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This article is about the 1985 studio album. You may be looking for the fictional band of the same name. |
The Big Bubble (subtitled Part Four of The Mole Trilogy) is the thirteenth studio album by The Residents. The album was the first to be produced by The Cryptic Corporation, who, up until that point, had only produced side projects for The Residents.
It is the last installment in The Mole Trilogy to date, as the projected third, fifth and sixth parts were never completed. The album expands on the plot of the unreleased third entry in the series by featuring the music of a fictional Mohelmot band named The Big Bubble.
History[]
Following the financial failure of The Residents' Mole Show tour in 1983 and their near break-up, the third part of the group's ongoing Mole Trilogy was never completed or released. Instead, the group began a new project, The American Composer Series, with the release of George & James in 1984.
Returning to the Mole project after an extended hiatus in 1985 after the release of George & James, the band elected instead to move onto the fourth part in the projected trilogy of six, entitled The Big Bubble.
Similar to The Tunes of Two Cities, the album focuses on the music within the Mole culture rather than progressing the overall storyline of the series. In this case, the album presents songs by a fictional garage rock band called The Big Bubble, lead by main vocalist Ramsey Whiten. The band is part of the Zenkinites, a radical movement formed mostly by Cross, the crossbreeds of the Moles and Chubs introduced in Mark of the Mole. The music on The Big Bubble is thus a synthesis of the Mole and Chub music found on The Tunes of Two Cities, performed using traditional rock music instruments.
In the story, as the leader of a politically charged band, Ramsey often performs in the ancient Mohelmot language, which is prohibited by Chub law and few people understand, even among the Zenkinites. This means that The Residents filled the tracks on the album with screams, cries, shrieks, groans and various other vocal effects, making the lyrics almost unintelligible.
Unlike most albums, the vocals for The Big Bubble were the first thing recorded, with no accompanying instruments. The arrangements would be done around the results of these vocal experiments, and would then be laid over them in mixing. This gave the record a more unpolished and "live" sound.
Cover art[]
The Big Bubble, with lead vocalist Ramsey Whiten at the back of this collage
In a break from established tradition, the cover art for The Big Bubble featured, for the first time, four unmasked men on the front cover.
Many wondered if these men were The Residents unmasked, which The Cryptic Corporation promptly denied, explaining that the image was intended as an album cover within an album cover, so to speak, representing an album by the fictional band, The Big Bubble, whose members are featured on the cover (and in the gatefold image included with the original pressing of the album).
The images were the result of a photo session featuring several (mostly unidentified) models;[1] three had responded to an advertisement placed by The Cryptic Corporation in local trade papers seeking actors with interesting faces, and one was a German fan who had happened to visit Cryptic's headquarters that day (he is seen on the right of the image). Kyle Newell, the model for Ramsey (the one in the front on the cover) would later be one of the stage-lighting "ninjas" on the group's 13th Anniversary tour.[2]
Release[]
The Big Bubble was released in the United States in September 30th, 1985 by Ralph Records. The first 450 copies of the album were pressed on marbled pink vinyl, which were meant to look like bubble gum. The initial reception to the album was mixed, with many being taken aback by the weird vocals (even for Residents standards), the simplicity of the instrumentation, its strange placement in The Mole Trilogy, and the confusion around the cover art. A UWEB poll placed it as the "weirdest Residents album" up to that point, in a tie with Not Available.
WAVE advertisement for The Big Bubble and Memorial Hits.
This was the first album by The Residents to be licensed for sale in Japan, where it was released by WAVE. The label heavily promoted the album, and included very innacurate lyric sheets with the vinyl, as they were written by WAVE's employees trying to figure out what each song was saying without any help from The Cryptic Corporation. The Big Bubble ended up being a big success in sales in Japan, and was followed up by the compilation Memorial Hits.
The album would be released on CD in 1989 by Torso in Europe and East Side Digital in North America, including the suite "Safety Is A Cootie Wootie" as a bonus. This was the first time this suite was released in its complete form, as its first track, "Prelude for a Toddler", was excluded from its earlier apppearances. The Big Bubble would then receive a remaster in 1998, published by ESD in the United States and Bomba Records in Japan.
Mute Records would reissue the album in a double pack with The Tunes of Two Cities, giving both of them slightly different covers from their original releases. Another remaster was done Birdsong/Hayabusa Landings in 2011, which included the 4th and final part of The Residents' Radio Special as a bonus track.
As part of the pREServed series of re-releases, it was featured along with the other albums of The Mole Trilogy in Mole Box. The Big Bubble related bonuses were live performances of a couple of tracks in the album, unfinished outtakes and vocal-only demos from the recording sessions, and the track "Jingle Bell", a scrapped Christmas single for the album that was previously included in Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses.
