Meet The Residents

I don't think this has been done before (surprisingly), but this is a Residents appreciation thread. A place where fans can go when they feel like there the only ones at there that love them.
Favorite albums?
Favorite songs?
discuss anything anything you want about The Residents, this is the place to do it, and hopefully non fans out there will become fans and raise up their album ratings just a little bit higher.

You mean the tux-and-tailed, top hat-wearing eyeball heads. They're freaks! Pass.

Pastmaster wrote: I've never heard the Residents yet, but I've heard a lot about them and they seem interesting. Any recommendations for some good albums to start with?

Not Available is  a great album and a good one to start with. It has one of there best songs, Edweena.

The 'Festival of Death' off Eskimo is a prog-masterpiece, Oldfield-esque IMHO.   The above mentioned Commercial Album is definitely a good place to start but a personal fave is 'Walter Westinghouse'.

It wasn't until recently that I really acquired the taste for The Residents, by buying Meet the Residents brand-new for $20, no tax at my local record store. Apparently, later on I found out it's the original mono-mix, which was lacking in every preceding release (after the first release). Nonetheless, a very amazing, quite accessible Residents album. Crazier than Trout Mask, and I seemed to like it much better than Trout (which I bought at the same time)..

Since then, I got hooked onto Not Available and am still profoundly impressed by the oddly-moving concept album (which they didn't want to release originally for fear of it being 'too personal'..) 

After, I bought The Third Reich off of Amazon mp3's for $2, very worth it. Massive songs, and every listen after I like it more and more. Once again, a masterpiece. In Seattle on a recent trip, they were trying to sell the censored release for $25, which was disappointing, and the dealer wouldn't go down a dollar because "The Residents fly off the shelf" (he was also selling The Commercial Album lp for $30, which is so beyond me).. Still, I was happy to see Residents in a bin at all, it's not too common to see their older albums. But the price-point is beyond crazy.

Anyways, I got Eskimo on a whim, and got The Commercial on CD for $8 yesterday. Still haven't acquired the taste for Duck Stab, listening to Bach Is Dead right before I slept led to horrid nightmares, oddly enough. Even though I don't find their music frightening, just truly enveloping and interesting. At times, even beautiful (The Making of the Soul and Rest Aria). I've tried Duck multiple times, but I just don't think it's for me. It does have a 'cavern' almost feel, which draws me back, but everytime I come back, I'm left a little disappointed.

My initial feeling for the band was that they were being weird for the sake of weird, after finally purchasing Meet the Residents though, my feeling quickly dissipated. What a band!! A band that deserves more discussion, for sure.

Raccoon, yes Not Available is incredibly moving, enough to make me tear up every once and a while, it's a very wistful album for me

Thatfabulousalien wrote: When you first hear them it's like "woah, what is this crazy stuff? This is dissonant as f**k!!" but after you start really taking it in, you realize: how melancholy they often are, how they subvert familiarity into a twisted reversal of expectations, how sick the human race is, how perverted society is, how artificial the mainstream culture is etc. they take you to many places in the human mind, not at all the goofy eyeball wearing group they thought they where. Their music is deep, psychological and well-informed. They sing about the human condition, the world that we all can relate to.  Their music means a really big lot to me, something I will always cherish.

Wow. Beautifully written. Makes me really want to go back to The Residents. I've enjoyed their music, but never dived that deep into it. Looks like it's high time.

Thatfabulousalien wrote: Raccoon, yes Not Available is incredibly moving, enough to make me tear up every once and a while, it's a very wistful album for me

In Portland, going into Little Axe Records I got into a huge discussion about the Residents to the store-owner (at least I'm pretty sure he's the owner). Good guy, he said, "I've never been asked my favorite Resident album.." This all came up after I spotted an Art Bears album, we talked about Henry Cow, and I said, "If you like Henry Cow, you may like.. Residents" and he went RESIDENTS ARE MY FAVORITE BAND. He said his favorite album was Eskimo, which was an interesting choice (I thought).