The Collectors' Box series was a proposed series of limited and collectible editions of albums by The Residents, housed in wooden boxes and featuring various novel extras (such as prints by various artists and hand-puppets).
Originally conceived by the group's graphic designer Homer Flynn in 1977 and intended to include the albums The Third Reich 'n Roll, Tourniquet of Roses, and Eskimo, the series had a troubled production, meaning that only The Third Reich 'n Roll was released as intended (after a number of delays) in 1980. Despite the abandonment of the series shortly after this, The Residents occasionally revisited the idea over the years, resulting in limited edition test pressings of Eskimo in 1986 and Tourniquet of Roses in 2013.
The Collectors' Box series was effectively completed in late 2020 and early 2021 by noted collector Jannis Tsakalis, who created (with the group's permission) an edition of 15 Tourniquet of Roses box sets, and a made-to-order run of fur-covered wooden boxes intended to house the 1986 Eskimo test pressings.
History[]
Following the release of The Residents' 1977 album Fingerprince, Homer Flynn of The Cryptic Corporation conceived a series of collectible box set editions of three of The Residents' albums, to be housed in wooden boxes and including novel extras including art prints created by various artists.
Flynn initially intended to release sets based on their third album The Third Reich n Roll, their then-unreleased "three-sided" album Tourniquet of Roses (including Fingerprince), and the then-unfinished Eskimo. The Third Reich 'n Roll was the first box set to be produced; 200 wooden boxes were hand-crafted, silk-screened with the album art, and contained in a bag made of a piece of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's installation Running Fence. The boxes contained a red-black-and-white marble colored vinyl pressing of the album and included two signed and numbered lithographs.
Around 1980, following a trip to the emergency room brought on by a headache induced by a rubber band he was using to keep his hair out of his eyes while spraying the wooden boxes with black car enamel, Flynn decided to abandon the Collectors' Box series. However, by this time Ralph Records had already received thirteen pre-orders of the Third Reich set, and had to fulfill that demand.[1]
The Third Reich 'n Roll collectors' box in original drawstring bag
Fifty copies of the Third Reich collectors' box were produced, but 20 of these had to be rejected and stored in the Cryptic Archives due to misprints. Five correctly printed copies were kept as artist proofs. After the pre-orders had been fulfilled, the remaining twelve copies were auctioned to members of the W.E.I.R.D. fan club.[2]
The Tourniquet of Roses box set was announced in the 1977 Radio Special, and was described as featuring the Fingerprince LP, with the EP Babyfingers (the originally intended "third side" of the album) included on a separate disc, approximating the original Tourniquet of Roses concept at a time before the "third side" had been appended to any reissues of the album. This set, and the Eskimo collectors' box, were both abandoned in the early 1980s shortly after the troubled and delayed release of the Third Reich box sets.
In 1986, the Eskimo collectors' box entered production, but was quickly abandoned again. The set would have included the album on two single-sided white LPs, with the silent B-sides of each LP covered in white fur.[1] Test pressings of the single-sided LPs were sold through Ralph mail order later in 1986.[3]
In 2003, The Residents authorized a group of Australian fans to manufacture a semi-official edition of this set, even providing original unused wooden boxes from the Third Reich 'n Roll set for the purpose. Three copies of the 2003 Eskimo set were released, featuring white fur on the labels of one side of each LP, with fur covering the entirety of the silent B-sides as originally intended.[4]
The Residents briefly decided to revisit the Tourniquet of Roses box set concept in 2013. A few test pressings were made, but this edition went no further due to a lack of interest from vinyl pressing plants.
Release[]
Contents of a 2021 Eskimo box
The Tourniquet collectors' box was finally produced in December 2020 by collector and fan Jannis Tsakalis, in an extremely limited edition of 15 copies (with 14 being available for sale, and one being added to The Residents' archives), for $650 each.[5] The box contained Fingerprince on a transparent yellow LP, with Babyfingers on a single-sided 12" picture disc, as well as a silk-screened Tourniquet of Roses t-shirt and two hand-puppets. The box sets sold out within a day of becoming available. A second run was released in March 2021, with the individual elements of the set also being sold separately by Jannis.
Following the sale of the Tourniquet of Roses box, in January 2021 Tsakalis began taking orders for a run of fur-covered wooden boxes, designed specifically to house the 1986 Eskimo test pressing discs, thereby effectively completing the Eskimo collector box sets for anyone who has these discs and chooses to order one. Each box contains three hand-puppets and a copy of the original notification letter from the cancellation of the Eskimo collectors' box.[6] The boxes are not being produced in any set number, instead being made to order.[7]
See also[]
External links and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "News Machine" at The Residents' official website
- ↑ The Third Reich 'n Roll Collectors Box at Discogs
- ↑ Eskimo 1986 test pressing at Discogs
- ↑ "The Eskimo Box" at Discogs
- ↑ Tourniquet of Roses collectors' box at Discogs
- ↑ Post by Jannis Tsakalis in The Residents unofficial Facebook group, February 4th 2021
- ↑ Post by Jannis Tsakalis in The Residents unofficial Facebook group, February 1st 2021
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The Third Reich 'n Roll (1976) Side A: "Swastikas on Parade" |
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Tourniquet of Roses Fingerprince / Babyfingers (1976-1979) Side A |
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Eskimo (1979) Side A: |