THE MOLE TRILOGY
The Residents, intent on not merely continuing to create a series of obscure musical albums, decided to undertake projects of greater scale and magnitude. The first such venture was The Mole Trilogy. This was designed to be a collection of six albums, three of the story and three of music. The story line followed two cultures through their ideological clash. The music albums were to document the two cultures’ music and then illustrate how it changed through the conflict of the two cultures together. Perhaps this was a bit ambitious. As of the publishing of this, only parts 1, 2, and 4 have appeared. There has also been one spin-off album and a world tour based on this premise.
The projects under the Mole umbrella so far include:
Mark of the Mole The Tunes of Two Cities Intermission The Big Bubble The Mole Show
The Story So Far The Mohelmot people live underground in the desert in gigantic ant-like colonies. They are primitive and superstitious. Music has a ritualistic purpose that supports their love of darkness and their belief in work. A quirky storm causes water to fill their holes and forces them to cross the desert to seek another land. On the coast they meet the jolly Chubs who seem eager to welcome the exotic “Moles.” Soon it is apparent that the welcome has more to do with cheap labor than true acceptance. The Chub culture as reflected through their music is superficial and pleasure oriented. Tension eventually mounts and a form of war breaks out between the two groups. As usual, war solves nothing. Time passes. The Mohelmot are forbidden to use their language due to deeply paranoid Chub fears. Racial intermarriage has created a new lifeform referred to as a “Cross.” A pop group of Cross youth named “The Big Bubble” creates a sensation by singing in the forbidden Mohelmot tongue. The singer is jailed and begins to see himself as the new Messiah of traditional “Zinkenites.” The Zinkenite wished to form a new Mohelmot nation. Truth be known, the singer is merely a naïve puppet of an aggressive Cross named Kula Bocca. In fact, Bocca arranged the arrest just to stir up trouble. The story abruptly ends, but there is plenty of basis for a dynamic conclusion, if The Residents ever get around to it.