MEET THE RESIDENTS

With compositions like the riotous Infant Tango (which combines Beefheartian vocals, surf rock guitar, and pulsating, Mothers of Invention-ish percussion bubbling underneath the surface) and cover art directly blaspheming against the Beatles, few avant-garde experimental rock groups can claim to have made a debut more provocative than Meet the Residents. Nobody in 1974 could have expected a band informed by the strangest moments of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band (perhaps one of the few acts the album is comparable to) would sound quite as accessible as this album frequently does, and although it dabbles a little too much in "weird for weird's sake" to really present a cohesive musical vision it's still a solid enough first effort.