce pure art when the expectations and influences of the outside world are not taken into consideration.) But as we know, it was eventually released (when the band forgot it existed).

I actually kind of like the finality of the idea of an unmasking. Like, the moment Charles Gocher died, the Sun City Girls ceased to exist as a band. No reunions.

I'm thinking of seeing these guys when they hit town in February. I've never seen them live and the chances look to be dwindling.

Damn, these dudes were waaaay ahead of the curve on the whole "shitty 90s computer graffix" seapunk thing

'Randy's' tumblr and 'Chuck's' blog are sometimes really affecting. I do get the sense they're wrapping it up. I hope they publish a real memoir - these stories are as entertaining as Fagen and Becker's.

how much longer can they keep such grueling schedules up?

I thought part of the whole "Who are the Residents?" mystery was that they could possibly be sending out players to be the Residents on tours.

This box set is hilarious, and yeah $100,000 is a ridiculous amount of money, but with as much cred and as big a career as they have I bet they set out of 'em.

I thought part of the whole "Who are the Residents?" mystery was that they could possibly be sending out players to be the Residents on tours.

As the concept, the 'group' could exist as long as mankind will hold out. It would have been awesome if there was a group that operated truly anonymous. That didn't feature any accented voices (or that featured many from different regions of the world) or that didn't draw their music from one particular culture or country, so that their origins and whereabouts were anybody's guess. In that regard, the sound and concept of the Residents has always been too much rooted in American culture and in the taste, abilities and views of a particular group of musicians. We may not know there names, but we can certainly identity them by the characteristics of their work. because of this, I too think that the group will, and actually already is in the process of, wrapping up.

The only Residents' album I know is the "Commercial Album" but that seemed quite focussed on personal grief, maybe I'm misunderstanding it..

Just got this from a Barbican mailout.

Sat 18 May, Hall
Underground cult band The Residents showcase their 40 year career. Sex, shrugs and anti-rock 'n roll, it's all in their Wonder of Weird.

Holding up the underground since 1972, The Residents celebrate four decades of unbridled creativity with The Wonder of Weird, their 40th anniversary tour.

Having recently come out as Randy, Chuck and Bob after years of anonymity, the group now presents itself in concert as the ultimate offbeat power trio, pared down to guitar, keyboards and vocals. Shrugging its collective shoulders, the band re-interprets and devours its classic material like a hungry horse inhaling hay, while still stumbling along at full speed.

In addition to showcasing their vast music catalog, the performance also reveals the raw soul of The Residents' lead singer, Randy Rose. After disclosing that his current life partner is a cat, Rose proceeds to confess the failure of eleven marriages while boldly baring the residue of a life-long sexual addiction. Sex, shrugs and anti-rock 'n roll - it's all there in The Residents' Wonder of Weird.

Include me in

I saw them in London before, I think they were promoting the "Icky FLix" DVD, when was that?

I saw that, somewhere on the South Bank iirc, 2003?

Oh shit, 2001!

http://freq.org.uk/reviews/the-residents-icky-flix-live-at-the-queen-elizabeth-hall-london-9th-june-2001-icky-flix-dvd/

Same tour I caught, Molly Harvey was on that one, she's great

Really digging on the long-form incidental music coming out recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of2T5vKaLmw

I saw them on the Cube-E tour in New York, and even then it seemed like they'd been around forever.

There's an official webpage for the Ultimate Box Set, here, listing the contents: http://www.residents.com/home/page15/

Here are some excerpts from the "Disclaimer" section:
3. The contents of the UBS can also be purchased without a refrigerator for $99,000.

8. This offer is good until June 30, 2013, or until the 5 Million Dollar object is sold. The offering can be cancelled at any time by The Cryptic Corporation.

So...#8 would lend credence to my guess that the $5M Dollar Object is the ownership of the Cryptic Corporation and all things Residents. Maybe it's a key to their warehouse? Also, note on the page that the $5M price tag does not include shipping and handling!

Got my Barbican tickets. Well excited.

Glad you got through in the end. I have tickets to see them February 1st. Very excited.

According to Big Brother - who runs the Residents' website - none of the boxes have sold yet :-(

we should start a kickstarter to have one as a Residents lending library in Brooklyn

Saw my first show last night and it was well worth the 20 year wait.

Man, that was fun.
http://i39.tinypic.com/3499w7r.jpg

Eeeh, you were there too? I really liked most of it, with a couple of duff bits. Thought the bantz was pretty lame most of the way through, though. Kind of got pressured into abandoning Clinic in favour of a pint elsewhere, too.

what the hell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d26AQFkMJtI

*sound of furious typing in San Francisco office*

wtf

they have those things copyrighted right?

Not just the eyeballs but also the dancing is exactly like what the Residents did last time I saw them.

you know, she may have asked them if it would be ok to do this.

for all we know, she could be related to one of them ?

http://m.nbcbayarea.com/nbcbayarea/db_/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=MnH7Zjgd&full=true#display

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/weird/100000-Ultimate-Box-Set-Sold-and-Delivered-228739581.html

While thumbing through the items before the trip, Flynn said, “To be honest, as you get older, there’s a point where you realize most of your life is in the past, it’s not in the future. That doesn’t mean you don’t have a future and it’s not that you don’t feel positive about it, but still, you know you’re never going to live as much of a life again, as what you’ve already lived.”

am I the only guy who didn't know that it's generally accepted two of the four original members left in '82, and the ones who were left really weren't on the level of the two who'd departed musically nor were they really that into the obscurity concept except as a marketing angle -- all of which accounts for both the extreme change (drop in quality, to many ears) of the music and the beginning of the band as a touring entity?

