Duck Stab was my first entry point into the rather deliberately bizzare and unconventional aesthetic of The Residents. At the time, in 1978, The Residents were an ultra secretive avant garde art and music collective working out of California. Little was then known about them as individuals. No names other than that of their frequent guitarist of choice Snakefinger. After 60 albums and fifty years of existence some of them have now been named, outed as being members. Despite vociferous denials!
Their early work consisted of surreal and frequently discordant parodies of pop classics and rock conventions such as their version of The Rolling Stone's Satisfaction, or on albums like - Meet The Residents, Third Reich & Roll. My personal favourite is The Commercial Album, which has forty tracks of each a minute in length. Its a beautifully executed exercise in the concise use of sound and style to instantly create a mood. On these, rock instrumentation and synths are sometimes subversively played on massively amplified children's musical toys. The vocals distorted in a way that makes them sound sinister, twisted, unnervingly sounding as if The Muppets were crazed on amphetamine. The lyrics mimic the style of children's nursery rhymes but are as if by a chorus of demented clowns. Where - an ether eating eskimo would gag upon the sight. Convulsed into oblivion from laughter or from fright. Yeah, weird man.
The original Duck Stab was an EP, which has since been expanded to LP length by including another EP - Buster & Glenn. But there was something about the economy and brevity of Duck Stab, with its seven tracks in just over sixteen minutes. Just enough weirdness without it becoming unrelentingly jarring or tiresome. Some tracks have a distinctly unsettling air - Sinister Exaggerator & Blue Rosebuds, others are playfully deranged fun - Laughing Song & Bach is Dead. The track listing goes as follows:-
Constantinople
Sinister Exaggerator
The Booker Tease
Blue Rosebuds
Laughing Song
Bach is Dead
Elvis & his Boss
Worth searching out are a few concept albums such as Eskimo, basically a parody of Eskimo life and rituals, or The Mole Trilogy a narrative tale about a conflict between the Moles and the Chubs. These were quite conscious attempts at the time by the group to break out of their well known and loved form as rock n roll wackos. After these albums I sort of lost interest in them and moved on to some other trashy pop art darlings.
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