The Talk of Creatures

The very first bit of Residents music I ever heard was from Duck Stab. That's right... it's finally time to talk about my "origin story" as a Rz fan!

It was only about five or six years ago. I was browsing a website called "TV Tropes" which is a Wiki style website that catalogues various conventions and themes from media works. It's a highly addictive site at times, so some days I'd just spend hours browsing the site. Reading examples is entertaining and I would often use the site to find new works based on themes or tropes I liked. During this time I discovered many shows and other forms of media, especially catering to my ever-increasing love of the weird and surreal.

One day, I was browsing the Surreal Horror page which described... well, exactly what it sounds like. Nightmarish surrealism. Listed are things like David Lynch's movies, that one tunnel scene from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and my favorite anime series, Serial Experiments Lain. Anyway, on this particular day, I stumbled upon this entry in the "Music" section of the page:

The Residents. An avant-garde music group formed in the 1960's who have managed to stay anonymous throughout their whole career. Here's a taste. Besides the music itself, the music videos, video game and other creative output all serve to emphasize this.

Curious, I clicked on the link, ready to see how creepy and surreal these anonymous "Residents" guys really were. And there I was in my seat, watching this video, petrified in fear. What was I watching?! Who were these people?! That video was very scary and surreal and weird and did I mention SCARY? I closed the Youtube tab and continued exploring TV Tropes some more... that video was way too much for me. ...But something drew me back to that page. After a few days, or maybe it was a few weeks, I found myself going back to that page to discover that anonymous band again. I felt I was ready to explore more of their music. And so I began to explore and listened to the album that "Constantinople" song came from, one of their most popular albums, Duck Stab / Buster and Glen. I don't remember when I actually fell in love with The Residents... but here I am now.


Anywho, I really like this Duck Stab/Buster and Glen. Like a lot of The Residents' overall weirdness, the sound has kind of normalized so I don't really think these two sound creepy at all anymore... though I admit they don't sound "normal" by any means. Still, this is much more like "Residents pop music" than a big overarching multi-album story. So, I often use the songs from these two EPs to introduce people to The Residents... although they don't usually react in a positive way. I still remember the faces of discomfort people had as I played Constantinople as part of a class presentation on "avant-garde music". And as one of my friends responded to me once: "Birthday Boy: This song freaks me out. Never again. Never." Really? I mean... okay, that one is a little weird but most of these sound normal... right?!

Anywho, I'm not really going to talk about the meanings of the songs here since I think things like "Constantinople === Heaven?!?!" and "Krafty Cheese is a reference to Kraftwerk" and "Hello Skinny is about DRUGZ!" have been discussed to death. (Although I did hear the theory that Duck Stab/Buster and Glen is The Residents' way of "digesting" various musical artists which is pretty interesting... but I already said I wouldn't talk about the meanings!) So instead I'm going to just talk about how much I like these songs.


Constantinople will always have a soft spot in my heart for being the first Rz song I ever heard. Well... it's pretty great on its own merit too. I think Constantinople is one of the most "crazy" sounding songs of these two EPs (although other songs get close).

I really like the rhymes and tonal shift of Blue Rosebuds. I always wondered if the inclusion of the word "Eskimo" in the lyrics was related to the production of Eskimo in some way, whether it sparked the idea in the first place or it was slipped into the lyrics as they were researching all kinds of 100% true Eskimo facts. Interestingly enough, the Our Finest Flowers version doesn't have this line with it. Maybe they just couldn't fit another line of verse into the song though, I don't know for sure.

I just especially dig the very percussive nature of the lyrics in Elvis and His Boss. Not much to say here besides that I also wonder if it eventually led to Cube-E/King and Eye...

Birthday Boy... that one is definitely interesting. When listening to this album I sometimes skip it so this song sounds more special when I listen to it on my birthday. Also The Residents were quite ahead of their time, singing the "Birthday Song" before it was proven to be in the public domain! (They were clearly a bit more careful about this in The Voice of Midnight )

I love Krafty Cheese very much and I do not why in particular. I just love it very much and needed to comment about it.

The Electrocutioner may be my favorite song from this album. It is just fantastic. I think I'm just a sucker for songs that have a really intense moment before a calm fade out, like "Death Harvest" from The Ghost of Hope. I love the outro to this song. The lyrics are great and it just sounds amazing.

Alright, those are my very short comments on the songs of Duck Stab/Buster and Glen. Now I didn't comment on every song, but I really do love all of the songs on the album... I just had something specific I wanted to say about certain songs. While I have yet to successfully hook anyone into The Residents with this album, I'll surely be successful some time... right?