Intermission (subtitled Extraneous Music From The Residents' Mole Show) is an EP by The Residents, compiling five studio recordings used as entry, intermission and exit music during their debut live tour, The Mole Show.[1] It was released on Ralph Records on October 1st 1982.[2]
The five songs on Intermission expand on musical and narrative themes from the group's 1981 album Mark of the Mole (the first in the group's planned six album Mole Trilogy);[3] perhaps for this reason, Intermission was the first in a line of releases that would bear the warning that it was not Part Three of The Mole Trilogy.[1]
History[]
The Intermission EP features "five different songs based on five different rhythms" composed and recorded by The Residents "in the midst" of preparation for their debut tour The Mole Show,[1] which the group took on the road across Europe and America from October 10th 1982 to July 1st 1983.
The five songs, "sometimes soaring with the pretensions of movie music, sometimes subtly twisting through dark lyrical passages",[1] were composed specifically to be used as pre-recorded introductory, intermission and exit music during the performance.[3]
"Lights Out", an instrumental prelude suggestive of a number of musical themes from The Mole Trilogy, was played immediately before the beginning of the show, whereas "Shorty's Lament", "The Moles Are Coming" and "Would We Be Alive?" form a fifteen minute mini-suite heard between the close of the first act ("Migration") and the opening of the second act ("Another Land").[1] The final track, "The New Hymn" (a new arrangement of "Hole-Workers' New Hymn" from Mark of the Mole) was played as The Residents left the stage.
Four of the songs feature prominent backing vocals by guests Annie Stocking, Jeanette Sartain and Joan Cashel; the backing vocals were arranged by The Residents' long-time collaborator Joshua Raoul Brody (credited on the EP under the pseudonym "Raoul N.D. Seimbôte").
Cover art[]
"Some guys" enshrouded in toothpicks, 1982
The front cover art for Intermission (by Ralph Records' inhouse graphic design team Porno Graphics) features Jana Flynn, the then-infant daughter of graphic designer (and later "Captain Doc" of The Cryptic Corporation) Homer Flynn and his first wife Diane.
The back cover features a photo collage featuring "some guys who were hanging around the studio when the Emulator arrived", their faces partially hidden by a veil of toothpicks.[4]
Release[]
Intermission was released by Ralph Records as a 33⅓ RPM 12" EP on October 10th 1982, two weeks prior to the first official performance of The Mole Show. It was the first release by The Residents to warn that it was not the then-upcoming (and still unreleased) Part Three of The Mole Trilogy; this warning would be featured on a number of Ralph products, until the mid-1980s when the Mole Trilogy was abandoned entirely.
The EP was later featured on the 1988 East Side Digital/Torso CD reissue of Mark of the Mole; this edition was also featured in the 1994 box set In Memoriam Torso. Intermission was then reissued as a stand-alone CD release by East Side Digital (in the US) and Bomba Records (in Japan) in 1998.
Mute Records reissued Intermission in a two disc hardbook CD edition, again alongside Mark of the Mole, in 2005; slightly updated cover art was created for both the album and EP for this reissue; a similar hardbook reissue of The Tunes of Two Cities and The Big Bubble followed soon after.
In 2011, Intermission was reissued alongside the group's soundtrack for the 1985 film The Census Taker on a single CD for the Japanese market by Hayabusa and Birdsong Landings. In 2019 the EP was featured on the sixth and last disc ("Miscellaneous Mole Materials") of the pREServed box set Mole Box.
Reception[]
Retrospective[]
In his "drunk" February 2009 review of Intermission,[5][6] freelance music reviewer Mark Prindle highlighted the EP's "tribal effected drums, weirdly-toned keyboards, ugly piercing guitars" and "chintzy church organ", particularly noting "Would We Be Alive?" and "The New Hymn", while finding that the other three songs "lose their way in ugly keyboard riffs".[6]
Legacy[]
The Residents have continued to present new pre-recorded interstitial music in a number of live shows throughout their career, sometimes releasing these compositions separately as a standalone EP in a manner similar to Intermission.
