The official inception of the Residents was the release of Meet The Residents in 1974, but members of
the group had worked together since 1969 or perhaps earlier. The band is known for its wide range of named guest stars and collaborators, its multitude of concept albums, its ambitious multimedia, audiovisual, and stage projects, its highly reclusive nature (with all its public relations handled by The Cryptic Corporation), and the mystery surrounding much of its activities, from its history since 1972 to the identities of its members.
The band has consistently related that it took its name from a rejection letter that it had received from
Warner Bros. Records. They sent the label an anonymous demo tape, the letter thus simply addressed them as "Residents."
The Residents formed in the late 60's travelling from Louisiana to San Francisco, experimenting with tape and any media they can get their hands on, and recording plenty of music to suit themselves. The
Residents had to get out of Louisiana, they were a very odd group of people who couldn't stand that setting and had to get out. On the way The Residents seemed to have made a slight name for themselves as oddities, so a man named Philip "Snakefinger" Lithman decided to come down and check them out from England.
The Residents are some kind of American treasure. There is a multitude of reasons for this, but let’s just focus on two right now. One: this group is resilient. They’ve been doing this for nearly 50 years. Few
artists get anywhere near that landmark, especially without losing their integrity along the way. Two: They are just plain weird, and right now, if not always, we need some weird in our lives. Weird distracts. Weird makes us think. And most importantly, weird makes us smile. So, the release of a career spanning Residents box set is right on time. 80 Aching Orphans is 80 tracks spread over four discs, so it’s a heavy load, but for new and old fans alike, it has a lot to offer.
The Residents are an American art collective and art rock band best known for their avant-garde music
and multimedia works. Since their first official release, Meet the Residents (1974), they have released over 60 albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects, and ten DVDs. They have undertaken seven major world tours and scored multiple films. Pioneers in exploring the potential of CD-ROM and similar technologies, the Residents have won several awards for their multimedia projects. They founded Ralph Records, a record label focusing on avant-garde music, in 1972.
Throughout the group's existence, the individual members have ostensibly attempted to work anonymously, preferring to have attention focused on their art. Much speculation and rumor has
focused on this aspect of the group. In public, they appear silent and costumed, often wearing eyeball helmets, top hats and tails—a costume now recognized as their signature iconography. In 2017, Hardy Fox, long known to be associated with the Residents, identified himself as the band's co-founder and primary composer; he died in 2018.
Drawing inspiration from the likes of fellow innovators including Harry Partch, Sun Ra, and Captain
Beefheart, the Residents channeled the breadth of American music into their idiosyncratic, satiric vision, their mercurial blend of electronics, distortion, avant-jazz, classical symphonies, and gratingly nasal vocals reinterpreting everyone from John Philip Sousa to James Brown while simultaneously expanding the boundaries of theatrical performance and multimedia interaction.
Their early work (as presented on 1974's Meet the Residents and 1978's Not Available) was dominated
by organic instruments performing in a purposefully atonal and chaotic manner. Beginning with 1979's Eskimo, synthesizers and electronics became a large part of the Residents' musical palette, and nearly all their albums from that point on would be conceptual in nature, with 1981's The Mark of the Mole launching a multi-album narrative cycle they would never complete.
With 1984's George and James, the band began taking an idiosyncratic look at the work of other artists, and 1991's Freak Show was the first of several projects where they adopted CD-ROM technology to
add visuals to their soundscapes. 2014's The Wonder of Weird found the Residents embracing individual identities for the first time, introducing lead singer "Randy Rose," guitarist "Bob," and multi-instrumentalist "Chuck," who, as Charles Bobuck, would begin recording solo material and deliver the group's closest intrusion into the real world. However, with the 2018 album I Am a Resident!, they continued to confound expectations, reaffirming their long-stated belief that the Residents could be anyone -- or no one.
