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This article is about the 1981 studio album. You may be looking for the unreleased 1983 video game or unpublished 1985 novel of the same name. |
Mark of the Mole is the eighth album by The Residents, recorded between October 1979 and July 1981,[1][2] and released September 15th 1981 on Ralph Records as the first volume of the group's ambitious (and ultimately unfinished) Mole Trilogy.
Mark of the Mole details the conflict between two differing cultures: the Mohelmot, or "Moles", a subterranean society whose gods offer salvation through hard labor; and the Chubs, a leisurely but shallow race who live comfortably in a city by the sea.
It was followed in 1982 by the companion album The Tunes of Two Cities, and the "fourth" album in the "trilogy", The Big Bubble, in 1985. The album also inspired The Residents' first live show, The Mole Show, which they toured internationally from October 1982 to July 1983; it was also adapted into an unreleased video game and an unpublished novel.
History[]
Background[]
Mole Show art sketch, 1982
By the time their Commercial Album was released in 1980, The Residents were confused, frustrated and "a little betrayed"; although the album had been received warmly by the New Wave music press (as had earlier releases such as Duck Stab! and Eskimo), mainstream success continued to elude them, and they felt unable to shake the perception that they were little more than a "joke band".[3]
Around this time, The Residents were in the midst of planning their first ever live tour, considering (and ultimately abandoning) a live adaptation of Eskimo, and a stripped back, "garage band" style retrospective. Unspecified "serious personal and creative tensions" had also begun to develop among the group's members, and in January 1981, Ronald Reagan was elected as President of the United States, leading American culture to become even more "bright and empty and happy, insipid and moralistic and safe" than it previously had been, further alienating the already wilfully obscure Residents.[3]
Recording[]
Using their frustration as a source of creative energy,[3] and deciding that "a disaster was in order", The Residents began sketching a new project, drawing on Depression-era tales such as John Steinbeck's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, the real life Dust Bowl crisis of the 1930s, and the resulting migration of the "Okies" to California,[1] to develop an epic tale of a primitive but industrious culture who are driven from their home by a natural disaster, and are then forced to confront the ignorance and prejudice of an opposing race.
This allegory reflected not only "the usual redneck complaints" which The Residents had "heard plenty of" during their youth in segregated Louisiana in the 1950s and early 1960s, but also The Residents' years-long, unsuccessful attempts to reach the mainstream of popular culture,[3] with The Residents being represented by the subterranean, industrious Moles, and the wider popular culture being represented by the shallow, materialistic Chubs.[Note 1]
The new material, recorded mostly between October 1979 and July 1981,[1][2][Note 2] boasted an "industrial" and "abstract" style "based on rhythm and noise", emphasizing electronic instruments.[4] When The Residents decided they needed "a guitar part"; Ralph Records employee Tom Timony "dropped what he was doing" to play guitar on the album.[5] The album also features uncredited guest appearances from Penn Jillette (then a relatively unknown artist)[6] and Nessie Lessons, who had previously appeared as an uncredited guest on Commercial Album.
Although The Residents had initially planned to cover their "Mole" concept within a single album, they struggled to find a satisfactory ending to the album's plot.[7] Midway through the recording sessions, the group also realized that too many musical ideas were being created for a single record.[1] It was then decided that two more albums would be compiled, to create an epic trilogy which would encompass the ever-growing material and further develop the storyline.[1][7] Following this decision, the rest of the album was recorded concurrently with what was to become the second album in the trilogy.[1]
Synopsis[]
"Marching to the Sea", backdrop from The Mole Show, 1982
Mark of the Mole opens with a radio announcement (narrated by Penn Jillette) warning of a large storm forming over a vast desert region colloquially known as the "Pit area", the ancestral home of the Mohelmot (or Moles), an ancient civilization of cloaked figures who live and work underground. The deeply religious Moles' beliefs and superstitions are "shaped by the darkness they inhabit, and their lives are dedicated to hard work".[8]
The storm arrives quickly, flooding the Moles out of their tunnels and forcing them to migrate across the desert in their thousands; the mass migration of the Moles is witnessed by a mysterious "Observer", whose "foreboding and foreshadowing" remarks "appear to have more weight than his appearance warrants".[4] The Moles seek refuge in a coastal region near the sea;[4] the home of the Chubs,[Note 1] a leisure-focused but ultimately shallow culture.
"Superficial, but not stupid",[4] the Chubs initially embrace the new arrivals, viewing the hard-working Moles as a source of cheap labor. However, the Moles quickly begin to outnumber their hosts, who soon become apprehensive and hostile towards the refugees;[4] a "certain percentage of the Chub population" worry that the Moles will "lead to a spike in the crime rate, will be a drain on the economy, and will molest the nubile young Chub women".[3]
An idealistic Chub scientist creates a machine capable of menial labor, devaluing and inadvertently offending the Moles,[4] whose religion "measures righteousness in terms of hard work".[3] The growing tension comes to a head when "a hawkish group of Chubs" discover that their new machine is "equally efficient" when used for war, and threaten to drive the Moles back into the desert. The Moles, "using previously unknown powers", are forced to defend themselves in a short war, which ends without an apparent victor.[4]
The short instrumental piece "Resolution?" ends Mark of the Mole on a "cliffhanger",[3] with The Residents deciding to continue the narrative in later instalments of The Mole Trilogy.[7]
Release[]
Mark of the Mole was released on September 15th 1981 on Ralph Records. The album was originally announced as the first instalment of a planned three album trilogy, simply dubbed The Mole Trilogy. It was The Residents' first release to feature no performance, writing or production credits whatsoever on its first pressing.
Later copies of the first edition of the album also include a promotional poster for The Residents' then-upcoming live tour, The Mole Show. The standard edition was repressed in 1985.
Limited Collector's Edition[]
The back sleeve of the "Limited Collector's Edition" of Mark of the Mole, signed by the four members of The Residents, 1982
In 1982, Mark of the Mole was reissued by Ralph Records in a "Limited Collector's Edition" of 900 copies on caramel brown vinyl with silk-screened sleeves. Unlike the first pressing of the album, the Collector's Edition included a printed inner sleeve with the album's lyrics,[1] and some copies also featured a folded 50cm x 70cm promotional poster for the album.
Notably (and uniquely at the time), the back sleeve of the Collector's Edition was autographed in pencil by the four members of The Residents,[1] using pseudonyms such as "A. Resident", "Resident" and "Mr. Resident".
Later reissues[]
Mark of the Mole was first released on CD in 1988 by ESD and Torso, featuring the related EP Intermission as bonus material (or a "guest star", as suggested by the album's liner notes). The album was also reissued on vinyl at the same time, without Intermission.
In 1997, the album was remastered and reissued on CD in Japan by Bomba Records; a US edition followed in 1998 from East Side Digital. Both editions featured no bonus tracks.
In 2005, Mark of the Mole and Intermission were again reissued together on CD, this time by Mute Records. The Mute edition features a two-disc hardcover book package, with (slightly digitally modified) artwork, and a 32 page booklet. A similar package followed shortly afterwards, compiling The Tunes of Two Cities and The Big Bubble.
In 2011, the album was again issued on CD in Japan by Birdsong and Hayabusa Landings; this edition featured the first part of the 1977 Residents Radio Special as a bonus track.
A newly remastered and pREServed edition of Mark of the Mole features on the first disc of the 2019 six-disc collection Mole Box, along with the other releases in the Mole Trilogy, and three hours of additional previously unreleased material.
