The Residents are an American art collective, music and visual arts group best known for their avant-garde and multimedia works. Since their first official release, Santa Dog (1972) they have released over 60 albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects, and ten DVDs over the course of over half a century. They have undertaken seven major world tours and scored multiple films. Pioneers in exploring the potential of CD-ROM and similar technologies, the Residents have won several awards for their multimedia projects. They founded Ralph Records, a record label focusing on avant-garde music, in 1972.
Throughout the group's existence, the individual members have ostensibly attempted to work anonymously, preferring to have attention focused on their art. Much speculation and rumor has focused on this aspect of the group. In public, they appear silent and costumed, often wearing eyeball helmets, top hats and tails—a costume now recognized as their signature iconography. In 2017, Hardy Fox, long known to be associated with the Residents, identified himself as the band's co-founder and primary composer; he died in 2018. The Residents have remained active and have been regarded as one of the longest running bands in popular music history.
History
1969–1972: Origins and Residents Unincorporated
In 1969, Texas born Hardy Fox moved from Louisiana to an apartment in San Mateo, California where he lived with his fellow Louisiana Tech University graduate and visual artist Homer Flynn, as well as two of the latter's high school friends, from Shreveport. Although the name would not be adopted until 1974, the earliest recordings credited to The Residents were made during this period.
While attempting to make a living, the group purchased crude recording equipment and began to refine their recording and editing skills, as well as photography, painting, and other affordable artistic endeavors. The Residents have acknowledged the existence of at least two unreleased reel-to-reel items from this era, titled The Ballad of Stuffed Trigger and Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor.
In 1971, the group, now accompanied by pianist James Whitaker and bassist Bob Tangney,Hacienda Bridge no. 11, Fox, Hardy sent a reel-to-reel demo tape, The Warner Bros. Album, to Hal Halverstadt at Warner Bros. Although the tape did not lead to a record deal, it did originate a name; as they had not included one on the return address, the rejection slip was addressed to "Residents", which lead to them adopting the name Residents Uninc., and later, The Residents.
As Residents Uninc. the group began to make live appearances at open mic events, radio stations, and parties, most notably between October 18th and 31st, 1971, whilst they were working on a second demo tape for Warner, titled Baby Sex. The cover art for the tape box was a silk-screened copy of an old photo depicting a woman fellating a small child, an example of the extremely confrontational and deliberately puerile visual and lyrical style the group adopted during this period. These appearances and recordings were all accompanied by Philip 'Snakefinger' Lithman.
During this period the group also began to incorporate myth making and kayfabe into their work, when N. Senada became a prominent figure, appearing on stage, making radio appearances,"A Live Radio Broadcast" The Residents, Liver Music even crediting him as the primary songwriter and performer on Baby Sex, merely accompanied by Residents Uninc.A Sight For Sore Eyes, Tanner, Aaron
1972–1980: "Classic" era
Santa Dog, Meet the Residents, Not Available and The Third Reich 'n Roll (1972–1976)
In 1972, Residents Uninc. relocated to 20 Sycamore St, San Francisco; a studio they named "El Ralpho", which boasted a completely open ground floor (seemingly ideal for a sound stage), allowing the group to expand their operations and also begin preliminary work on their most ambitious project up to that point, a full-length film entitled Vileness Fats, which consumed most of their attention for the next four years. Intended to be the first-ever long form music video, the Residents saw this project as an opportunity to create the ultimate cult film. After four years of filming (from 1972 to 1976) the project was reluctantly cancelled because of time, space, and monetary constraints. Fifteen hours of footage was shot for the project, yet only approximately 35 minutes of that footage has ever been released.
The group also formed Ralph Records at this time, as a small, independent label to release and promote their own work. In 1972, to inaugurate the new business, the group recorded and pressed the Santa Dog EP, their first recorded output to be released to the public. Designed to resemble a Christmas card from an insurance company, the EP consisted of two 7" singles, one song on each side. The four songs were presented as being by four different bands (Ivory & the Braineaters, Delta Nudes, the College Walkers, and Arf & Omega featuring the Singing Lawnchairs), with only a small note on the interior of the gatefold sleeve mentioning the participation of "Residents, Uninc."
They sent copies of Santa Dog to west coast radio stations with no response until Bill Reinhardt, program director of KBOO-FM in Portland, Oregon, received a copy and played it heavily on his show. Reinhardt met the Residents at their studio at 20 Sycamore St. in the summer of 1973 with the news of his broadcasts. The Residents gave Reinhardt exclusive access to all their recordings, including copies of the original masters of Stuffed Trigger, Baby Sex, and The Warner Bros. Album.
