• News
• Sports
• Entertainment
• Radio
• TV
• My Region

PHOTO ESSAY

For Those About to Frock

A salute to music’s craziest costumes

By Matthew McKinnon
June 19, 2006

The Residents

Who: No one knows. The Residents have released almost 60 albums since they started in 1972, but have concealed their identities the entire time. They are known to hail from Louisiana, and to have moved to California in the mid-’60s. The group is believed to include four core members, although they have performed with additional guests on several occasions.

Many fans believe the Residents are actually the band’s managers, Jay Clem, Homer Flynn, Hardy Fox and John Kennedy — a.k.a. the Cryptic Corporation — although each member of that quartet has denied his involvement. (For what it’s worth, Clem and Kennedy quit Cryptic in 1982.) In the absence of verifiable facts, fantastic rumours have posited that the Residents are, among other things, physically disfigured or the Beatles in disguise. Even all-world recluse J.D. Salinger has been alleged to appear on one of their albums.

The look: The band’s costumes have varied over the years, but their go-to look matches tuxedos and top hats with giant eyeball helmets. One of them often wears a black skull with enormous gold teeth; this character is known as Mr. Skull. Mind you, there has been never been a cogent explanation for any of these choices — the Residents eschew media interviews.

The sound: The Residents are sonic cousins of Devo, Sun Ra, John Zorn and other experimental musicians. Their sound has been called enigmatic, clinical and quirky, although we would need words that have yet to be invented to really pin it down. In 1974, they recorded an album called Not Available and placed it in cold storage upon completion, intending that it should never be heard, even by themselves. (A contractual obligation forced its release four years later.) In 1976, they cut a cover of the Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction that is sometimes hailed as punk’s first single. A decade after that, they scored five episodes of Pee-wee’s Playhouse. The Residents have since released a slew of retrospectives, box sets, CD-ROMs and DVD projects. Most of these have earned critical acclaim — and nary a shrug from middle-of-the-road music fans.

The sum: One of pop culture’s grand mysteries. The Residents are the only known adherents to Bavarian composer N. Senada’s “Theory of Obscurity,” which posits that artists can only produce pure art when they ignore the influences and expectations of the outside world. (Senada, by the way, is possibly an alter ego for bizarro rocker Captain Beefheart. Good grief.) The band has taken extraordinary efforts to hold their secret for so long. Even if they are confirmed as Cryptic, significant questions will remain. For example: which one is Mr. Skull, and who is his dentist?

Photo Essay Archive