MEET THE RESIDENTS @ 50

Celebrating its golden anniversary today, at 50 years old, is the debut LP from The Residents, with Meet the Residents being released on April 1st, 1974. While it was resoundingly ignored at the time of its release, struggling to sell a mere 40 copies within its first year, the album would eventually be recognized as the cornerstone product of one of America's most influential and innovative experimental multi-media arts collectives.

The residents had been fermenting in their home state of Louisiana since the late 1960s, mostly inspired by the avant-garde experimentation of artists like Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band. The relative success of that particular group was inspiration enough for the then unnamed group to send a demo of their early experiments to Beefheart label, Warner Bros, executive Hal Halverstadt, in the hopes of following in their wake. His rejection of the group, returning the tape to "Residents, 20 Sycamore St.", famously inspiring the band's name.

With that album being dismissed, the now named collective spent most of 1973 alternating between working on an ambitious film project, the never-to-be-finished "Vileness Fats", and recording fresh material for a proper debut. With thoughts of appealing to a major label now banished from their aspirations, they realized that creating their own imprint was the best way to get their work out there without having to be dependent on the whims of music executives. Thus, the Cryptic Corporation and Ralph Records were created, with the group members assuming anonymous identities within The Residents, while simultaneously using their real names to stand in as spokesmen for their freshly minted corporation. Thus, Hardy Fox, Homer Flynn, Jay Clem & John Kennedy became the corporate faces while claiming to have no relation to the mysterious, unidentified musicians responsible for creating The Residents' music.

At the time of their debut, the group had access to only the most basic instrumentation and recording equipment, relying heavily on acoustic percussion, piano, horns & reed instruments and guitar, along with a primitive form of analogue sampling, to create their strange fusion of experimental pop, jazz, blues and classical music. Layered with strange, heavily effected cartoon-like voices, the surreal results were unlike anything anyone else had concocted at that time. This was well before they would embrace electronics, synthesizers and digital samplers as their principal tools, yet they were still able to mutate their instruments into arrangements that belied their primitive resources.

The packaging for the album was a cleaver, hilarious bastardization of Meet The Beatles, the US debut LP by the "fab four". This association between the two groups would even lead to early rumours that The Residents were secretly The Beatles, working clandestinely to vent their more experimental ambitions. The initial version of the album, released in a mono mix in an edition of just over 1000 copies, sold extremely poorly, but was still reported to have drawn the ire of Beatles label, Capitol Records, who allegedly issued a "cease and desist" order on the use of the cover graphics, necessitating a redesign for the subsequent stereo mix reissue of the album in 1977. Whether this was actually true or just a promotional ploy by Ralph Records is up for debate, especially given that the reissue still incorporated many of the same design elements as the first pressing, and all subsequent reissues and special editions since 1988 reverted to the original design.

As mentioned, initial response to the album was virtually nil, and it wasn't until 1977 that the group began to develop a serious cult following, mostly riding on the wave of the burgeoning "punk" and "new wave" scenes, especially with the more adventurous artists of the era frequently citing The Residents as influencing their own excursions into the bizarre. Prior to the DIY aesthetics of punk taking hold, there simply wasn't any context for The Residents to be interpreted or understood. That all changed in the latter half of the decade as the group quickly became enigmatic underground darlings of outsider music.

Since its initial release, the album has received numerous reissues, including vastly expanded special editions, securing it a status as a foundational document of the group's early works, an era which remains the preference of most die-hard fans. No true aficionado would claim to appreciate the group without having this album in their collection. It's a visionary explosion of ideas that would provide the fertile ground for a career that has sustained itself for the past half century and, despite numerous personnel changes over the years (Homer Flynn remains as the only original member), continues to persist.
 

DARK STAR (1974) @ 50

 

Celebrating its golden jubilee at 50 years since its theatrical debut at LA's Filmax festival on March 30th, 1974, it's the directorial debut of John Carpenter with his weirdo science fiction hippie comedy, Dark Star. What started out as a film school project in 1970 eventually became a cult classic with the dawn of the home video revolution in the 1980s.