But none of that is generally accepted. What is generally accepted is that, of the two Residents left, Homer Flynn was both the lead vocalist and the main creative element in the band's graphic design (pretty important in this band) and that Hardy Fox (the 'keyboard player') was responsible (difficult to tell how much, though I could speculate) for a lot of their music. Can't be sure what Jay Clem did in the Residents, but has he done anything in music since? He does play the main character in the Vileness Fats film and he was, sort of, the face of the Cryptic Corporation and he definitely contributed vocals on occasion. Meanwhile it's generally accepted that, fourth member, John Kennedy was the 'money guy' in the band, but I'm not sure he even existed tbh! I've never heard of an interview with him or seen a photograph of him. There's film of the Residents 'at home' at 444 Grove Street in 1976 and Clem, Flynn and Fox are all there but no John Kennedy.

As for the decline, there could be all sorts of reasons beyond the two that left being the talented ones in the organization - for instance, moving over to digital had a deleterious effect on the quality of the band's music imo - but, hey, a band declining as they get older and not being as good in their 60s as they were in their 20s/30s, it's hardly a novel situation!

misspoke, I just didn't know it was generally accepted that there'd been four and two left, which seems to be what people do say. while I was going down the rabbit hole about this yesterday I found a post I didn't save on some prog-related forum that was kinda snooty but seemed otm - it said Clem was the musical brains of the outfit and talked about thirds over chords which I think is right, I think there was a strategy to the writing that goes missing after '82. Clem's an attorney now I think.

that said, I love Eskimo unreservedly, great record

I found a post I didn't save on some prog-related forum that was kinda snooty but seemed otm - it said Clem was the musical brains of the outfit and talked about thirds over chords which I think is right

Yeah, two left, but it seems it was much more a business disagreement than an artistic one, Clem & Kennedy thought taking the Mole Show out on the road would bankrupt them (and Ralph/Cryptic Corp.) and it virtually did. Which ties in with the idea that those two were more involved in the business side of the operation.

I don't know what thirds over chords means tbh, can you give an example of it in Residents' music before 1982? Maybe Jay Clem was the musical brains behind them but somehow I doubt it, who know though? Anyway I'm no expert on the Residents post-1982 but what I have heard sounds like the same keyboard player as their earlier music, i.e., Hardy Fox.

has anyone ever watched those "Cool 3D World" videos? gives me a vibe that nothing but the Residents weirdest stuff does.

New album, The Ghost of Hope, out March 24 (CD, vinyl). Also upcoming shows as The Real Residents, and mentions recent ones as Randy, Chuck and Bob, The World's Greatest Residents Cover Band:

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1102557630070&ca=df6cf40e-c50b-477d-8613-2f17f5aacb37

if that link doesn't work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8DjpU7ompc

Following their long tradition of projects based on narrative themes, The Residents are pleased to announce the release of The Ghost of Hope, a historically accurate album based on train wrecks from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

After discovering a series of vintage news articles highlighting the dangers of train travel in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and inspired by the era's graceful language, the group contrast that eloquence against the sheer horror of these devastating events. In their own unique style, the band has constructed a highly original series of tone poems quite unlike the music of anyone else - except, of course, The Residents. The album features guest collaborator Eric Drew Feldman - who has worked with everybody cool, so he's already in your record collection.

If there's a primary metaphor within this collection it is certainly found in that humble word 'hope.' When powerful men of the world build political campaigns around this simple four-letter word and fail, one wonders what life might become without it. Regardless, whether it be historical and literal, symbolic and metaphorical or simply nonsense, The Residents remain mum.

THE GHOST OF HOPE

"My heart is warm with the friends I make and better friends, I'll not be knowing,
Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take, no matter where it's going."
-Edna St Vincent Millay

While the great poet's romantic relationship with train travel was undoubtedly heartfelt, she was definitely not traveling by rail as the 19th century neared its end. The dangers posed by increasingly fast trains, coupled with heavier and heavier cargo loads, moving across an aging rail system, made derailment a common occurrence.

In addition, the primitive communications and safety mechanism of the era often resulted in either head-on collisions or, conversely, "telescoping," which occurred when a stationary or slow-moving train was hit from the rear by another train on the same tracks. When this happened, especially in winter when the cars were heated by coal-burning stoves and illuminated by kerosene lamps, the wooden passenger cars were quickly engulfed in flames, resulting in a quick and unpleasant death for those surviving the initial impact. In retrospect, a simple fact was obvious: this revolutionary technology was progressing faster than society could regulate or control it.

Utilizing various techniques, including music, sound effects and text from actual newspaper accounts from the era, The Ghost of Hope purports to recreate several of these horrific incidents. While the dangers described in these factual events are now largely confined to the past, humanity perseveres, valiantly thundering ahead into the uncharted realms of digital technology, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence and the attempt to spread our seed throughout the cosmos. Meanwhile, have we learned from the past or are we doomed to repeat our mistakes on an ever grander scale?

