ICKY
FLIX
ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK RECORDING
Album
| ICKY FLIX Theme |
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| ICKY FLIX (Closing) |
The Residents were excited about the possibilities of DVD and in 2000 were looking for ideas, but the suggestion that they compile a DVD of their old music videos did not appeal to them. Where was the creativity in that? Then they realized that they could record new versions of those songs, and that DVD technology would allow the viewer to choose the old or new version to play behind the video (and could even toggle between those versions on their whims).
Not only did the Residents do exactly that, but they prepared four new videos, edited some of their CD-ROM animations into video format, and both included the Renaldo & the Loaf video Songs for Swinging Larvae AND recorded their own take on that video's soundtrack! Finally, in mid-2001, the Icky Flix DVD was unleased upon the world.
The Residents considered Icky Flix a major project. They did a concert tour to promote it, in which they would play the videos onscreen behind the bandstand and accompany them with live renditions of the new song versions. And, since they had almost two hours of newly-recorded material, they selected those that they thought to be of greatest interest, and compiled them onto this soundtrack CD.
RATING: 5
Maybe the DVD's liner notes have a point. Maybe, with a package like Icky Flix, I have nothing to complain about.
I'm complaining anyway.
How could the Residents, so gifted at reinterpreting music, create such a godawful clueless rendition of "Third Reich 'N' Roll"? And when I say clueless, I mean embarrassing. This new "3RNR" is an abomination, folks...and it's not quite the worst thing on this CD. No, I think that honor goes to the Residents' horrible abuse of "Songs for Swinging Larvae." The video's original soundtrack, you see, was snippets of the Renaldo & the Loaf album of the same name, and that album was amazing. It had so much imagination that it'd make you dizzy. And the Residents' (and let's not forget Molly Harvey's) mauling of it eliminates all the imagination and plugs the holes with ugliness. And they even do the ugliness half-assed.
Pretty much everything else on the Icky Flix soundtrack has something interesting to it. Well, okay, "Gingerbread Man" doesn't; it's blah at best, and the new female-chorus narration is worse than useless. But anyway. "Just for You" (from the still-unreleased Disfigured Night) has completely different lyrics, incredibly self-loathing, but still has the tune from "We Are the World." "Bad Day on the Midway" isn't as good as the Have A Bad Day counterparts, but has some cool guitar lines and great thundering drums. And, on the new "Kick a Picnic," Molly Harvey whispers the vocal in a really tense manner. This is the best part of the Icky Flix album, along with short-but-neato "ICKY FLIX Theme."
Oh. Since "Vileness Fats" is the centerpiece here, I guess I should add that it's okay too. The "Mother's House" theme even beats the original version. But then, those thanks-for-stating-the-obvious chorus vocals spoil it. Yeesh.
The DVD contains way better new recordings than these ("Hello Skinny," "Man's World," and "Where Is She" are astounding), so why they picked these I can't understand. Well, as I said, some of them are vaguely redeeming....ahh, whatever.