Dark Star began life as a rough concept by Carpenter while he was a film student at the University of Southern California. Dan O'Bannon was also a student there at the time and became a principal collaborator on the project, fleshing out the script, developing the production design and figuring out the special effects. Carpenter, in addition to directing and script collaboration, also created the soundtrack, utilizing his modular synthesizer system. Principal photography began in 1970 on 16mm film with a slim budget of $1000, a sum that would balloon to $6000 by the time they'd finished work on the initial 45 minute cut, late in 1972. The results of their efforts were enough to inspire the pair to try to push the film past the student production bar and towards an actual commercial theatrical release.

In order to get the movie to the level of a feature film, they would have to fill it out with roughly double the footage they had already shot, so a series of additional shoots were done in 1973 to add a number of sequences to the story. These included the asteroid storm, Doolittle playing bottles on strings as a musical instrument, the scenes in the crew sleeping quarters, the scenes in the hallways of the ship (Pinback with the sunlamp, Boiler with the laser gun, etc.), and, importantly, all the scenes featuring the beach ball alien.

John Landis, a friend of O'Bannon, got the pair hooked up with producer-distributor Jack H. Harris, who obtained the theatrical distribution rights. Once in his hands, he insisted on further revisions in order to get the production values up to professional standards, demanding extensive cuts of numerous scenes, deeming about 30 minutes of the film "unwatchable", including a protracted scene of the crew sleeping and ignoring messages from the ship's systems. He insisted on additional 35mm footage being added to the film, and mandated other edits intended to secure a "G" rating for the film's release. The end results may have created the best looking student film ever produced, but in terms of commercial professional Hollywood production standards, it barely passed muster.

Despite the shaky nature of the production, the visual FX still managed to create some striking imagery, especially in its depiction of the ship jumping into hyperspace as it kicked into faster-than-light speed. The imagery of the light rays bleeding past the ship as it accelerated are the first on screen representations of that process ever filmed. It's a depiction that would become common in virtually every science fiction property in later years, from Star Wars to Star Trek. Then there was the ludicrous "beach ball" alien, something that was intended to be comical, but which ultimately served as the foundational inspiration for O'Bannon when he worked on Alien.

The story of a rag-tag group of dispirited astronauts on a 20 year long mission to destroy rogue planets using "smart bombs" was one that flew in the face of the more glamorous and inspirational depictions of life in space that had dominated the genre for so long. There was nothing heroic or exciting about their work. It was protracted drudgery that ultimately drives even their AI enabled bombs mad. And while its initial theatrical audiences didn't get the joke and the film failed to garner any significant box office upon its release, when the home video market sprung into life at the dawn of the '80s, film nerds looking for something different in the sci-fi section quickly discovered its quirky charms, propelling it to the realms of cult classic within a few years. Critics were also surprisingly generous with their reviews, with Roger Ebert giving the movie three stars out of four, writing: "Dark Star is one of the damnedest science fiction movies I've ever seen, a berserk combination of space opera, intelligent bombs, and beach balls from other worlds."

Its influence on later films is also impressive, not only in terms of the aforementioned visual FX, but also in the production of other comic science fiction properties. Doug Naylor has said in interviews that Dark Star was the inspiration for Dave Hollins: Space Cadet, the radio sketches that evolved into his popular science fiction sitcom, Red Dwarf. For its creators, while the project may have suffered some during its journey towards its final form, it's legacy remains as one of the more beloved oddities of the genre created in the heyday of '70s science fiction adventurism.

MUTANT THROBBING GRISTLE @ 20

 

Marking 20 years since its release is the Throbbing Gristle remix compilation, Mutant Throbbing Gristle (aka, Mutant TG), which was released on March 29th, 2004. The project was conceived as a way to help celebrate the unexpected reunion of TG for what was intended to be a one-off performance at the ATP event, RE:TG. That event was cancelled due to unforeseen organizational issues with ATP, but TG, nonetheless, were intent on performing again, so they scheduled a replacement performance at the Astoria on May 16 of 2004.