Tracklist:
Horrors Of The Night
The Crash At Crush
Death Harvest
Shroud Of Flames
The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918
Train vs Elephant
Killed At A Crossing

The CD and Vinyl can be ordered at the MVD Shop or on Amazon

Website: http://www.residents.com

THE RESIDENTS

Alternately seen as a rock band, an arts collective and a spirit,The Residents have been regarded as icons in the world of experimental music for over forty years. In addition to their groundbreaking work in the areas of trance, world fusion, electronica, punk, industrial and lounge music, the group has also been credited with being among the originators of performance art and music video. Their early videos are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and their Freak Show CD-Rom was featured in MOMA's "Looking at Music 3.0" exhibition. Their four decade long career has also taken them into the world of film and television music, having scored numerous films and TV series as well as several projects for MTV. In addition, the group is also thriving in the world of digital media having released ten DVDs, and two internet series.

Recently, performing as Randy, Chuck & Bob, the World's Greatest Residents' Cover Band, the group celebrated its 40th anniversary with a trilogy of tours: The Talking Light, Wonder of Weird and Shadowland. No longer content to merely impersonate a band, The Residents unexpectedly morphed into a power trio, gleefully plundering their vast catalog of music to the delight to their fans. Not content to rest upon their justly lauded laurels, the group is currently reforming as The Real Residents, a four piece combo that will celebrate its debut at the prestigious Blue Note jazz club in Tokyo, performing six shows from March 21-23, 2017.

should I pick up this comp Y/N

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/comp/the-residents/80-aching-orphans-45-years-of-the-residents/

I've made it all the way through to the Mole Trilogy but don't have it in me to pick up 700 more albums

uh... wow

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8094982/the-residents-reissues-vintage

It begins Friday (Jan. 19) with the reissues of 1974's Meet The Residents and 1976's The Third Reich 'N Roll, featuring more than 30 previously unreleased tracks between them

Oh wow

Didn't know Hardy Fox had left the Residents - shouldn't they just be called The Resident now?

http://freq.org.uk/reviews/the-residents-meet-the-residents-third-reichnroll/

http://www.klanggalerie.com/gg264

^^ first press release I've seen which basically drops all pretenses

the ethos of "anonymity" has changed a lot since 1971. it's a good time for hardy to take off the eyeball.

I really enjoy Fox's writing, a lot of it is scattered around his site but this compiles a fair chunk, and is something close to a memoir (45MB PDF)]

Got copies of the two reissues the other day and am listening to the expanded Meet the Residents now. Still such a strange...thing. I can never actually *place* it in 1974 or thereabouts, I can't place it anywhere in a personal sense of chronologic time. It just is.

The bonus tracks so far have been engaging. Even an alternate take on "Smelly Tongues" with what sounds like both a different vocal take and a different mix changes the song.

Not to mention a "Spotted Pinto Bean" sung clearly by some quavery voiced dude accompanied by what sounds like flute and toy piano!

And then there's the other alternate, "Spotted Pinto Queen," now sung quietly by a dude and sounding like a Disney song from a nightmare sequence.

That memoir link is amazing, thank you. This is the kind of "inside The Residents" view I've always wanted more of. Played some Negativeland last night and was immediately nostalgic for The Residents. I miss the bay area weirdo music scene that those two bands spearheaded. Stuff like Chino Amobi's Paradiso seems to have that theatrical wtf spirit, but somewhat lacks the intrepid silliness of that bay scene of yore.

The infamous Warner Bros album for RSD 2018!

https://www.musiquemachine.com/articles/articles_template.php?id=435

Homer is selling out and I'm loving every minute of it ;)

That memoir link is amazing

Yeah, I wish they both would collaborate on a book, and write it straight. That collection of Fox's and the stuff for The Mole Show ('Diary' tab) and Not Available on the official site are really interesting. There's this tension between wanting to disclose as part of a mea culpa, and wanting to obfuscate the details to be consistent with the goals of the Residents 'art project'

If you're curious there's home movies/photos of them at the Mission studio, apologies if they've been mentioned before

There's also a really well-photographed performance of Mole on YT, which is neat not just for the show but cos one of the crew/dancers serves as an impromptu spokesman - Penn was in hospital for this show, appendix

Oh, and there's a demo of God In Three Persons up, where Fox is doing the singing-credits introduction before it was written, it's great

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2018/01/25/25750684/seattle-studio-wiz-scott-colburn-on-remastering-the-residents-first-two-albums

I'm digging this online-only compilation called Morning Music today. I don't recognize most of the songs, so I gather it's latter-period stuff. Kind of an easy listening comp (by Residents standards) light on typical Residents vocals, oddly pretty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQmZPH7GDtA

can anyone giv eme opinions as to this comment left on Discogs re: 3rd R&R reissue?

Bonus tracks are mostly interesting but, my god, the sound on this is truly horrific. Awful example of the loudness wars nonsense. Tragic.

for the 1st album 2CD REISSUE:

all those extras , great art work. great packaging but the sound quality is just unbearable . almost unlistenable so tinny and harsh. ive also pre ordered duck stab and fingerprince, but if its the same deal, i'm asking for money back.

the effort gone into getting these tracks from wherever they dwelled in residents world has been completely ruined by the shittiest mastering i have ever heard in my life.

Don't bother with this remaster. Even though the extras and packaging are nice, the production is like something you'd see on a modern metal album -- brickwalled to hell and harshly EQ'd. If you need to have this on CD, opt for one of the older ESD or Torso issues.

I heard the first one and I didn't think the EQing was horrible. Definitely a bit brick walled, or sounds like it at least (I haven't looked at waveforms). Much loudness.

