Home :: DVD :: Music Video & Concerts :: Rock & Roll  

Biography
Blues
Classic Rock
Concerts
Country
Documentary
DVD Singles
General
Hard Rock & Metal
Jazz
New Age
Other Music
Pop
Rap & Hip-Hop
Rock & Roll

Series
World Music
The Residents - Icky Flix

The Residents - Icky Flix

List Price: $24.95
Your Price:
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 >>

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Offensive, Repulsive, and Vile
Review: This is a horrid piece of trash. Do not buy unless you are a fan of this group.

I bought this DVD based on a magazine article and various positive reviews online. The images are asinine and juvenile. This is NOT music, but experimental electronic noise. I enjoy far out music (Sun Ra leaps to mind), but this stuff is ridiculous.

Stay far away, please. You have been warned!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Awful Disc
Review: This is the worst dvd I ever bought. I never heard of the Residents before, so I bought this disc based on those two other reviews. Unless you are a fan of the Residents, DO NOT buy this disc.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sights for Sore Eyes
Review: Throughout their career, the Residents have proven to be extremely innovative with their work, whether it was on CD, video, or CD-Rom. So it was only a matter of time before they ventured into the world of DVD, a technology that combines all three formats. This fantastic release collects nearly all of their video output, resulting in approximately 100 minutes of viewing. Six brand new animated videos accompany the classics, two of which ("The Gingerbread Man" and "Bad Day on the Midway") have been adapted from CD-Rom. Their mind-boggling early opus, "Vileness Fats," has been revisited with several scenes restored, the editing tightened up, and the picture quality vastly improved. Not only have the Residents compiled their careers on one disc with wonderfully clear audio and video, they have recorded new music tracks for every piece that is included. While watching the videos, the viewer can choose between hearing the original audio track or the newly recorded one. Some of the new tracks work better than others, and opinions will inevitably vary from fan to fan. Many of the new renditions are also available on the "Icky Flix" soundtrack CD. True to their spirit, the Residents have taken advantage of one of the more playful features of the DVD format and hidden a total of nine Easter Eggs throughout the navigation menus. I won't spoil the fun of locating them, but some of the treasures that await you include a TV performance with Conway Twitty, a 1999 webcast from the House of Blues, the short film "Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions," and moments from "Pee-wee's Playhouse" (for which they provided score music). The unadventurous can find a list of the Easter Eggs on the Internet.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: OUTSTANDING DVD
Review: What a treat for enthusiasts of the mysterious Eyeball Ones! The reclusive Residents are approached with the proposal of releasing a DVD collection, which they oppose at first ..... until they concoct a way of using the DVD technology to create a new concept around some early videos. The result: an interactive chronicle/gallery of many remastered videos, films and digital media created by this most curious, fascinating and slightly disturbing ensemble. Using the DVD's alternative soundtrack capabilities, you are given the choice of hearing the original recordings, or new treatments of the songs, which they probably did to make the project more interesting than a sort of "best of" rehash anthology. Like that would matter to us.

The collection is astounding: Almost two hours of pristine Residential archives, all rerecorded with new soundtracks that you don't have to listen to if you're a purist. Of particular interest is the Songs for Swinging Larvae section, with their interpretation of material originally done by British counterparts Renaldo and the Loaf (whose recordings now seem tragically on the vanish). Their tendency towards "concentrations" of their lengthier works is put to good use, in the case of Vileness Fats (their first ever created project, this is actually the 3rd version of the original soundtrack, which was never released due to poor quality), and the software titles The Gingerbread Man and Bad Day on the Midway. Fans of the latter title will greatly appreciate seeing the digital masters, beautifully clear, touching on familiar elements of the story, just enough to tease the unfamilar viewer, as well as taking outrageous liberties with the game guidlines. See, with The Residents there are no rules as we know them .....

There are also selections from Freak Show (their premiere CDrom venture), the Commercial Album (the extraordinary One Minute Movies), the legendary Hello Skinny, a reworked video of Constantinople and other previously unseen videos, a sumptuous serving of smirky surreality by this anonymous collective consciousness .... which has for nearly thirty years kept a select few of us vastly entertained and with overall greater hope for humanity ......

The Residents are not for everyone. Their video realizations, like their recorded material, takes many dark and disturbing detours; the techno/naive music is both mesmerizing and jarring, and utterly orginal. Fans of Sugar Ray and Britney Spears are not likely to care for it; fans of Primus, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead and Marilyn Manson might. As for me: I'm a pants-down Residents fan, and I just bought me a piece of Video Heaven for a mere twenty bucks.

We are simple, you are simple, life is simple, too. Icky Flix is simply superb.


<< 1 2 3 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates