Tag Archives: Cryptic Corp.

Stranger Than Fiction: The Residents Continue Their Conceptual Art Project

I hung out at the Cryptic Corporation warehouse in San Francisco back in the later half of the ’70s when The Residents recorded Eskimo. 

I’ve always appreciated the enormity of the group’s vision, and the pioneering work they did, which included a version of punk before there was “punk,” creating short films, or music videos before there were music videos, and an intent to make original art and comment on the music business, sometimes both at the same time.

So I was amused when they offered a unique Ultimate Box Set, a real refrigerator filled with 100 Residents recordings, an eyeball mask and other oddities.

This dude on the right in the photo below apparently paid $100,000 for one of the ten box sets available.

These four videos are worth watching. Check them out. The video at the bottom is a very interesting work in progress documentary on The Residents called “We Stole This Riff: a film about The Residents.”