I have the first two (with the other two on the way) and don’t think they sound horrible, although they’re definitely loud/brickwalled (but not as extreme as some of the more egregious offenders out there, I think). Bonus stuff is generally pretty interesting and worthwhile, though I could do without some of bonuses from this century.

Edit: some of *the* bonuses. (Eh, whatever.)

The live bad versions from the last few tours are NOT a positive bonus, even if I enjoyed seeing those tours.

I just got the first two (Meet... and 3R&R) and did a waveform comparison between the 2018 (Colburn) remastered stereo mix and the 1997 (Master & Servant) remastered stereo mix of "Meet..." (I don't have the original vinyl to compare.)

To reiterate what others said, the new mix is a little too loud, but it's not unlistenable.

Here are waveforms for "Infant Tango," "N-ER-GEE (Crisis Blues)," and "Smelly Tongues." In each picture, the top two channels are the 1997 mix and the bottom two are the 2018 mix.

Go here: https://imgur.com/a/SFAAc

Observation #1: peaks are squashed during loud sections, but it's not totally brickwalled.

Observation #2: the left and right channels are reversed between the mixes! I'm not sure which is "correct."

Observation #3: the 2018 mix of "N-ER-GEE (Crisis Blues)" is longer than the 1997 mix. It looks like small bits were removed, but then extra repetitions of the "Go home, America..." bit were added at the end. The new mix of "Infant Tango" is a little shorter than the 1997 mix.

they look pretty fuckin' brickwalled tbh

yeah that is very disappointing

I thought we were moving past the loudness wars argh

Looks like Hardy's about out

https://www.residents.com/news/?article=20180921-0732

aw man

deleted tweet:

@PsychedelicMag 41m41 minutes ago
RIP Hardy Fox. He grew up in Texas. After college he moved to San Francisco reveling in the free love days of 1967-68. He co-founded the much loved cult band, the Residents, where he was primary composer.https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DntiwtBXoAA67D9.jpg

If pic doesn't show, it's front cover of Meet The Residents.

HARDY FOX
Many of you may have noticed changes to Hardy Fox's website and Facebook page giving dates of 1945-2018, and understandably are wondering if he has passed away. The good news is that he was definitely alive when he made those updates.

The bad news, though, is that he is very ill and that end date of "2018" may prove to be true. Hardy, a longtime master of PR thanks to his decades as a Cryptic Corp spokesperson, has seized the opportunity to scoop everybody on an autobiographical detail that very few get the chance to share.

We at Cryptic are deeply saddened by this news, but while Mr. Fox is still alive we prefer to celebrate his life rather than dwell on his impending exit. And to respect his actions, we will not share any details he himself does not make public.

Hardy has been, and remains, a good friend, and we wish him nothing but peace and happiness in his remaining time.

On Hardyfox.com, following the above bit excerpted in the deleted Psychedelic Baby Magazine tweet:
Hardy retired from The Residents in 2015 but continued to compose for the group through 2018. In addition to his work with that band, he has recorded as a solo artist under various names including Charles Bobuck, Combo de Mechanico, Sonido de la Noche, Chuck, TAR, among others.

Also from his site (via The Official Residents On Twitter account:
From The Desk of Hardy Fox
Hi from me, Hardy. Yes, got sick, making my pass out of this world, but it is "all" okay. I have something in my brain that will last to a brief end. I am 73 as you might know. Brains go down. But maybe here is my brain functioning as I'm almost a dead person just a bit of go yet. Doctors have put me on drugs, LOL, for right now.

Anyway. Probably the last of seeing me. Thanks for checking in.

Love you all.

Incredible attitude... much respect.

Yes, and what an amazing body of work over 6 decades. A true artist!

Aw man, I knew him as Don. He lived near the Korbel cellars up in West Sonoma (just off the Russian River) and was involved in many social projects in keeping that stretch of the coast culturally vibrant and resisting corporate encroachment. His son was making a lot of films (including one on his dad's band a few years back).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKpw4i9iYw0

Members of the Residents' founder Hardy Fox's email list received the following message today: "RIP Brain Cancer Hardy Fox 1945 - 2018" 👁️ pic.twitter.com/npGUjiHk0M

— Aidin Vaziri (@MusicSF) October 30, 2018

The wording of that statement is so weird that I'm clinging to the hope that it's the brain cancer that's dead and not Hardy. Talk about clutching at straws!

Official announcment, RIP Hardy.

https://www.residents.com/news/?article=20181030-0621

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-ISfhLLJpc

Fascinating guy!!! R.I.P.

Backstory and lots of Homer quotes:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/obituaries/hardy-fox-dead.html

A still more detailed overview/backview & quotes of Chuck/Hardy, whoms the author was in some degree of contact with:
https://www.npr.org/2018/11/07/664314033/the-residents-unmasking-death-hardy-fox-composer-america-weirdest-band

I wouldn't call myself a fan now, but I definitely was in high school, and the Cube-E tour in NYC in 1989 was one of the coolest shows I've ever been to. There's a 7CD box coming out from Cherry Red, and I think I need it.

Cube-E Box – The History Of American Music In 3 E-Z Pieces pREServed

In the late 1980s The Residents embarked on what many fans still consider their greatest live project. “Cube-E – The History Of American Music In 3 E-Z Pieces” spanned almost four years and proposed to do nothing less than its title suggested, telling the story of American popular music, from its birth around the campfires of a non-existent Old West to its death at the hands of Elvis and the British Invasion, all in three easy pieces.

