A Rose for Randy’s

Charles Bobuck was Hardy Winfred Fox, Jr, one of the few known members of The Residents.

Fox was co-founder & primary composer of this Obscurity group.

According to the Cryptic Cprporation propoganda:
      "Chuck’s Ghost Stories is one of a string of Residents releases related to the group's Talking Light tour. It is a soundtrack album for the Randy's Ghost Stories video project, which stars the group's lead singer Randy Rose. The album contains music written & performed mostly by Charles Bobuck, the group's long-time composer & keyboardist.

It directly preceded the introduction of Bobuck's solo "contraptions", an outlet for extra-Residential recording activities which he could not pursue fully with the group. The first of these "contraptions" was the 2012 album Codgers on the Moon, though Bobuck had recorded similar projects as early as the 1990s.

Originally issued solely through the group's now-defunct Robot Selling Device online MP3 store & credited to "The Residents' Talking Light", Chuck's Ghost Music was later released on a USB thumb drive with a lanyard sold exclusively at stops on the Talking Light tour & again later in 2012 as a CD-R, credited in part as a Bobuck contraption."

Chuck's Ghost Music was reissued physically again on February 20th 2021 via Klanggalerie, credited simply to "Bobuck". This reissue features a new remaster of the album, as well as new cover art, both created by Hardy Fox prior to his death on October 30th 2018."

This is the 2012 CDR issue. 

 

Charles Bobuck - Chuck’s Ghost Stories, A Chuck Bobuck Contraption, 2012.
decryption code in comments

Florence   
Ghost Snake   
Perchance to Dream   
Milton   
Pudding in Disguise   
Sleepwalker   
Unseen Sister   
Talking Light

Get cryptic,
NØ

Absolute Equinox

"Prisoners of drops of waters, we are but everlasting animals. 

We run about the noiseless towns and the enchanted posters no longer touch us. "

     The Unsilvered Glass, paragraph 1.

So many times I've noticed that whatever I’m reading at the time so informs my current listening. Right now I’m in the process of reading Les Champs Magnétiques (The Magnetic Fields) by André Breton & Philippe Soupault & man, has the 'musique' coming from Casa Nada been …shall I say…CRAZY!!! as of late.

Four years before Breton would issue his 1924 Manifeste du surréalisme, he & fellow surrealist Philippe Soupault used a process called 'automatic writing' to create the first truly surrealist literature. Automatic writing is used as a tool in Freudian psychology and in related "self knowledge" studies, where it is seen as a means of gaining insight into the mind of the automatic writer through their subconscious word choices.

The idea to attempt such an undertaking was Breton's. Following up on his medico-psychiatric training during World War I which was heavily influenced by Freudian theory, Breton posited that poetic creativity was really an attempt to capture the spoken thought in a way encouraged by analysts prompting their patients to utter rapid, spontaneous, unselfcritical monologues.

Surrealism is a movement best known for the surprise, unexpected juxtapositions of its visual artworks & writings. The movement has had a tremendous impact on all subsequent avant-garde painting, sculpture, theatre, film, poetry, & fiction. But there is really no surrealist genre in contemporary music, where the presence of surrealism is generally unrecognized or forgotten. A surrealist school of composition never developed, undoubtedly because of the hostile attitude toward music of André Breton, who believed that language had already subsumed & surpassed the possibilities of music.

However, as a result of the development of the tape recorder, a true surrealist music became possible in musique concrète—the art of "found" & manipulated sound. But tape recorders were not readily available until the late 1930s, coinciding with the decline of the surrealist movement.

So although none of the music here is actually "surrealist" music (except for some of the musique under the heading 'The Unsilvered Glass'), it is what I have been listening to as a soundtrack to the written word. So following the book's lead, I have broken this into ten sections, one for each 'chapter' of The Magnetic Fields. The links to each section are the chapter titles & as always, all decryption codes are in the comments.

The Unsilvered Glass
 

Here are a few songs from the first wave of Surrealist music.

This first section is an early symphony from French Surrealist George Antheil who wrote that, "The Surrealist movement had, from the very beginning, been my friend. In one of its manifestos it had been declared that all music was unbearable—excepting, possibly, mine—a beautiful and appreciated condescension"

George Antheil - Symphony No.1 "Zingareska", 1923.

