Customer Reviews

Meet the Residents

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Residents' early work is perhaps their most bizarre andchallenging. Mixing elements of Frank Zappa, Capt. Beefheart, JohnCage, and Sun Ra with their twisted sense of song structure, they craft an odd and often indescribable musical collage unmatched by anything that came before them. Allegedly, the band sent a tape (bluntly-titled "The Warner Bros. Album") to Warner Bros., who ended up passing on the record. Since no name had been written on the package, the rejection slip was sent to 'residents' at the return address. The group adopted the name and decided to put out their stuff themselves, forming Ralph Records in 1972. This album is much more primitive sounding, in both the music and the production technology, than their later synthesizer work. Most of the tracks utilize analog tape effects and more traditional instruments like piano, guitar and horns. The album's infamous cover, a defacing of "Meet The Beatles," enraged Capitol Records (although, supposedly one of the Beatles found it funny and bought a copy). This new re-release benefits greatly from the 20-bit mastering, clearing up much of the previously muddy sound. The original CD release had paired this record with the four songs from their first single, "Santa Dog," but they are no longer included (they can now be found on the 1999 Residents collection, "Refused"). Despite the proliferation of contemporary oddball acts that these guys have influenced (Primus, Ween, Mr. Bungle), this disc still sounds as warped and otherworldly as ever.

I just want to say that I am not an art student or a philosopher. I am a high schooler with a wide-ranging palette of musical tastes, but I have to admit that when I bought this CD, I wanted my thirteen dollars back. I didn't get the irony of the whole CD, and I thought that it was immature noise. However, I listened to the CD a couple of times because I figured that I might as well, I bought it after all. I found that beneath the avant-garde sound and dada-esque cover was a catchy and fun, albeit warped, pop album. Now, it is one of my desert island discs, and I think this album really helped me open my mind to other types of music. My family still thinks it sounds like something a retard in a studio would make, and I am still surprised when I hear myself humming the piano part from "Numb Erone". This is an essential album, and there's nothing else like it.

For all of us impoverished Residents fans who work extra jobs to try to keep up with the latest of their releases, I say this: good job! The Residents sold only 50 of this album upon its first release. To date, they've sold thousands of this released effort, and for good reason: for its sheer inventiveness, and for its clear breaking from traditional pop music this is the Residents best effort. From the habit forming "Smelly Tongues" to the almost classical "Rest Aria" the Residents showed the world (or 50 people to start with) the range of their talents.

Missing in this recording is the presence of moog-like instruments creating artificial sounds. The One Eyed Ones had to use real instruments, real singing, and real sound (well, okay, they did edit the tapes somewhat) to make up this album, and they stood up to the challange and (dare we say it?) TOOK OVER THE WORLD.

True, its an invisible empire (gad, hope no one take's *that* the wrong way) but Residents fans live among us, and the empire has grown from its humble origins (this album and a Santa Dog double single set) in the 1970's.

Listen to this album with an open mind, and open heart, and open ears. And remember: Residents fans are *everywhere*.

The essential album for Residents fans.

The linear notes say it perfectly, "this is the Residents in their collective underwear, in the days before samplers and digital sequencers." This is music made by men (i think) who don't adhere to the rules of what music should be, it's what John Cage would sound like if he'd grown up listening to American Top 40. The Resident's obvious debt to The Beatles, from the cover artwork (which the beatles loved) to the intricate studio production, is plainly obvious. You can tell that this was a band exploring the full potential of studio as instrument. On first listen the album may sound primitive but given a few listens the childish intricacy soon becomes apparant. The whole album is a delight, from the madcap medley on side one (do you think primus may have heard this album?) to the painstakingly beautiful, operatic Numb Erone, which must surely rank as one of the best pieces of classical music i've ever heard. Don't be fooled by it's superficial veneer, this is an amazing record.

...5 years after the true beginning of the band. The first official release by The Residents (with the exception of the out of print and extremely collectible Santa Dog) is a masterpiece of the surreal. After experimenting in homemade studios with various toys, sounds, and tape effects (some glimmers of which are available on the out of print UWEB releases,) The Residents put together their first album. The sound has the stream of conscious effects that have been the collective's trademark ever since. The Residents in their most original, unadulterated form.

The only reason this release does not rate 5 stars is that ESD, in their brilliance, decided to remove the 4 Santa Dog bonus tracks from the CD. Therefore, if at all possible, track down the original CD release (which includes the omitted tracks) on eBay or elsewhere.

It's the one with the most musical content. You can hear a Captain Beefheart influence, a Harry Partch influence, and some real musical ideas on here. It's like a more charming version of the original Mothers of Invention "sound" (edited montages, with strange ironic vocals).

Side 1 has a lot of ideas on it, culminating in "Rest Aria" which is a quite nice piece of music. Side 2 thins the ideas out but has some nice ambience to it. It's intentionally strange stuff, fragmented and weird. If that's your bag, you may well like this.

This is a great album, quite strange but also quietly and insidously charming and not cold or arrogant or too right-brained like some experimental music...this IS lo-fi garage experimental strangeness, but an organic weirdness just like the mutated Beatles on the front cover :-)

Of the top of my head, Numb Erone is great, so is Boots and several of the later tracks like Skratz: not a 4 minute pop album as such (well I suppose you'd have guessed that by now but they did do covers of Elvis and the Stones later on!) but more of a mix of song-like sounds and structures which blend into each other.

