The Residents

The Residents are an avantgarde music and visual arts group. They started performing in the early 1970s and released their first album in 1974. They are best known for the fact that they have never revealed their identity nor any other information about themselves and their private life. Since 1978 they wear characteristical eyeball and skull masks while performing on stage. It is, therefore, impossible to tell if the present members of the group are the same ones who started the project.

The reason for keeping their indentities secret is the belief that the artist has to be completely isolated from his audience and his fans. Otherwise he or she might be put under pressure or influenced in such a way that might render all artistic efforts useless. This might be seen as a way of protesting against the way popular music and culture have evolved in the late twentieth century, where the artist and his personality have reached a cult status and have gradually become more important than the contents and the form of his work.

Major Albums

1974 Meet the Residents
1975 Third Reich & Roll[?]
1976 Fingerprince
1977 Babyfingers[?] (covered in Fingerprince article)
1977 Not Available[?]
1978 Duck Stab/Buster & Glen[?]
1979 Eskimo[?]
1980 The Commercial Album[?]
1981 Mark of the Mole[?]
1982 The Tunes of Two Cities[?]
1983 The Big Bubble: Pt. 4 of the Mole Trilogy[?]
1983 The Mole Show: Live in Holland, June 6, 1983[?]
1984 George & James[?]
1984 Title in Limbo[?]
1984 Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats?[?]
1985 Census Taker[?]
1986 Stars & Hank Forever: The American Composers Series[?]
1987 For Elsie[?]
1988 God in Three Persons[?]
1989 The King & Eye[?]
1990 Cube E: Live in Holland[?]
1995 Gingerbread Man[?]
1996 Bad Day on the Midway[?]
1996 Have a Bad Day[?]
1998 Wormwood: Curious Stories from the Bible[?]
2000 Roadworms: The Berlin Sessions[?]
2001 Icky Flix[?]
2002 Demons Dance Alone[?]

External links:

• RzWeb (http://www.residents.com/)
• Unofficial Fanclub (http://www.smelly-tongues.com)