PREServed

The pREServed series is a campaign of expanded and remastered re-issues of The Residents' discography via Cherry Red Records, MVD Audio and New Ralph Too (as well as Solid Records in Japan). The series is most notable for introducing newly restored remasters of The Residents' classic albums (engineered by Scott Colburn), and the issue of a significant volume of previously unreleased and long-forgotten material from The Cryptic Corporation archive.
The pREServed campaign began in January 2018 with the release of two-disc editions of Meet The Residents and The Third Reich 'n Roll, and continues to the present day, with the most recent CD release being the three-disc edition of Demons Dance Alone in June 2024.
A vinyl subseries of pREServed releases also commenced with the first ever release of The W***** B*** Album on Record Store Day in April 2018. Following several further (mostly limited edition) vinyl releases, the subseries commenced properly in January 2023 with a three LP edition of Meet The Residents, featuring further unheard material. This was followed by a double LP Third Reich 'n Roll in February, a double LP Fingerprince in March, a double LP Duck Stab!/Buster & Glen in May, and a double LP Not Available in June. The expanded vinyl reissues of the "classic" era albums concluded on July 7th with the release of double LP editions of Eskimo and Commercial Album.
Upcoming releases in the series include the long-delayed box set The American Composers Box and an expanded CD edition of Animal Lover.
==History==
The pREServed campaign was conceived in 2017 jointly by Homer Flynn (current President of The Cryptic Corporation) with The Residents and a Cherry Red Records employee known only as The Residents' Mysterious Archivist."The Residents' Mysterious Archivist" interview at One Quart Magazine, March 2018 It is in some ways a continuation of the short lived ERA series of compilations which the group had intended to release online through their Robot Selling Device in 2012 (of which only one installment, ERA B474, was ultimately released), but the general concept has precedent stretching back as far as the early Classic Series CD reissues of the group's albums in the late 1980s.
The series began in earnest following the retirement of then-President Hardy Fox from The Cryptic Corporation, when Fox had sold his share of The Cryptic Corporation to Cherry Red and MVD Audio and sent The Residents their vast archives of tapes and recorded material which he had previously overseen. The Residents' receipt of these archives led them to revisit old material which they had long forgotten, which caused them to become reflective and to want to look backwards for the first time proper.
The pREServed series is ultimately intended to represent a comprehensive (if not necessarily complete) "preservation" of the vast discography of The Residents. Each major release in the series contains detailed liner notes and a considerable amount of previously unknown and unheard bonus material relevant to that time period. Most releases have been issued in roughly chronological order, although some releases have been issued well outside of their chronological order due to extenuating circumstances or by will of The Residents (ie. Not Available, A Nickle If Your Dick's This Big, The American Composers Box).
The pREServed campaign has also included three special vinyl releases (to date) on Record Store Day, including the first official release of the group's long unreleased 1971 demo tapes The W****** B*** Album and B.S., in 2018 and 2019 respectively, and the first release of the complete Icky Flix soundtrack as a double LP set in 2020. A semi-limited double LP and CD set, Eskimo Deconstructed, was also released in May 2019.
The first phase of the pREServed release campaign began in January 2018 with the release of two-disc sets of Meet The Residents and The Third Reich 'n Roll, and concluded in November 2019 with the release of a two-disc set of early recordings entitled A Nickle If Your Dick’s This Big, and an expanded reissue of Not Available containing a second disc of previously unreleased session tapes. 
The second phase of the campaign began in August 2019 with the release of a three-disc God In Three Persons set, followed by the seven-disc Cube-E Box in October, three-disc Freak Show and Gingerbread Man sets in February and May 2021 respectively, and the nine-disc Wormwood Box in January 2022.
====Delayed releases ====
In homage to the Theory of Obscurity which guided its creation, the group's second album Not Available was not made available for the first two years of the pREServed campaign, though it was listed as part of the series in the liner notes to Eskimo and Commercial Album (albeit crossed out) and had even been designated a catalogue number, NRT007. The pREServed edition of Not Available was finally released in November 2019, alongside the 1971-1972 compilation set A Nickle If Your Dick's This Big.
The American Composers Box was originally expected for release around 2019, but has been repeatedly delayed, initially due to trouble the group were having in finding one unspecified element within the archives, and later due to rights issues surrounding "one key element" of the set."It will be 5CD or 6CD I think, including demos, possibly two generations of those even. Almost done, we're just waiting to hear the final running order. There'll be a 2LP set too, as far as I know. ETA November(ish)". - Richard 'Cherry Red' Anderson, June 19th, 2021 The box set is now being finalized for release in 2024.
