TABASCO: TWEEDLES INSTRUMENTAL

Even though this album was released as a companion album to "Tweedles", the Residents story/album about a sexually compulsive young man, this album is more than just instrumental versions of the songs from that album. However, there are contrasting views (all of these views are from The Residents by the way) as to whether the Tweedles story came first or if these instrumental songs inspired the music from Tweedles. The RSD website says that these 3 tracks were written to represent air, earth and water and that the original working title for the music was called "Tabasco", which morphed into "Casanova's Clown" and then finally becoming Tweedles. But then the other story goes that this music was originally in the form of fragmented recordings and that the fragments were formed into 3 larger chunks called "Air", "Earth" and "Water". Whichever story you want to believe, it doesn't really matter because, it is, afterall, The Residents.

So, yeah, there are 3 very long tracks here and it's all instrumental. And it's all tied to the "Tweedles" album, probably as the inspiration behind the music lurking therein. It was released in 2010, so at least the music isn't quite as amateurish as some of the material that came from the 80s and 90s. The album was only released as downloadable files; MP3 and FLAC.

"Air" has a lot of sound effects like air, wind, airplanes, and stuff. There are also some interesting musical bits that manage to squeeze into the 19 minute track. The sounds and music is constantly changing, just like you would expect from a bunch of glued-together fragments. Most of this is created by keyboards, synths and electronics, but at least the sound isn't as cheap as it once was. You see, they graduated off of your grandmother's Wurlitzer after she got upset at them for using it so often and not keeping up their end of the bargain by forgetting to feed her pet poodle. So, that's a good thing that the sound is more varied than some earlier albums, especially their instrumental "additional materials" albums which they put out several. The Residents had this notion that their fans wanted to listen to everything they produced as if the meaning of life could be discerned from all of their practice tapes or something. That's why Mr. Cooper next door is always hitting the walls separating our apartment, because its way over his head and goes above his beliefs of random generational symbiosis of reincarnation and regurgitation techniques not hitherto known to the current species of humanoidical travesticular clavicles. (My spellcheck just blue up). Anyway, it's interesting music, quite minimal most of the time, but not necessarily boring either. Yes, it is. No, it isn't. Well kind of. Okay, fine. Oh, there is some percussion in there too.

"Earth" is the next element represented in this music and runs for over 21 minutes. It can be difficult to keep up with this track because most humans can't run that long, but it's all about the chase, not the capture anyway, right? There is some droning and spooky effects at first, then tapping percussion and sparse keyboard melodies. This at times even reminds me a bit of a Tangerine Dream style. But who dreams of tangerines anymore? They also lied about it being an instrumental because there is some nonsensical chanting and other vocal shenanigans going on in there. Anyway, I kind of like this because you don't ever know what's coming around the next corner. Does music have corners? This music does. If you want to hear what corners sound like, then you should listen. However, since no one knows what a corner sounds like, there really is no way to know for sure, just take The Resident's word for it. I know they didn't say that, but whatever. Stop talking to myself! It's embarrassing. This is supposed to be a professional review. Right, when have you ever done a professional review ya dork. All this humor in the music makes me weird. Yep, there is humor in the music even if it is (mostly) instrumental. Does it make you laugh? Well, not out loud I guess. Mr. Cooper is knocking on the walls again. Can't he use the door for knocking like most people do? But I are knocking him. What? Stop talking so loud, he'll hear me. That sounds like backwards vocals there in the last 5 minutes of the track. Then there is strange calliope style music that gets rather dissonant by the end of it all.

"Water" is the last track, and also the shortest at 14 minutes. It starts with some wet sound effects so that it could be called water. The music is unconventional and definitely avant-gardish, a much more mature sound than what we have heard from them on some of their albums in the past. The sound stays minimal-ish but, still interesting and intriguing. Is that Alvin singing? Alvin who? You know, the chipmunk. Dang it, more vocals on this instrumental record. Again, more of these fragmented melodies and ideas, but they do a great job of making it somehow all flow together. Did you accidentally put on "Eskimo"? It sort of reminds one of that. Are me talking to me? Stop it, I'm confusing me. This is hard to talk to myself in first person. Now I know why Trump speaks about himself in the 3rd person because it can get confusing. That's easy for me to say. This track gets really spooky and dark by the middle part. Then it later gets happier sounding as some percussion comes along and picks it up a bit. Then it goes into an intense section and some really neat effects after the 11 minute mark. Mark? I thought he didn't come around much anymore. Not that Mark, he was banned from here after he called the police the last time. That's not funny. That's okay, nobody is reading this anymore anyway. Then why am I still typing this out? Because I feel like I haven't concluded anything yet. I don't have to, I said no one was reading it now anyway. Do I think that if I just quit writing now that anyone would even notice? What would you do that for? Is that a hanging participle or am I just happy to see me?