Legacy[]
The 13th Anniversary Show[]
Following WAVE's release of the album becoming increasingly popular in Japan, a 4 date Japanese mini-tour in support of the album was funded by the label in October of 1985. The show would initially only feature one Big Bubble song, "Cry For The Fire", performed as the finale to the show, but when a US tour was funded by Ralph Records, the last 11 minutes became dedicated to the album. The show toured from October 1985 to January 1987.
Track listing[]
All tracks composed by The Residents.
Original release (1985)[]
Side A (19:19)[]
- Sorry (3:37)
- Hop a Little (2:47)
- Go Where Ya Wanna Go (2:38)
- Gotta Gotta Get (4:23)
- Cry for the Fire (5:54)
Side B (19:03)[]
- Die-Stay-Go (3:00)
- Vinegar (2:22)
- Firefly (2:16)
- The Big Bubble (2:15)
- Fear for the Future (3:54)
- Kula Bocca Says So (5:16)
ESD/Torso CD reissue (1989)[]
- Sorry (3:37)
- Hop a Little (2:47)
- Go Where Ya Wanna Go (2:38)
- Gotta Gotta Get (4:23)
- Cry for the Fire (5:54)
- Die-Stay-Go (3:00)
- Vinegar (2:22)
- Firefly (2:16)
- The Big Bubble (2:15)
- Fear for the Future (3:54)
- Kula Bocca Says So (5:16)
- Prelude For A Toddler (3:40)
- Toddler Lullaby (2:29)
- Safety Is The Cootie Wootie (4:11)
Hayabusa Landings and Birdsong CD reissue (2011)[]
- Sorry (3:36)
- Hop a Little (2:46)
- Go Where Ya Wanna Go (2:37)
- Gotta Gotta Get (4:22)
- Cry for the Fire (5:50)
- Die-Stay-Go (2:59)
- Vinegar (2:21)
- Firefly (2:16)
- The Big Bubble (2:15)
- Fear for the Future (3:54)
- Kula Bocca Says So (5:02)
- Ralph Records 1977 Radio Special Part 4 (From Eat Exuding Oinks!) (13:01)
- Whoopy Snorp
- Interview
- Walter Westinghouse
Liner notes[]
The Cryptic Corporation[]
In the fall of 1981 The Residents released Mark of the Mole. This first record of the Mole Trilogy laid out the basic storyline for the first two parts of the story. One, the Hole-Workers battle against the ravages of nature in the form of a storm that destroys their homes; and two, their resulting conflict with a neighboring culture that is very different from their own.
The second part of the trilogy was released in spring of 1982. It featured examples of the music of both the Chub and the Mole cultures so as to more clearly illustrate the difference between these two societal forces.
The remainder of 1982 and all of 1983 was spent touring a large scale musical/visual presentation of these two albums that was known as The Mole Show. Upon returning from the European part of the tour, The Residents rested briefly and threw themselves into the job of completing the story.
Part three of the trilogy picked up on the story several decades after the great war. The survivors of the two cultures lived side-by-side in uneasy peace. The war had not resulted in any clear winner, but time had promoted those who had the appropriate appetite for power, and the Chubs were famous for their various appetites.
Many Moles and Chubs had blended socially so mixed marriages were common. Their offspring were refered to as "cross". In response to this a "Zinkenite" movement by traditional Moles, or "Mohelmot", had surfaced to encourage the establishment of a new Mohelmot nation. Surprisingly, many of the officials of the Zinkenites were "cross", as though the Chub genes had brought out a new aggression to the Mohelmot sense. One such official was a charismatic second generation cross named Kula Bocca.
Kula Bocca knew that if the Zinkenites were to succeed in reestablishing their society, they needed the energy, passion, and, above all, naivete of youth. He hired a local band to play for a rally at Elmwurst, and, although he did not think they were very good, the band immediately captured the heart of the crowd with a single song, "Cry for the Fire". The song even had a section that was sung in the original language of the Mohelmot which had been outlawed since the war. Few in the audience could understand what the singer was saying, but everyone immediately grasped that a deep link was being established with their past.
Kula Bocca could see the power that this band, "The Big Bubble", had on the public. At a later rally he arranged for the singer of the band to be "arrested" to stir up sympathy for the Zinkenites, and then he contacted Frinky DuVall of Black Shroud Records concerning The Bubble. Black Shroud supported the Zinkenites even though Mr. DuVall was a Chub, and agreed to release an album for the band.
So now The Residents proudly present Part Four of the Mole Trilogy... the Black Shroud album by the band that is shaking a nation... THE BIG BUBBLE.
Black Shroud Records[]
Rarely in the history of popular music has a meteoric rise been seen equal to that of the band whose first album you are currently holding in your hands. Less than two years ago Ramsey, Paul, Alex and Frank started getting together in their Leone family garage to "play around" with some tunes that Ramsey and Frank had been writing together. One of these songs was a catchy riff named "The Big Bubble".
On their own the foursome raised enough money to release a single of "The Big Bubble" and the tune became an instant regional hit. However, since they had never taken a name for their band, and the lable of their single only read "Big Bubble", the name of the song was soon forced upon them as the name of the band as well.
Not until the political rally of Elmwurst did the band gain national prominence. Following a speech by Zinkenite spokesman, Kula Bocca, the band premiered a new composition, "Cry for the Fire". Twenty thousand people came to their feet, interlocked arms, and listened in stunned silence as "The Big Bubble" sang to the people in the ancient tongue of the Mohelmot, forbidden since the war.
"Cry for the Fire" became the anthem of the Zinkenites. In November at the Casema rally, Ramsey was arrested for singing in Mohelmot. The resulting riot and public outcry forced his release three days later.
At that time, Frankie DuVall, president of Black Shroud Records, called on the "Bubble" and stated that he was ready to back the group on an album that would include the Mohelmot vocals, the first time that the Mohelmot language had ever been recorded.
So here it is. The boys have re-recorded their first hit "The Big Bubble" (note the altered lyrics on this version), as well as ten other tunes, six of which use the Mohelmot speech including the controversial Zinkenite anthem "Cry for the Fire".
Hope you dig it.
Credits[]
Album credits[]
- Written & Performed by: The Residents
- Backing Vocals by: Ray Hannah, Brain Seff & Raoul N. Di Seimbote
- The Residents are managed by Bill Gerber, Gerber-Rodkin Co., 8600 Melrose, Los Angeles, CA, 90069
- Special thanks to the following people:
- Career advice: Bill Gerber
- Legal advice: Evan Medow
- Business advice: Segal & Feldstein
- Producers: The Cryptic Corporation
- Record companies: Ralph, WAVE
- Electronic genuises: E-MU Systems
- Graphics computer wizards: S.F.P.G and Mediazone
- A Cryptic Corporation Production
Fictional credits[]
- The Big Bubble:
- Frank Leone (Electric guitar, backing vocals)
- Ramsey Whiten (Lead vocals, percussion)
- Paul Sage (Grand piano, string syntheziser, backing vocals)
- Alex Beason (electric guitar, backing vocals)
- All songs written by Frank Leone and Ramsey Whiten, except for 'Fear For The Future' by Paul Sage
- Produced by CONRAD
- This record is dedicated to Kula Bocca and the Zinkenite Protection Agency
- Manufactured by Black Shroud Records, 566 Folsom Street, Chubsville, N.E.S.
Additional credits featured on later pressings[]
- Cover by: Pore No Graphics [3]
Release history[]
| Year | Label | Format | Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Ralph Records | LP | US |
| Cass | |||
| Wave | LP | JP | |
| 1989 | East Side Digital | CD | US |
| Torso | EU | ||
| 1998 | East Side Digital | US | |
| Bomba Records | JP | ||
| 2005 | Mute | EU | |
| 2011 | Hayabusa Landings & Birdsong | JP | |
| 2019 | New Ralph Too, Cherry Red, MVD Audio | US, EU |
See also[]
- Mark of The Mole
- The Tunes of Two Cities
- Intermission
- The Mole Show
- Part Three of The Mole Trilogy
- The Mole Trilogy
- The 13th Anniversary Show
- The Big Bubble (band)
- Black Shroud Records
- "Jingle Bell"
Buy Or Die![]
- Mole Box: The Complete Mole Trilogy pREServed at MVDShop (US)
- Mole Box: The Complete Mole Trilogy pREServed at Cherry Red Records (UK/EU)
Listen online[]
- The Big Bubble on Spotify
- The Big Bubble on Apple Music
- Mole Box: The Complete Mole Trilogy pREServed on Spotify
External links and references[]
- The Big Bubble at The Residents Historical
- The Big Bubble at RZWeb
- The Big Bubble at Discogs
- Mole Box: The Complete Mole Trilogy pREServed at Discogs
- ↑ Ian Shirley, Never Known Questions: Five Decades of The Residents, 2016
- ↑ Jim Knipfel, "Kula Bocca Says: A Reasonably Brief History of The Mole Trilogy", Mole Box: The Complete Mole Trilogy pREServed liner notes, 2019
- ↑ 1998 Japanese CD
