The co-founder of the Residents as we know them, Hardy Fox, has passed away. The Residents actually started in 1965, which I didn't realize until I actually read up about them today. Their first LP, Meet the Residents, was released in 1974. My first exposure was in the late seventies at the dawn of punk rock. They weren't a punk band, they were a fuck-with-your-head band, kind of experimental but with an eye on pop culture. But if you were into punk rock back then, chances are you were checking out anything that was a little different, especially if it fucked with your head.
Check "Edweena", it's creepy enough to make it on a Halloween playlist. It's somewhere between Bernard Herrmann and a moment from a David Lynch film. Kind of indefinably creepy. To see how they handled popular music there's a couple covers, one of Hank Williams's "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walking" and a chop 'em up medley of Beatle's songs, twenty four in all. That one was released in 1977, a good two or three decades ahead of the Avalanches' splice fest and all the mash-ups that followed.
Check "Edweena", it's creepy enough to make it on a Halloween playlist. It's somewhere between Bernard Herrmann and a moment from a David Lynch film. Kind of indefinably creepy. To see how they handled popular music there's a couple covers, one of Hank Williams's "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walking" and a chop 'em up medley of Beatle's songs, twenty four in all. That one was released in 1977, a good two or three decades ahead of the Avalanches' splice fest and all the mash-ups that followed.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:The Residents - Edweena mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Residents - I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Residents - These Boots Are Made For Walkin mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Residents - Beyond the Valley of a Day In the Life mp3 at Aquabotic
2 comments:
Was actually Isak (now 17) who made me aware of Hardy Fox' passing, last week. And when his little brother Kirill (11) immediately follows up the dinner table conversation with; "What's everyone's favorite Residents tune? Mine's Constantinople.", I kinda feel shit's payed off in the parenting department! Who woulda thought?
Stay Strange Tom!
Man, Espen, that comment is full of forehead slappers. Isak is 17!?! Holy shit. Now I know what it means when parents sigh "They grow up so fast". Seriously, it seems like a year or two at most since he did that report on Moondog. And the fact that he clued you in about Hardy Fox? And Kirill even knowing a Residents song?!? You done right Espen. A noisy hat tip to you! (And, of course, a pat on the back for the rodents!)
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