Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (01/13/87)
Really-From: Niels Mayer <mayer%hplnpm@hplabs.HP.COM> Pardon me, but are the residents really supposed to sound so much like the severed heads and/or skinny puppy? This was my first LIVE residents show, (though I have most of their albums or tapes) and I found it to be undeniably deathrock.... you know that deeesco backbeat with a sinister twist of noize, doom, and gloom... well it seemed like half of the resident's performance was like that.... I'm used to the residents being silly, not sinister. With my luck, the next time I go see Captain Beefheart, he'll sound like the beach boys.... Overall, I'd give the resindolts 13th anniversary concert a "B" grade. I've seen better in residents videos. It felt like a "the residents sell out" concert. Any other opinions? Niels. "What do you see in Caligari's Mirror?"
Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (01/15/87)
Really-From: lum@osupyr.UUCP (Lum Johnson) In article <8701130803.AA00339@hplnpm> Niels Mayer <mayer%hplnpm@hplabs.HP.COM> writes: >[A]re the Residents really supposed to sound so much like the severed heads >and/or skinny puppy? ... I found it to be undeniably deathrock.... >that deeesco backbeat with a sinister twist of noize, doom, and gloom... >I'm used to the Residents being silly, not sinister. ... It felt like a >"the residents sell out" concert. Yes, I believe the Residents' stuff should be viewed as parody/satire, and not be taken too seriously, except as criticism/critique of whatever it superficially appears to be. My guess is that they find deathrock silly. This has to be modified by noting that the level of what they are attacking varies from case to case. I'd say _George_and_James_, as indicated by the alternate title _American_Composers_Series_Volume_I_, is intended not as a criticism of G Gershwin and J Brown but of the formal _music_criticism_ apparatus and its peculiar way (both how and why) of deciding what music is important or not. Also note the complete intangency of any successive pair of Residents' releases - they seem to grow easily bored of anything. Lum Johnson lum@ohio-state.arpa ..!cbosgd!osu-eddie!lum Oh, BTW, someone asked whether I actually receive WOSR. Yes, and as I write this I am (was) listening to _Kerosene_. However, in addition to the other difficulties I mentioned earlier, they tend to "broadcast" only NOAA weather radio or tape loops whenever no one is there, which is often, since all the staff are students. And keep in mind that during quarter breaks (about ten weeks a year) no one will be there anyhow. Try afternoons or evenings.