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Shorty's Lament
Double Shot

THE RESIDENTS The WOW Demos 1

2CD album | gg374
The Residents are an American art collective best known for their over 60 studio albums that were recorded over a period of over forty years. They also created some outstanding multimedia works, mainly three CD ROM projects and ten DVDs. Working as an anonymous collective, their identitites were kept secret until in 2017 Hardy Fox revealed himself as their primary composer. Hardy died in October 2018, but the group continue to record and perform. Recently, several new albums have been released, among them the brilliant Intruders and Ghost of Hope. Early in 2020, the group was invited to perform their seminal album God in 3 Persons at the MOMA in New York. The Wonder of Weird tour was the second part of The Residents' Randy, Chuck and Bob Trilogy of live tours (following 2010's Talking Light tour), The Wonder of Weird focuses on the theme of sex, with its lead character Randy further detailing the story of his life, now ruined by a sex addiction. Like Talking Light before it, The Wonder of Weird featured a stripped down trio line-up of Randy Rose (vocals), Charles Bobuck (keyboards/electronics), and Lionel Bob (guitar). The group wear variations of the same masks previously featured in Talking Light, with the addition of Santa outfits and classic Residents t-shirts. Despite the Christmas theme in the costumes and set designs, the show began at the end of January (and ended in May). A running gag in the show is that despite being subtitled "The 40th Anniversary Tour", it actually ended up taking place on the group's 41st anniversary. Before the band took to the road, demo versions of the songs were recorded - first in stripped down version, later with added vocals and guitar. Many of the songs made into the final show, some didn't. We are happy to present the minimalist electronic versions for the first time ever on a 2-CD set. Full tracklist: 1. Jack The Boneless Boy 2. Shorty's Lament 3. Double Shot 4. Handful Of Desire 5. Bathsheba Bathes 6. Teddy 7. Hanging By His Hair 8. Black Behind 9. Honey Bear 10. The Whispering Boys 11. Baby Sister 12. David's Dick 13. Mahogany Wood 14. Give It To Someone Else 15. Loser=Weed/Picnic In The Jungle 16. My Brother Paul 17. Spilling The Seed 18. The Confused Transsexual 19. Struggle/The Sailor Song 20. Crocodile Tears 21. The Monkey Man 22. The Man In The Dark Sedan 23. Never Known Questions. Price: € 24,- incl. worldwide shipping.

The Wonder of Weird was the last tour to feature Hardy Fox, one of the key minds/songwriters behind the Residents. And this two-disc set certainly highlights both his skills as a (re)arranger and creative genre jugging player. He also appears, with his wavering and weak, though oddly haunting singing voice on the last few tracks of the CD-which as a long term Rez fan almost had me tearing up. In finishing The Wow Demos 1 a great snapshot of The Residents at this point in their career-and as always both their creativity and sonic dare shines through so brightly. Its great to see this collection surface, and I look forward to the other releases in this series.
(Musique Machine, January 2022)