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The Tunes Of Two Cities
''The Tunes of Two Cities'' is an album by American art rock group The Residents, released in 1982. It is part two of the ''Mole Trilogy''. Rather than forwarding the story of the battle between the Mole People and the Chubs, the record's concept is to display the differences between the two cultures through their music. The music of the Chubs is light cocktail jazz, while that of the Moles tends toward industrial hymns. A major feature of this album is that it was one of the first to use the E-mu Emulator, one of the earliest commercial digital samplers. The Chub track "Mousetrap" bears a noticeable resemblance to Stan Kenton's "Eager Beaver." In one 1998 interview, band spokesman Homer Flynn acknowledged that the band listened to jazz big band artists including Kenton, as well as Charles Mingus and Sun Ra. Track listing The 1988 CD release contains three extra tracks that were excluded from the album due to space constraints. These tracks are sequenced between "Praise f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Residents
The Residents are an American art collective and art rock band 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 have undertaken seven major world tours and film score, scored multiple films. Pioneers in exploring the potential of CD-ROM and similar technologies, the Residents have won several awards for their multimedia projects. 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. Much speculation and rumor has focused on this aspect of the group. In public, they appear silent and costumed, often wearing eyeball helmets, top hats and tails—a costume now recognized as their signature iconography. In 201 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Records
Ralph Records was an independent record label active between 1972 and 1989, best known for being initially run by avant-garde art collective, ''The Residents''. The name coming from the slang phrase for vomiting, "calling Ralph on the porcelain telephone". Ralph was founded in 1972, shortly after the Residents had moved to San Francisco, when they realized that it was the only entity that would be willing to publish their work. They "unincorporated" themselves as the Residents Uninc. and managed the new company under that name. One of the group's members could draw, so they gave the company a graphic design wing called Porno Graphics, a.k.a. Pore-Know Graphics, a.k.a. Poor No Graphics, a.k.a. Porneaugraphics, etc., and the whole operation was run out of their new two-story building at 18 Sycamore St. in the Mission District. The band named its studio El Ralpho, spoofing Sun Ra who had named his El Saturn. Ralph's first release was December 1972's ''Santa Dog'' (RR-1272), a two-disc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cryptic Corporation
The Residents are an American art collective and art rock band 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 have undertaken seven major world tours and film score, scored multiple films. Pioneers in exploring the potential of CD-ROM and similar technologies, the Residents have won several awards for their multimedia projects. 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. Much speculation and rumor has focused on this aspect of the group. In public, they appear silent and costumed, often wearing eyeball helmets, top hats and tails—a costume now recognized as their signature iconography. In 201 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark Of The Mole
''Mark of the Mole'' is an album by American art rock group The Residents, released in 1981 on Ralph Records. The first in what was intended to be a "trilogy" (of six albums) with a narrative centred on a conflict between two rival peoples, the Moles and the Chubs. Concept ''Mark of the Mole'' introduces the Moles (a subterranean society whose gods offer salvation through hard labor) who are forced to abandon their tunnels due to flooding at the start of the album. The Moles enter the land of the Chubs (a vapid, hedonistic culture which resides under the sea), seeking work and a new home. Initially, the Moles are welcomed with open arms because the Chubs despise hard labor. Conflict arises when a Chub scientist invents a machine that can do the work instead, making the Moles obsolete and sparking a brief war. The short instrumental track "Resolution?" ends the album without giving a clear conclusion to the narrative; the liner notes to the album '' The Big Bubble'' (billed as " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Title In Limbo
''Title in Limbo'' is an album by The Residents in collaboration with Renaldo and the Loaf, released in 1983 on Ralph Records. Guest performers include Snakefinger (guitar and violin), and vocalist Nessie Lessons. The album was originally recorded during four days in 1981, when Renaldo and The Loaf were on vacation in San Francisco, but they were unable to finish the album before the duo went home. In 1983, during a time of financial crisis in the Residents' quarters, the half-finished album, with its gentle, tuneful sound, seemed like a financial lifeline, so the Residents decided to put vocals on the tracks and ready the album for release. Dave "The Loaf" Janssen was unable to get time off from work and just sent some tapeloops. Brian Poole ("Renaldo M.") came to San Francisco to sing, and also participated in the instrumental overdubs. "Monkey and Bunny" from the album was performed live during The Residents' 13th Anniversary Tour; additionally, "The Shoe Salesman" was includ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Gui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art Rock
Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an artistic statement, opting for a more experimental and conceptual outlook on music."Art Rock" Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 15 December 2011. Influences may be drawn from genres such as experimental music, , |
E-mu Emulator
The Emulator is a series of digital sampling synthesizers using floppy disk storage, manufactured by E-mu Systems from 1981 until 2002. Though not the first commercial sampler, the Emulator was among the first to find wide use among ordinary musicians, due to its relatively low price and fairly contained size, which allowed for its use in live performances. It was also innovative in its integration of computer technology. The samplers were discontinued in 2002. Impetus E-mu Systems was founded in 1971 and began business as a manufacturer of microprocessor chips, digital scanning keyboards and components for electronic instruments. Licensing this technology gave E-mu ample funds to invest in research and development, and it began to develop boutique synthesizers for niche markets, including a series of modular synthesizers and the high-end Audity system. In 1979, founders Scott Wedge and Dave Rossum saw the Fairlight CMI and the Linn LM-1 at a convention, inspiring them to des ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sampler (musical Instrument)
A sampler is an electronic or digital musical instrument which uses sound recordings (or " samples") of real instrument sounds (e.g., a piano, violin, trumpet, or other synthesizer), excerpts from recorded songs (e.g., a five-second bass guitar riff from a funk song) or found sounds (e.g., sirens and ocean waves). The samples are loaded or recorded by the user or by a manufacturer. These sounds are then played back by means of the sampler program itself, a MIDI keyboard, sequencer or another triggering device (e.g., electronic drums) to perform or compose music. Because these samples are usually stored in digital memory, the information can be quickly accessed. A single sample may often be pitch-shifted to different pitches to produce musical scales and chords. Often samplers offer filters, effects units, modulation via low frequency oscillation and other synthesizer-like processes that allow the original sound to be modified in many different ways. Most samplers have Mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though Kenton had several pop hits from the early 1940s into the 1960s, his music was always forward-looking. Kenton was also a pioneer in the field of jazz education, creating the Stan Kenton Jazz Camp in 1959 at Indiana University.Sparke, Michael. ''Stan Kenton: This is an Orchestra.'' UNT Press (2010). . Early life Stan Kenton was born on December 15, 1911, in Wichita, Kansas; he had two sisters (Beulah and Erma Mae) born three and eight years after him. His parents, Floyd and Stella Kenton, moved the family to Colorado, and in 1924, to the Greater Los Angeles Area, settling in suburban Bell, California. Kenton attended Bell High School; his high-school yearbook picture has the prophetic notation "Old Man Jazz". Kenton started learning piano ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Big Bubble
''The Big Bubble'' is an album released by American art rock group The Residents in 1985. The album is presented as the debut of fictional garage rock band "the Big Bubble", composed of four "Cross" band members – "Cross" being the resulting mixture between the Mole Trilogy's two contrasting factions, the Moles and the Chubs. The album was subtitled ''Part Four of the Mole Trilogy –'' it was decided to extend the trilogy into a hexalogy, in which odd-numbered parts would detail the plot while even-numbered parts would elaborate on the cultural aspect of the two warring factions in the story. However, ''The Big Bubble'' was the last finished work related to the project before it was cancelled due to sheer disinterest and focus on other projects. Music The music on ''The Big Bubble'' is designed for a garage rock setting – instrumentation consists of guitars, drums, vocals and keyboards – and most of the album's lyrics are gibberish, presented as "the forbidden language ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snakefinger
Philip Charles Lithman (17 June 1949 – 1 July 1987), who performed under the stage name Snakefinger, was an English musician, singer and songwriter. A multi-instrumentalist, he was best known for his guitar and violin work and his collaborations with The Residents. History Lithman was born in Tooting, South London, and came from the British blues scene. He moved to San Francisco in 1971 and became associated with the avant-garde group The Residents. It is said he was given the name 'Snakefinger' by The Residents themselves based on a photograph of Lithman performing, in which his finger looks like a snake about to attack his violin. In 1972 Lithman returned to England and formed the pub rock band Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers with Martin Stone, ex-member of Mighty Baby and a fellow ex-member of Junior's Blues Band. As a duo, they released the album ''Kings of Robot Rhythm''. In 1974, as a full band and popular live act in Britain, they released ''Bongos O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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