Simon Reynolds wrote in his book Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984 that "the Residents and their representatives were one and the same," and elaborated further on one of his blogs, stating that
"this was something that anybody who had any direct dealings with Ralph figured out sooner rather than later." Reynolds quotes Helios Creed, who identifies the Residents as a keyboardist named "H," a singer named "Homer," and "this other guy called John." Peter Principle of Tuxedomoon claimed that he and others "eventually figured out that the guy doing the graphics and the engineer in the studio were, in fact, the Residents."
Randy Rose at The Middle East (Cambridge, MA) in 2010
Cryptic openly admits the group's artwork is done by Flynn (among others) under various names that,
put together, become "Pornographics", but the pseudonym is rarely spelled the same way twice (examples: Porno Graphics, Pore No Graphix, Pore-Know Graphics); and that Fox is the sound engineer – meaning that he is the main producer, engineer, mixer, and editor of all their recordings. (Since 1976, all of the Residents' recordings have listed their producer as the Cryptic Corporation, presumably meaning Fox in particular.)
From 2010 to 2016, the Residents referred to themselves in concert as the characters "Randy Rose",
"Chuck Bobuck", and "Bob", and referred to a former member of the band, "Carlos", who left the group following a disagreement with "Randy". There is speculation that "Carlos" is Carlos Cadona. Better known by his stage name, "6025," Cadona was in the original lineup of the Dead Kennedys and appears on a live album by Snakefinger. "Carlos" may also refer to Carla Fabrizio, a touring member of the Residents from 1998 to 2008.
In May 2020, the Residents introduced a new track, "Die! Die! Die!," featuring guest vocals from Pixies frontman Black Francis. The track was a preview of the LP It's Metal, Meat & Bone: The Songs
of Dyin' Dog, issued the following July. The album found the Residents interpreting the work of fictive bluesman Alvin Snow, whose recordings the group "reissued" on the 2019 set The Residents Present Alvin Snow aka Dyin Dog, which collected ten songs on five 7" vinyl singles. 2020 also saw the release of Eyeful, which gave a physical release to a handful of download-only recordings from 2011, and Cube-E Box: The History of American Music in 3 E-Z Pieces, an expansive collection of rare live and studio material related to The King & Eye.
The Residents' albums generally fall into two categories: deconstructions of Western popular music, and complex conceptual pieces composed around a theme, theory or plot. The group is noted for
surrealistic lyrics and sound, with a disregard for conventional music composition. The Residents' musical style encompasses art rock, art pop, avant-pop, avant-rock, electronic, industrial, dark ambient, ambient, electronica, industrial dance, talking blues, alternative rock, noise rock and post-punk. The Residents have been described as pioneers of punk rock, art rock and techno.
The Residents most known albums are Eskimo, which they were really accepted after, and created the
famous eyeballs after. It's a dissonant album based off of eskimo chants and angular rhythms, with a solid dose of humor. It somehow was accepted and kind of exposed them. Duck Stab/Buster & Glen became pretty popular after Primus covered two songs from it, I've found a lot of people found The Residents through Primus. The Commercial Album is also a highly loved album of 40 one-minute jingle-type songs. The Residents have a huge discography and it's tough to single out material.
80 Aching Orphans is a retrospective box set from Cherry Red Records. Is a compilation album by The
Residents, spanning the groups career from 1971 to 2017.It contains 80 tracks across four CDs that span the first 45 years of The Residents. Included are singles, fan favorites, album highlights, live recordings, and material never before available on CD. It was released on Friday the 13th of October 2017.
The Residents – 80 Aching Orphans
Label: New Ralph Too – NRTBOX1, Cherry Red – NRTBOX1, MVD Audio – NRTBOX1
Format: 4 x CD, Compilation
Country: UK, Europe & US
Released: Oct 13, 2017
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Avantgarde, Experimental
DISC 1.
