The Residents are back live with a limited ‘Duck Stab! Alive!’ boxset
Out via Grand Chess on December 3rd is the limited boxset “Duck Stab! Alive” by The Residents which comes as a 2×10”+DVD boxset.
The Residents originally released “Duck Stab!” as a seven inch, 33 1/3 rpm EP in 1978. For the group, the relatively lighthearted EP represented a break from the much more experimental “Eskimo” recordings, which consumed the majority of a four-year period from 1975-79. For Ralph Records it was a much-needed revenue source at a time when the band was not producing much.
The “Duck Stab!” EP was a hit, selling 50,000 copies in a few months time (numbers labels can only dream of today). The demand was so high, that Ralph Records insisted the band record a second EP, “Buster & Glen”, which they paired with “Duck Stab!” to make an LP, which was also quite successful.
Several years later, ‘Night Flight’, a program featuring alternative programming on the USA cable channel, aired The Residents’ video, including the “Hello Skinny” music video based on a song from the “Duck Stab!/ Buster & Glen” album. Fast forwarding to 2016 when Night Flight resurrected itself as a streaming video service, Night Flight Plus. Night Flight invited The Residents to create a program in celebration of the service’s 40th Anniversary on June 5, 2021. Since the band was already rehearsing “Duck Stab!” as part of their upcoming 50th Anniversary Tour, the forty-year-old EP/LP seemed like a perfect choice for Night Flight.
With a professional camera crew, led by director John Sanborn and director of photography Frazer Bradshaw, The Residents performed the reworked “Duck Stab! Alive!” music over three days from May 19-21, 2021 at the 25th Street Studio in Oakland, CA. You can hear the results on the discs of this limited boxed set.
The Residents have also planned a European tour for next year.
About The Residents
The Residents are an American art collective best known for their avant-garde music and multimedia works. Since their first official release, “Meet the Residents” (1974), they have released over 60 albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects, and ten DVDs. They founded Ralph Records, a record label focusing on avant-garde music, in 1972.
Throughout the group’s existence, the individual members have ostensibly attempted to work anonymously, preferring to have attention focused on their art. In public, they appear silent and costumed, often wearing eyeball helmets, top hats and tails—a costume now recognized as their signature iconography.
In 2017, Hardy Fox, long known to be associated with the Residents, identified himself as the band’s co-founder and primary composer; he died in 2018.
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