Reception[]
Contemporary[]
Writing for Phoenix magazine at the time of the album's release, Tom Padilla claimed that "Mark of the Mole may be the '2001' of avant-garde rock. Only difference being that this odyssey takes us underground, not to outer space, which may say something profound about the nineteen eighties. I will leave that question open. Let the mythologists among you decide."[6]
Retrospective[]
Mark of the Mole has maintained a mostly positive reception among The Residents' fans, associates and critics in the years since its release.[9] As of June 2024, Mark of the Mole has an average user rating of 4.5 / 5 on AllMusic,[10] 3.55 / 5 on RateYourMusic,[11] and 4.46 / 5 on Discogs.
Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Ted Mills described Mark of the Mole as "some of the grimmest, most discordant, rough hewn music [The Residents have] set down on record," although finding that "perversely, there is much to enjoy in this trip to the group's dark side, and the album's resolution truly feels like a breath of fresh air".[10] Independent music reviewer Mark Prindle praised the album's "atmospherically CREEPY synths and treated vocals" and "really nice lyrics", calling the songs "interesting yet again... even if they rely almost entirely on simplistic synth lines careening against each other in a semi-depressing spirit of disharmony."[12]
In former Residents.com webmaster Will Rothers' 2007 survey of The Residents' associates, Mark of the Mole tied for fourth place, with three of the selected participants including the album in their "favorite top 10".[9]
Legacy[]
A Mole prop onstage in The Mole Show, Madrid, 1983
Perhaps because it initiated one of The Residents' most elaborate concepts, or perhaps because it was released at the height of their popularity, Mark of the Mole quickly became the group's first album to be widely adapted into various forms of media, both by The Residents themselves and by other artists; in this sense Mark of the Mole prefigures the multimedia campaigns which accompanied later albums such as Freak Show and The Bunny Boy.
Some time after the release of Mark of the Mole, The Residents decided that their planned three-album Mole Trilogy would instead comprise a "perhaps overly ambitious" total of six albums:[4] three albums to portray the trilogy's narrative, alternating with three "pseudo-documentary" albums presenting the music of the trilogy's fictional Mole and Chub cultures.
In 1982, Mark of the Mole was followed by a companion album, The Tunes of Two Cities (or Part Two of The Mole Trilogy), which provided further "illustration" of the earlier album's storyline,[4] by presenting the contrasting musical stylings of Mark of the Mole's warring Mole and Chub cultures. In the same year, The Residents combined most of the music from Mark of the Mole with selections from The Tunes of Two Cities to create the set list for their first live tour, The Mole Show. in which the album's story was portrayed onstage by means of the show's elaborate set design, occasional narration by Penn Jillette, and four dancers bearing cut-outs of the album's Mole and Chub characters.
Intermission cover art, 1982
At the start of the tour, The Residents released an EP titled Intermission, featuring new pre-recorded music featured in the live show, which served to fill the narrative gap between the two halves of Mark of the Mole. Also around this time, artist Matt Howarth began publishing a comic adaptation of The Mole Trilogy, titled The Comix of Two Cities. The comic series was endorsed (and promoted) by The Cryptic Corporation, although The Residents were not involved with the project creatively.
Despite a promising reception for the initial American shows, the European leg of The Mole Show - The Residents' first attempt at a large-scale international tour - became a major financial disaster which nearly caused the group to split up; the tour's failure ultimately led to the abandonment of the Mole Trilogy, after the release of The Big Bubble (the "fourth" album in the trilogy) in 1985.
An Atari 2600 game inspired by the album was developed by Greg Easter in 1983, but was ultimately left unfinished and unreleased following the notorious video game industry recession which began later that year. Had it been completed and released, it would have been one of the very first music-based video games.
A novel based on the album was written in 1985 by an otherwise unknown author named T.D. Wade (supposedly an old friend and collaborator of The Pre-Residents), however it was never published, aside from a short excerpt which was featured in the retrospective book Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide To The Residents in 1993.
Track listing[]
All tracks composed by The Residents.