Innocènte
Vivo, alla zingaresco, poi "Ragtime"
Doloroso elevato
Ragtime

Renowned Surrealist artist René Magritte (whose painting "The Double Secret" opens this post), unlike many of his contemporary Surrealists, believed that music was an ally of surrealism. He maintained a lifelong interest in music. André Souris was one of his dear friends.

Included here is André Souris – L'Autre Voix from 1947.

By 1944, with the publication of his essay "Silence d'or" (Silence is Golden) Breton softened his stance on music, stating that music can be a powerful force for the achievement of "incandescence"; that music could reveal an inner music of poetic language. He recognized music as "independent of the social & moral obligations that limit spoken & written language". Much of this softening of Breton's anti-music position coincided with the development of the tape recorder (not really easily available until the late 30s). The resultant surrealist music directly connected to tape recording was musique concrete. At the fore of this new music movement was Pierre Schaeffer. Schaeffer worked with electronic & experimental music. He was the chief developer of a this unique form of avant-garde music.

I have included Pierre Schaeffer - Études de bruits from1948.

Seasons

"The music is free, but you have to pay for the plastic, paper, ink, glue and stamps."

     LAFMS

    

Thoroughly overcome by the French for a moment, let's zip over to Pasadena, California for illustrious Nurse With Wound list & Los Angeles Free Music Society alumnus Smegma. The band began in 1973 & had a revolving membership of crazy (& crazy-named) musicians. This release is from 1982.

Here Smegma features (among others): Harry Cess Poole – guitar & vocals; Ju Suk Reet Meate – guitar, bass, trumpet, percussion, & vocal effects; Lee Rocky – violin, flute, & percussion; Jackie Stewart – vocals & effects; Edy Williams, Virginia, & Dr. Odd Pi – vocals;  Dr. Id – tape effects; Amazon Bambi – violin, bass, & vocals; Ace of Spades – mandolin; Mr. Mike – bass & percussion; D.K. – guitar & percussion; MXKing – drums; Cheez-it-Ritz – drums, feedback, & vocals with Dick Knudsen – cello; Craig Magyorody playing several varieties of drinking straws; Modesto Duran – tape skips; & featuring Bub Tutmark.

Smegma – Pigs for Lepers Pigface Records 007, 1982.

Side A –

Antbone

Id-o-matic

In the Murder Room

Adena Archives Presents: Part One of the Birth of Bubs

Side B –

Dying Cows with Putrid not Praiseworthy Predation

Madness Mombo

Oh-ooh!

Dickensmeglee Part 35

Mr. Potatohead's Flotation Excersises

bonus track (from the 2006 UK re-release)

Mutant Baby

Pigs for Lepers

Eclipses

Insane man walking with a limp.

On this, their second release (A Little of the Bandit Spirit), Aksak Maboul are somehow known as Aqsak Maboul. Here AM are joined by Henry Cow teammates Fred Frith & Chris Cutler. While co-founder Marc Hollander is busy here, the other co, Vincent Kenis, is absent other than the arrangement of two songs.

Aqsak Maboul: Marc Hollander – organ, piano, clarinet, bass clarinet, drum machine, alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, xylophone, & samples; Frank Wuyts – drums, recorder, piano, synthesizer, & percussion; Michel Berckmans – bassoon & oboe; Denis van Hecke – electric & acoustic cellos, rhythm guitar, & vocals; Catherine Jauniaux – pinball flippers & vocals with Fred Frith – guitar, violin, viola, & bass; & Chris Cutler – drums, percussion, & radio.

Aqsak Maboul - Un Peu de L'Ame des Bandits, Crammed Discs ATEM-CRAMMED 002, 1980.

Side One (five dances) –

Bo Diddley / Modern Lesson

Trio (Nuits d’Argentine) -Tango / Palmiers en Pots

Rondo / Geistige Nacht

Truc Turc / I Viaggi Formano la Gioventù

Pogo / Inoculating Rabies

Side Two (over) –

Knokke / Cinema

a.       Ce Qu' On Peut Voir Avec Un Bon Microscope

b.      Alluvions

c.       Azinou Crapules

d.      Age Route Brra! (Radio Sofia)

In 80 Days

Eleven dances for fighting migrane.

