The River of Crime is a release by The Residents

The Residents

The Residents is an American art collective best known for avant-garde music and multimedia works. The first official release under the name of The Residents was in 1972, and the group has since released over sixty albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects and ten DVDs....

, originally released online as a five-episode podcast

Podcast

A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...

 through both iTunes

ITunes

iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

 and Cordless Recordings

Cordless Recordings

Cordless Recordings is a netlabel owned by Warner Music Group. The label was founded in 2005 by Jac Holzman, who also founded Elektra Records and Nonesuch Records.-Affiliation with Rykodisc - Present:...

' website. The Residents also sold a two-disc package of blank CD-R

CD-R

A CD-R is a variation of the Compact Disc invented by Philips and Sony. CD-R is a Write Once Read Many optical medium, though the whole disk does not have to be entirely written in the same session....

s to burn the episodes and bonus material (via the Cordless site only) for those who wanted a standard audio disc. Later, Mute Records

Mute Records

Mute is an independent record label based in the UK. It was founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller and featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Goldfrapp, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure and Fad Gadget.-Beginnings:...

 issued a standard audio CD

Red Book (audio CD standard)

Red Book is the standard for audio CDs . It is named after one of the Rainbow Books, a series of books that contain the technical specifications for all CD and CD-ROM formats.The first edition of the Red Book was released in 1980 by Philips and Sony; it was adopted by the Digital Audio Disc...

 version, without the bonus material from the Cordless release, but with instrumental versions of each of the episodes.

The River of Crime project was an attempt at a noir

Film noir

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...

-style of storytelling, with each episode being a different story that involved crime

Crime

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...

in some way, with the protagonist of each being a character who "collected" crimes.

Track listing

Disc 1

1. "The Kid Who Collected Crimes!" - 16:23
2. "Gator Hater!" - 14:55
3. "Misdelivered Mummy!" - 15:14
4. "The Beards!" - 17:07
5. "Termites from Formosa!" - 16:13

Disc 2 [Bonus]

1. "The Kid Who Collected Crimes!" [instrumental] - 9:58
2. "Gator Hater!" [instrumental] - 9:13
3. "Misdelivered Mummy!" [instrumental] - 8:29
4. "The Beards!" [instrumental] - 9:52
5. "Termites from Formosa!" [instrumental]

External links

• River of Crime on Residents.com
• The River of Crime (Episodes 1-5) on Discogs.com