Rescheduling aside, after the release of the two mammoth and exhaustive live box sets, TG24 (2002) & TG+, issued in January of 2004, it only seemed appropriate to help refresh people's appreciation for TG by issuing a compilation album collecting various remixes of classic TG tunes, created by friends and admirers of the band. The collection featured remixes by Carl Craig, Hedonastik (Marc Harrison, Marc Rowntree, Steve Keeble), Andrew Weatherall & Keith Tenniswood (Two Lone Swordsmen), Bryan Black & Olivier Grasset (Motor), Carter Tutti & Simon Ratcliffe. The set brought some dance floor friendly funk to tracks like United, Hot On the Heels of Love, Persuasion, What A Day, Hamburger Lady and Still Walking. Along with a soon to be released "best of" compilation, The Taste of TG (issued on May 4th, 2004), this refresher course in Industrial music signified the beginning of a new phase of activity for the band, a renaissance that would carry them through to the end of the decade, with new studio albums, numerous live performances, art installations and a variety ephemeral novelty products, until it all fell apart again when Gen bailed and then Sleazy died at the end of 2010.

THE ROCKFORD FILES @ 50

 

Debuting on NBC on March 27th, 1974, it's The Rockford Files, which turns 50 years old today. The series was co-created by Roy Huggins and Stephen J. Cannell as a vehicle for actor James Garner, with whom Huggins had worked on his series, Maverick, from 1957 to 1962. The concept for the new series was to take Garner's character from the old western show, and bring him into the modern world, retaining his affable wit and charm while putting him into the gritty world of a low rent LA private detective.

The titular character of Jim Rockford was created to be something of an anachronism in terms of the popular style of private detectives of the era. Rather than being smartly dressed and put together, Rockford was a bit of a mess, wearing off the rack suits and living in a ramshackle trailer in a parking lot near Malibu Beach. Though he was a bit ragged, he was no dummy, and was street smart with an edge thanks to a stint in jail in the 1960s on a charge for which he was eventually pardoned. While in the slammer, he made friends with a con by the name of "Angel", played by Stuart Margolin, who appeared regularly on the series as a comic foil and frequent crony whenever Jim needed to run a ruse on a potential target. Rockford was also frequently assisted by his father, played by Noah Beary Jr. His approach to work as a PD was largely to stick with cold cases or "off the books" jobs in order to avoid stepping on the toes of police during active investigations. However, this position was softened in later seasons as conflicts with police investigations became a regular trope of the series. Rockford was averse to physical violence, often avoiding carrying his gun, which he usually kept in a cookie jar, and he was often overpowered and ambushed by his adversaries, though he could hold his own when things got desperate. He also had a talent for playing characters and doing accents, especially southern and Midwestern types, whenever he needed to go undercover to further an investigation. Each episode began with an amusing, vaguely threatening message being left on Jim's answering machine before the opening credits of the show.

The series ran from 1974 until it was abruptly cancelled in 1980 after going on hiatus due to medical issues with Garner. He had been ordered by his doctor to take time off to recuperate from a number of back and knee injuries he'd sustained over the run of the series while performing his own fighting and driving stunts. While on break, NBC suddenly cancelled the series, citing that it was losing money and costing too much to produce because of the location shoots and A-list guest stars. In the aftermath of the cancellation, Garner became embroiled in a bitter, decade long legal battle with Universal over the profits from the series, ultimately resolved out of court with a settlement in the actor's favour. While those legal woes were unravelling, the intellectual property associated with the show and its characters was in limbo and there were no new works done until the mid 1990s.

Between 1994 and 1999, the Rockford characters were reunited and revived for a series of successful made for TV movies, which included most of the original regular cast. Noah Beery Jr. sadly passed away in 1994, so was not able to return to his role, but his character was referenced in the first few movies until he was officially deceased by the third one. The series itself went on to become a syndication staple over the years, gaining new fans with younger generations. In comparison to many of the genre series from the 1970s, The Rockford Files remains one of the more intelligent, humorous and sophisticated of the lot.

APHEX TWIN - WINDOWLICKER @ 25

Marking its 25th anniversary today is the unforgettable EP from Aphex Twin, Windowlicker, which was released on March 22nd, 1999. Thanks to a mind-bending and hilarious video from Chris Cunningham, the song would become one of Richard D. James' most popular releases, garnering accolades for the video production and hitting high on the music charts, even with its daring, unconventional musical arrangements.

