Books
Looking for more information about The Residents? There are some books with varying degrees of factual information for you to investigate.
Freak Show
The Residents
(1992)
The Freak Show comic book from Dark Horse Comics featured an impressive collection of artists, each illustrating one song from the album (with the exception of Kyle Baker who handled both the opening and closing songs and ties all the others together with his renditions of Tex the Barker).
There was also a special limited hard-cover edition of the comic which was sold with a 13-minute CD called Blowoff, culled from the Freak Show sessions and later reintegrated into the album.
Front Cover Charles Burns
Everybody Comes to the Freakshow Kyle Baker
Harry the Head Brian Bolland
Jello Jack Matt Howarth
Wanda the Worm Woman John Bolton
Mickey the Mumbling Midget Savage Pencil
Herman the Human Mole Richard Sala
Benny the Bouncing Bump Pourneaux Graphics
Lillie Dave McKean
Nobody Laughs When They Leave Kyle Baker
Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide to The Residents
Uncle Willie
(1993)
Uncle Willie's Guide, published in 1993 by the Cryptic Corporation, is an excellent reference. In addition to essays on the history of the band it includes the original True Story of The Residents by Matt Groening and essays by many people, from collaborators to critics -- even including excerpts from a Residents' diary dating from the Mole Show tour, all of which have made it into this Historical web site.
Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide to The Residents
Uncle Willie Meets The Residents Foreword: Twenty Years Adrift in an Eyeball Suit The Residents Biography (of sorts) The First Ten Years The True Story of The Residents Yet Another True Story Projects: Santa Dog Vileness Fats Meet the Residents Not Available The Third Reich 'N' Roll Fingerprince Duck Stab Eskimo The Commercial Album The Second Ten Years The True Story Continues Projects: The Mole Trilogy Mark of the Mole The Tunes of Two Cities The Mole Show The Big Bubble The American Composer Series George & James Stars & Hank Forever The 13th Anniversary Show God in 3 Persons CUBE E The King & CUBE E: The History of American Music in 3 E-Z Pieces Freak Show The Twentieth Year Celebration The Lists: Odd Bunnies Singles Video Performances TV Appearances UWEB Scoring for Film and Video Compilations Audio Contributions Promotional Co-Producers The Songs What it all means Information Acknowledgments Bibliography Index
Uncle Willie prepared a CD history of The Residents to go with his Highly Opinionated Guide. It features one track for each major work by the band, divided into two groups: The First 10 Years and The Second 10 Years (parallelling the division of the book into the same two parts). Each track is made up of a number of songs from the album it's covering, blended smoothly together. In addition, The Residents contributed four tracks recorded specially for this project, which introduce each section. The Finale wraps the whole twenty years with a furious orchestral fanfare.
Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide to The Residents CD
the first 10 years
Willie's Theme (0:44) Santa Dog (3:25) Vileness Fats (1:56) Meet the Residents (2:43) Not Available (2:59) The Third Reich 'N' Roll (2:33) Fingerprince (2:32) Duck Stab (3:07) Eskimo (2:51) The Commercial Album (3:08) the decade ends theme (0:33) the second 10 years
Willie's Theme II (0:47) the mole trilogy Mark of the Mole (1:56) The Tunes of Two Cities (2:08) The Big Bubble (1:00) The Mole Show (1:14) the american composer series George & James (1:13) Stars & Hank Forever (0:53) The 13th Anniversary Show (2:08) God in Three Persons (3:00) cube e The King & (2:34) CUBE E: The History of American Music in 3 E-Z Pieces (2:57) Freak Show (2:55) the twentieth anniversary celebration
Our Finest Flowers (2:49) Finale
Eyeball to Eyeball
Miroslav Wanek & Karel Cisar
(1995)
This book was released to coincide with the premier of Freak Show Live. It contains a history of the band, almost all of the song lyrics and texts, and some information about the Czech underground music scene. It is also the first book about The Residents to feature extensive colour illustrations.
The book is divided into several parts. It starts with The True Story of The Residents from Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide to The Residents, followed by an essay called Who Are They which explores the nature of the people behind the Eyeballs by examining the work the band produces (no, it doesn't name names: the essay concludes that "they are living people! But still they prefer to speak about it only eyeball to eyeball").
The second section, "Eyeball to Eyeball", consists of a very complete collection of lyrics, mostly taken from An Almost Complete Collection Of Lyrics, and supplemented with more recent material from the Cryptic Corporation, such as the complete Gingerbread Man CD-ROM script and material from Bad Day on the Midway.
Part three is a discography and bibliography based on the one in Uncle Willie's Guide. The last section is an essay called Czech (Sub)Culture in the Resident-Resistant Environment by Peter Cap, which discusses Czech music groups influenced by The Residents.
Bad Day on the Midway: Official Strategy Guide
Jeff Sengstack
(1995)
This guide to the Bad Day on the Midway CD-ROM was published in December, 1995, by Prima Publishing. It includes a game walk-through and playing tips, as you'd expect, but it also has extra background on the characters, expanding on the stories on the disc, as well as a history of The Residents and their philosophy (summarised in a section called The Tao of The Residents) and a discussion of the creation of the game featuring interviews with Jim Ludtke, Iain Lamb, as well as some of Ludtke's development sketches.
Bad Day on the Midway: The Official Strategy Guide
Ugly Liberation A short story about the arrival of Lottie and Ted at the Midway A Bad Day on the Midway A full-colour tour of the game Midway Attractions and Exhibits All of the attractions, again in full colour Secrets and Special Events Play tips and hints on how to get to avoid the Midway's dangers and get to all of the stories and endings Midway Mavens Biographies of all of the characters. Each includes a short introduction (suitable for reading before playing the game) followed by a longer, detail story based on the graphic stories on the CD-ROM as well as notes from The Residents and the artists. Who and What are The Residents A history of the band, including an outline of their philosophy called The Tao of The Residents. Behind the Scenes with Jim Ludtke and Iain Lamb A history of the game with commentary from two of the major collaborators.
Meet the Residents
Ian Shirley
(1993/98)
Meet the Residents (named after the band's first album) is an extensive pseudo-biography of the group. It covers their history from their pre-music days "in Shreveport" right through to Wormwood. The book is based on tongue-in-cheek interviews with the members of The Cryptic Corporation and various friends and artists who worked with the group.
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