Originally published at: Enjoy these surreal "One Minute Movies" by The Residents | Boing Boing
…
10 Likes
Thanks for bringing the quality content Popkin! Your posts have been an oasis in a sea of content gleaned from reddit’s front page.
6 Likes
Classic! These inspired me as a kid and I still make little videos just for fun.
My current for fun project are little videos based on David Lynch’s Swirl The Numbers Project. If you haven’t seen that yet, you might want to check it out:
David Lynch’s Swirl the Numbers: https://twitter.com/swirlthenumbers
My >minute videos (not daily): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHsicydK6CnjzBsCgank_qRPPQg3JJtHT
4 Likes
Thanks!
I needed that!
7 Likes
Is that Snakefinger on the guitar?
2 Likes
It’s gotta be Lithman on the recording, (not sure about the video though - looks like it might be a stunt double there).
2 Likes
I seem to recall hearing that they were 1 minute long so that they could be booked into advertising slots, but I don’t remember if that was the band’s comment or just conjecture from commentators at the time.
4 Likes
Fun Fact: I lived in their former ‘residence’ on Sparta St in Ruston LA when I was an undergrad at Louisiana Tech University.
More Fun Facts: at that time, so too did members of Neutral Milk Hotel.
What I wouldn’t give for access to a time machine as of late.
6 Likes
These are all from the Commercial Album. From Wikipedia:
The album pares down the concept and structure of the average commercial pop songand reduces it to a one-minute redux.
The Residents purchased 40 one-minute advertising slots on San Francisco’s most popular Top-40 radio station at the time, KFRC, such that the station played each track of their album over three days. This prompted an editorial in Billboard magazine questioning whether the act was art or advertising.
6 Likes
Holy cannoli! That was amazing. 
3 Likes
It may have been conjecture; the cd sleeve gives no hint as to the intent, and “Uncle Willie’s Highly Opinionated Guide to the Residents” (1992) book says nothing about advertising slots, but the guide does include a piece written by Cole Gagne for Sonic Transports, New Frontiers in Our Music , de Falco Books, 1990 : “The premise of [The Commercial Album], which contains 40 one-minute songs, was for the Residents to create their own Top-Forty… It further distils the music of the Residents into a stream of compact and multi-faceted musical and lyrical gems… The idea of a commercial album by the Residents is contradictory.”
Because the guide was published by The Cryptic Corporation (a Residents business entity), I’m convinced that the critique by Gagne (even if he’s not another Residents fabrication) is accurate.
@ephoph Given the above, I’d say it was art.
1 Like
The only proper answer to this is:
“Yes, it was.”
3 Likes
The Residents’ “Icky Flix” is wonderful and disturbing and weird. It contains these shorts. Of particular insanity is Renaldo and the Loaf’s “Songs for Swinging Larvae” distillation: the images therewithin continue to haunt me.
2 Likes
The Commercial Album is one of their works that I go back to again and again, and just keep growing from it (Not Available too). After how many years? There are still so many gems waiting to be uncovered.
4 Likes
“Moisture”, my all-time favorite guitar solo, blew my mind when I first heard it at age 17, not even knowing who Fred Frith was at the time.
2 Likes
I discovered that their music can have the same effect… at least it did on me when I dozed off while listening to Eskimo for the first time then woke up from a nightmare induced by the still-playing music. I have no problem with it listening to it now (I think it’s one of their best), but I do make sure I’m not tired before diving in.
1 Like
Oh, I play the “Eskimo” album loudly on Halloween for the trick or treaters: it scares the shit out of them (and me at times).
2 Likes
It’s good that you broaden their musical horizons. 
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