Performed on TV and on stage around the world between 1987 and 1990, the show saw The Residents fully embrace their loves of elaborate and imaginative staging, the latest in music technology and, of course, The King – Elvis Aaron Presley. It goes without saying that there was barely a dry seat in the house, and alongside live recordings and contemporaneous studio material this pREServed set includes the previously unreleased demos for the entire “King & Eye” album, which saw the group tackle twenty-something (you can count ’em!) of Mr. Swivel Hips’ hottest hits.

Spread across an inescapably unwieldy 7CDs at the group’s insistence, “Cube-E pREServed” is the final word in Americana cool. Or so it says here!

Remastered, expanded, and pREServed for future generations, this is the latest in a series of archival Residents reissues that will continue throughout 2020 and beyond. Look out for “Freak Show” and “Gingerbread Man” sets, coming to a record store near you!

TRACK LISTING

DISC ONE
BUCKAROO BLUES LIVE IN AMSTERDAM
1. FROM THE PLAINS TO MEXICO
2. THE THEME FROM BUCKAROO BLUES
3. THE STAMPEDE
4. TRAIL DANCE
5. BURY ME NOT
6. COWBOY WALTZ
7. SADDLE SORES
8. THE THEME FROM BUCKAROO BLUES (REPRISE)
BONUS BUCKS
9. SUZANNA
10. BUCKAROO BLUES
(STUDIO INSTRUMENTAL)*
11. FROM THE PLAINS TO MEXICO
(ITALIAN VERSION)
12. FROM THE PLAINS TO MEXICO (NIGHT MUSIC)
13. BUCKAROO BLUES THEME
(LIVE IN LONDON, 2001)
14. FROM THE PLAINS TO MEXICO
(LIVE IN NEW YORK, 2002)
15. BURY ME NOT
(LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO, 2011)
16. FROM THE PLAINS TO MEXICO
(LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO, 2018)

DISC TWO
BLACK BARRY LIVE IN AMSTERDAM
1. THE GOSPEL TRUTH
2. SHORTNIN’ BREAD
3. BLACK BARRY
4. FORTY-FOUR
5. ENGINE 44
6. NEW ORLEANS
7. VOODOO QUEEN
8. WHAT AM I GONNA DO?
9. ORGANISM
BONUS BARRIES
10. WISTFUL BREAK
11. VOODOO QUEEN/WHAT AM I GONNA DO? (REHEARSAL)
12. NEW ORLEANS (STUDIO JAM)
13. HOUSEHOLD WORK*
14. AMAZON*
15. FEVER DREAM*
16. THE TOY FACTORY (FANFARE MIX)*
17. GHOST MUSIC
18. FORTY-FOUR
(LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO, 1997)
19. FORTY-FOUR (LIVE IN NANTES, 2014)
20. BLACK BARRY DYNASONE

DISC THREE
THE BABY KING LIVE IN AMSTERDAM
1. OBER
2. THE BABY KING PT. 1
3. DON’T BE CRUEL
4. HEARTBREAK HOTEL
5. FOOL SUCH AS I
6. ALL SHOOK UP
7. THE BABY KING PT. 2
8. DEVIL IN DISGUISE
9. BURNING LOVE
10. TEDDY BEAR
11. VIVA LAS VEGAS
12. THE BABY KING PT. 3
13. LOVE ME TENDER
14. THE BABY KING PT. 4
15. HOUND DOG / OUT
BONUS BABIES
16. DON’T BE CRUEL (VIDEO EDIT)*
17. DON’T
18. SURRENDER
19. BURNING LOVE (TELE5 DEMO)
20. BURNING LOVE (TELE5 PERFORMANCE)
21. OBER (LIVE IN AUSTRALIA, 2005)
22. TEDDY BEAR (LIVE IN AUSTRALIA, 2005)
23. TEDDY BEAR (LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO, 2018)

DISC FOUR
CUBE-E LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO, 1989
1. BUCKAROO BLUES
2. BLACK BARRY

DISC FIVE
CUBE-E LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO AND RECKLINGHAUSEN, 1989
1. THE BABY KING BEGINNING*
2. THE BABY KING MIDDLE*
3. THE BABY KING END*
PLUS
4. MR SKULL’S NYE SONG

DISC SIX
THE KING & EYE REMASTERED
1. BLUE SUEDE SHOES
2. THE BABY KING PT 1
3. DON’T BE CRUEL
4. HEARTBREAK HOTEL
5. ALL SHOOK UP
6. RETURN TO SENDER
7. THE BABY KING PT 2
8. TEDDY BEAR
9. DEVIL IN DISGUISE
10. STUCK ON YOU
11. BIG HUNK O LOVE
12. A FOOL SUCH AS I
13. THE BABY KING PT 3
14. LITTLE SISTER
15. HIS LATEST FLAME
16. BURNING LOVE
17. VIVA LAS VEGAS
18. THE BABY KING PT 4
19. LOVE ME TENDER
20. THE BABY KING PT 5
21. HOUND DOG
BONUS KINGS
22. DOG GLUE
23. JAILHOUSE ROCK RMX
24. SURRENDER RMX
25. HEARTBREAK HOTEL RMX
26. LITTLE SISTER RMX
27. BURNING LOVE RMX
28. A FOOL SUCH AS I RMX

