Duck Stab! Alive!

***Duck Stab! Alive!*** is a streaming TV special by The Residents, produced in collaboration with video artist John Sanborn for the 40th-anniversary of alternative music program Night Flight. The special was released on the streaming platform NFTV (Night Flight TV) on June 5th, 2021.

The special was physically released (alongside its soundtrack) as a double 10" vinyl and DVD box set by Grand Chess Records on December 10th, 2021, in a limited edition of 3,000 copies. An even more limited edition of 40 copies featuring the 10" vinyl alongside the special on VHS was announced by Grand Chess in December 2021.

The special precedes the group's 50th Anniversary retrospective tour; Faceless Forever, which officially began in January 2023 after a series of delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

## History

*Duck Stab! Alive!*, described by The Cryptic Corporation as "a super slick video concert featuring all new versions of (the) classic album *Duck Stab!*", was conceived and filmed by The Residents amid repeated delays of their tour Dog Stab! during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2019-2021.

The special was the headlining installment of the 40th-anniversary special of the long-running music program Night Flight, to be aired on its streaming service NFTV. The Residents had been asked to contribute to the episode in light of their long association with the program. The special also featured contributions from musical acts Plack Blague and Def Rain, profiles of record labels Sacred Bones and Mexican Summer, and the documentary films *The Decline of Western Civilization* (Parts 1 through 3) and *Sun Ra Meets John Cage*.

Filming took place on May 20th and May 21st at 25th Street Recording in Oakland, California, and was directed by John Sanborn alongside director of photography Frazer Bradshaw. It was easy for The Residents to record the *Duck Stab!* tracks live in the studio, as they had already been rehearsing a number of them for the postponed Dog Stab! tour. The group performed all but one song from *Duck Stab!/Buster & Glen*, in new and (often radically different) arrangements.

In the special The Residents premiered new costumes, in a four-person line-up. The costumes featured eyeball-covered suits and full-face masks, with fedoras and LED lights above the performers' eyes. These costumes were also featured in the group's long delayed 50th Anniversary tours (Dog Stab! and later Faceless Forever) between 2021 and 2023.

Sanborn supplied video art which was projected onto a screen behind the group as they performed; these videos feature excerpts from past and recent Residents video projects, such as the music videos for "Hello Skinny," "The Simple Song," and "This Is A Man's Man's Man's World," as well as footage of performer Jiz Lee from God In 3 Persons Live.

The finished special (edited by Sanborn and Roger Jones) was delivered to Night Flight on June 1st 2021, and was released on NFTV four days later, on June 5th.

### *I Am A Resident!* 2021

To promote the special, fans were asked to record a video of themselves lip-syncing to an instrumental demo of a new arrangement of the classic *Duck Stab!* track "Constantinople" as part of a campaign titled "I Am A Resident! 2021." The fan videos were uploaded to YouTube under the hashtag #IAmAResident2021, with submissions closing on May 10th, 2021.

Forty-six of the submitted videos were selected by The Residents and John Sanborn and interpolated into the live-in-studio performance of "Constantinople", which closes the special.

### NFTs

On January 29th, 2022, The Residents announced the release of a limited series of "one-of-a-kind" non-fungible tokens featuring video art by John Sanborn derived from the *Duck Stab! Alive* special, celebrating Night Flight's 40th anniversary and The Residents' upcoming 50th anniversary. The NFT is split into four "pieces," with a fifth NFT containing all four pieces in an edition of 10 each. Each NFT purchased comes with a physical copy of the deluxe edition of the Melodic Virtue coffee table book *The Residents: A Sight For Sore Eyes, Vol. 1*, signed by The Residents.

The announcement of the NFTs and their value ($400 each) resulted in something of a "negative backlash" among The Residents; fans, causing Homer Flynn of The Cryptic Corporation to issue a statement shortly after the announcement asking fans to "GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK!", explaining that nobody in the group was getting rich from the proceeds of the NFTs and that the production expense of *Duck Stab! Alive!* had proven to be far greater than the Cryptics had been able to recoup, with the cancellation of five tours by The Residents within the previous two years causing a sizeable dent in the group's income. Flynn closed the statement by recommending, "if you don't like our products, please take your money and spend it somewhere else."

