Music / Duck Stab! / Buster & Glen

Here I come, Constantinople. Here I come, Constantinople. I am coming, Constantinople, Here I come.

Skinny found a "Hello Dolly" record in the hall. He sold it to a truck driver in the fall.

Duck Stab! / Buster & Glen (later known as just Duck Stab!) is the fifth studio album by Avant-Garde Music band The Residents. It was meant to be released in two parts, hence the name. The first part, Duck Stab! was released on a 7" record, and the actual music aside, the record sounded about as well as sixteen minutes of audio does on a format meant for six. Thus, the band rereleased it and the second part, Buster & Glen, as two sides of an LP. Only one issue made since has released them as two EPs.

In 2012 (the 35th anniversary of the original Duck Stab EP), The Resident's made an alternate version album of the album called D*ck S*ab. In 2020, the band announced the Dog Stab! tour, combining material from this and the band's most recent album, Metal, Meat & Bone. However, when the COVID-19 Pandemic forced the band to delay and cancel nearly all the tour's American dates, the band adapted the Duck Stab portion into the concert special Duck Stab Alive! for the Night Flight Plus service. When COVID restrictions loosened, Dog Stab! was retooled into Faceless Forever, a Milestone Celebration of the band's fiftieth anniversary with material spanning their entire history.

Tracklist:

Side one: Duck Stab

1. "Constantinople" (2:23)
2. "Sinister Exaggerator" (3:28)
3. "The Booker Tease" (1:04)
4. "Blue Rosebuds" (3:08)
5. "Laughing Song" (2:12)
6. "Bach Is Dead" (1:12)
7. "Elvis and His Boss" (2:29)

Side two: Buster & Glen

1. "Lizard Lady" (1:54)
2. "Semolina" (2:48)
3. "Birthday Boy" (2:41)
4. "Weight-Lifting Lulu" (3:11)
5. "Krafty Cheese" (1:59)
6. "Hello Skinny" (2:41)
7. "The Electrocutioner" (3:20)

The Troper Tease:

• Broken Record: "Don't believe in me, don't believe in me, don't believe in me..."
• Cover Version: "Sinister Exaggerator" is covered by Primus on their 1992 EP Miscellaneous Debris. The songs "Constantinople" and "Hello Skinny" were released as a CD single by Primus and are also included as bonus tracks on the 2002 reissue of Frizzle Fry.
• Grief Song: "Weight-Lifting Lulu"—with the added wrinkle that the mourning speaker is of two minds about the subject, and may have even had a hand in her death.
• Instrumental: "The Booker Tease".
• Laughing Mad: "The Laughing Song" has this in the background.
• Minimalistic Cover Art: Duck Stab! features a man stabbing a duck with a knife, in a black background.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The band's baritone singer, typically known for his loud, boisterous delivery, delivers a more somber, subdued tone on the mournful "Weight-Lifting Lulu" and the ominous "Krafty Cheese."
• Pun-Based Title: "The Booker Tease" is a pun on Booker T. Jones, front-man of the instrumental soul group Booker T & The M.G.'s.
  • "Krafty Cheese" is a pun on Kraft cheese and the fact that the group thought the song sounded like "cheesy Kraftwerk".
• Step Up to the Microphone: While the Singing Resident's namesake role had been pretty much decided upon by then, all four bandmates each appear in at least two songs each. Also inverted on "The Booker Tease," on which the Singing Resident instead plays saxophone.
• Surreal Music Video: "Constantinople" and "Hello Skinny".
• Vocal Evolution: All four members' singing styles had changed a bit from Not Available, save for, ironically, the Singing Resident's.
• Word Salad Lyrics: The lyrics were picked for how they sounded first and what they meant second. This goes to its furthest extreme in "The Laughing Song," which is grammatically correct, but complete nonsense otherwise.