The Residents—The Big Bubble

The Residents—The Big Bubble

The Big Bubble—It's always disheartening to have a source of entertainment turn into one of agony. The Residents' first-ever tour was supposed to add to the world of the Moles and Chubs from Mark of the Mole (1980) and The Tunes of Two Cities (1981), and people loved it, but many aspects of it turned out to be impractical.¹ Few reliable accounts exist on the details of the Mole Show's demise, but most seem to report that the Residents returned to the studio with their tails between their legs, bitterly, and perhaps with less personnel than they started—much as the characters of their production probably did following the war explained in Mark of the Mole. Incidentally, with the release of The Big Bubble, that is now the only hole in Mole history.

The Residents have allegedly claimed that the missing link between Mark of the Mole and The Big Bubble will be released (The Tunes of Two Cities was a companion piece with recordings that date prior to Mark), but more than thirty years later, it has yet to surface. It is possible that this period in the timeline was deemed non-essential. The Mole-Chub war would conceivably leave the two societies in disarray, and much of the following years would be spent regrouping, so there is a question as to whether there would be material to use for an album. The time elapsed between the two stories is expounded thusly:

"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 referred 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." —Liner notes of The Big Bubble (1985)

The exposition goes on to say that the Big Bubble is the name of a band and that The Big Bubble is their debut album. Most LPs of Bubble show a cover-within-a-cover graphic that backs this idea with four individuals that represent the band members. Ramsey, the lead singer (front-center), is portrayed by a Residents stage-hand, though the performance on the actual recordings was done by the Residents' usual vocalist. The man on the far right is a German fan of the Residents, and the identities of the other two are not known. The story goes that Ramsey and Frank, the principal songwriters, got together with Paul and Alex as a garage band and raised enough money to release the single "The Big Bubble," but because they had no name the song's title was appended to their identity.

A "second-generation Cross" named Kula Bocca spoke at a Zinkenite rally and asked the Big Bubble to play after his speech, as he "knew that [...] they needed the energy, passion, and, above all, naivete of youth." They played a new composition called "Cry for the Fire," which featured the Mole language that had been outlawed after the war. Bocca further conspired to have Ramsey arrested on these grounds as a political move, and "Cry for the Fire" became the Zinkenite anthem. He then contacted Frankie DuVall (spelled "Frinky" on the inner sleeve) of Black Shroud Records (the black shroud being the article of clothing the Moles wear as seen in depictions), who supported the Zinkenites even though he was a Chub; The Big Bubble became the first record to feature the traditional Mole lyrics.

What this all means for the listener is that The Big Bubble is not like its predecessors. It is recorded as if it was a real LP—song-oriented, with no overarching story other than that which exists in the abstract. If Mark of the Mole was something like a cast recording, and The Tunes of Two Cities was a cultural document made up of historical recordings, then The Big Bubble is the contemporary rock album, and with it the Residents have compiled a triumvirate of various ways one can experience music. Bubble is also the beginning of the Residents' new sound; between it and Tunes there was not an exorbitant amount of original music by the band as they recovered from the failure of their tour. The songs are inundated with dark, cutting synths and semitones, which would continue with God in Three Persons (1988), though that album and any that follow are not part of the Mole saga.

Bubble suffers from tedium. It is roughly the same length as Tunes, but that album had the advantage of dynamics and a wider range of sounds. When looking at the overall Mole concept, it's understandable that the Residents recorded an album faithful to the characters they created. The Big Bubble is a debut LP, so the repetitive nature is apropos, as is the lack of anything resembling a hook; the lyrics are either nonsensical, tough to comprehend, or sung in the Mole language for which no translation is provided, which again can be explained via an intuitive leap: the Big Bubble is likely made of Cross members, who probably weren't given higher standards of education, so their music and lyrics are more primal and simplistic.

Unfortunately, The Big Bubble cannot be recommended on its own merits. The music is not exactly bad, and some stand out, but it is not varied enough to warrant repeated listening. However, for anyone who loved Mark of the Mole and the rest of the Mole media, Bubble is an essential adventure. Its story provides a plethora of talking points for the enthusiast, with its fatal drawback being that for the first time, that story overtook the music.

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1 residents.com/historical4/mole/page1/index.php^↩