Commercial Album is the seventh studio album released by art rock group the Residents in 1980. It is commonly considered a follow-up to their 1978 album Duck Stab/Buster & Glen, in that it retains the former album's pop-oriented song structures. The album contains 40 songs, each lasting exactly one minute - a deliberate allusion to Top 40 mainstream radio. The album's liner notes state that, to form a complete pop song, tracks from the album should be played three times in a row.
Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as a founding member of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. He was also a member of the groups Art Bears, Massacre, and Skeleton Crew. He has collaborated with numerous musicians, including Robert Wyatt, Derek Bailey, the Residents, Lol Coxhill, John Zorn, Brian Eno, Mike Patton, Lars Hollmer, Bill Laswell, Iva Bittová, Jad Fair, Kramer, the ARTE Quartett, and Bob Ostertag. He has also composed several long works, including Traffic Continues and Freedom in Fragments. Frith produces most of his own music, and has also produced many albums by other musicians, including Curlew, the Muffins, Etron Fou Leloublan, and Orthotonics.
Skeleton Crew was an American experimental rock and jazz group from 1982 to 1986, comprising core members Fred Frith and Tom Cora, with Zeena Parkins joining later. Best known for their live improvisation performances where they played various instruments simultaneously, they also recorded two studio albums Learn to Talk (1984) and The Country of Blinds (1986). The group drew on music and themes from a number of sources, including world music, left-wing politics and pre-recorded tapes.
Bound By the Beauty is a 1989 album by Jane Siberry. It received better reviews than her previous album, The Walking, and the title track received more extensive radio airplay than Siberry had seen since "One More Colour" in 1985.
The Country of Blinds is a studio album by American experimental rock and jazz band Skeleton Crew, recorded at Sunrise Studio, Kirchberg, Switzerland, December 1985 and January 1986. It was their second and final album and was released in 1986.
The Top of His Head is a 1989 Canadian comedy-drama film written and directed by Peter Mettler. The film stars starring Stephen Ouimette as Gus, a satellite dish salesman whose life is turned upside down when he meets Lucy, a politically radical performance artist who is on the run from mysterious people pursuing her.
Guitar Solos is the debut solo album of English guitarist, composer, and improviser Fred Frith. It was recorded while Frith was still a member of the English experimental rock group Henry Cow and was released in the United Kingdom on LP record by Caroline Records in October 1974. The album comprises eight tracks of unaccompanied and improvised music played on prepared guitars by Frith without any overdubbing.
Guitar Solos 3 is the third in a series of three albums of improvised guitar solos by various musicians, and was released in the United States by Rift Records in 1979. Fred Frith coordinated and produced the series, which began with his 1974 debut solo album, Guitar Solos.
Keep the Dog was an American-based experimental rock touring band from New York City formed in 1989 by English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. The sextet was conceived as a review band for performing selections of Frith's repertoire of compositions from the previous 15 years.
That House We Lived In is a double live album by American experimental rock band Keep the Dog. It comprises material from their final European tour in 1991 and was released by Fred Frith on his own Fred Records in 2003.
Gravity is a 1980 solo album by English guitarist and composer Fred Frith. It was Frith's second solo album, and his first since Henry Cow disbanded in 1978. It was originally released in the United States on the Residents' Ralph Records, as the first of three solo albums Frith would record for the label. Gravity has been described as an avant-garde "dance" record that draws on rhythm and dance from folk music across the world.
Live in Japan, subtitled "The Guitars on the Table Approach", is a 1982 double live album by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. It was recorded during an improvised solo performance tour of Japan in July 1981. The double album was a limited edition release of 1,000 by Recommended Records Japan on two LP records in a black corrugated box containing posters, artwork and booklets in English and Japanese. It was also released as two single LPs, entitled Live in Japan, Vol. 1 and Live in Japan, Vol. 2. The single LP cover art was taken from the inner double LP gatefold cover.
The Technology of Tears (And Other Music for Dance and Theatre) is a double album by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. It is the first of a series of Music for Dance albums Frith made, and is sometimes subtitled Music for Dance volume 1. It was recorded between June 1986 and April 1987, and released on a double LP and a single CD by RecRec Music (Switzerland), and on a double LP only by SST Records (United States) in 1988. It was re-issued on CD in 2008 by Fred Records (United Kingdom). All the CD releases omit the Propaganda suite (side 4 of the double LP).
Prints: Snapshots, Postcards, Messages and Miniatures, 1987–2001 is a 2002 album by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith, and his first album of songs since Cheap at Half the Price (1983). It comprises four tracks taken from previously released compilations that Frith had contributed to between 1987 and 1997, seven tracks that were "created spontaneously" in the studio in 1997 and 2001, and one live guitar improvisation in 2001. The album was released on CD in 2002 on Fred Records and was the second release in Frith's archival release program on the record label.
To Sail, to Sail is a studio album of acoustic guitar solos by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. It is Frith's first album of acoustic guitar solos and crosses musical borders with 16 tracks of classical, blues, folk and free improvisation. Frith dedicates each track to some of the important figures in his musical life, including Champion Jack Dupree, John Cage, Terry Riley, Daevid Allen, Barre Phillips and Davey Graham. The album was released on Tzadik Records' Key Series in 2008.
What Leave Behind is a 2004 studio album by Oakland, California-based experimental music group Toychestra and English experimental guitarist Fred Frith. It was recorded in May 2003 and January 2004, and was released in 2004 on the French label, S.K. Records. It is a concerto for electric guitar and toy orchestra composed by Dan Plonsey for Toychestra and Frith to perform.
Live in Prague and Washington is a live album of improvised experimental music by Chris Cutler and Fred Frith. It was recorded at the 8th Prague "Jazz Days" Festival in Prague in former Czechoslovakia on 25 May 1979, and at the DC Space in Washington, D.C., on 20 December 1979. The album was released by Recommended Records in 1983 on a 45 rpm 12" LP. It was Frith and Cutler's first collaborative duo album.
All Is Always Now – Live at The Stone is a 2019 three-CD box set of live improvised music performed by English guitarist Fred Frith with other musicians, including Theresa Wong, Ikue Mori, Pauline Oliveros and Laurie Anderson. It was recorded between 2007 and 2016 at The Stone in New York City, and was released in March 2019 by Intakt Records in Switzerland.
Attention Span is a collaborative album by Bob Ostertag, Fred Frith and John Zorn, released in 1990 by RecRec Music.
Free Dirt (Live) is a live double-CD album by American experimental rock and jazz band Skeleton Crew. It is their first live album and was released posthumously in December 2021 by Austrian record label, Klanggalerie. It comprises live material by the group recorded at eight venues in Europe, Canada and the United States between 1982 and 1986. Both CDs feature Fred Frith and Tom Cora, with Dave Newhouse on eight tracks on the first CD, and Zeena Parkins on thirteen tracks on the second CD.