DISC SEVEN
THE KING & EYE DEMOS
1. BLUE SUEDE SHOES*
2. THE BABY KING PT 1*
3. DON’T BE CRUEL*
4. HEARTBREAK HOTEL*
5. ALL SHOOK UP*
6. RETURN TO SENDER*
7. THE BABY KING PT 2*
8. TEDDY BEAR*
9. DEVIL IN DISGUISE*
10. STUCK ON YOU*
11. BIG HUNK O LOVE*
12. A FOOL SUCH AS I*
13. THE BABY KING PT 3*
14. LITTLE SISTER*
15. BURNING LOVE*
16. VIVA LAS VEGAS*
17. THE BABY KING PT 4*
18. LOVE ME TENDER*
19. THE BABY KING PT 5*
20. HOUND DOG*
21. I CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOU*
22. DON’T*
23. SURRENDER*

*previously unreleased

Watched the documentary a couple of nights ago and it was okay, but it got me to remember that they're one of those bands which I have one album by that I adore (Not Available) yet got sidetracked from for several years. Although I kept playing live versions of Demons Dance Alone songs and I loved those too.

Is this one of those bands that have a few side projects and solo things which are as good as their best albums?

There are no side projects and solo things that I know of beyond the stuff Hardy Fox put out in the few years before he died, which I've never heard and which, in any case, he only started after he'd quit the Residents.

There is Snakefinger, of course.

There's the collaborative album with Renaldo and the Loaf (which was excerpted on the '80s CD of Not Available).

Yes, of course.

IIRC the first Snakefinger album, Chewing Hides the Sound, was a stealth Residents album; they're the backing band on it.

A few days behind on email, as usual:

The Residents Visual History Book
The Residents: A Sight for Sore Eyes, Vol. 1 Announced Today
Out January 7, 2022, Read about the Book via BrooklynVegan

Includes 7 inch record of the unreleased
Not Available-era track, "Nobody's Nos.”

Pre-order Launches Today, Watch the Teaser Video Here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa3slEx2RTs

In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the legendary experimental music and art collective The Residents, their first fully authorized visual history book, The Residents: A Sight for Sore Eyes, Vol. 1, has been announced today via BrooklynVegan. Published by Melodic Virtue, the book contains rare and unseen photos, artwork, and other ephemera. Aaron Tanner has been given unprecedented access to The Cryptic Corporation’s archives to create a limited edition coffee table book covering everything from their beginnings in San Mateo up to The Mole Show.

...Excerpt from The True Story of The Residents:
A Brief Summary of Known Facts, Top Secrets, Hazy Details,
Veiled Hints, and Blatant Lies (1979) by Matt Groening:
There is no true story of The Residents. You should know that right off. The secrets of The Residents will never be revealed by anyone but The Residents themselves, and so far they aren’t saying much. This report offers some insight into The Residents and their work, but their favorite breakfast cereals will remain a mystery. Part of what The Residents are about is their camouflage, and any understanding of them must take into account both their organized sounds and their organized silence. The best this report can do is note the various statements and point out the gaps. Our knowledge is still incomplete. Anything is possible.

The book features an introduction by Les Claypool (Primus) and exclusive quotes from Danny Elfman, Paul Reubens, John Linnell (They Might Be Giants), “Weird Al” Yankovic, Andy Partridge (XTC), Penn Jillette, Eric Drew Feldman (Captain Beefheart's Magic Band), Paul Leary (Butthole Surfers), Aaron Freeman (Ween), James McNew (Yo La Tengo), Zach Hill (Death Grips), Eric André, David J (Bauhaus), Cedric Bixler-Zavala (The Mars Volta), Josh Freese (The Vandals), Rob Crow (Pinback), Dan Deacon, Don Preston (The Mothers of Invention), Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten), JG Thirlwell, Blaine L. Reininger (Tuxedomoon), Sam Coomes (Quasi), David Janssen and Brian Poole (Renaldo and the Loaf), and many more!

This book also contains a black vinyl 7" record of the unreleased Not Available-era track, "Nobody's Nos.”
A deluxe edition is also available that is limited to 500 copies, signed by the band and author, and includes a picture disc of “Nobody’s Nos” along with a 24-page softcover book, Duck Stab/Buster & Glen Notebook, that contains never-before-seen notes and in-progress lyrics for the legendary album.

The Residents: A Sight for Sore Eyes, Vol. 1
LIMITED-RUN OF 2000
9" X 9" casebound, 356 pages
PUBLISHED: January 7, 2022
CATALOG NO: MVP005
ISBN: 978-0-578-92935-4
LCCN: 2021917435

Pre-order URL: https://www.melodicvirtue.com/collections/the-residents

About the author:
For more than two decades, Aaron Tanner has been creating unconventional design work for legendary acts. He has produced authorized books on the Butthole Surfers, Ministry, Face to Face, and now The Residents. Prior to publishing, he was Ween's resident designer for over 15 years and maintained a diverse client roster that included Pixies, Explosions in the Sky, Epitaph Records, Secretly Group, Temporary Residence Ltd., and pet celebs Lil BUB and Doug The Pug. A musician and life-long fan of music and the arts, Tanner has won numerous national awards and has been recognized by several prestigious international design publications.

