Artist: The Residents
Album: Icky Flix
Appears On: The Boys And Girls Are Lifting Up Their Plates
Song Notes: This is one that's also pretty danged creepy, though it would be better to post the (absolutely exquisite) music video. This one is a little bit complicated to explain, though. See, in 1983, Renaldo & The Loaf recorded an album, Songs For Swinging Larvae, and to promote it, the Residents (whose management firm, the Cryptic Corporation, owned Ralph Records, the label it came out on) with Graeme Whifler edited together some selections from the album ("Spratts Medium", "Lime Jelly Grass" and "Melvyn's Repose" (that last one's not on the original album!)) and shot a video for that edit. The video, about a real child abduction case both won awards in film festivals and was banned from television. Later, in 2001, the Residents released a DVD of most of their videos ("Don't Be Cruel" was not included, though many new videos were made especially for the disc), called Icky Flix. Since the Residents aren't a fan of releasing just straight compilations of their stuff without anything new to them (even Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses had loads of new tracks; also see their "greatest hits" album, Our Finest Flowers), they also re-recorded new soundtracks for all the videos in 5.1. Then, they released a CD of about half of the new versions. And that's what this is from! It's a cover of an edited together collage of someone else's songs! Still, though, it's pretty cool, pretty creepy, and the video is magnificent. (Icky Flix was recently reissued as well, so be sure to pick that up—that is possibly an even better starting place than Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses! Their video work is AMAZING.) Also, you may remember Renaldo & The Loaf from the mp3 of "Hambu Hodo" posted by Andrew a long time ago. Same group, way earlier album. I enjoy all the Renaldo & The Loaf records, although their later ones were better; the early records are full of really great sounds, but it wasn't until later where they started using those great sounds to make songs; however, while Songs For Swinging Larvae isn't their best album, it's got magnificent Gary Panter cover art!
So, check out the Music WikiCity why don't cha? Also, check out the place the Residents guide was originally posted, The High Weirdness Project -- loads and loads upon loads of fun stuff and great information. Check out the SubGenius Badfilms section especially! Or, well, the entire site! It's ALL awesome. (Though it might not ALL be SFW.) - Rev. Syung Myung Me
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