The Residents

The Residents is a concept conceived by an avant-garde American pop art collective active since the early 1970s. experimental rock and his multimedia works, made up of music videos, short films, three CD-ROMs, ten DVDs and mini-series for the Internet. The group is identified by the anonymity of its members, consolidated from the theory of darkness (which establishes that pure art only occurs when it is anonymous).

History

1971-80: Beginnings and the "classical" era

The origins of The Residents date back (approximately) to 1966 in Shreveport, Louisiana, where the four or five members met at school.

By 1969 they had moved to San Mateo, California. While trying to make a living, they experimented with tape, photography, and whatever art form came their way. At this time they are joined by the English guitarist Phil Lithman and the mysterious composer from Bavaria, N. Senada. Both would be big influences on the group.

Lithman (nicknamed "Snakefinger") continued to collaborate with them until his death in 1987, while N. Senada (whose existence is doubted) taught them his two theories: that of darkness and that of of phonetic organization (according to which music can be "constructed" from sounds), this is noticeable in the minimalist style they would have to compose. It is also rumored that N Senada could be Captain Beefheart or Harry Patch.

The first demos date back to 1971: The Warner Bros Album and Baby Sex. Both were removed from the official discography, because the band still didn't have a name, as well as because of its amateur nature.

In 1972 they founded their own Ralph label, with which they released their first single "Santa Dog". While recording their first LP, they start filming the movie Vileness Fats. The project was finally abandoned in 1976 due to technical and economic problems.

Between 1973 and 1980 they recorded their first seven albums, considered by many fans to be the best period for The Residents. Live performances were still very few, being a purely studio project.

In 1976, The Cryptic Corporation, the group's management team, was founded by John Kennedy, Jay Clem (1947-), Homer Flynn (1945-) and Hardy W. Fox (1945- 2018), all denied being members. Flynn and Fox gave media interviews on behalf of The Residents.

1981-present: Tours and multimedia

In 1981 Mark of the Mole came out as the first part of a conceptual trilogy. Between that year and 1982 they go on tour, the first for the band. The tour was a commercial disaster that almost dissolved the group and made Kennedy and Clem leave the project. The trilogy was left unfinished, with only parts one, two (The Tunes of Two Cities, 1982) and four (The Big Bubble, 1985).

This is how a time of crisis begins, less productive. In 1983 they released Title in Limbo, a collaboration with Renaldo and the Loaf recorded two years earlier. The lack of new ideas is reflected in George & James (1984), Stars & Hank Forever (1986) and The King & Eye (1989). These LPs consist of outsider material (by George Gershwin, James Brown, John Philip Sousa, Hank Williams and Elvis Presley) as part of the "American Composers Series" saga, which ended up being abandoned.

Other albums from the period include the soundtracks Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats? (1984) and Census Taker (1985), as well as the conceptual God in Three Persons (1988).

In 1990 they publish Freak Show on CD and CD-ROM, with which the Residents begin their interest in emerging computer technology. In 1998 they once again caught the attention of critics with Wormwood, a conceptual work with alternative stories from the Bible.

His most outstanding albums in recent years are Demons Dance Alone (2002, influenced by the events of 9-11) and Animal Lover (2005, stories from the animal point of view). Taking advantage of current technology, they created miniseries on their official site and mini-albums for mp3 download. Also in recent years the group's singer became known as Randy Rose, who is actually Homer Flynn (his voice is recognizable from 1974's Not Available).

In 2012, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first single, they released the Ultimate Box Set. This is a refrigerator with the complete works of The Residents, for $100,000.

Discography

World tours

Collaborators