Welcome to this week’s Tales from the Turntable! This week, we’ll be focusing on musical anti-heroes. It’s often hard to differentiate the music from the musician, especially nowadays when musicians are being named Time’s Person of the Year. It seems fairly less commonplace to see musicians be shrouded in mystery, as it’s become highly profitable for songwriters to revel in the spotlight.
When it comes to conventions in music, the Residents never subscribed to any. The group refuses to disclose their names or faces even almost 60 years after their formation. Similarly, they seem to run as far away from any musical conventions, instead preferring a strange, avant-garde and outsider sound. Usually, this is where I would give some kind of background information about the band: where they hail from, their names, some kind of story or explanation of how they got their sound. None of this information is known, save for the fact that they formed at a high school in Louisiana sometime around the early 1960s.
Beginning their recording career sometime around 1965, the Residents quickly relocated to California, where they would record several amateur tapes as an unnamed group to get signed to a label. Quickly their reputation spread as one of the strangest groups in the underground scene. Their music was often discordant, cryptic and even unnerving to some listeners. Many of their earliest recordings are hard to come by, only existing in unofficial capacities and unlikely to ever be officially released.
After some years in the underground, the still unnamed group sent a demo tape to Hal Halverstadt, an executive at Warner Bros., previously known for signing Captain Beefheart to the label, who was another musician known for his eccentric and avant-garde style. Halverstadt was underwhelmed with the tape and addressed their rejection letter to “Residents,” as the group had never attached a name to their project. Originally rebranding to “Residents, Uninc.,” the group later shortened the name to just “The Residents.”
Finding diminishing success, the band relocated to San Francisco, starting their own record company and self-releasing the music they had been creating in years prior. The group’s eventual 1974 debut, “Meet the Residents,” would draw controversy. Ironically, the music itself was praised by many critics at the time for its strange sound; however, its artwork drew threats of lawsuits from Capitol Records, as the cover blatantly parodies the Beatles’ “Meet the Beatles.” In 1977, the cover was redesigned, but this change would be reversed in later reissues.
The Residents would score their first semblance of success with 1978’s “Duck Stab!” The record would sell out fairly quickly, owing in part to its relatively accessible songwriting and lyricism. It was around this time that the Residents would cement their physical appearance, dressing in suits with massive eyeball masks on their heads, complete with tophats and canes. The outfits would quickly become synonymous with the band, still appearing on their merchandise and artwork to this day.
Going into the 1980s and beyond, the Residents would only see their cult following grow, despite their music definitely becoming weirder and more conceptual. Many future bands would cite the Residents as an inspiration for their music, including the likes of Primus, Ween, Devo and even non-musicians like “Simpson’s” creator Matt Groening.
Most of the band’s true identities still remain a mystery; however, their principal songwriter and co-founder was revealed to be California-based musician Hardy Fox. Leaving the band in 2016 after almost 50 years, Fox revealed his identity shortly before his death in 2018. The Residents continue to tour and release new music to this day, still turning heads with their other-worldly style.