The origin of the title track's name connects to the idea of "window shopping" for sexual partners. It derives from a French phrase, "faire du lèche-vitrine", which literally translates to "licking the windows". The act is portrayed in the video by two dudes attempting to pick up a couple of ladies on the streets of LA, until they are unceremoniously swiped aside by Richard D. James cruising into frame in his ludicrously long white limousine. The music itself reinforces the sexual nature of the piece through the use of numerous vocal samples, with sounds of moaning, groaning and other sexually tinged vocalizations intertwined with the song's erratic, glitching grooves. And those grooves present the perfect balance of accessibility against James' penchant for jarring, cutup break-beats, with the arrangements being constructed using computer editing tools, creating an unsettling juxtaposition of poly-rhythms, all strung together with melodic phrasing that tempers the jagged edges enough to engage the listener in the overall experience. It's a fine tightrope act of edginess without becoming irritating.

The cover photo and video work by Chris Cunningham all add to the perverse humour of the song by visualizing the warped fusion of sexuality and horror. The buxom babes, bouncing about the LA sunshine in showers of champagne while sporting masks of James' demonically grinning face, are accented with a centrepiece of monstrous erotica, and all work to leave the viewer reeling in a confusion of mixed signals. Contrary to assumptions, the models with James' face were achieved through practical makeup effects, masks and prosthetics, and not CGI trickery.

The video was released as a VHS single as well as on a DVD compilation of Cunningham's video works. I remember watching this repeatedly with friends after it came out, completely floored by what had been achieved on the screen. It still stands in my mind as one of the greatest music video achievements I've ever seen, along with the previous video for Aphex Twin's Come To Daddy. This sort of material simply outclassed everybody else at the time. Personally, I consider these works the high watermark of the medium. Afterwards, I don't think videos really mattered very much anymore, and even the music video networks like MTV and Much Music in Canada seemed to abandon their reason for being and moved on to the world of reality TV after this. It's as if these videos kinda killed it for everyone else. Like people just said, "Welp, can't outdo that. Guess we're done here." All I know is that I stopped caring about the art form after this. I'd seen enough. I don't think I was blown away by a music video again until I saw Sean Lennon's Ghost of a Sabre Tooth Tiger (GOASTT) and their Animals video (2014).

QUEEN II @ 50

 

Celebrating its golden jubilee today at 50 years old is the sophomore LP from Queen, Queen II, which was released on March 8th, 1974. While it remains one of the bands lesser known works, any true Queen fan knows that this is the record to go to if you want to experience them at their deepest, darkest and heaviest. Only true aficionados need drop the needle on this slab of melodramatic musical dualism!

After the lacklustre performance of their eponymous debut album in 1973, Queen were working hard on getting things together to make a real impact with their next record. Though their debut wasn't a hit, it had sold respectably enough to allow the group to insist on booking regular hours at Trident Studios, rather than being relegated to off-hours, as had been the case with their budget constrained debut. They also had the production prowess of Roy Thomas Baker onboard to help bring things to another level. With this project, the band were looking to take their production values to a new peak of complexity and density, pushing the technology of the multi-track studio to unprecedented heights. The end results would set the bar as the band's largest technical stride forward of their illustrious and ambitious career, introducing fans to the layered complexity that would become their trademark, with all of their vocal choruses and harmonic guitar parts fully on display.

The group were still running on a full tank in terms of having a backlog of songs to incorporate into the album, some of which had been gestating since 1969 and pre-Queen days, affording the group a solid foundation upon which to build the record. As that process began to take shape, a natural breakdown of the songs suggested an overall theme of "good vs evil" or "dark vs light". Less than a concept album, the dualism taking shape provided the group with a focus with which to organize the songs. This would result in what would be termed the album's "Side White" (A) and "Side Black" (B), with Brian May's compositions taking up the former, along with a song from Roger Taylor, and Freddie's songs grouping up on the latter. John Deacon had not yet begun to contribute as a song writer. The distribution of material collected the "softer", more introspective tunes on the first side, and more aggressive, fantasy themed songs on the second. This theme also played well with the album's title and provided guidance for the cover art, but more on that later.

