Mirror Image wrote: Saperlipopette! wrote: Well, none of us reccomends Mark of the Mole for starters. And Residents are better than Zappa at being an anti band making anti-music. But I have a feeling they're not for you.   I don't like the idea of anti-music. That's just absurd to me. The idea of making fun of music seems only approach to guys like Weird Al Yankovic who I suppose are apart of the same kind of music category. Whatever that could be.   By the way, The Mark of the Mole was suggested to me by a hardcore progressive rock friend of mine, but what he didn't realize is that I'm really into Symphonic Prog. Music, for me, is a serious thing, but I do like the occasional humorous musical reference and so on. I was just curious is there anything musically substantial in The Residents' large discography. Specifially, an album that relies on good musicianship and that does take itself seriously.

The Residents are not merely a joke band, though there's plenty of humour and playfulness in a lot of what they do. Nor are they simply relying on poor musicianship as a means of sounding weird. Having said all that, it sounds like The Residents are not really for you. I wouldn't worry about it. If you can listen to albums like Eskimo, Not Available, The Commercial Album and Duck Stab/Buster and Glen without finding any merit in them then I'd say write them off and look for your kicks elsewhere.

HolyMoly wrote: Mirror Image wrote:   I was just curious is there anything musically substantial in The Residents' large discography. Specifially, an album that relies on good musicianship and that does take itself seriously. Nope, I doubt you'll find any of those.  That was pretty much my advice at the top of the last page. (that's the short answer; though I find a lot of their work serious and/or well executed musically) It's not unusual at all, btw, to not enjoy the Residents, even among prog fans.  In fact, I don't think they're prog at all.  Somehow, they're on this site, and since I like em a lot, I've submitted reviews, but I would not necessarily recommend them to a prog fan in general.

I'd call it avant garde and leave it at that.  But still their more recent albums are much more conventional, musically speaking, and have male and female voices in more or less normal registers.  Even then, though, it's much more about the concept and the overall presentation than the musical complexity per se.  I confess I haven't gotten into these albums as much, but I saw the "Demons Dance Alone" stage show, and it was quite moving, sad, and musically, er, sensitive I guess.

Edited by Mirror Image - August 07 2012 at 18:38

I would call them post-punk (even though their early albums are pre-punk) because I associate them with bands like Pere Ubu and the Red Krayola. Avant garde certainly fits as well.

Edited by thellama73 - August 07 2012 at 19:47

Rocktopus wrote: Syzygy wrote: I love pretty much everything up to the Mole trilogy. There's been plenty of good stuff since then, but somehow they no longer sounded quite so surprising or original. Duck Stab/Buster and Glen is probably the peak for me. Huh. I got nothing to add here. Ok. They might be my absolute alltime favorite band. Third Reich 'n Roll is actually my least favorite from their classic era (up to about  1983/84). It's still a solid threeandahalf/fourstar, though. I made a personal Residents top 15 over at RYM. Its probably the only band I could have made one for:   1 The Residents Duck Stab / Buster & Glen (1978)   2 The Residents Meet the Residents (1974)   3 The Residents Mark of the Mole (1981)   4 The Residents Commercial Album (1980)   5 The Residents Eskimo (1979)   6 The Residents The Tunes of Two Cities (1982)   7 The Residents Intermission (1982) [EP]   8 The Residents Fingerprince (1977)   9 The Residents Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats? (1984)   10 The Residents Not Available (1978)   11 The Residents & Renaldo & The Loaf Title in Limbo (1983)   12 The Residents Santa Dog (1972) [Single]   13 The Residents Animal Lover (2005)   14 The Residents Diskomo / Goosebump (1980) [EP]   15 The Residents The Third Reich 'n Roll (1976)

Yikes, that's right, the Residents are playing the Variety Playhouse on Feb 5th.  Wonder if there are any tickets left.  

Slartibartfast wrote: That situation may change in 10 days.

I hope it does!  Best of luck to you. 

I'm not liking that everyone is ripping the new Residents stuff. I am a fan of this band to say the least, and I have listened to nearly every one of their albums, and this would be my top 7:

1. Not Available
2. Demons Dance Alone (2002) - this album is underappreciated
3. Stars and Hank Forever (1986)
4. Duck Stab/Buster Glen
5. God in Three Persons (1988)
6. Third Reich 'n Roll
7. Pollex Christi (1998)

Gotta love this recent concert too