This chapter is giving me a headache. It was supposed to feature Deux Filles or Broadcast & the Focus Group or Art Zoyd, but Space & Time & Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age & Generation Sans Futur are all currently in re-release (those are the three I’ve been listening to here…you can search them out for yourselves if you are interested) so I’ve opted to substitute Cerberus Shoal here.

Cerberus Shoal has gone through numerous personnel changes accompanied by stylistic variances. Their earliest sound was a kind of psychedelic punk style which morphed over time to prog rock to soundtrack to atmospheric P Floyd/Popol V style which then added Eastern European instrumentation to avant-garde world folk to 2005s The Land We All Believe In’s surrealistic sway.

For The Land We All Believe In, Cerberus Shoal are: Calen Mulkerin - guitar; Chriss Sutherland - bass; Colleen Kinsella accordion & vocals; Erin Davidson – bass, ukulele, & vocals; & Tom Rogers – drums with Karl Greenwald & Tim Morin.

Cerberus Shoal – The Land We All Believe In, North East Indie nei38, 2005.

The World We All Believe In

Wyrm

Pie for the President

The Ghosts are Greedy

Junior

Taking Out the Enemy

Barriers

Jaan Patterson is a very interesting man. He runs the German Surrism-Phonoethics netlabel. He creates Surrealist inspired experimental music & spoken word projects under the names Undress Béton, André Pissoir, Crawl Max, Dusk Euphoria & Reve Steich to name a few. Since this post is based on The Magnetic Fields, I have chosen his Undress Béton personae.

Undress Béton – Tarentaliogy Defloration, Surrism Phonethics 82305, 2008.

Stellargum

Steve’s Handsome Bite

Tarentaliogy Defloration

Son of Doing

Prudentia of Null

Menda is Back

Cluster of Grapes

Exist Not

Let’s Move No More

Here we find Vicar Vittorio Demarin, sitting in his workshop, the Gomma, working on his Surrealist films & their accompanying non-musical non-soundtracks. He has worked with Reverend Freddie Murphy & Chiara Lee of Father Murphy, an Italian noise rock group in the past, providing drums & percussion. Here he is simply left to his own devices to forge this "rubbery piece of Surrealist Italian slapstick".

Gomma Workshop - Almanacco Moderno Sul Linguaggio Dei Gatti, Madcap Collective MDCP015, 2004.

Gertrud

Bruitages Cubik

Fantajma

Ernesto Sapphire Lost Tapes

Borg

500 Metri di Torte

My Heart is a Spoon

Kg-phono

Nuovi Algoritmi Sovietici

Mafiaclown

Ink Q.B.

Woodhood

Peter Sellers in the Swamp

Mangiabimbi

White Gloves

Named after a Japanese biker documentary film, Godspeed You Black Emperor! or more correctly (since 2002) Godspeed You! Black Emperor play a moody mélange of mostly instrumental music (with occasional spoken word samples). Eschewing the usual synthesizers of most other similar bands for three guitars, upright bass, violin, & cello, their music is very organic & quite darkly beautiful.

This Kranky re-issue of the F♯ A♯ ∞ LP has been remastered & changed significantly, with both added & deleted material. The J.L.H. outro is not listed in the booklet tracklist but is named on the band’s website (I cut out the "untitled" track of dead air between "string loop" & the outro).

On Infinity, GYBE! are: Efrim Menuck – guitar; Mike Moya – guitar & vocals; Dave Bryant – guitar & tape effects; Mauro Pezzente – bass; Thierry Amar – bass, double bass, & violin; Sophie Trudeau – violin; Jessica Moss – violin; Norsola Johnson – cello; Thea Pratt – French horn; Bruce Cawdron – drums & percussion along with a vast cast of others.

