X Is For Xtra

X Is For Xtra (A Conclusion) is the working title attributed to a reel of 1974 recordings by The Residents, the majority of which were later edited, remixed and overdubbed to be included on their later studio albums Fingerprince"Yes, it was on the multitracks (a lot of Fingerprince was part of the X... project originally). It's about 2.5 minutes long. I think they're planning to do some vinyl reissues and include much more multitrack stuff on those, but that's TBC." - Richard Anderson, The Residents Facebook group, April 16th 2020 and Not Available. The reel has also been said to compile pieces of music which were originally intended to form the score to their abandoned feature film Vileness Fats."(Vileness Fats pREServed) was actually discussed this week, but I don't know if it'll happen. The 'X Is For Xtra' stuff on the Not Available reissue covered the musical side of it, and I don't know what condition the footage is in... We'll see." - Richard Anderson, The Residents Facebook group, May 1st 2020
A newly-created "reprocessed" versionNot Available pREServed edition liner notes, 2019"...as I understand it they were so pleased with how the pREServed stuff was received that they've dug out the multitracks of the 70s albums and begun playing around with those. That's how both Eskimo DeConstructed and X Is For Xtra came about, I think." - Richard Anderson, Ralph Records Facebook group, October 6th 2020 of X Is For Xtra was released in November 2019, as the second disc of the pREServed edition of Not Available. X Is For Xtra has been mentioned by a spokesperson from Cherry Red Records as being one of a number of titles which are under consideration for release as part of a vinyl sub-series of the pREServed campaign in the near future."My hope is that we'll release X... on vinyl next year so it can occupy both 1974 and 1978 positions." - Richard Anderson, The Residents Facebook group, November 14th 2019
==X Is For Xtra (A Conclusion)==
The tracks featured on X Is For Xtra (A Conclusion) were recorded by The Residents around 1974, following the release of their debut album Meet The Residents. A number of the instrumental pieces were apparently originally intended by The Residents to comprise the score for their troubled film project Vileness Fats, which was ultimately abandoned in 1976. 
Some pieces on the tape seem to originate from an early mix of the operetta which later became Not Available. For instance, "Theme From X" developed into part of "Edweena", and "Solome and Goiter" and "New Mexico Dream" are early versions of sections of "The Making of a Soul", with radically different vocals and instrumentation. "Where To Begin?" is the origin of the mysterious "hidden monologue" from "The Making of a Soul". 
Some pieces from X Is For Xtra such as "March of the Winnebagos", "Bossy" and "Tournament of Roses" would see release (at least in edited form) on Fingerprince in 1977, many were remixed and overdubbed to become Not Available in 1978, and others were compiled onto the second of the group's private "MOP" outtake reels and shelved for decades. 
An instrumental section from Not Available was released on the compilation Beautiful Eyes in 2010, titled "Available Piece". "Asonarose" and "Soundtrack Music Piece 17" were released in 2011 on the extended version of Not Available. An additional track originating from these sessions was released on The Residents' official website in September 2019 as a Free! Weird! download, entitled "Available Nonsensical". 
The Fingerprince version of "March of the Winnebagos" (retitled "March de la Winni") is around two minutes shorter than the version featured on X Is For Xtra (A Conclusion); the longer version was released as a Free! Weird! download in November 2019. A further track supposedly dating from this era, "Nobody's Nos" was issued in January 2022 as a single-sided 7" accompanying the Melodic Virtue book A Sight For Sore Eyes, Vol. 1. 
At some point, notes were added to the tape's recording sheets to denote which separate tapes each song would be dubbed to; these include Not Available, Fingerprince, and Mop2. 
=== Contents ===
The full track listing of the original X Is For Xtra (A Conclusion) is not known at present, apart from sections of the original track listing which were included in the liner notes to the 2019 pREServed edition of Not Available; these excerpts determine the following tracks as the first twelve on the tape:
# Asonarose (Not used, MOP2)
# New Mexico Dream (Not Available)
# Tennessee Williams (Not Available)
# March of the Winnebagos (Fingerprince)
# Theme From Exorcist (With Roman Overtones) (Not Available)
# Ho Ho Bumped His Toe (Not used, MOP2)
# Solome & Goiter (Not Available)
# Brazen Glory (Tournament of Roses) (Fingerprince)
# Little A (Authentic Folk Song) (Not used, MOP2)
# Bossy (Fingerprince)
# Ah, Spare Us Gus (Not Available)
# Love Sprong (Not Available)
The tape is also confirmed or presumed to include the following tracks, in unknown order:
*Anaconda Montana (Not Available) - possibly the penultimate track on the tape
*Where To Begin? (Not Available) - possibly the last track on the tape
*Mehico Ron Devoo
*Fairly Well
*Slow Texture
*Tune of the Unknown
*Soundtrack Music Piece 17
*O Solo Meow
*Mehico Ron Devoo Finale
Three other tracks thought to originate from the same sessions (but possibly not featured on the original version of X Is For Xtra) are:
*Russian Love Song
*Available Nonsensical
* Nobody's Nos
==pREServed remix==
In 2019, The Residents returned to the X Is For Xtra multitrack masters while working on their pREServed series of expanded and remastered editions of their catalog, creating new "reprocessed" mixes from the parts of the tape used to compile Not Available in 1978 (a process which would later become referred to as "RDX"), and remastering most of the previously unreleased selections from the tape. 
The new version of X Is For Xtra was released in November of that year, on a bonus disc accompanying the pREServed remastered edition of Not Available. This version includes what is described in the liner notes as "skeletal versions, rejected doodles, fragmentary sketches and familiar passages of what would become Not Available, heard as they might have been in another time and place". The liner notes also stress, however, that The Residents do not consider it to be "an alternative Not Available... a 'lost' Residents album or a Vileness Fats soundtrack". 
The disc does not include the Fingerprince tracks, "Available Piece" or "Available Nonsensical" (the latter having apparently been discovered too late for inclusion). The precise nature of many of the tracks, such as which are "RDX" mixes and which are presented relatively unaltered from the way they appear on the original tape, is left unexplained by the accompanying liner notes. 
The RDX version of X Is For Xtra was named by Richard Anderson of Cherry Red Records as a potential entry in an upcoming vinyl pREServed subseries, originally intended to commence in 2020 via mail order, which has since been delayed to an unknown time in the near future.
=== Track listing ===
# Mehico Ron Devoo (3:04)
# Theme From X (With Roman Overtones) (2:29)
# Theme From X (Pt 2) (1:44)
# Salome And Goiter (1:47)
# New Mexico Dream (5:09)
# Ho Ho Bumped His Toe (0:49)
# Where To Begin? (4:22)
# Fairly Well (4:09)
# Love Sprong (2:47)
# Ah, Spare Us Gus (2:09)
# Slow Texture (2:17)
# Tennessee Williams (2:06)
# Little A (An Authentic Folk Song) (2:19)
# Asonarose (2:30)
# Anaconda Montana (2:53)
# Tune Of The Unknown (1:31)
# Soundtrack Music Piece 17 (1:54)
# Oh Solo Meow (3:35)
# Mehico Ron Devoo Finale (2:31)
# Russian Love Song (14:46) (unlisted)
== See also ==
* pREServed
* Vileness Fats
* Not Available
* Fingerprince
* 1-10 (With a Touch of 11)
* German Slide Music
== External links and references ==
* Not Available pREServed at Cherry Red Records
Category:Demo tapes
Category:Not Available
Category:Vileness Fats
Category:PREServed
Category:X Is For Xtra
Category:Unreleased
Category:Fingerprince