In January, 1990, ECTO Tapes of Oklahoma City began circulating requests that read:

“Yo Four Eyes! ECTO Tapes iz putting together a Compilation of Residents cover songs. So send those eyeball songs on Hi-Bias Chrome tape now! “

The members of Herd Of The Ether Space were all fans of this heroic avant garde ensemble, and, naturally, they rushed to conjure up a contribution for this compilation project. On February 27th, 1990, Charles Rice Goff III, Killr “Mark” Kaswan, and Robert Silverman recorded a version of “Happy Home,” one of the pieces from the Residents album: “The Tunes Of Two Cities.” The HOTES interpretation is a seven-and-a-half-minute-long collage of randomized variants of the simple themes of the original song, played on Kaswan’s cello, Silverman’s digital synthesizer, and Goff’s electronic guitar. Goff sent the recording off to ECTO lickedy split. (Goff also submitted an ancient –ING tape-looped cover version of the Residents “Smelly Tongues” for the compilation).

Five years later, ECTO finally released a gargantuan three-cassette production called: “The Residents Unmasked.” This project has earned a somewhat mythical status in the home recording world since its release. The Residents themselves eventually approved of the production, and their Ralph Records recording label offered copies for sale through its “Buy Or Die” catalogs.

Since the time between the original recording and the ECTO release was rather lengthy, a shorter variant mix of the HOTES homage to “Happy Home” was created and included on the 1993 Taped Rugs compilation cassette album entitled: “Fjaern,” which was co-released in Norway by Jan Bruun’s Hypertonia World Enterprises.

Here Taped Rugs presents both versions (the ECTO first, followed by the Fjaern).

THE AUDIO COMPONENT OF THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN REMOVED TO ALLOW MORE EPISODES IN THIS SERIES TO BE POSTED. It will be reposted online at some point during the next few months, stay tuned.