Godspeed You Black Emperor! - F♯ A♯ ∞, Kranky krank027, 1998.

the dead flag blues

a.       the dead flag blues (intro)

b.      slow moving trains

c.       the cowboy…

d.      (;outro)…

east hastings

a.       nothing’s alrite in our life / dead flag blues (reprise)

b.      the sad mafioso…

c.       drugs in tokyo / black helicopter

providence

a.       divorce & fever…

b.      dead metheny

c.       kicking horse on brokenhill

d.      string loop manufactured during downpour…

j.l.h. outro

The Hermit-Crab Says: pt. I

Having nothing really to do with Surrealism, I still had to listen to some The Magnetic Fields. This is basically indie pop from the fertile mind of the group’s songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, & vocalist Stephin Merritt with the constant help of friend, pianist, drummer, & vocalist Claudia Gonson. I’ll just share their first release. At that time Merritt had not yet taken over vocal duties. Vocals are by Susan Anway.

The Magnetic Fields – Distant Plastic Trees, Red Flame RFCD3, 1991.

Railroad Boy

Smoke Signals

You Love to Fail

Kings

Babies Falling (The Wild Stares cover)

Living in an Abandoned Firehouse with You

Tar-Heel Boy

Falling in Love with the Wolfboy

Josephine

100,000 Fireflies

Plant White Roses

The Hermit-Crab Says: pt. II

The Hermit-Crab sez that neither this nor the previous music is Surrealist, but pay homage to the original starting point of this post, The Magnetic Fields & André Breton.

Roman Pappak – lead vocals & guitar began making music with Adam Ainger – drums in 2007. The two are film-makers with cutting-edge video & sound design work under their belts. In 2010 Breton coalesced with the addition of Ian Patterson – beats & Daniel McIlvenny – bass. Their live shows finds them shrouded in black hoods manipulating guitars, bass, synths, drums, & laptops to create a truly original melee incorporating hip-hop, electronica, & cinematic soundscapes, lit only by the glow of their emphatic self-shot visuals, cut & edited live, in real-time by their touring fifth member Ryan McClarnon. If comparisons must be made, they seem kinda like Hot Chip on Juice.

Breton – 15 Minutes compilation, 2016.

December

Titan

Envy

Get Well Soon

Plot Device

15 Minutes

Envy (Gramme remix)

Closed Category

December (Funkineven remix)

302 Watch Towers

15 Minutes (Toys remix)

Edward the Confessor

Titan (DYD remix)

Population Density

Envy (Orchestral remix)

Parthian Shot

15 Minutes (Rone remix)

La Fin de Tout

Surrealist as hell, what a way to wrap this up. I may have posted this before, but it is the most Surrealist of the surreal theory-of-obscurity Residents. I’ll say no more

The Residents – Not Available, Ralph Records RR1174, 1978.

Side A –

Part One: Edweena

Part Two: The Making of a Soul

Side B –

Part Three: Ship’s a’ Going Down

Part Four: Never Known Questions

Epilogue

"The nocturnes of dead musicians lull the cities sunk in endless slumber. What are we waiting for? A woman? Two trees? Three flags? What are we waiting for? Nothing. "

Enjoy,

NØ

Mr. Skull for (Pre-) Resident

The actual usage of The Residents band name first appeared in 1974 on the cover of Meet the Residents. The name arose from a communication from Hal Haverstadt of Warner Brothers Records. The loosely bonded friendship of musicians & other crazies that would become The Residents had mailed a reel-to-reel tape to Haverstadt in a bold attempt by the (unnamed on the mailing) group to secure a recording contract with Warner Bros. Haverstadt mailed the tape back months later with a short rejection notice which he simply addressed to 'Residents, 20 Sycamore St., San Francisco'. Along with the rejection he also noted that the mysterious artists at least deserved an A for originality.

The unnamed band was really The Delta Nudes, from Shreveport, Louisiana. In 1966, lured to the Flower Power Revolution going on in California, the group moved to the Bay Area, settling down in San Mateo, about 20 miles south of San Francisco (according to Residential lore, their van broke down there & they decided to stay). At that time in California, experimentation artistically, culturally, & socially was in full swing. Many young people from the much more conservative South who were looking for more freedom of expression tended to drift toward the West.

By 1971, the Delta Nudes had recorded a great deal of material. They were looking for someone who might be interested in their brand of insanity. They sent one of their early demo tapes to the Warner Brothers executive Hal Halverstadt who had signed Captain Beefheart.