Throughout this point, the group had been manipulating old tapes they had collected and regularly recording jam sessions, and these recordings eventually became the group's debut full-length album, Meet the Residents, which was released in 1974 on Ralph. To aid in promoting the group, Reinhardt was given 50 of the first 1,000 copies of Meet the Residents. Some were sent to friends, listeners and critics, and two dozen were left for sale on consignment at the Music Millennium record store, where they sat unsold for months. KBOO DJ Barry Schwam (a.k.a. Schwump, who also recorded with the Residents) promoted them on his program as well. Eventually, KBOO airplay attracted a cult following.Following the release of Meet the Residents, the group began working on a follow-up entitled Not Available. Following N. Senada's theory of obscurity, the LP was recorded and compiled completely in private, and would not be released until the group had completely forgotten about its existence.The Residents - Not Available liner notes [East Side Digital] (ESD80192) 1988
During breaks in the sessions for Vileness Fats, the group recorded their next project, entitled The Third Reich 'n Roll, over the course of a year between October 1974 and October 1975. The album consisted of two side-long medleys of the band covering popular songs from 1950s and 1960s, whilst toying with the concept of the popularity of rock 'n' roll being comparable to that of the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. The resulting LP was released in 1976, and was the group's first project to feature a music video, created by syncing an old video of the group performing with an edited version of "Swastikas on Parade".
After the Third Reich 'n Rolls release, a group of enterprising friends and collaborators from their early days in San Mateo—Homer Flynn, Hardy Fox, Jay Clem and John Kennedy—also joined the group in San Francisco, forming what became the Cryptic Corporation to manage and represent the band. Clem became the band's spokesman; Fox edited, produced and compiled the band's increasingly prolific output; Flynn was already handling the group's cover design and promotional art under the banner of Pore Know Graphics; and Kennedy took the role of "President" (admittedly a fairly empty title, as overall responsibilities were handled more or less equally by the four). The Cryptic Corporation took over the day-to-day operations of Ralph Records, and provided the band with an improved public relations platform.
Shortly after the introduction of the Cryptic Corporation, the Residents recorded their "Satisfaction" single, the B-side of which featured the Residents' first work with the ARP Odyssey, the first synthesizer owned by the group, purchased by the Cryptics.
Eskimo, Fingerprince, Duck Stab, and rise in popularity (1976–1979) Following "Satisfaction", the group began recording Eskimo in April 1976; a concept album based upon the Theory of Phonetic Organisation that suggests that music should not be confined to chords and structures, but instead should simply be a collection of fascinating noises. The album featured acoustic soundscapes inspired by Inuit culture,Eskimo Liner Notes (Ralph Records, ESK7906) whilst parodying American ignorance of other cultures. The Eskimo sessions lasted many years, and featured many divergences, the first of which, in November 1976, resulted in Fingerprince, a collection of unused recordings from the Third Reich 'n Roll, Not Available, and Eskimo sessions.The Residents - Fingerprince Liner Notes, (Ralph Records RR1276)
Fingerprince received considerable coverage in the British press, and was the first LP by the group to receive any critical attention when Jon Savage reviewed the album and its two predecessors favorably for the December 31 issue of Sounds magazine. This review gained the group considerable attention, with many of their previously unsold mail-order items being sold seemingly overnight. The sudden success of Fingerprince and its predecessors caused the group to briefly halt production on Eskimo to create something more appealing to their newfound audience.
The Residents followed up Fingerprince with their Duck Stab! EP – their most accessible release up to that point. This EP got the band some attention from the press (namely NME, Sounds and Melody Maker), and was followed in 1978 by the Duck Stab/Buster & Glen album, which paired the EP with a similar, concurrently recorded EP which had not been released separately. The group then continued work on Eskimo, which proved a very difficult project, marked by many conflicts between the band and their management which led to a number of delays in the release date.
The sudden attention afforded to them by the success of the Duck Stab! EP and "Satisfaction" single required an album release as soon as possible to help fund the band's spiraling recording costs, and to meet the demand for new Residents material. This forced the release of the band's long-shelved "second album" Not Available in 1978. The Residents were not bothered by this deviation from the original plan not to release the album, as the 1978 release ultimately did not affect the philosophical conditions under which it was originally recorded.
Eskimo was finally released in 1979 to much acclaim, even making it to the final list for nominations for a Grammy award in 1980, although the album was not nominated. Rather than being songs in the orthodox sense, the compositions on Eskimo sounded like "live-action stories" without dialogue. The cover art of Eskimo also presents the first instance of the group wearing eyeball masks and tuxedos, which was later considered by many to be the group's signature costume. The Residents had only intended to wear these costumes for the cover of Eskimo, but adopted the costumes in the longer term as it provided them with a unique and recognisable image.