Recording of the album began in August of the previous year, with the bulk of the production done in that month, but the group would return to the studio repeatedly until January of 1974, interspersing their recording time with jaunts of touring, most notably as the opening act for Mott the Hoople, an opportunity that went a long way towards building the band's audience, fostering a friendship with the headliner band that would endure well after Queen had outgrown their opening slot. When the band were in the studio, they took full advantage of the facilities and delved deeply into the process of layering sounds, especially vocal choruses and guitar orchestrations. They would spend hours building up layer after layer, creating the dense, bombastic sound that would become their trademark.

For the album's cover, acclaimed music photographer, Mick Rock, was brought in to work with the band, and a better match couldn't have been made. Rock's sense of the band dovetailed with Freddie's aspirations for their image and the two began to cook up concepts for how to best express the sound of the album with the image of the group. According to Rock, Queen were looking to grab people's attention with the cover, especially since their first album had failed to do so. "They realized that if you could catch people's eyes you could get them interested in the music." The brief he received from the band conceived a black and white theme for the album. The cover features a photograph described by VH1 as "Queen standing in diamond formation, heads tilted back like Easter Island statues" against a black background. The iconic chiaroscuro image of Queen was inspired by a similar photograph of Marlene Dietrich from the 1932 film Shanghai Express. "And of course no one was ever more 'glam' than the divine Ms Dietrich," Rock quipped. "It was just one of those flashes of inspiration that happens sometimes," Rock explained. "There was a feeling that [echoing the Dietrich pose] might be pretentious," but Rock convinced the band otherwise. "It made them look like much bigger a deal than they were at the time, but it was a true reflection of their music." Rock stated Mercury loved to quote Oscar Wilde. "Often, that which today is considered pretentious is tomorrow considered state of the art. The important thing is to be considered." Rock added, "To Freddie, that word [pretentious] was meaningless – 'But is it fabulous?' was all that mattered. It was certainly THAT!" To expand on the black and white theme, Rock made a second image of the band, dressed in white against a white background, that was used in the album's gate-fold, advertising, and the "Seven Seas of Rhye" single sleeve.

Release of the album ended up being delayed for a number of different reasons. Firstly, their debut had only been released in the UK while the band were working on its follow-up and had yet to get a US release. Secondly, the energy conservation measures put in place during the 1973 oil crisis delayed its manufacture by several months; then, when released, John Deacon was credited as "Deacon John", and the band insisted it had to be corrected. Once if finally hit the shelves, it sold well, peaking at number five in the UK and 49 in the US, but many critics were less than flattering of the band's best efforts. Melody Maker wrote, "It's reputed Queen have enjoyed some success in the States, it's currently in the balance whether they'll really break through here. If they do, then I'll have to eat my hat or something. Maybe Queen try too hard, there's no depth of sound or feeling." Record Mirror wrote, "This is it, the dregs of glam rock. Weak and over-produced, if this band are our brightest hope for the future, then we are committing rock and roll suicide." Robert Christgau, writing in CREEM magazine, derisively referred to it as "wimpoid royaloid heavyoid android void." The reviews weren't all bad, however. DISC wrote, "The material, performance, recording and even artwork standards are very high." NME opined that the record showcased "all their power and drive, their writing talents, and every quality that makes them unique," while Sounds wrote, "Simply titled Queen II, this album captures them in their finest hours."

The legacy of the album is where the truth of the tale is finally told. Time gives distance and increases objectivity, and in the case of Queen's early music, Queen II retains a sense of distinction, not only inaugurating the band's grandiose sense of drama, but also offering up a musical landscape that would never be covered in quite the same way again. Hardcore fans of the band know that this is the album that delivers the purest essence of what they were in the early days. It also made it clear that this was a band who were not merely a lead singer posing in front of a clutch of nondescript backing musicians.