Other examples of this practice include "For Elsie" (heard during intermission on the 13th Anniversary Show between 1985 and 1986), "In Between Screams" (featured during intermission on the Wormwood tour in 1998 and 1999), and "Dogtag (Bunny Intermission)" (featured in the intermission of The Bunny Boy tour in 2008).
Track listing[]
All tracks composed by The Residents.
Original release (1982)[]
Intermission/The Census Taker CD reissue (2011)[]
- Lights Out (Prelude)
- Shorty's Lament (Intermission)
- The Moles Are Coming (Intermission)
- Would We Be Alive? (Intermission)
- The New Hymn (Recessional)
- Creeping Dread
- The Census Taker
- Talk
- End Of Home
- Emotional Music
- Secret Seed
- Easter Woman/Simple Song
- Hellno
- Where Is She?
- Innocence Decayed
- Romanian/Nice Old Man
- Margaret Freeman
- Lights Out/Where Is She?
- Passing The Bottle
- The Census Taker Returns
Liner notes[]
Mark of the Mole Torso/ESD CD reissue (1988)[]
In 1982 and '83 The Residents took The Mole Show on the road. The highly acclaimed work was offset by opening, closing, and intermission music that had been recorded by The Residents, especially for the presentation. The music was eventually released on vinyl as Intermission.
In adding Intermission here to Mark of the Mole, a sense of reflective "commenting" follows the bleak Mole tragedy. For those of you with a sense of more integration between these two independent recordings, try programming your CD player with selection 7 first, followed by selections 1-3. Then stick in 8, 9, and 10, and follow these with 4, 5, and 6. Finally, cap it all off with selection 11.[3]
Credits[]
Original release (1982)[]
- Written & Performed by The Residents
- Guest vocals by Annie Stocking, Jeanette Sartain, Joan Cashel
- Guest vocals arranged by Raoul N.D. Seimbôte
- © ℗ 1982, The Cryptic Corp.
Later pressings[]
- Producer: The Cryptic Corporation [3]
- Cover: Porno Graphics [7]
Release history[]
| Year | Label | Format | Region | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Ralph Records | 12" | US | |
| 1983 | London Records | NL | ||
| UK | ||||
| 1985 | Ralph Records | US | ||
| 1988 | East Side Digital | CD | Mark of the Mole CD reissue | |
| Torso | NL | |||
| 1990 | Ralph Records | 12" | US | |
| 1994 | Euro Ralph | CD | EU | As part of In Memoriam Torso |
| 1998 | East Side Digital | US | ||
| Bomba Records | JP | |||
| 2005 | Mute | US, EU | 2xCD "hardbook" reissue with Mark of the Mole | |
| 2011 | Hayabusa Landings & Birdsong | JP | ||
| 2015 | Ralph Records | 12" | US | |
| Music On Vinyl | EU | |||
| 2017 | NL | |||
| 2019 | New Ralph Too, Cherry Red, MVD Audio | CD | US, EU | As part of Mole Box |
Cover Art Gallery[]
ESD, 1998[]
See also[]
Buy Or Die![]
- Mole Box at MVDShop (US)
- Mole Box at Cherry Red Records (UK/EU)
Listen online[]
Resources[]
- Mark of the Mole + Intermission Mute CD reissue booklet (PDF file, 6.98 MB)
External links and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "You know that The Residents have a difficult time staying off the tape recorders. Even in the midst of putting together their most ambitious project ever, The Mole Show, they decided to record new music for the 15 minute intermission, as well as a prelude to start the show and a recessional to end it. Sometimes soaring with the pretensions of movie music, sometimes subtly twisting through dark lyrical passages, Intermission offers five different tracks based on five different rhythms. Intermission is NOT part three of the Mole Trilogy." Ralph Records Intermission promotional advert, 1982
- ↑ Mole Show press release, September 1st, 1982
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Mark of the Mole ESD/Torso CD reissue liner notes, 1988
- ↑ tzoq, "RzFAQ: The Residents", RZWeb, 1995-1997 (archived via archive.org)
- ↑ Mark Prindle, "The 'What's New?' Page", Mark's Record Reviews, February 15th 2009 (archived via archive.org)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Mark Prindle, "Intermission EP", Mark's Record Reviews, February 15th 2009
- ↑ Intermission ESD CD reissue liner notes, 1998
