I'm not sure about this one. I really liked them when I was 15. I was just listening to them last night and thought it pretty much sucked, they did have some kinda of neat stuff. Certainly all there stuff from the last 10 years is total crap. Eskimo was a good album

Any thoughts?

The Residents are/were/is/am terrific.

I remember very clearly...I was 8 years old, watching "night flight" on USA at my friend's house....the Resident's "one minute movies" came on, and I was honestly scared. It was my first real interaction with "art," and i nearly wet 'em.

People keep telling me I'll like them, and I keep not liking them. There's something missing, to me. I like the general vibe, but it doesn't seem to go far enough. CRAP.

gcbv wrote:I remember very clearly...I was 8 years old, watching "night flight" on USA at my friend's house....the Resident's "one minute movies" came on, and I was honestly scared. It was my first real interaction with "art," and i nearly wet 'em.

strange, i saw them for the first time when i was 5 or 6. i think it was on mtv, but it may have been night flight. in any case, it was the video for their cover of "it's a man's world", and it scared the bejesus out of me. i remembered it for years, and started buying residents albums out of curiosity. i also began to discover that i think a lot of their output has not aged well at all, or is just not to my taste. however, the stuff i do like, i like an awful lot: eskimo, third reich and roll, meet the residents, the commercial album, duck stab, the one-minute movies, pretty much all their early videos. despite the fact that i think most of their music (like pretty much any record i didn't name above, ESPECIALLY freak show and related material) is completely unbearable, i'm still voting NOT CRAP.

plus, ralph put out some good stuff: MX-80, tuxedomoon, a couple of chrome songs...

I'll pipe in here and say that i'm a big fan, even of some of the more recent more "theatrical" stuff.

If nothing else they would have to get a firm NOT CRAP for not revealing their (more then likely shifting) indentities for all of these, what... 30 years? And for running the most shameless collector's items oriented merchendise situation without resorting to cheap and crass consumer ploys.

Meaning, that alhough it's "Buy or Die", the products really do sell themselves.

Anyway, the Commercial album as a conceptual work and as an album is easilly in my top 100 ever, and Duck Stab, Third Reich and Roll, etc.
The Residents have made so much music that there's bound to be something that you like, even if it's just "smelly tongues" or what not.

I have to echo all of the experiences with the one minute movies, totally mind opening.

Conceptually, and in some cases musically they are an influence on me.

-C.

Not Available and Eskimo are complete masterpieces, and the Mole Trilogy is one of the strangest epics i've heard. I recently saw a show they did, and it was excellent.

-Noah

Anyone who saw any show on the Wormwood tour should be able to attest these guys still bring it. If they're even the same guys, which the popular opinion seems to be that they aren't. Whatever. Not crap.

not crap.

Saw 'em on the "demons dance alone" tour. 2003-4?

Quite possibly the most entertaining show i have ever seen.

Not crap.

Tom wrote:Eskimo was a good album

Any thoughts?

Yes. I agree with this opinion. And strangely enough, this was one of the few I REALLY liked.

It seems that some really single out this particular album as being the goods.