The Warner Bros. Album contains approximately 40 minutes of short songs, recorded only on reel-to-reel tape. Complete front & back artwork along with strange liner notes were designed for the tape box, even though the music was never released. The artwork is credited to one N. Senada. There is debate as to whether or not he really existed, or was simply an invention of The Residents. N. Senada (which may be a play on 'Ensenada'…'en se nada', meaning "in himself nothing," or 'enseñada', a form of the past participle meaning "taught" [or N. may stand for Nigel???]) was supposedly a Bavarian composer & music theorist who formulated the Theory of Obscurity. Supposedly born in 1907 & dying in 1993 at the age of 86, Senada was one of The Residents' earliest collaborators, having arrived in San Mateo, California, with Philip Lithman (better known to Residents' fans as Snakefinger). It has also been speculated that N. Senada may have been Captain Beefheart himself because in the late 1960s Beefheart & his Magic Band lived in a residence on Ensenada Drive in Woodland Hills, California, while recording Trout Mask Replica & Safe as Milk. Beefheart’s influence can be heard in early Residents works. Senada allegedly collaborated with band on their pre-Santa Dog work & then disappeared. He resurfaced in the mid-1970s, returning from an Arctic expedition bringing with him a sealed bottle of pure Arctic air; this served as inspiration for The Residents Eskimo project.

A rare copy of the unreleased tape was played in its entirely on KBOO-FM (Portland, Oregon) during a 1977 Residents Radio Festival. The song list on the reel-to-reel varies slightly from the CDr listing. I have noted the variations in the tracklist. This, as well as Baby Sex were recorded in San Mateo as the San Francisco studio was not completed until 1972.

The Residents – The Warner Bros. Album CDr, unofficial release, 1977.
all decryption codes in comments

Tracklist –

Strawberry Fields Forever

The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany

Baby Skeletons & Dogs

Bop Bop (Shoo Bop Bop)

Stuffed Genital (originally entitled Snippet #1)

Every Day I Masturbate on A Merican Fag

Oh Mommy Oh Daddy Can’t You See That it’s True

Baby Skeletons & Dogs Reprise

The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany Reprise

Love & Peace (originally entitled Going to Arcata Blues)

The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany Reprise 2

Black Velvet Original

The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany Reprise 3

Christmas Morning Foto (originally entitled Jimi Hendrix Dildo)

The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany Reprise 4

In the Still of the Night

Maggie’s Farm (originally the ending of this track was entitled Snippet #2)

Snot & Feces (live at The Grunt Festival)

Sweet Meat

Oh Yeah Uhh Bop Shoo Bop

Ohm is Where the Art Is

Concerto in R Flat Minor I

Concerto in R Flat Minor II

Concerto in R Flat Minor III (originally entitled Snippet #3)

Gagagapiggaeioupe

Sell American

Love Theme from a Major Motion Picture

Prelude for Accordion, Sousaphone, & French Horn

Oh God You’re a Pie in the Sky

Short Circuit Comes to Town I (originally entitled Snippet #4)

Short Circuit Comes to Town II (originally entitled Snippet #5)

Marching Toward AEIOU Blues

In the Still of the Night Again

Unknown Title (originally entitled Snippet #6)

Oh Mommy Oh Daddy Can’t You See That it’s True Again

Art, the White Elephant (Instrumental I & II were originally part of this track)

Instrumental I

Instrumental II

Psychedelic & Orgasmic Finale I

Psychedelic & Orgasmic Finale II

On October 18, 1971 The Residents would play their first show at The Boarding House, a small club in San Francisco. It was 'open mic' night that evening, & the group along with Senada & Lithman took over the stage. They performed 30 minutes of poetry set to music. For Lithman, the event would provide yet another monumental moment in moniker mutation. Someone had taken a photo of him playing his violin. Upon viewing it, one of The Residents noted that his pinky finger was positioned in a manner much like how a snake would appear just prior to making an attack. Hence, Lithman became 'Snakefinger'. He would use the name for the rest of his life. He would remain a close friend & collaborator with the group until his death. The Boarding House performance was captured on tape. Portions of it make up parts of Baby Sex, the band's last sub-subterraneaneously self-manufactured tape before making a go at making the music world wobble on a different axis altogether.

