My old copy of this was destroyed a while ago, so I've just gotten myself a new copy off of Emusic. Now I know why everyone was complaining about the sound of the ESD disks--these sound more lively, and, ironicly, make it sound a little less out of its time than it did sound. It may sound odd, nowadays, to make a Top-40-in-a-crooked-mirror record that's made up of quiet tuneful little ditties, but in 1981 the American Top 40 *was* mostly quiet tuneful little ditties. One of the things that is most overlooked about the Residents is that they are superb lyricists, and they're in top form here. "I didn't mean to hurt her when I fell asleep last night/I was just exausted from the act of being polite."
Now if we could just only just get a rerelease of Title In Limbo.
― Christine "Green Leafy Dragon" Indigo (cindigo), Friday, 30 August 2002 22:36 (twenty-three years ago)
get the original cd re-issues ic 89; low fi and listenable (unlike acdc != noriega);{
}";'=::
they've got that mushy predigit an' 'log"{(!=)"( sound that made their ano digimee work replayed through the later digs gigs (13th ann. world tour; )yeah:=0( == the residents) such a revelelation about early cds (that would last for ever while you're breakdancing turning on a tequilla bottle); and early slower (ic Moore's Law; not "thurston" btw); the 8 bit, 16bit, "24bit resampling"(!) that made cds and technology lucky dip unless you checked that bar odor bit; the same could be said for their sound live in 0bc (1313 ?yeah =), as revealed on that oh so flat "live" album designed for the japanese market and hey maybe even members of the co_mm_inwealth; and sounding best (and most revealing re::tech:=0); live as bad as the local low fi sound mechanics plugged the residents pretty high-res sound into some crude antag analg deserving mosfet; well at least the residents jkblmnoquetcaxix{"(==: !)cectcwyxz up those crappy bassbins; whereas digking pierre boureprat is still only on the horizon;
― george gosset (gegoss), Saturday, 31 August 2002 00:08 (twenty-three years ago)
two years pass...
http://www.residents.com/C1016472556/E667055883/Media/comdvdweb.jpgTHE RESIDENTS
COMMERCIAL ALBUM DVD RELEASE - OCT 2004
COMMERCIAL ALBUM RE-RELEASE - OCT 2004
THE RESIDENTS ARE WITHOUT
features, futures, pasts or presence
THE RESIDENTS ARE WITHIN
us all
THE RESIDENTS ARE ABOUT
music, culture, creativity and chaos
THE RESIDENTS ARE NOT IN
and never will be
Mute is proud to release The Residents’ Commercial Album DVD along with a re-release of the landmark 1980 album on Compact Disc. Both products will be in stores around Hallowe'en of this year.
In 1980 The Residents created four short films based on Commercial Album songs. Long considered as ground breaking music videos, these films are now part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Commercial Album, the DVD will both compliment and complete the project with an amazing collection of 56 one-minute films based on the original 40 Commercial Album songs. In order to produce this large number of films, in addition to themselves, The Residents have assembled an outstanding group of 42 visual artists from around the world. Working in various forms ranging from animation, live action, and puppetry to drawing, photography and sculpture, the disc is a virtual film festival in miniature. In addition The DVD has an innovative game-like interface that allows viewers to explore a maze in the process of viewing the videos. This complex of rooms contains a unpredictable series of interactive features as it reveals the 56 videos created by The Residents and their all star cast of visual collaborators.
For those unfamiliar with The Residents, the group is now entering its fourth decade as faceless anti-stars, existing in the dim outskirts of mainstream awareness.
During that entire time, they've consciously kept their origins and personal lives shrouded in mystery. The creation of this obviously contrived "mystery" was one of the first decisions they reached after realising that they had become a group - something they define as an organism with a mind, will and direction of its own. The essence of this decision was to aggressively create a separation between their personal and professional lives. Anonymity was, and is, their only rule. They live by it to this day.
Since, in 1980, the nature of their music prohibited access to pop radio, The Residents originally envisioned The Commercial Album, as a reinvention of the Top Forty format. With this concept the group attempted to revolutionise the way popular music was heard. The concept behind the material is explained in these 5 points:
Point one: Pop music is mostly a repetition of two types of musical
and lyrical phrases, the verse and the chorus.
Point two: These elements usually repeat three times in a three minute
pop song
Point three: Eliminate the excess and a pop song is only one minute long.
Point four: One minute is also the length of most commercials, and
therefore their corresponding jingles.
Point five: Jingles are the folk music of America.
Conclusion: THE RESIDENTS' COMMERCIAL ALBUM
As well as the Commercial DVD and Album, Mute Records and The Residents plan to re-release several refurbished back catalogue items featuring occasional bonus discs, a new album in 2005, and a future filled with featureless products.
http://www.residents.com/C1016472556/E106093077/
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 2 September 2004 12:23 (twenty-one years ago)
"As well as the Commercial DVD and Album, we have been told that there are initial plans to repackage the following back-catalogue items:
Third Reich 'n' Roll
Our Finest Flowers
Wormwood
Gingerbread Man
...and by "repackage", they also mean that they might include bonus discs. Oh, and there's also the new album scheduled for next year."
"They are also talking about a February 2005 release date for the new Residents album."
http://www.theresidents.co.uk/news.htm
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 2 September 2004 12:59 (twenty-one years ago)