Audio-Visuals

THE RESIDENTS: ICKY FLIX
Directed by the Residents, Graham Whifler, Jim Ludtke
(Cryptic/ESD)
Not unlike the evil dark side of They Might Be Giants, San Francisco surrealist audio collective the Residents have been plying their deconstructionist trade for almost 20 years now. While TMBG have always taken a playful attitude toward pop culture satire, the Residents prefer to wallow in their almost endless capacity to disturb. While their constant electro-pop experimentation and iconic reimagination is laudable, it's probably appropriate that the group is best known for their tophat 'n' tails eyeball costumes. After all, this is an aggregation dedicated to pioneering work in the visual arts as much as the audio. Their video experiments are difficult to find outside of the New York Museum of Modern Art and some CD-ROM games; Icky Flix attempts to rectify that situation.

Beginning with a 1976 film of "Third Reich 'n' Roll" and ending with a brand-new edit of their ongoing musical comedy project "Vileness Fats," Icky Flix moves up the length and across the breadth of the Residents' long career. The DVD contains crude black and white stop-motion impressionism ("Third Reich 'n' Roll," "Hello Skinny"), pop art narratives ("Songs For Swinging Larvae," from their British alter-ego Renaldo & the Loaf, "One Minute Movies," a collection of pieces based on their 1980 opus The Residents Commercial Album), visually remixed live performances ("Just For You," "Where is She?") and computer animation ("Jelly Jack the Boneless Boy," "Constantinople," the 10-minute "concentrate" from their CD-ROM game Bad Day on the Midway). In addition, the Residents performed and recorded new versions of the 17 songs that accompany these films, giving the viewer a choice between the original take or the new one.* They even granted the ability to switch back and forth between one version and the other during play. And like all good DVDs, Icky Flix includes easter eggs semi-hidden throughout that lead to the Smelly Tongues Secret Cinema.

For the Residents, advances in video technology make for great aids in their quest to annoy, baffle and unsettle popcult consumers. Icky Flix, with creepy visuals that work in concert with the already disquieting music, feels like the culmination of that quest. Michael Toland [buy it]