The fiercely peculiar Residents have been gracing the world with their unique form of music/performance art for 30 years. In celebration, the anonymous Bay Area eyeballs have much in store, including the release this week of one of their most accessible records ever: Demons Dance Alone.
Demons is a (relatively) user-friendly synecdoche of the Residents' entire career: stop-start time changes; Fripp-like sustained, fuzzed guitar used for orchestral effect; Kurt Weill and marimbas; strange folksy male and clear female vocals; and a sad, oblique story of loss riding the razor's edge between irony and sincerity. The band's site makes reference to 9/11 as a starting point for the composition. A very fine, mature addition to the group's oeuvre.
We are privileged to have the opportunity to speak with Homer Flynn, graphic designer and spokesman for the Residents' Cryptic Corp.
Very nice to speak with you Homer - please give a brief history of Cryptic Corp.
The Cryptic Corp was formed in 1976 as a business and promotional interface for The Residents. Up to that point they had done everything, some of it brilliantly, some not so good - partly because, up to that time, they had maintained straight jobs on the side. The formation of the Cryptic Corp allowed the Residents to be The Residents full time, while someone else paid the bills and took out the garbage. The original Cryptic members were John Kennedy, Jay Clem, Hardy Fox and myself. Kennedy and Clem left to pursue other interests in 1982; Fox and Flynn still run the business.
How can an anonymous, independent group survive, and indeed thrive for 30 years? What is the core appeal in your opinion?
In terms of "how," everyone involved with The Residents asks themselves that
question - almost on a daily basis. It only seems to make sense within the context of faith; it works because people believe it works. As to the appeal, I used to think The Residents' audience was the loners and outcasts of the world - the guy (or occasional girl) nobody would go near in jr high because they might get excited and spit on you when they talked or their breath smelled like the sardine sandwich they ate for lunch, but now I'm not so sure.
Article comments
1 - Mr Parsons
they have allways been here.
The residents were that life changing band for i, that made i seem okaye.
If anyone would like a "copy" of the Blender CDROM magazine mid90's featuring
The Residents, incl' short history, film clips, interviews with Cryptic Corporation and makers of the Cdrom Adventures, drop me a line -who would stop us.
2 - andrealayne
the residents seem somewhat "masonic" in their anonimity, are they?
3 - Eric Olsen
HI Andrea, I think of them more as "totemic"