Though John Deacon's role in the band would bloom in later albums, Roger Taylor and Brian May made great strides in establishing their value as distinct contributors. Brian delivered his first lead vocal on his ethereal Some Day One Day, investing the gorgeously dreamy song with a wispy melancholy in its longing for better days ahead. Roger, on the other hand, lent his raspy lead vocal to his lament for the inevitable sense of loss motherhood is bound to bestow as children leave the nest. He also displayed his secret weapon in the form of his impossibly high falsetto, an asset that would allow the groups choral vocal arrangements to ascend to the loftiest heights. Of course Freddie couldn't have been a more attention getting front-man. When he sings a lyric like "Fear me you loathsome, lazy creatures, I descend upon your earth from the skies...", where another vocalist would come off as absurdly pretentious, Mercury manages to deliver the pomposity with enough conviction to make it all credible. That would turn out to be a talent he'd wield again and again throughout the band's history.

My gateway drug for Queen was A Day at the Races, which I bought early in 1977. Once that record had its hooks in me, I quickly backtracked through their earlier works, and it didn't take long for me to take special notice of Queen II. They were right about that cover drawing attention. Looking at it filled my teenage imagination with thoughts about what these people were like. It was like they'd been preserved in some kind of stasis for centuries, only to be released from their suspension to unleash this glorious thrashing of musical bombast. It's the album that, nearly a half century later, I return to most often when I need a fix of their music. It satisfies from the first note to the last. It's the album that most perfectly captures their talents in their most pristine form.

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND @ 55

The third, eponymous LP from The Velvet Underground is turning 55 years old this month, being released in March of 1969. After the searing abrasiveness of their previous album, White Light - White Heat, which pinned the VU meters on people's hi-fi systems as it attempted to be the loudest album ever released, Lou Reed was determined to do a complete about face with their third release, aiming for softness and emotional tenderness, with songs focused on relationships and spiritual/religious introspection. For Reed, it was essential to demonstrate the band's versatility in order to thwart any attempts to pigeonhole them into any particular style or sound. The result was an album of predominantly gentle beauty, packed with some of Reed's most memorable songs.

After recording their second album, John Cale found himself on the outs with the band and ended up being fired in September of 1968. His replacement, Doug Yule, was suggested by Sterling Morrison after being scouted by the band's road manager. Yule was warmly welcomed to the group, especially by Reed, who some band members claim may have gone somewhat overboard in his praise and encouragement of the new recruit, inflating his ego somewhat. Regardless, when they went into the Hollywood based TTG studios to record, the mood among the band was jovial, and by all recollections, the process of creating the album was an enjoyable experience for all involved.

Reed was eager to have all of the band members contribute to the album as lead vocalists, even managing to persuade the shy Maurine Tucker to contribute her voice to the album's closing track, After Hours. It was a challenging task for the drummer, who insisted on recording her vocal with a minimum of people present in the studio during her final take. Lou was insistent on her taking on the task though, as he felt her frail, childlike voice was perfect or the song's themes of social anxiety and isolation. After she finished her take, she said that she wouldn't sing it live unless someone requested it.

Though the recording process for the album was a pleasant experience for the band, when it came to mixing, Reed's insistence on doing the mix himself, without consulting the other members, stepped on toes and resulted in a lot of dissatisfaction and animosity from the rest of the band. An alternate mix of the album was done, with both finding their way into pressings, so there's some confusion around as to the preferred mix. Reed's version, dubbed the "closet mix", emphasized his vocals and drowned out the backing parts, alienating the rest of the band. This was the initial mix that was released, but an alternate mix by MGM staff engineer Val Valentin ultimately became the more commonly available version of the album.

With only The Murder Mystery, which featured songwriting and vocal credits from all four members, harking back to their more experimental tendencies, the remainder of the album was accessible enough that the band had high hopes that it would be a breakthrough for them when it came to sales, but poor promotion from their label, again, meant that their efforts would be under appreciated at the time of the album's release, even though it received roundly positive reviews from the critics. It would only be in later years, as the band's influence and legacy grew, that their records would receive the attention they deserved, as generations of new fans continued to rediscover the group and began to comprehend their influence on so many who came in their wake. Retrospectively, the album is considered, not only essential in terms of the band's canon of work, but in terms of landmark recordings from that era, frequently resulting in the LP being counted among numerous "best of" and "must listen" critic and fan lists.