01. Fire (Santa Dog) 1:45
02. Amber 1:04
03. Semolina 2:50
04. This Is A Man's Man's Man's World (Written-By – Newsome, Brown) 3:42
05. Diskomo (Edit) 4:33
06. Monkey And Bunny(Written-By – Renaldo And The Loaf) 5:00
07. Jello Jack The Boneless Boy 5:56
08. You Yesyesyes 3:02
09. Double Shot 3:52
10. Rushing Like A Banshee 2:09
11. On The Way (To Oklahoma) 4:06
12. Blue Rosebuds 3:10
13. From The Plains To Mexico (Italian Mix) 3:28
14. I'll Go Crazy (Written-By – Brown) 1:43
15. Almost Perfect 4:05
16. Eloise 1:19
17. Moisture 1:04
18. There's Blood On The Bunny (Thoreau Mix) 3:58
19. Shortnin' Bread (Written-By – James Whitcomb Riley) 1:40
20. Burn Baby Burn 3:00
21. The Car Thief 3:56
22. Squeaky Wheels 3:09
MP3 @ 320 Size: 163 MB
Flac Size: 396 MB
DISC 2.
01. Kaw-Liga (Prairie Mix) (Written-By – Rose, Williams) 9:31
02. Yummy Yummy Yummy (Written-By – Resnick, Levine) 1:35
03. In San Francisco (Written-By – Cross, Cory) 2:05
04. Constantinople 2:24
05. Jailhouse Rock(Written-By – Stoller/Leiber) 3:07
06. Where Is She? 1:04
07. Easter Woman (Live) 2:32
08. Insincere 2:06
09. Hard And Tenderly 4:38
10. Migration 7:05
11. Satisfaction (Written-By – Jagger/Richards) 4:33
12. Kamikaze Lady 1:40
13. Burning Love (Live TV Version) (Written-By – Dennis Linde) 3:49
14. The Aging Musician 4:35
15. Six More Miles (Written-By – Hank Williams) 5:41
16. The Simple Song 1:03
17. Safety Is A Cootie Wootie 4:04
18. Tourniquet Of Roses 2:58
19. The Angry Angakok 5:02
MP3 @ 320 Size: 166 MB
Flac Size: 431 MB
DISC 3.
01. A Maze Of Jigsaws 2:51
02. Beyond The Valley Of A Day In The Life 3:55
03. The Mad Sawmill Of Copenhagen, Germany 2:43
04. Jambalaya (Written-By – Hank Williams) 4:45
05. Cry For The Fire 5:51
06. Smelly Tongues (Mono) 1:46
07. Santa Dog '78 1:53
08. Floating Down The Nile Pt2 5:00
09. The Marvels Of Mayhem 3:24
10. Earth Vs The Flying Saucers 0:53
11. Hello Skinny 2:41
12. The Monkey Man 4:03
13. Mahogany Wood (Written-By – Renaldo And The Loaf) 4:13
14. Edweena (Extract) 4:49
15. Melon Collie Lassie 2:58
16. The Sleepwalker 3:25
17. The Knife Fight 8:53
18. Holy Kiss Of Flesh (Edit) 8:03
MP3 @ 320 Size: 171 MB
Flac Size: 393 MB
DISC 4.
01. Loser ≅ Weed 2:12
02. Blue Tongues 3:38
03. Boots 0:56
04. Susie Smiles 2:16
05. Perfect Love 1:04
06. Hit The Road Jack (Remix) (Written-By – Percy Mayfield) 3:58
07. Bach Is Dead 1:14
08. 96 Tears (Written-By – Rudy Martinez) 0:59
09. Ship's A'Going Down (Extract) 2:22
10. The Black Behind 4:44
11. I Hate Heaven 2:53
12. Semper Fidelis (Written-By – John Philip Sousa) 2:35
13. Don't Be Cruel (Written-By – Presley, Blackwell) 2:58
14. Matchmaker 3:15
15. Would We Be Alive? 5:13
16. Daydream Believer (Written-By – John C Stewart) 2:57
17. Shroud Of Flames 5:28
18. Catatonia 2:47
19. Pollex Christi Part 4 2:17
20. Hunters Concentrate 3:45
21. Life Would Be Wonderful (Live In Oslo) 6:40
MP3 @ 320 Size: 153 MB
Flac Size: 358 MB
The Residents albums on Urban Aspirines HERE