Baby Sex is another experimental reel-to-reel tape which has never been release in its entirely in any form. Portions of this 37 minute album were recorded live at the Boarding House in San Francisco on October 18, 1971 as mentioned above & also at radio station KHSC-FM (Arcata, California) during a live interview. The shocking & censored front cover illustration for the tape box was taken from a kiddie-porn advertisement from Denmark. Only the back cover design is pictured here. Once again, the complete Baby Sex tape was heard during the 1977 KBOO-FM Residents Festival

Kamikaze Lady was released on the Residue album, the Heaven?/Hell! CD & was also included with the instrumental track "King Kong" on The Residents Radio Special cassette; "Eloise" was included on the Whatever Happened To Vilness Fats? soundtrack LP & on The Eyeball Show live album. The full recording of The Boarding House show was released in 1991 on the Daydream B Liver CD (UWEB). The full recording of the KHSC show was released in 1997 as part of Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses 4xCD box set (Euro Ralph). Margaret Swaton née Margaret Smyk played the part of night-club singer Peggy Honeydew on several Residents outings. She sings on "Hallowed Be Thy Ween".

Track A1 – riff borrowed from the Tim Buckley's song “Down by the Borderline".
Track A2 – a parody of Led Zeppelin's song "Whole Lotta Love".
Track A5 – written by Frank Zappa.
Tracks B1 & B2 – live at The Boarding House, San Francisco, CA (October 18, 1971).
Tracks B3, parts A to E – live in studio KHSC-FM, Arcata, CA (October 30, 1971).

The Residents – Baby Sex reel-to-reel, unreleased, 1971.

Side A –

We Stole This Riff

Holelottadick

Baby Sex

Deepsea Diver Song

King Kong

Cantaten to der Dyin Prunen

Side B –

Something Devilish

The Fourth Crucifixion

Hallowed Be Thy Ween Medley

1. Sandman
2. Eat Me Mother
3. Eloise
4. For Doorknob
5. Kamikaze Lady

Enjoy,

NØ

The True Meaning of Brumalia

UPDATE: This post has been re-uploaded 08/10/2013. Enjoy, NØ

I posted this last holiday season & deleted it after the holidaze. Numerous friends have been ‘suggesting’ that I re-instate it, so here it be.

Thousands of years before Christ, people worshipped the sun. The shortest day of the year was December 21st. When they realized the sun was returning for longer periods each day, they celebrated...on December 25th. They exchanged gifts in decorated boxes, sang songs, played games & feasted. They also believed mistletoe, holly berries & evergreen wreaths (round like the sun) were sacred. They used them to decorate their houses.

The 12 Days of Brumalia was an internet event presented by The Residents & Residents.com in 2003 to celebrate the original holiday that the Roman Church adopted as Xmas. For 12 days, starting on December 25th, a new song was posted on Residents.com web site along with an illustration & a quote. On the 13th day, The Residents presented the epic musical work, The Feast of Epiphany. Ralph America compiled the audio tracks for a CD release in the summer of 2004.


From Residents.com:
"The Roman Catholic Church absorbed the Brumalian rituals around 350 A. D. In the fifth century the church ordered Xmas to be celebrated forever on the Brumalia, December 25, inasmuch as no certain knowledge of Christ’s birthday existed. The birthday of the sun, became the birthday of the son.

What you celebrate is not important. The important thing is to notice the circle, the cycle of life & acknowledge it with a bit of celebration. Each human is allowed a limited number of year cycles. Make this year count & do something cool."

The Residents - The 12 Days of Brumalia,
Ralph America RA17, 2004.
decryption code in comments

Tracklist -

The True Meaning of Brumalia
1st Day - Partridge Pairing
2nd Day - Turtle Dove
3rd Day - Chicken of the Oui
4th Day - Calling Bird
5th Day - Golden Rings
6th Day - Lying Goose
7th Day - Swami Swam
8th Day - Maid Being Milked
9th Day - Wiggling Wahines
10th Day - Leaping & Lords
11th Day - Pieta's Piper
12th Day - Big Hand
The Feast of the Epiphany

Enjoy,
NØ

Burns me raw!

something to listen to while you read The Residents - Mourning the Undead from The Tune of Two Cities, part two of the Mole trilogy in which the musick of the Moles & the Chubs is compared.