The Residents - Duck Stab/ Buster & Glen

The Residents – Duck Stab/ Buster & Glen

Ralph Records, 1978

Acquired: Love Garden Shotgun Room, Used, 2003(?)

Price: $1

Just an average day where I stumble across a Residents album in my parents basement. My immediate thought was “There is no way in hell my parents own this, much less know who the Residents are.” Then reality set in and I located the little squid sticker inside the sleeve and realized that I must have bought from the Love Garden Shotgun Room sometime in the early 00s. Part of me thinks that I bought this in high school before I had any idea who the Residents were and liked the cartoony cover. Presently, the only thing I know about the Residents is that they have giant eyeball heads and make insane concept albums. I had never heard their music until putting this record on the turntable this afternoon, and it’s about as weird as I expected. Totally strange. Which is fantastic. Just imagine some disco freak listening to this! THEY COULDN’T HANDLE THE WEIRDNESS, MAN! AIN’T NO WAY! Thank God for the weirdos like the Residents, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and the Bonzo Dog Band for giving that era some stark contrast. It’s just hard to explain how balls-to-the-wall, straight-up weird these two albums are. Bizarre electronic elements and creepy vocal parts make these the sort of songs that sound like they belong in a haunted house…or your nightmares. I half expect my wife to come out into the loft and say, “Ian, what the hell are you listening to?” It’s not her cup of tea. It’s not most people’s cup of tea. This isn’t even my cup of tea, but I apprecitate the art of it. Weirdos like the Residents made it possible for weirdos like Ween to have their day in the sun (coincidence: Both bands have a song called “Birthday Boy,” and while Ween’s is one of their most melodic tracks, the Residents’ is their most unsettling (at least on this release)).

"Constantinople"