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In the beginning there was: Let's go back in time a little for my first scribbles on Electronic Cottage. September 1987, that's when Gerry (classmate) gave me a mixed-tape of The Residents (side A had The Third Reich 'n Roll album and side B various songs). You can imagine the look on my face (at age 14) when I found out that music like that existed. Needless to say, I got hooked immediately and the following Saturday I went to town and bought everything that I could find of them. Remember the time that they still had real record stores? The smell of a record-store, the vibes inside the shop, I will never forget it, punks/rockers/skaters all side by side, each looking for their own little gems, CD-shops kinda ruined that one for me. Soon, I became a little collector of anything and everything I could get my little hands on... I started writing them (Ralph Records) and I even got some personalized items in the mailbox! I spent a small fortune on them back in the days, I got so deep into The Residents, that if I became a little deeper... I would be a Resident. I even had The Warner Bros. Album years before it got officially released. October 27, 1989 my first concert of them, after two years of collecting I could finally see them... what an experience! (could've been the LSD, but I doubt it) Let's be honest, everything they made in the 70's, simply amazing! The 80's same-same/but different, no other band even came close in producing such an amount of great albums! Ok, I didn't really like the Commercial Album, but that's a matter of taste. But then, only three years after I got to know them, they came out with Freak Show... I didn't get it, it sounded really boring to me. And unfortunately, I have had that feeling ever since. I don't want to say that they got less genius, or less inventive, but something was missing for me. I stopped collecting, stopped going to their shows, I even sold my collection (for the wrong reasons) and for way too little money. May 8, 2001 I went to see them once more and halfway the show, Frank left the building. April 28, 2010 one last try and once more, it just didn't do it for me anymore. (maybe, it was the lack of LSD, but I doubt it) Why I am writing this? Because, I wonder if other people have the same feeling about The Residents or maybe I am looking for someone who can convince me to listen to a certain album of them after 2000?
And why, why, why did Hardy Fox come out??? What happened to being anonymous?! Did he want to make more money as a solo-artist? To end my little rant, I want to say that I still have the utter most respect for the Eyeballed Ones! From 1972-till present, not many bands can top that! But in my humble opinion, as a collective... they could've existed forever! But then again... maybe they will.
Post-scriptum: Hell No! I will not stop making music!
10 Comments
4/8/2018 14:23:10
I was first introduced to The Residents sometime in the late 70s or early 80s. I'm going to guess it was via Lou Stathis's "Muzick" column in Heavy Metal magazine. Specifically the August 1980 issue, but, as I said, that's a guess. I may have heard about them before that. Certainly, I didn't actually hear their music before 1980 because that's when The Commercial Album was released and that was the first album of theirs that I purchased. You said it was not to your taste. I can understand that. I thought it was incredible, and I gobbled up everything else that I could find by the band after that (which also led me to Snakefinger and Renaldo and the Loaf). For most of my life since then, I would without hesitation say that The Residents is one of my all-time favorite bands and one of the most influential on me as an artist. However, like you, it is really only a certain period of their history that interests me. The early period. I loved everything up to the beginning of their American Composers series in 1984. Something changed in their music at that point and it just didn't appeal to me anymore. I've thought about what that change was and it seems to me that it may be the introduction of computers/sequencers/samplers into their compositional process and production techniques. I should probably go back and listen to some of those 80s albums again and see if I still dislike them and pay closer attention to the production. Anyway, that's my two cents on The Residents. Even though I didn't like them quite as much after their early period, that early stuff was such a huge inspiration to me that I still consider them one of my faves...and I regard their entire musical and artistic output with great respect!
Hal McGee
4/9/2018 02:16:36
William, your comment here is exactly the kind of in-depth, highly personal and two-way communication type of reply that I have been hoping for here at EC! Your comment is almost like an article in itself. Thanks! It is a real nice complement to Frank's article, which is itself a good example of the kind of personalized writing and sharing of ideas that I love so much about the potential for EC to become a place that we can all call our home away from home.
The composer series, still were kinda ok for me... though they could've left James Brown behind. They definitely changed my life. But really, if I visit their website now... I got the feeling it's all commerce, it almost makes me sad. 4/9/2018 14:14:39
As far as their post-millennium work goes, I've heard many people praise Demons Dance Alone (from 2002) as one of their best releases since the 80s. 4/9/2018 19:02:14
Being a SF Bay Area native, had lots of experience with Residents from when their first albums were sold at Rather Ripped Records in Berkeley up into early 1990's. (I'm in a couple of the groups featured on the "Unmasked" set too.) Many Residents performances seen (some good tapes of these too). Saw Penn Jillette with em a couple times. My fave show of all was New Years Eve, 1989/1990. Went to Hardy's introduction/explanation of "interactive" Freak Show disk at Mill Valley Film Fest before the disk was available to public. Had lots of fun at Ralph Records garage sales (several of these) in SF. Yeah, I guess you could say I (and many of my collaborators) were "influenced." Possible evidence: one of my fave Herd Of The Ether Space cassette albums has about 45 minutes of stuff we did upon returning to my apartment from one of the Ralph garage sales... If anyone's curious, listen here: 4/10/2018 09:58:05
Frank. I'm smiling -- thank you for taking that trip into the Ether Space - very glad it brought you a smile too.
Frank
11/2/2018 06:31:07
RIP Mr.Fox! Leave a Reply. |
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