#The residents theory of obscurity professional
#The residents theory of obscurity free

At best, a single line from a song may be intelligible. Many of the tunes are thoroughly mangled under layers of sound. This album contains two long pastiches of various popular songs of the early 1970s. The documentary doesn’t get very deep into The Residents’ music, the appeal of which is fully present in one of their LP records, The Third Reich and Roll (1976).

They’ve been taken seriously by the art world, for the entire The Residents collection is now housed in the Museum of Modern Art. Their music has influenced bands like Talking Heads, Devo, Primus, Ween, Half Japanese, and The Art of Noise. Their early videos played in rotation on MTV for years. Everything was done on a DIY crafts level, even the printing on their record jackets.Īlthough operating completely outside the music industry, The Residents have been a noted presence for more than four decades. The group then formed its own label, Ralph Records, and began a highly prolific music business on the artistic fringe. The group had erroneously assumed that Warners would welcome them, because it had signed Captain Beefheart. Music when their demo tapes were returned, which just said ‘Residents’ with an address. The group name came from the shipping label used by Warner Bros. Their early records were recorded on consumer equipment.

#The residents theory of obscurity professional

They were stopped neither by a lack of musical ability nor professional resources. At that point their emphasis shifted to music production with a strong visual sense in support. Although they constructed fanciful sets and costumes for their visuals, the chosen medium of early half-inch reel-to-reel video just wasn’t up to the task. They found that video and film production was too expensive. For the receptive audiences in San Francisco in the early 1970s, The Residents’ sound and vision filled a void as had no other group before them. The Residents composed electronic soundscapes, songs, and complex sound collages to amplify their vision of strangeness. Using the mixed media of 16mm film and early consumer videotape, the four produced uniquely quirky, dark, and humorous videos that evoked the ornate fantasies of Méliès, Cocteau, and German Expressionism. As a group they originally intended to become avant-garde filmmakers. The founding members ended up living together in a house that became a communal studio to facilitate the production of art with a capital A.

#The residents theory of obscurity free

The Mecca of San Francisco was calling, with its hippies, drugs, free love, and general lack of boundaries.

This much of the group’s history is known: in the late ‘sixties four multimedia artists from the Shreveport, Louisiana area decided that the South was not the place to be. The anonymity angle is a game that most viewers can figure out for themselves. The story of The Residents is told by other rock musicians and performing celebrities, with more input from self-described businessmen and others that assisted the artists along the way. And because Theory of Obscurity does not disclose this information, we may never know. No one can say with authority who were the founding members or how many of the original members remain with the group today. The title Theory of Obscurity: A Film About The Residents puts this defining principle right up front. A collective group without individual personalities, little is known about them because their history has been intentionally obfuscated by the group itself and by their overarching aesthetic, functional anonymity. During that period they have collected a large, international fan base.

The Residents’ reign spans fifty years and has produced over sixty albums and numerous music videos. These masked men are the avant-garde band and multimedia performance artists known as The Residents. We’ve all seen the image: four tuxedoed men in eyeball masks with top hats and canes. Produced by Barton Bishoff, Don Hardy, Josh Keppel Ĭinematography Barton Bishoff, Don Hardy, Josh Keppel Starring Jerry Casale, Les Claypool, Chris Combs, Jon Fishman, Matt Groening, Jerry Harrison, Penn Jillette, Jim Knipfel, Gary Panter, The Residents, Steve Seid. Theory of Obscurity: A Film About The ResidentsĢ015 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 87 min. Their highly creative songs and videos satirize the commercialization of art and music, and they’ve chosen a real ‘you’ll never get rich’ way to stay clear of the commercial undertow. These are the Eyes that Satirize! Everybody’s seen their imagery but few know the story of these anonymous performance artists and their avant-garde music.