The Residents — Theory Of Obscurity: A Film About The Residents
If you are a fan of experimental, or underground music The Resident should need little or no introduction- but just encase you have some how never tasted the projects distinctive, arty & odd blend of music/visuals I’ll give a rough out-line. The project first became active in 1969, when a collection of friends from Shreveport, Louisiana moved to the then odd/ hippy capital of the USA San Francisco. Since then the collective have released nearing sixty albums, which have blended together all manner of sonic genre’s into a distinctive, dada tipped, and surreal strew. Over the years the band have remained completely anonymous using a series of masks/costumes to disguise their identity (most notable & know of these is the Eyeball & top hat)-with their management team( the Cryptic Corporation) as their only contact with the media/outside world.
The Theory of Obscurity is a 2015 documentary film written & directed by respected Bay Area doc maker Don Hardy Jr. The film tries (and mostly mangers) to compact The Resident’s 40 year history into an it's hour & twenty seven minute runtime. It features interviews/ input from all four past & present members of the Cryptic Corp, along with a whole host of talking heads taking in the likes of: Simpson’s Creator Matt Groening, magician & comedian Penn Jillette, Primus bass player Les Claypool. Added to this you get interviews/ input from super fan’s like Doctor Kim Andrews & Chris Combs( who I both remember well from the late 1990’s Resident’s web mail-out Smelly Tongues). With the whole thing been interweaved with snippets of the band on their 40th anniversary tour
Now onto the pros & the cons( and I’ll reverse these with the negatives first) so the cons. Structure wise it does dart about in history a bit. And it doesn’t cover much of the projects recent album work from after 90’s, but I guess they couldn’t feature everything in the films relatively short length.
The pros: the whole thing flows in a very approachable & interesting manner- which will appeal to both fans, and non-fans( I’ve played the film for a few folks who don’t like the project, and they sat through & wholly enjoyed it). And as a fan you get fascinating interviews & footage with rare figures such as ex- cryptic Corporation Jay Clem & John Kennedy, and Roland Sheehan (who was a school friend & early collaborator with the band).
In summing up the whole film I’d say it’s one of the more worthy & re-watch-able music docs in recent memory, and really worth the time of any fan of the weird & unusual.
Extras wise on the DVD you get a selection of the compulsory Resident’s visuals, and more rare stuff: So you get all the classic Resident’s videos/short films, taking in: The Third Reich & roll promotional film, Hello Skinny music video, a the selection of one minute movies video for the selection of tracks from The Commercial Album.
The projects first, haphazard & deranged live performance from the 1971. Out takes from The Resident never released movie Vileness Fats. Freak Show animation. A new short music video for Mellon Collie Lassie( from 1977’s Fingerprince album) which features new footage from the time. And a bizarre one off video built around a weird story with relating old stock footage.
Really this release is a no brainier for both fans & non-fans alike, and it stands as one of my early highlights of 2016!. This release in both it’s DVD & Blue-ray forms is unlimited with large distribution- so you’ll be easily be able to pick this up from both independent & larger chain shops.