In this way it's more like Negativland's first LP, amazingly titled 'Negativland' which I've always thought that both bands are very similar in theme in their early work if not in structure...both are Bay-area I think and refugees from the 60's, use found sounds, instruments, snippets, collages, tape, and have worked together on 'Escape From Noise'...not sure about the later Residents work I've heard, the covers and such, but this album is an overlooked (could sum up their career really ;-) quietly confident masterpiece...BU Y O NE!

I've found the 2011 CD to be a bit of a disappointment. I own 2 previously available CD releases of this album. The first CD is the original 1988 CD issue, which contains the original mono mix, plus bonus tracks of Santa Dog. The 2nd, has the stereo remix, no bonus tracks. This new 2011 CD contains the mono mix, but no bonus tracks.

There are 2 good things about the new CD reissue. One is that it puts the mono mix back in print. Second is that the EQ has been tweaked a bit. I found the 1988 CD was a bit dull, and made my own CD-R from it where I tweaked the high end up a bit with EQ. With this CD, it has been tweaked to just about the same EQ that I had tweaked my CD-R to.

Now the bad. Obviously, the lack of bonus tracks. Santa Dog remains out of print. I don't understand why The Residents have abandoned bonus tracks, especially of material that continues to stay out of print. Also, this CD suffers from compression. It's not brick wall limited, but comparing the .wav files with the .wav files of the 1988 CD shows that this new issue definitely has less dynamic range. For example, in N-ER-GEE (Crisis Blues), there is an explosion sound. Looking at the .wav files, you clearly see where the explosion happens, it gets much louder from the music up to that point. In this new CD, you can't even see where the explosion begins, only by listening do you hear the explosion. Which certainly makes the explosion have much less of an impact as it was originally intended to have.

What I have noticed in my .wav file comparisons, though, is that the audio of both of these CDs sync up exactly. The only exception is some tracks have more of a gap between them than others. What this says to me is that this CD uses the same digital source as the 1988 CD. Otherwise, they wouldn't line up so perfectly, there would be phasing sounds heard when trying to line them up. With the advances in digital technology since the 80s, it's a bit disappointing that they have decided to use an inferior digital source for this album, rather than going back to the master tape. To me, this says that the 2011 vinyl release is most likely sourced from digital as well. Which makes me ask, what's the point? I really don't get the point of digitally sourced vinyl. If you're going to use a digital source, you may as well stay in the digital realm.

So, the bottom line here is, the CD uses the same digital source as the 1988 CD, and has degraded that audio with unnecessary compression making for a less dynamic version of the album. This CD is only useful as an easy way to get the long out of print mono mix. I recommend seeking out the 1988 CD, and turning up the high end on your EQ a bit when listening to that. Not only will you get a better dynamic range, but you'll also get the Santa Dog bonus tracks.

I've never owned Meet the Residents on vinyl. I've heard recordings of the original mono mix and owned subsequent remix CDs and heard bootlegs of the sessions, but for some reason, have never gotten my hands on the LP in its as-original-as-intended form.
Imagine my elation when I found out it was going to be reissued on vinyl by The Cryptic Corporation via MVD.
I was bitterly disappointed upon spinning it to hear that there was an obvious separation of 'tracks' on the first five tracks - the tracks meant to blend seamlessly into one another. It was jarring, especially if you are as intimately familiar with this album's flow as I am.
Also, seconds are missing from the tail ends of songs! The songs end suddenly, then go into the next without transitional sounds we're all familiar with.
It's really unnecessary and detracts from the overall quality of the album greatly.
I'm not sure why this happened. I can't imagine it being a choice any competent engineer would make. My fifteen year old CD plays the weird little suite absolutely seamlessly on a cheap consumer player.
I'm not sure if this album was mastered off of digital files or it was simply incompetent mastering between the tracks, but it's really poor quality.
The rest of the sound quality is fine. While I only played it on a broadcast quality turntable (I'm not really an audiophile - just love spinning records), it sounds pretty much like the previous CD reissue. No real remastering seems to have been done.
Meet the Residents is hardly an album that warrants or could survive an audiophile overhaul, but the whole gap/missing song portion thing's a deal breaker.
While the price is pretty reasonable, I say buy it if you want a 12" cover of MtR or find a 70s or 80s issue of this LP on Ebay of Discogs Marketplace.
Otherwise, you'll be bitterly disappointed.

Fans of the original Mothers of Invention surely remember Frank Zappa's habit of quoting, somewhere on their LP sleeves, the avant-garde founding father Edgard Varese's maxim, "The modern day composer refuses to die." Well, if you'll pardon the bad pun, meet the Residents - who launched their career as perhaps the best rock deconstructionists of the 1970s-80s with this bizarrely engaging series of montages that sound, after all is said and done, as if Varese himself had composed "Uncle Meat"...with a mind toward switching rhythm sections with Captain Beefheart's Magic Band. The peculiar thing of it is that even after all these years, the Residents may have deconstructed rock but every passage suggests they were doing it for rock's own good. And, they probably were, in the long run. Rolling Stone wrote perhaps the best valedictory (in "The Rolling Stone Album Guide") to the Residents' peculiar career: "The Residents are many things. Dull isn't one of them."