VOTD 4/20/2024

The Residents: Leftovers Again?! AGAIN?! (Cherry Red)

Purchased at The Attic for Record Store Day (fished in!)

This is hardly my first blog post about The Residents, and who knows, probably not my last. I have a Duck Stab! tshirt, which elicited curiosity from a younger friend and colleague. He just thought Duck Stab! was great but knew nothing about the source. I linked him to a Youtube posting of the album. In general, my friends under the age of 40, or jazz colleagues, know nothing about The Residents.

The Residents is in part the sound of my youth. I discovered them around 11th-12th grade in high school. I became fanatical about their music at the time, at a time I was off to become a music performance major. I'm sure I talked them up to the point of annoyance of friends, but that's the passion of young adulthood I guess. 

As the 1980s progressed, I found them decreasingly interesting. I think it's both a shift in their recorded output and the ongoing development of my own taste and interests. I continue to enjoy their music from their early days, particularly up to Commercial Album. That leaves several decades of their music I've only casually followed. Many people laud their God in Three Persons concept album/rock opera; I found it to be a bore. (Nonetheless, I wish I had retained the vinyl copy I sold off in a record purge I did years ago.) 

And why do I have to enjoy their more recent music? Aren't those early records enough? The fact remains, if I had an easy way to see one of their current performances, I'd still go. 

I have been dismayed by The Residents' recent cash grabs. There have been multiple repressings of their early albums, including three particularly fancy and expensive issues of their first three LPs. Even the pREServed CD reissue series, while welcome, has (to me) proven to be rather disappointing when it comes to the previously unreleased recordings. A few gems, but little essential.

If anyone reserves to earn off The Residents' legacy, it's the members of the band. That said, there's really only one of them left from the original group. The question of exactly what makes "A Resident" has been a matter of debate. 

Despite all of this, here I am again, picking up yet another album of unissued takes from the band's golden period of 1977-1985. The back cover reads in part: "As exhumed from a newly rediscovered MOP tape." I suppose. (By the way, MOP = what?) As a fan of this period and music in general, I'd warn that it's for fans only. That said, it does offer some insights as to the group's process, indirectly. "Better Off Dead" in part wound up as the instrumental track for Duck Stab!'s 'Semolina." "Hello Dolly (Etcetera)" is the basis of "Hello Skinny." "Flying (Parts 1, 2 ,and 3)"  demonstrate some of the components that went the final version of their version of The Beatles' "Flying."

Two disappointments: first, the pressing is not especially good. Too many pops and clicks. Secondly, the cover art is an AI generated image based on the previous cover. I just like the look of them.