Don't read this if you don't want to know who The Residents are rue_the_day 24 replies 22:15 October 9th, 2011 Hey everybody, it's getting on Halloween time and suddenly, the other day, I found myself overdue for a Residential immersion. A big ol' gooey dose of Residents is good anytime of the year but I haven't listened to them in quite a spell- 6 mos or so at least although sometimes, when I least expect it, other household entities seem to play them but I haven't had a go in a long while and I thought OK...just a little snort to jumpstart the Halloween mode / mood- maybe get some costume ideas or something- that was 3 days ago- can't get off the fuckers now. Warning: The Residents are Surreal Heroin. Actually, The Residents are a favorite Christmas band around here too- Santa Dog etc. and truth told, I like a non traditional Christmas vibe in general, you know, start watching Asian Extreme movies right after Thanks Giving like I did last Holiday Season so...here I sit, seventy-eight hours later and I'm listening to "Not Available", The Residents psychotic melancholic second album. That album is called "Not Available" because it was never intended to be released. That's right, they recorded it and buried in a drawer or a safe (as the legend goes). It was merely an exercise in 'obscurity" but of course, about five years later, when they needed money more than they needed the solace of some romantic idea about creating something purely for the pleasure of releasing positive energy into the void- they let the fucker out of the drawer- bastards. Yeah, but it was about three days ago.... I had called in sick. My shoulder ached... last week while I was on a job, making an agile, simian-like decent down a section of scaffolding, my support foot suddenly slipped off the metal tubing and I found myself in space- going down. Luckily I had a firm handhold but when my arm ran out of slack, the velocity of my plummeting bulk nearly tore my arm off. I kept working for days and days in pain, grunting and groaning. I had so many achy parts that I felt sick and finally, friday morning, I couldn't continue- I made the call. I don't know how it started- I can't remember. Let's just say I got bored and decided to turn toThe Residents. I kicked my Residents binge off with part two of their earth shattering Mole Trilogy: "The Tunes Of Two Cities". The Tunes Of Two Cities examines the music of two imaginary cultures (The Moles and The Chubs). The Moles live underground and they live for their work and they work to live. The Chubs live in a city by the sea- they are a race of self serving creatures with assumptive owning class mentality. They live by entitlement and blunder along without a care by exploiting cheap labor. In part one, The Moles have to leave their underground world because of a "weather disturbance" but the bewildered Moles have no where to go. They meet an old man who tells them about a far off city near the ocean where they can get jobs, so they march to the sea. Of course The Chubs completely enslave The Moles and take advantage of them. Then The Chubs resent The Mole culture and consider it low class- that's part one "Mark Of The Mole". While I listened to the stark differences between The Mole's simple dirges to God, Nature and simple pleasures of life and vocation and The Chubs glitzy pop anthems to their vapid, self centered existence; I decided to google The Residents and see what, if anything was new with them? I didn't know what to expect because I hadn't been paying much attention to them lately- I do that, I get caught up in my life and forget about like the boundless, wondrous stupidity and the life affirming irony of The Residents. Here's some the regular stuff I found during my research: During the last few years, The Residents' merchandising arm has atrophied a lot. Time was, they had two or three bundles of joy available at any given moment at Ralph America- their label. Ralph America's bizarre bazaar has downsized to nothingness. No more kooky yet brilliant merchandise. As of this writing The Residents are referring merch inquiries to a "virtual merch table" on ebay maintained by someone called "gummiband" and sadly...there's virtually, almost, nothing on that table. At the moment gummiband's got a vintage Cube-E tour poster and a 3-D blue-ray disc of The Residents' most recent tour's closing night performance at Bimbo's in S.F.