12 Days of Brumalia

Last updated

The 12 Days of Brumalia
12 Days of Brumalia.jpg
Misprinted cover art featured on the first CDs
Studio album by
The Residents
ReleasedJune 21st, 2004 [1]
Length39:10
Label Ralph America, MVD Audio (re-issue)
Producer The Cryptic Corporation
The Residents chronology
Demons Dance Alone
(2002)		The 12 Days of Brumalia
(2004)		 Animal Lover
(2005)

The 12 Days of Brumalia was a 2003-2004 "internet event" presented by The Residents. The event saw Hardy Fox anonymously [2] upload thirteen downloadable MP3s to Residents.com over a span of two weeks between December 24, 2003 and January 5, 2004. [3] The tracks were shortly after released on a limited edition CD by The Residents' mail order label Ralph America. [4] [5] A wider release followed on its 10th anniversary through MVD Audio. [6]

Contents

Background

Digital Rollout

Although never released as such, The 12 Days of Brumalia has been described as a Hardy Fox solo project attributed to The Residents spokesman Homer Flynn and biographer Ian Shirley. [2]

The project launched on December 24, 2003, [6] three months after the conclusion of the group's Demons Dance Alone tour, which ran from October 25, 2002 to September 28, 2003. [7] Hardy Fox, who had performed with the group since their earliest shows, was notably absent from the Demons tour, with his typical duties being performed by Eric Drew Feldman. [8]

Lasting until January 5, 2004, Hardy uploaded thirteen downloadable MP3s to Residents.com as part of The Residents' 'Brumalia' celebrations, The Residents' interpretation of a 13 day festive holiday season, inspired by "The Twelve Days of Christmas." "Big Hand," was later revisited for the Tweedles album. [6] Each download would be accompanied by an image incorporating various religious imagery and water, drawing attention to many different faiths which celebrate the winter solstice. [9]

Physical Release

On April 27, 2004, it was announced through the website that a re-mixed The 12 Days of Brumalia CD would be available from Ralph America, The Residents' mail order / online purchase label. [10] The CD was officially available to purchase on June 10, [11] and featured a surprise bonus track "The True Meaning of Brumalia." [6] The CD was a limited edition of 1,000 numbered copies, although the first 475 feature incorrect covers, and un-numbered versions were made available as replacements. [4] Although the downloads were named uniquely, re-releases of the material gave the songs near identical 'Day' titles, with only the track number differentiating them.

MVD Audio re-released the CD for its 10th anniversary in 2014, making 12 Days of Brumalia available widely for the first time. This version featured bonus tracks from The Residents' 1993 Prelude To The Teds EP, and a recent remix of "Jack The Boneless Boy" from Freak Show , [6] although original CD's closing track, "The Feast Of Epiphany," is absent.

Brumalia is considered by Homer Flynn and Ian Shirley to be a pre-cursor to Hardy Fox's 'Charles Bobuck' solo albums several years later.

"Charles Bobuck – has more creative energy and has been prolific in creating more music than can fit into The Residents format. So there have always been things like the Brumalia series that Chuck has done that got labeled as Residents." - Homer Flynn, 2015 [2]

Track listing

All tracks are written by The Residents.

No.TitleLength
1."Partridge Pairing"3:24
2."Turtle Dove"2:52
3."Chicken of the Oui"2:10
4."Calling Bird"2:58
5."Golden Rings"2:19
6."Lying Goose"1:52
7."Swami Swan"2:10
8."Maid Being Milked" (Remix of "Jelly Jack" from Live at the Fillmore )3:36
9."Wiggling Wahines"2:02
10."Leaping and Lords" (Alternative version of "Betty's Body" from Demons Dance Alone )2:53
11."Pieta's Piper" (Remix of "The Sleepwalker" from Demons Dance Alone)2:52
12."Big Hand"2:29
13."The Feast of the Epiphany"5:38
14."The True Meaning of Brumalia"1:55
Total length:39:10

2014 bonus tracks

No.TitleLength
14."Teddy"4:00
15."I Tried To Cry"2:06
16."The Cry Of A Crow"3:24
17."Struggle"3:02
18."Boneless Boy" (Single remix by Charles Bobuck)3:35
Total length:53:22

Personnel

Adapted from CD release

References

  1. ↑ Knipfel, Jim; Poole, Brian (2022). Faceless Forever ~ A Residents Encyclopaedia. England: Cherry Red Books. p. 10. ISBN   978-1-914565-30-4.
  2. 1 2 3 Shirley, Ian (2015). Never Known Questions - Five Decades of The Residents. Cherry Red Books. p. 211. ISBN   978-1909454262.
  3. ↑ "The Residents Official News Blog and Website Wrapper". www.residents.com. Archived from the original on December 3, 2003. Retrieved August 28, 2025.
  4. 1 2 "12 Days of Brumalia - Historical - The Residents". www.residents.com. Retrieved August 28, 2025.
  5. ↑ Knipfel, Jim; Poole, Brian (2022). Faceless Forever ~ A Residents Encyclopaedia. England: Cherry Red Books. p. 299. ISBN   978-1-914565-30-4.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Knipfel, Poole. p. 10
  7. ↑ Knipfel, Poole. p. 66
  8. ↑ Home Age Conversations (May 24, 2019). Bonus Episode E: Full Interview with Eric Drew Feldman | Home Age Conversations . Retrieved August 28, 2025– via YouTube.
  9. ↑ "Grandpa Gio and The Residents". gio80.com. Retrieved August 29, 2025.
  10. ↑ "Solstice comes but twice a year". www.residents.com. Archived from the original on June 5, 2004. Retrieved August 28, 2025.
  11. ↑ "The Residents bog". www.residents.com. Archived from the original on April 9, 2004. Retrieved August 28, 2025.

Notes

  1. ↑ Salvatore and Pavers are only credited on the 2014 release


Gnome-dev-cdrom-audio.svg

This 2004 rock album-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.