Expanded editions of Demons Dance Alone and Animal Lover were initially planned for release in 2023, but are now expected for release in 2024.Richard Anderson, "pREServing The Residents", Cherry Red Records blog, August 24th 2023
==Releases==
=== CD releases ===
*NRT002 - Meet The Residents 2CD, January 19th 2018
*NRT003 - The Third Reich 'n Roll 2CD, January 19th 2018
*NRT004 - Fingerprince 2CD, March 23rd 2018
*NRT005 - Duck Stab!/Buster & Glen 2CD, March 23rd 2018
*NRT008 - Eskimo 2CD, January 25th 2019
*NRT009 - Commercial Album 2CD, January 25th 2019
*NRTBOX010 - Mole Box: The Complete Mole Trilogy pREServed 6CD, April 5th 2019
*NRT013 - God In Three Persons 3CD, August 9th 2019
*NRT999 - A Nickle If Your Dick's This Big 2CD, November 8th 2019
*NRT007 - Not Available 2CD, November 8th 2019
*NRTBOX015 - Cube-E Box: The History of American Music in 3 E-Z Pieces pREServed 7CD, October 23rd 2020
*NRT016 - Freak Show 3CD, March 26th 2021
*NRT017 - Gingerbread Man 3CD, May 28th 2021
*NRTBOX019 - Wormwood Box: Curious Stories From The Bible pREServed 9CD, January 28th 2022
*NRT022 - Demons Dance Alone 3CD, June 28th 2024
===Vinyl releases===
*NRTLP006 - The W***** B*** Album LP, April 21st 2018
**Record Store Day limited edition of 1500
*NRTLP011 - B.S. LP, April 13th 2019
**Record Store Day limited edition of 1400
*NRTLP008D - Eskimo Deconstructed 2LP with CD, May 31st 2019
**Semi-limited edition
*NRTLP014D - Icky Flix: The Original Soundtrack Recording 2LP, September 26th 2020
**Record Store Day "September Drop" limited edition of 1500
*NRTLP017 - Gingerbread Man LP, May 28th 2021
**Limited edition
*NRTLP018 - Leftovers Again?! LP, June 12th 2021
**Record Store Day "RSD Drops 2021" limited edition of 1300
*NRTLP999D - Warning: Uninc. - Live And Experimental Recordings 1971 - 1972 2LP, April 23rd 2022
**Record Store Day limited edition of 2000
*NRTLP019 - Wormwood: Curious Stories From The Bible 2LP, May 27th 2022
*NRTLP002T - Meet The Residents 3LP, January 13th 2023
**Meet The Residents Sampler white label single-sided 7" single included with limited copies sold through the Cherry Red Records website
* NRTLP003D - The Third Reich 'n Roll 2LP, February 10th 2023
**The B*****s Play The R*******s and The R*******s Play The B*****s white label 7" single included with limited copies sold through the Cherry Red Records website
*NRTLP004D - Fingerprince 2LP, March 17th 2023
**Babyfingers white label 7" EP included with limited copies sold through the Cherry Red Records website
*NRTLP020 - Our Finest Flowers LP, April 22nd 2023
**Record Store Day limited edition of 1500
*NRTLP005D - Duck Stab!/Buster & Glen 2LP, May 19th 2023
**"Duck Kosmische" white label 7" single included with limited copies sold through the Cherry Red Records website
*NRTLP007D - Not Available 2LP, June 9th 2023
**"Not Available (Work in Progress)" white label 7" single included with limited copies sold through the Cherry Red Records website
*NRTLP008DX - Eskimo 2LP, July 7th 2023 
**"Eskimo - Renaldo & The Loaf Re-Construction" white label 7" single included with limited copies sold through the Cherry Red Records website
*NRTLP009D - Commercial Album 2LP, July 7th 2023 
**"The Commercial Single Commercials (In Mono)" white label 7" single included with limited copies sold through the Cherry Red Records website
*NRTLP021 - Leftovers Again?! AGAIN?! LP, April 20th 2024
**Record Store Day limited edition of 900
*NRTLP022 - Demons Dance Alone 2LP, June 28th 2024
==Upcoming and expected releases ==
*NRT??? - Animal Lover CD, autumn 2024
*NRT??? - Tweedles! CD, TBA
* NRTBOX??? - The American Composers Box, TBA"[The American Composers Box is] still 'in the works' - all compiled but... [complicated]. I think DDA and Animal Lover will come first now." Richard Anderson, comment in The Residents unofficial Facebook group, September 7th 2023 
**Includes George & James, Stars & Hank Forever, and various 1980s material not featured elsewhere in the series. Originally expected for release in 2019, it was delayed due to rights issues surrounding "one key element" of the set,https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/520640660773273603/782306797280428102/image0.png but was being finalized for release in April 2023."Greetings Eyeball Fans!", Cherry Red Residents mailing list newsletter, April 28th 2023 In September a representative of Cherry Red Records indicated that the box is now expected to follow the pREServed editions of Demons Dance Alone and Animal Lover.
*NRT??? - The Bunny Boy CD, TBAPost to The Residents' official Facebook page, September 16th 2023
==See also==
*Residents Classic Series
*ERA B474
*80 Aching Orphans
*The Mysterious Archivist
*Cherry Red Records
*MVD Audio
*New Ralph Too
==External links and references==
*The Residents on Cherry Red Records
*Buy Or Die! The Official Residents Online Shop
*The Residents pREServed series on Discogs
Category:PREServed
Category:Cherry Red Records
Category:Series