The Cryptic Corporation explained shortly afterward on The Residents' official Twitter account that the group had "no plans to continue" producing NFTs. Within days, the sales of the five announced *Duck Stab! Alive!* NFTs had closed, indicating that the project was canceled. At least one copy of the first NFT, "01 The Residents Blue", was sold before the sale was closed.

## Track listing

* Intro (0:23)
* Lizard Lady (2:22)
* Blue Rosebud (3:58)
* Laughing Song (2:17) / Bach Is Dead (0:35)
* Sinister Exaggerator (3:36)
* Weight Lifting Lulu (2:49)
* Krafty Cheese (2:02)
* Elvis & His Boss (1:00) / Birthday Boy (2:03)
* Semolina (4:11)
* Hello Skinny (2:38)
* The Electrocutioner (1:38) / Constantinople (3:49)

## *Duck Stab! Alive!*

### Label

Grand Chess Records

*Duck Stab Alive!* was physically released by Grand Chess Records on December 10th, 2021, as a limited edition box set containing a DVD of the streaming special and its soundtrack on two 10" vinyl EPs.

The box set was issued in an edition of 3,000 copies. Some fans reported receiving their copies a week before the official release date. Each copy came with a Bandcamp download code, allowing the owner to download a digital copy of the soundtrack. On December 9th 2021, the soundtrack album was released on streaming services.

The double 10" EP format is possibly a reference to the fact that *Duck Stab!/Buster & Glen* was originally intended as two separate EPs, rather than as a single album (although the original track listing was shuffled for *Duck Stab! Alive!*, meaning that the two discs do not correspond to the intended track listing of the original, separate EPs).

#### Track listing

**Side A (9:02)**

1. Lizard Lady (2:18)
2. Blue Rosebuds (3:55)
3. Laughing Song / Bach Is Dead (2:49)

**Side B (8:17)**

1. Sinister Exaggerator (3:33)
2. Weightlifting Lulu (2:44)
3. Krafty Cheese (2:00)

**Side C (7:09)**

1. Elvis and His Boss / Birthday Boy (3:01)
2. Semolina (4:08)

**Side D (6:56)**

1. Hello Skinny (2:38)
2. The Electrocutioner / Constantinople (4:18)

### Limited VHS edition

In December 2021, Grand Chess Records announced an even more limited edition of *Duck Stab! Alive!*, featuring the special on a VHS tape, alongside the 10" vinyls supplied with the earlier edition. This special edition is being sold for 400 EUR.

The edition is limited to 40 copies only, and features the complete special as included in the earlier DVD, with two hidden "Easter egg" extras from the *Duck Stab! Alive!* sessions included on the tape (described as "analog NFT bootlegs").

