As I addressed in a previous article, Metroid is my favorite video game franchise. Since this blog is mainly about music and video games, I’m sure some of you are wondering who my favorite musician is. Well that would be The Residents of course!
The Residents have been making music since the late 60s, but they haven’t received as much recognition as they should. They are true musical pioneers who experimented with things such as compact disc interactivity, synthesizers, and music videos well before they were as commonplace as they are in today’s world.
That being said, most people only listen to the first 10 or so years of their discography. It is admittedly their golden period, but they have a huge discography that is definitely worth exploring. In this article, I’m going to talk a little about my favorite recent releases of theirs (2000+).
This recording was given to those who pre-ordered the album The Voice of Midnight. It has recently been re-released via their bandcamp. While The Voice of Midnight focused on radio drama-like narratives, The Sandman Waits is more song oriented. Based on dreams, sleep, and the Sandman himself, this release is probably a bit more accessible than some of their other work – I especially love their cover/remix of Mr. Sandman.
This mostly instrumental release collects some of the best outtakes from their River of Crime, Tweedles, and Voice of Midnight period (approx. 2005-2007). The recordings here even outshine a lot of the material that did make it onto the full fledged releases.
Technically this is a Charles Bobuck release, but this moniker usually is saved for recent (2012+) instrumental releases. Even some previously released instrumental albums under The Residents name have been re-released under the Charles Bobuck name. It’s one of the most popular Bobuck releases and for good reason – it has around 40 minutes of interesting and experimental music. This is another release you can play without having to worry about it being too intensive for a casual listen.
7. As a Child I Sold the News, Now I Sell the Olds (2015)
This is another Bobuck release, but it has a lot in common with Smell My Picture. These unused fragments are from around 2008-2014 and have been remixed in order to flow better as an album. Again, the material here is better than some of the material used on the full length lps – definitely one of the best releases of this year.
You can’t mention modern Residents without talking about their recent live shows. Performance and visuals have always been a big part of The Residents, and they sure have high ambitions for this decade. So far they’ve had three separate tours: Talking Light, Wonder of Weird, and Shadowland. Talking Light dealt with death, Wonder of Weird dealt with midlife, and Shadowland is about birth. All three tours featured different themes, sets, costumes, and most of all, tracklists. They’re essentially “greatest hits” tours that feature many songs spanning their career. “The best one” really depends on personal preference, but I think Shadowland has my favorite listing. It contains both easily recognizable songs from their most popular albums as well as some deeper cuts. I especially love that they did a mini adaptation of Not Available since it’s easily my favorite album of theirs.
Mush-Room was originally the score to a dance performance and was released in limited quantities, but it proved to be popular enough to warrant a full fledged release. While it does have occasional lyrics, the instrumentation is obviously the star of the show. Mush-Room quickly became one of my favorite Residents releases and is, in my opinion, their best album from this decade.
The Ughs is actually an early instrumental prototype of The Voice of Midnight. The album is raw and mostly instrumental compared to the final product. I prefer listening to the compositions this way since they often get buried under the narrative of TVoM.
High Horses is an instrumental release that is in the style of carousel music. The stereo effects in this album are phenomenal and really convey the circular motion of a carousel. While it is a bit short (around 20 minutes), you can also find it in its entirety on the Best Left Unspoken Volume Two release along with some other random instrumental pieces.
The Bunny Boy project is what made me jump from fan to super-fan. The album itself is great and is also accompanied by several other similar releases like Arkansas and Postcards From Patmos. Not only did we get tons of new music from the project, we also got a tour and an interactive web series to go along with them – the albums are best enjoyed when one has watched the entire web series. The series followed Bunny as he searched for his brother Harvey. You could interact with the character via email and the character even auctioned collectible set pieces on Ebay during the show’s run. This sort of campaign was a bit new for the time (Facebook and Twitter weren’t the juggernauts they are today) and it was pretty fresh and exciting being able to interact with the Bunny character and affect the overall outcome of the story. I’d absolutely love it if they did something similar in the future.
Animal Lover is one of The Residents most acclaimed albums regardless of its release date. I’d fully agree as it showcases the best of what they have to offer. Each song focuses on an animal, and you definitely have to read the liner notes to get the full effect. The booklet not only includes the lyrics, it also includes clarification on what the story of each track is about. It features beautifully somber compositions and even got a separate instrumental release because of this. The first edition also included a bonus disc that remixes content from the album as well as cut tracks. It’s actually very similar to Charles Bobuck’s later releases.
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