Monday, March 1, 2010

THE RESIDENTS - ROADWORMS: THE BERLIN SESSIONS (2000)

While listening to the 2/23/10 episode of Coast to Coast AM with George Noory about fallen angels and their current war against humanity, I was reminded of this fantastic collection of songs recorded live in the studio while the enigmatic San Francisco legends were touring their Wormwood Show in Berlin.

Based on "curious stories from The Bible," Wormwood was a return to form of sorts for the anonymous prank-rock ensemble after a couple decades or so of releasing super difficult midi dirges and unsuccessful cd-rom games.

The dark religious subject matter worked perfectly with the scary dayglo aesthetic the eyeballs were going for at the time and the live versions of the songs sounded SO GOOD with a real live human drummer and guitar player. The band obviously agreed and decided to capitalize on the momentum of the intense shows by booking studio time and getting these killer arrangements on tape. Recorded in one take and featuring the most guitar work on any Residents release since Snakefinger was alive, these songs are just so goddamn creepy, powerful and LISTENABLE (for The Residents). I personally saw 4 shows on this tour in 99-2000 and they still remain some of the most satisfying live performances I have ever witnessed.

(Shot from the Wormwood stage show.)

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Play this LOUD in the dark.

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