## Credits

* Starring The Residents
* Directed by John Sanborn
* Produced by Starr Sutherland
* Executive Producers: Carsten Hess and Guido Randzio for Grand Chess Records
* Written and Performed by The Residents
* Director of Photography: Frazer Bradshaw
* Edited by Roger Jones and John Sanborn
* Audio Engineer: Gabriel Shepard
* Recorded at 25th Street Recording, Oakland, CA
* Audio Mix by Eric Drew Feldman and Gabriel Shepard
* Camera Operators: Jason Joseffer, Tijana Petrovic, Alex Zajicek
* DIT: Tim Assavarat
* Gaffer: Frank Silva
* Grips: Ryan Moore and Mila Puccini
* Production Assistant: Danielle Bacanskas
* Photographers: Henrik Kam and Roger Jones
* Costumes designed by Poor Know Graphics
* Costumes constructed by Laura Hazett and Jamielyn Duggan
* Dance Master: Jamielyn Duggan
* Dancers: KJ Dahlaw, Caitlin Hicks, Erin Yen
* Contributions from Agrimorfee, Alice Michael McCartney, AreaaS4, Ave and Awair Kutzs, Bonnie and Morgan, Cake Boy, Carbaniol, Catscan!, Chesty Vulva, Comrade Squelch, Crapp, Dies-Ist-Meine-Zaehne, Dixon Wragg and Kimberly, dnmmy / justin, Electronic Sausage, Esoterica, Fickles The Clown, Gli Inquilini, Goo & Fatty, Gretnoid & JohnX, Jeff Kolter, Jessica McDevitt & Chris Delisle, Jonathon Lamb, Julez and Danny Riggs, Kingda K\_, kutzs kidz, LD From, Manuel Aparicio, Master B. Wallace, NyQ, Palo Alto, Radioactive Chicken Heads, Rhetro Zenberg, Schüniac, Silvio Martin, Sir Pasto Primero, Stefan G, strangelucid, The Brown Resident, The Head Weirdo (Jeremy X.), The LaBrakes, Thrusty Rhodes and Musty Scrhodes, TwistedRichie, velocipedjones, Wes Broske (WB), Z eb
* Special thanks to MVD and Cherry Red Records for all their support
* Dedicated to Hardy Fox, the original *Sinister Exaggerator*
* For more about The Residents visit Residents.com
* Copyright 2021 The Cryptic Corporation

## See also

* John Sanborn
* Faceless Forever
* *Duck Stab!/Buster & Glen*
* Night Flight
* *I Am A Resident!*

## External links and references

* NFTV official website
* #IAmAResident2021 on YouTube
* *Duck Stab! Alive!* on Discogs
* *Duck Stab! Alive!* NFT collection at Semkhor.io

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Facebook post by The Residents, April 22nd 2021
2. ↑ Facebook post by Night Flight, May 8th 2021
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Homer Flynn, "Homer Flynn (Spokesperson for The Residents) on WZRD Chicago 88.3FM" on Mixcloud, August 5th 2021
4. ↑ "Recorded May 20,21 - delivered on June 1" - John Sanborn, June 6th, 2021
5. ↑ Post to The Residents' official Facebook page, January 29th 2022
6. ↑ Post by Homer Flynn to The Residents' official Facebook page, February 1st 2022
7. ↑ Post on The Residents' official Twitter page, February 1st 2022
8. ↑ Comment by Andreas Ziegler, Ralph Records unofficial Facebook group, December 4th 2021
9. ↑ Comment by Andreas Ziegler, Ralph Records unofficial Facebook group, December 4th 2021
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Exclusive releases" at Grand Chess Records

**Side A:** **Duck Stab!**
"Constantinople" · "Sinister Exaggerator" · "The Booker Tease" · "Blue Rosebuds" · "Laughing Song" · "Bach Is Dead" · "Elvis And His Boss"
**Side B:** **Buster & Glen**
"Lizard Lady" · "Semolina" · "Birthday Boy" · "Weight-Lifting Lulu" · "Krafty Cheese" · "Hello Skinny" · "The Electrocutioner"
**Personnel**
The Residents · Snakefinger · Ruby
**Related works**
*Duck Stab!* EP · "Soulful Sax" · "Ow Boutthat" · "When Johnny Comes Marching" · "Unlisted" · "Santa Dog '78" · "Guylum Bardot '78" · *Duck Stab!* film · "Hello Skinny" video · *D\*ck S\*ab - 35th Anniversary* · Dog Stab! · ***Duck Stab! Alive!*** · *Duck Stab!/Buster & Glen Notebook* · "Duck Kosmische"
**Related articles**
Ralph Records · The Cryptic Corporation · Grove St. studio · Pore No Graphics · Graeme Whifler · Bridgit Terris · The Rick & Ruby Show · "Satisfaction" · *Not Available* · *Eskimo*‏‏‎