Aaron Tanner — The Residents: A Sight for Sore Eyes Vol 2( Book)
Appearing a year after Vol 1 here’s A Sight For Sore Eyes Vol 2- which follows on the visual story of The Residents- those great American Avant pop/ satirical genre shifters who are into their 51st year of activity. The hefty coffee table picks up where the first ended in the year 1983 and finishes off in 2004- and once again we get a fascinating blend of imagery & quotes from those who worked with/ respect the project.
As with the first book this is once again released by Indiana-based Melodic Virtue. An artist-focused and independent publisher, who charts and preserves the legacies of underground bands in their limited-edition coffee table books. With Mr Tanner once again getting full access to the Resident’s vaults.
The book follows a similar look /design to the first book, but instead of being blue, it’s a red hardcover - on its front cover is one of the project's most known images a giant eyeball with a top hat on. On the back, we see the four-piece in their big-headed Cube E get-up, with the early Residents' quote “Ignorance of Your Culture is Not Considered Cool”- and space for the numbered edition of 2000 copies. Inside the cover, we get red and repeated eyeball and top hat imagery on the endpapers- as well in the back cover- a seven-inch, featuring an unreleased track- but I’ll get to that towards the end of this review.
The book opens with a two-page introduction by Penn Jillett- who is a long-time friend/admirer of the project, most notable as the host & presenter of The Resident’s first touring live show The Mole Show in the early 1980s. It’s a nicely thoughtful write-up, with him talking about how out-of-time/ in their own universe The Resident's albums & releases have been compared to other notable artists who released material around the same time.
The first chapter covers between 1983 and 1986- starting off with the projects one & only collaborative album Title In Limbo, which saw the eye-ball-ed ones work with UK avant-pop/off-world music Relando And The Loaf. For this part, we get some never-before-seen-in-studio pictures of the recording, as well as a write-up by one half of Relando And The Loaf Brian Poole. We get pictures from a boat photoshoot with The Residents and AOR band Jefferson Starship, a few other things, including a chunk on pictures regarding the 1985 album The Big Bubble-it’s cover featured four men in white tuxes doing goofy faces- which at the time got fans thinking this was The Residents unmasked but in reality, they were just actors.
Chapter number two covers the years 1985- 1987, with a prime focus on the project's 13th Anniversary show/tour. Here we find poster artwork for the Asian part of the tour, reproductions of pages from the tours bright & buoyant tour, a collage of press clippings, and a short write-up from Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo. With the chapter finished off with a nice selection of on-stage tour pictures, and flyer/ clipping collage.
Chapter three moves to the years 1984 to 1989- with a main focus on the project’s composer series albums. The chapter starts off with a fascinating page write-up from German electronic musician Frank Bretschneider (of the Raster-Noton label)- who in the ’ '70s/ early 80’s lived in East Germany- so it was difficult to even hear Western music. We get reproductions of the singles appearing in this period like the James Brown cover Its Man’s Man’s Man’s World- as well as stills from the song's video. A short quote from Moby about the project, etc.
In Chapter Four we move into the late 1980s with a primal focus on the projects The King & Eye (Elvis cover album), and the tour of that period Cube E. We start with early cover doddles/ track listing workouts. We get a good look at the large blocky head eyeball & skull costumes for Cube E. A big selection of on-stage photos, poster art, etc.
Chapter five looks at the project's soundtrack work from between 1985 & 1997. Some of the more fascinating things in this chapter regard when the project working with Pee-Wee Herman, as well as the wacky early 90’s MTV show Slow Bob In The Lower Dimensions. Chapter six looks at The Residents fan club Uncle Willie’s Eyeball Buddies- which run between 1988 & 1993- with a great selection reproduction of papers/ flyers/ etc from the Fanclub.
Moving onto Chapter Seven, its focus is the project's 1988 album God In 3 Persons. In this chapter we get a page-long write-up from Dren McDonald who ran the US branch of the project's label Ralph America- discussing when he heard the album first/its impact. We also get a great selection of project photos from the time, and press cutting collage. Album art & related/ connected
Chapter number eight is centred around the 1991 album The Freak Show, and its off shots- like a comic book, a CD Rom game, and a live show in Prague. I’d seen some of the stuff in this chapter- but a lot I hadn’t- like a page from the script for the stage show, drawings/ art ideas for the stage show, and pictures from outside the venue where the show played with the project in full eyes ball ‘n’ top hat get up.
Chapter nine focuses on the period between 1994 & 1997- with the CD Rom/ album projects Gingerbread Man & Bad Day On The Midway. This chapter really shows how ahead of the curve the project was with their multi-media projects. With highlights being the detailed agenda structure of Bad Day On The Midway, concept art/ ect. The book's tenth/ final chapter homes in on the Disfigured Night show performance- breakdowns of the sets planning, on-stage stills etc.
Just like the first vol, we get a single-sided seven-inch single- with an exclusive/never-heard-before track. This is “That’ll Be The Day (Baby Baby)” which was from around the composer series era- it’s a two-minute and fifty-eight-minute track which shifts from churning and densely tolling songcraft with waving guitar tones on top, onto more warbling & hazed ambient tone loops with the Residents singer doing semi-spoken word vocals. It certainly is wonderful to hear this track- and it’s made one very eager to hear what else we can expect from the promised Preserved Edition release boxset of the composer series due out next year- at some point.
It certainly is wonderful to see this series carrying on- with hints that we may get another three or four vols in this set- which would be amazing. If you’re a Residents fan, this is a complete and utter no-brainer. As mentioned earlier the book is ltd to just 2000 copies- and I know these won’t hang around too long. To buy direct drop in here