About Melodic Virtue:
Melodic Virtue is a small, artist-friendly independent publisher dedicated to preserving and promoting the legacies of underground bands through limited-run coffee table books. Originally founded in 2004 as a graphic design studio by Aaron Tanner, Melodic Virtue produces fully authorized books that offer an immersive, and definitive, visual history of bands outside of mainstream music culture. Each authentic and unusual story is told through compelling design, rare photographs and artwork, and gripping first-hand anecdotes from their fans and contemporaries.
More info, links, graphics here:
https://mailchi.mp/girlie/the-residents-celebrate-50th-anniversary-w-visual-history-book-ft-danny-elfman-les-claypool-they-might-be-giants-and-more-out-jan-7?e=fdd9971b11

The current live band is incredibly killer!!!

https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/hardy-fox-the-residents/

funny you should bump this, I'm actually pretty mad at them for leaning into their pro-NFT stance:

From the office of The Cryptic Corporation:
The Cryptic Corporation has recently learned of a negative backlash over the offer of NFTs based on DUCK STAB! Alive!, The Residents’ recent appearance on Night Flight +. Fortunately, The Residents DO NOT engage with social media, the great evil polluting the culture with endless and unaccountable negative energy. The Cryptic Corporation has long relished its role of shielding, protecting and enabling these artists and will continue to do so.

That said, GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK!

No one beneath the Cryptic umbrella is getting rich, but we do like to pay our bills. The Residents have had FIVE TOURS canceled, postponed and/or rescheduled in the past two years. During that time, The band was invited to revisit DUCK STAB! as part of Night Flight’s 40th Anniversary celebration; the group was happy to accept and the video has received universal acclaim, but the production expense was far greater than we have recouped. A few months later, Cryptic was approached by the video’s collaborators with the idea of creating a limited series of NFTs with the hope of recovering a portion of these expenses.

It’s hard to see this as a greedy or unreasonable position, but we do live in a capitalist culture that offers infinite choices in terms of where one spends their disposable income. No one is being forced to buy anything, but if you don’t like our products, please take your money and spend it somewhere else.

Thanks
Homer Flynn
The Cryptic Corporation

my response, from a comment to a friend:

man what a bummer. old guy doubles down on wrong decision, news at 11. maybe Negativland could offer some pointers, I just saw their tour in November. and yes, I will take my money elsewhere, especially after that disastrously brickwalled "expanded remaster" series.

i cant imagine getting upset at them for this who cares

I do, because NFTs are a scam and suck

also they haven;t made a good album since 1980

yes they have. wormwood is awesome. freakshow is sick. their current live line up is the best one since cube-e. they are awesome. nfts are a scam so dont buy one? im sure people said cd roms are a fad.

homer isnt here saying NFTS ARE AWESOME THEY ARE THE FUTURE INVEST INVEST INVEST he's like "dude i need to pay the bills so please be understanding when i get an opportunity that someone wants to give me money for stuff" this is this dude's day job and he has people on the payroll. negativeland isn't a good comparison.

i've not followed the NFT threads on here but have been party to a lot of discussions elsewhere about how NFTs might be subverted into something that isn't a scam and doesn't suck. i guess time will tell. but, i don't think i have an issue with the residents paying some bills from selling NFTs. who is gettimg scammed there?

the buyers, I imagine.

and NFTs are bad because all blockchain technology is bad, there's nothing about the excessive energy usage that can be reformed

that shit has erased literally all the gains solar made w/r/t CO2 emissions over the last decade, god damn right I'm pissed off at these credulous senile motherfuckers

I love both of you guys and would FAP anytime but I am really so mad about this, I'm just gonna unbookmark

ok ilu2 but i already wrote this stuff xpost!

man it's expensive to put on a residents show. the costumes, the sound, the films. its a whole production!

and you are no longer choosing to support one of america's best long running avant garde musical troupes that has never been backed by any corporate money, has been a 100% diy since day 1 independently run effort, mostly by two guys that love to create, but now just one since his best friend died and who has lost thousands and thousands of dollars that they depend on to live because of covid cancelling their tours because... their fans choose to support them? look that's the free market and you're free to do whatever but i feel like your anger is misplaced here and nfts have become an easy thing to hate on. yah they are stupid. big deal. (i made fun of bitcoin when it first came out btw and also im poor).

but ok if they fuckin up the earth than ok

agreed and that's the reason i have declined to get involved with them. i still hold out some hope that there is something positive within the NFT idea that can be co-opted in a non blockchain environment to make artist payments fairer and instantaneous. that of course could be utopian thinking.

They did put out that $100k box set in a fridge, so this kind of seems like a Residentsy thing to do imo. That doesn't mean you shouldn't be mad about it, mind you, just that this one doesn't surprise or shock me.

ks, you should still be making fun of bitcoin.

while NFTs suck and are irredeemable, I do admit that it is, as emily says, a very Residentsy thing to do. I guess I can be a little more forgiving when it's a band that's gone out of its way to sell as few records as possible

this discussion and the Spotify discussion go hand in hand - musicians get paid shit for streaming (and often the label just takes it all), and we're on Year 3 of a pandemic which has stopped most bands from touring, so what exactly are they expected to do?

HE RESIDENTS, NELS CLINE, JOSH FREESE AND IVA BITTOVÁ HIGHLIGHT POLYHEDREN COLLABORATIVE MUSIC PROJECT PSYCHIC FROM COMPOSER AND PRODUCER DREN McDONALD

Streaming/Sales Profits Benefit Bay Area Music Project, an After School Music Education non-Profit Program that Brings Music Lessons to Children who Otherwise Couldn’t Afford Them
...The collaborations for this project started organically, with McDonald seeking out vocalists for the first few singles. As momentum began to build around the release of the singles, he decided to extend the project and release a full length. Next he reached out to friends The Residents and Josh Freese to take part. Because Freese had always been a Residents fan, McDonald saw an opportunity for further collaboration. In fact, the song “Sixteen Gold Candles” was the result of sending files back and forth for many months.