Original release (1981)[]
Side A: Hole-Workers at the Mercy of Nature[]
- Voices of the Air (2:55)
- The Ultimate Disaster (8:54)
- Migration (7:15)
Side B: Hole-Workers vs. Man and Machine[]
1988 CD pressing[]
- Voices Of The Air (2:56)
- The Ultimate Disaster (8:59)
- Migration (7:18)
- Another Land (4:41)
- The New Machine / Final Confrontation (17:20)
- Lights Out (Prelude) (5:54)
- Shorty's Lament (Intermission) (6:48)
- The Moles Are Coming (Intermission) (2:58)
- Would We Be Alive (Intermission) (5:13)
- The New Hymn (Recessional) (4:21)
2011 CD pressing[]
- Voices Of The Air (2:55)
- The Ultimate Disaster (8:55)
- Migration (7:15)
- Another Land (4:43)
- The New Machine (7:16)
- Final Confrontation (9:49)
- Ralph Records 1977 Radio Special Part 1 (From Eat Exuding Oinks)
Credits[]
Torso/ESD CD edition (1988)[]
- Features the voices of: Nessie Lessons & Penn Jillette
- Cover By: Porno Graphics
- Written & Performed by: The Residents
- Produced by: The Cryptic Corporation
Release history[]
| Year | Label | Format | Region | Length* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Ralph Records | LP | US | 41:14 |
| 1982 | ||||
| 1985 | ||||
| 1988 | East Side Digital | CD | ||
| Torso | NL | |||
| CD | ||||
| 1989 | LP | 41:04 | ||
| 1994 | Euro Ralph | CD | EU | 41:14 |
| 1997 | Bomba Records | JP | 40:44 | |
| 1998 | East Side Digital | US | 40:52 | |
| 2005 | Mute | EU | 40:53 | |
| 2011 | Birdsong and Hayabusa Landings | JP | ||
| 2019 | MVD Audio, Cherry Red, New Ralph Too | EU, US | 41:00 |
* Not including bonus tracks
See also[]
- The Mole Trilogy
- The Tunes of Two Cities
- Intermission
- The Mole Show
- Mark of the Mole (video game)
- Mark of the Mole (novel)
- Part Three of The Mole Trilogy
- The Big Bubble
Buy Or Die![]
Listen online[]
- Mark of the Mole on Spotify
- Mark of the Mole on Apple Music
- Mole Box: The Complete Mole Trilogy pREServed on Spotify
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The "Chub" culture is never pictured or referred to by name in the album's artwork or lyrics; the Chubs are first pictured on the front cover of The Tunes of Two Cities in 1982, and referred to by name in the narration of that year's Mole Show tour.
- ↑ The album's closing piece, "Resolution?", makes prominent use of an outtake from the Not Available sessions in 1974.
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 1.5 1.6 1.7 Dave Warden, The Cryptic Guide to The Residents, Bach's Decay, 1986
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Uncle Willie, Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide to The Residents, 1993
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Jim Knipfel, "Kula Bocca Says: A Reasonably Brief History of The Mole Trilogy", Mole Box: The Complete Mole Trilogy pREServed liner notes, 2019
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 Mark of the Mole + Intermission Mute reissue liner notes, 2005
- ↑ Hardy Fox, "Others", Hacienda Bridge #15, May 1st 2017
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Ian Shirley, Never Known Questions: Five Decades of The Residents, Cherry Red Books, 2016
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Hardy Fox, "Ask Hardy shit", Hacienda Bridge no. 15, May 1st 2017
- ↑ The Moles, The Mole Trilogy Revisited DVD, 2005
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Will Rothers, "Favorite Top 10", The Last Word, December 5th 2007
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Mark of the Mole at Allmusic
- ↑ Mark of the Mole at RateYourMusic
- ↑ Mark Prindle, "Mark of the Mole", Mark's Record Reviews, ca. 1996-2001
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Mark of the Mole Part One of The Mole Trilogy (1981) Side A: Hole-Workers at the Mercy of Nature |