- but that's kind of cool; a 3-D live Residents! Ralph America (Residents / Cryptic Corp. record label) is offering RSD (Ralph Sells Downloads) and refers everything else to Mute, MDV, Forced Exposure and Impact Shirts (the classic eyeball shirt is the only official Rez wear available atm). I guess The Residents are feeling the chill of the economic wind and they've had to scale back on the fancy stuff like The Residents' Billfold, constructed out of clear, bendy plastic stitched over the top of old Residents Post Cards featuring The Residents and body builders on a beach (I bought a Residents wallet like that at the Wormwood Show I went to in Portland back in the 90's) or the cool CD/DVD Box Set "Kettles Of Fish", or The Santa Dog Disc and Santa Dog long sleeve T-Shirt bundle, or the swatch of actual Mole Show back drop (yeah, I got a piece of The Mole Show) or any number of Residential residue and fineries that were once available online at Ralph America. : ( I was happy to find that they have been touring quite a bit and had even expanded The Bunny Boy project to a live theatrical re-telling and for a time (during The Bunny Boy Tour) they incorporated an ebay auction site into the tour because a character in The Bunny Boy was an ebay vendor or some shit like that, so as to further influence the evolving Bunny Boy saga they had displayed the ebay auction on stage in real time at the shows- some kind of creative timel warp? Did I say that right? Oh well, it's a kooky Residents' concept- what do want out of me? The Residents have been out on the road and I've missed an assload of shows, and a live ebay auction tour in the last five years, that's sad but I am happy they are taking it to the people. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OK- here's the important discovery, here's the reason I'm writing this mish mash and pardon me if you've heard this before but in my fairly long career as a Residents fan, I never knew who The Residents were- till now. Till now, I didn't really care to know who the people inside the eyeballs are but I couldn't help wonder and speculate. Now, I don't know who they are because old friends of the band are saying it in public, or that every Residents blog and every Residents forum seems to have accepted this knowledge years ago; I know because I've seen it with my own eyes. SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO THE RESIDENTS ARE- STOP READING NOW. Homer Flynn Finally, an image with a name, the missing piece to the puzzle, the defining evidence to the identity of the singer of the Resident's came when I saw a face in a youtube video that I found on Friday. The video is entitled "Residents Revealed (rare photos)" posted by "rosarooney" who is most likely an old friend of The Residents named Bill Reinhard or a friend of Reinhardt's. In the sixties and seventies, Reinhardt was a DJ at KBOO FM Radio in Portland, Oregon and as such, he received (as many DJ's on the West Coast did) a copy of The Residents' very first official release "Santa Dog" but Bill Reinhardt was THE ONLY DJ on the West Coast (or anywhere on the planet) to actually play it...PLAY IT ON THE RADIO. In fact, he played the shit out of it which made him fast friends with The Residents. The Residents eventually invited Reinhardt to come down from Portland to spend time with them in their house / studio at 18 Sycamore Street in San Francisco. Reinhardt took them up on it and- he brought his camera. There are 2 youtube videos from rosarooney, this is the first; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWvRA1QjDLE&feature=related I watched rosarooney's youtube video, which is comprised of photographs. There really wan't much to look at. The photos were interesting but it seemingly wasn't the revelation the clip's title promised. I saw pictures of Hardy Fox whom I'd seen several times in the past as he has long been a so called "spokesperson" for The Residents. From time to time, Hardy Fox steps out of the shadows to represent the band to the public - a myrmidon if you will. The video revealed that Hardy Fox was more than a "spokesperson" for The Residents because it shows him operating a camera on the set of the Residents' feature length movie: Vileness Fats but it was a picture of a skinny, dark haired dude standing in a brightly colored kitchen that kind of blew me away, like seeing a picture of a long, long, long lost friend or disappeared relative- it was a blinding light of revelation. I was looking at a picture of Homer Flynn (another longtime Residential spokesperson but unlike Hardy Fox, Homer Flynn usually spoke to interviewers on the phone. If Flynn did give interviews in public- I never saw them but there he was, making a sandwich or something in the kitchen of The Residents' Sycamore St. apartment and studio. There was something about the picture of "Homer Flynn" that really struck me- Homer Flynn who as I said, I've never seen a picture of, looks exactly like The Residents' singer. I basically knew what The Residents singer looked like because, over the years, he has revealed parts of his face and in some cases- his whole face with make-up on but you can still see the person under the make-up if you look carefully and if you have a copy of WB:RMX (vinyl) as I do, there is a picture of the singer fucking naked; no make up, no mask, no mummy wrappings, no industrial fireman suit- just Homer Flynn- head to toe In his birthday suit: Here's a picture I took myself of my copy of WBf:RMX. Notice the dimple in the chin, the basic facial features and the prominent ears: http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss315/hovercrab/IMG_0678.jpg Homer Flynn yeah? Not sure? There's more... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Homer Flynn as he looks today~ Flynn's discogs page: http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?artist=Homer+Flynn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Homer at a Residents exhibition opening in the Czech Republic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQqFYaHZUR8 If you stop this ^ video at 1'46" (as Homer and the presenter are embracing), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWvRA1QjDLE&feature=related Then in a new window, stop this ^ video at 45" when the screen says "Homer in Sycamore Kitchen in 1973"... you'll see that Homer Flynn in The Residents Sycamore Kitchen looks just like Homer Flynn in Prague and if you look at the several performance videos I've linked below here, you will see the same HOMER FLYNN fronting The Residents- same southern drawl, same pointy, dimpled chin, same curly, tight lips same prominent ears, same plain gold wedding band on the left hand- it can't be a coincidence. Here's another thing that is kind of cool to think of: Matt Groening has been a close friend of The Residents for decades. Groening wrote an infamous treatise about The Residents and Matt Groening is the creator of The Simpsons and who is the star of that show? "HOMER", I will bet you a million dollars, Homer Simpson is named not only after Groening's own Dad "Homer" (that's well established by Matt Groening himself) but also after his weird ass artist friend from Louisiana- Homer Flynn. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (Now this evidence is harder to see but...it's there) Homer Flynn in ACTION! Disfigured Night is an amazing performance piece which a German Corporation commissioned to create back in the 90's. The version I have is on VCR and has the show closing with Michael Jackson's "We Are The World". You can really see Homer Flynn here in these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHumGp4LWp4&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6fkwBKFrws&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6fkwBKFrws&feature=related ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Old Woman (From Gingerbread Man) You can really see Homer's ears and chin dimple and wedding band here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF_tO-iAkww&feature=related ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ here's another video from Sycamore Street, It is basically a home movie, again, made by Bill Reinhardt and posted on youtube by "Rosarooney". I understand Reinhardt is in dutch with the Residents over releasing this stuff but I think it's really amazing. The song playing in the video is "Walter Westinghouse" from Fingerprince (recorded at Sycamore St.) - it features a vocal duet by Homer Flynn and the only Resident who's identity is known 100% Philip "Snakefinger" Lithman. Lithman was not officially a Resident because he didn't want to go through all the nonsense of obscuring his identity. Lithman was from Tooting London England. He was a virtuoso guitarist and a pretty good fiddle player. He got his name because he had a habit of snaking the pinky finger of his bowing hand around whilst playing violin. Snakefinger suffered a fatal heart attack and died on tour in Europe with his band Vestal Virgins in 1987. Snakefinger is not in this video- I digress. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vonj9nVu4XE Here is Homer Flynn's FB page (typically CRYPTIC): http://www.facebook.com/pages/Homer-Flynn/133091690063580 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hardy Fox When I first got into The Residents in the late 1990's (after their East Side Digital reissues started appearing in stores) and I began investigating them on the internet, Hardy Fox was the spokesperson and that is what I believed him to be until now. It is now apparent to me that Hardy Fox is Homer Flynn's writing partner and actually one of the original Residents who fled Shreveport, Louisiana in the early seventies to go to San Francisco and land at 18 Sycamore Street. He's a pretty cool guy and he looks kooky enough to be a Resident Mastermind: http://www.discogs.com/artist/Hardy+Fox Here is Hardy Fox's nod to Steve Jobs which posted Saturday on The Residents' website: http://www.residents.com/home/ In Closing: Does it really matter who The Residents are? Isn't part of the fun of the Residential magic and mystique the fact that they could be anybody? Well, yeah but shit, now we know who they are and that's pretty cool too. Homer and Hardy Rule, OK? Going to take us out with this amazing clip from a 2002 Demons Dance Alone Show in Oslo (a town Morrissey will probably never play in again). It's called "Life Would Be Wonderful". The Residents re-wrote the lyrics to be specific to themselves personally- brilliant and poignant and beautiful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnYC9U6tqds&feature=related X