While Dren has collaborated with The Residents many times in the past, it had never been with music. He’d helped design limited edition releases, tour merchandise, stage managed and even been on stage with them - as a costumed glob of human jello! While The Residents remain anonymous (50 years since their inception), they don’t tend to collaborate with too many other artists. They just don’t see ‘eye to eye’ with a lot of other folks, so it was definitely a special occasion to be able to bring about a collaboration that involved them and someone of Freese’s talent. Josh’s latest record, “Just A Minute, Vol. 1” (Loosegroove) is a record of 1 minute songs (perhaps inspired by The Residents’ Commercial Album of all 1 minute songs), including “The Ghost of Hardy Fox” (Hardy Fox was revealed as one of The Residents after he passed in 2018). Freese is no stranger to creating musical oddities, as he’s also been a consistent collaborator with Devo, Nine Inch Nails, Danny Elfman, A Perfect Circle, Weezer, and The Replacements.
...The resulting full-length polyheDren album collaboration is a shared musical vision that lies somewhere between funk, electronic, post-rock and world music with each guest artist revealing an unexpected performance to each track. Track listing as follows:

1. Two Sweet Sixteens and Four Weddings (feat. Rini)
2. Tethys Express (Album Mix) (Feat. Rini)
3. Sixteen Gold Candles (Feat. The Residents & Josh Freese)
4. Film Stars (Album Mix) (Feat. Moorea Dickason & Daria Novo)
5. Lonely Lullaby (feat. Iva Bittova)
6. Scorpions a Lot (feat. Nels Cline & Rini)
7. Buckaroo Moon (Album Mix) (feat. Sangin Sara & Daria Novo)
8. Planted a Flower (Album Mix) (feat. Ali Paris & Misha Khalikulov)
9. NelsScorpions Altered a Lot (feat. Nels Cline & Rini)

Polyhedron definition: poly=’many’ hedron=’base’, a 3 dimensional shape with polygonal faces and straight edges. New shapes in music.

josh at itsalivemedia.com
http://www.facebook.com/itsalivemedia
http://www.twitter.com/itsalivemedia
http://www.instagram.com/itsalivejosh

http://www.itsalivemedia.com

thinking a lot about this insane cover of Burning Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_KgRMLUTuk

feel like this belongs in the pantheon of totally transformative covers. as the first comment says it makes you look it up because it's hard to believe those are actually the real lyrics - now it's the Elvis version that sounds weird, not this one. also my favorite Residents outfit. wonder if those were the actual guys.

The Residents' Triple Trouble is having its New York premiere tonight at MoMA at 6:30 pm:
https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/8565

It's the only screening they're holding, then beginning tomorrow it'll stream online for all MoMA members.

every time I listen to Residents stuff I'm struck by how ahead of its time it is. maybe not musically, like I know Devo were doing similar things around then, but in some other ways. like their graphic design - I cannot believe that Eskimo is from 1978, that album cover looks so much like something you'd see hanging up in the shop in like, 2002. they have 70s albums where it sounds like they're imitating Simpsons characters. even the concepts of stuff like Third Reich and Roll & The Commercial Album seem to me like internet-era projects. a lot of their videos remind me of like, Cool 3D World stuff. pretty remarkable really

More about Triple Trouble:

https://mcusercontent.com/d4b46e5c4250d808643c6623a/images/9dbec8d4-343a-2ea2-c5ce-aafadb822a0b.jpg

Virtual Box Office Premiere: The Resident's Triple Trouble
We are proud to announce the exclusive virtual box office premiere of The Resident's new feature film tonight at MIDNIGHT ET on Night Flight's The Movie Store. In Triple Trouble, directed by Homer Flynn, dive deep into the psyche of Randall "Junior" Rose (Dustin York) who is convinced that a fungus is a threat to humanity.
The film premiered theatrically earlier this month at the MoMA and arrives on Night Flight's The Movie Store for purchase and rental one week before anywhere else.

The Residents are including a FREE DOWNLOAD of two unreleased versions of classic tracks from the Residents' Duck Stab!/Buster & Glen opus with every purchase or rental of Triple Trouble, only on The Movie Store.
"The Residents continue to raise the bar by taking chances and pioneering new skills." — Kelly Park

What is this, "The Last of the Residents" or something? Looking forward to those dance numbers with the clickers making music with their sonar noises.

I see Fingerprince is getting a 2xLP + 7" reissue, if the price is right I might get it. its one of the most "cursed" albums I can think of

How do you mean?

well for one there are these promo images

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/meettheresidents/images/2/21/Fingerprincepromo.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170130074653

https://i.redd.it/z9d75qdshvw61.jpg

for two idk what it is exactly but I think it actually accomplishes the goal of sounding very off without necessarily trying to. its not just using prickly series of notes its layering a bunch of them on top of each other

furthermore it has the Marge Simpson voice in it which in itself is kinda freaky for a 70s album

wtf I love this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF2o5RDkq9A

God In Three Persons is not an amazing album overall but "Kiss Of Flesh" is incredible. Love a few others like "Hard And Tenderly"