Butthole Surfers- Classic or dud?

Wow, that's the most insulting thing I've ever heard said about the Butthole Surfers. Better hope Gibby doesn't track you down! I think I get where you're coming from, but the Buttholes were there first, and they were truly insane instead of just wasted brats. Nothing in the world prepared me for the live version of "The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey's Grave", the first thing I heard from them--it scared the bejeezus out of me at the time. Later on it became a bit more cartoony and easier to take. And by the way, if you see your mom this weekend, be sure and tell her: SATAN! SATAN! SATAN!

http://thebigtrip.hypermart.net/images/danceman.gif

Weeehaaa! I wish I just changed the background to black, but I know I didn't. Still, you can't blame me for tryin.

My favorite recordings are: Hairway to Steven, Rembrandt Pussyhorse/Cream Corn, Locust Abortion Technician, and Psychic Powerless Another Mans Sac. Haven't bought their last couple. Whatever happened to the album Brown Reason for Living? I remember seeing it on vinyl but I don't believe it was ever evacuated onto CD.

"Psychic Powerless", "Cream Corn", and"Rembrandt Pussyhorse" being the ones to search for.. always liked "Locust", but it's a tad overrated. "Hairway" and "Widowermaker" were great and quite underrated.

The Butts were also an underrated influence on a lot of current damaged/complex rock.. like Terminal Cheesecake, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, etc... (Sonic Youth were influential in the same way too, but they seem to get more of credit for it...)

(Idea for Butthole Surfers album title: All Things Must Pass Gas.)

I was supposed to see them again, but it was an all ages show, and the person I was going with kept saying we would have plenty of time, that it couldn't possibly start as early as I was thinking it might start. So we hung around my apartment getting stoned. We showed up at the door, and the guy at the door said, "Dude, the butts are playing their encore now," or something like that.

This thread inspired me to get out some of the CDs and listen to them again, and a lot of this stuff still sounds good to me. At the same time, it's not really what I want to listen to these days, though "I Saw An X-Ray of a Girl Passing Gas" should be a more widely acknowledged classic. I remember being very dubious about that song based on its title, but when I finally heard it, I had to give in.

I'm tired of celebrations of weirdness, too.

The really interesting thing about this band, for me, is the consistent in-joke referencing from album to album. They repeat the same phrases or explore the same subject matter as previous for a line or two. It's an on-going thing and it's the thin line that keeps it all "the same". Just a quick example offa WR: "Shit Like That" he says "I need another DOCTOR!" and "doctor" is sung/screamed the exact same way as off the Widowermaker e.p. where he goes "DOCTOR don't toucha me there, DOCTOR" etc. There's a whole bunch of these references/phrases if you go back and play your albums, you'll see it clearly. It's funny. Other phrases: "empty parking lot" (found in Negro Observer and Golden Showers) and "get down", a phrase which finally gets it's own song on WR. Anyway, there's a bunch.

-Boredoms fan

(I know this is just more of an indie cred/protest issue, but if you can find the used Touch & Go copies, you're a better man/woman for it (and slightly more rich). The Butts kinda did to that label what the ex Dead Kennedys did to Jello Biafra...)

shakey mo sounds knows what he's talking about, but i think youll be happiest with the great mid 80s trilogy material ("rembrandt pussyhorse" "psychic...powerless" and "locust abortion technition")
hairway to steven isnt quite as good in my opinion, and stay way clear of anything after that. also, i'm not sure humpty dupty lsd really is a good career overview, it's more an odds and ends thing.

also seek out CREAM CORN ep, hard to find tho.

definitely agree with donut bitch, don't buy from latino bugger veil!!

I remember geting super wasted driving around austin with my best friend who was a stripper at the time singing their version of American Woman over and over again.

Saw gibby around in his hot rod a few times too. The austin scene was kinda tight and we shared dealers from what i remember.

Locust Abortion Technician is a way of life = LSDmo.

But Amazon UK says it's been deleted. Should I just get Hairway To Steven and have done with it? (I've never heard HTS btw)

but the pcpep/brown reason to live period stuff is just as good, in a different way.

just get hairway to steven, you can't go wrong with that. then get rembrambt pussyhorse after that, i reckon

oh, high school.

Stupidity? Annoyingness?

Zoogz Rift >>>>>> Butthole Surfers

Also, Zoogz's music is vastly better than the BH Surfers' music and this counts because this is music that we are talking about.

QUALIFY THIS STATEMENT

Zoogz, on the other hand, is seriously talented at a Zappa-type level. And that doesn't just mean goofy complexity all the time. Like Zappa, he was also just plain talented at writing good tunes (plus arranging, having a really tight band that sounded good, etc.).

And what could be more direct than some of Zoogz's pronoucements???

No sound! What? The oscilating, slow burn of two drummers and a million layers of psych feedback with super low pitch vocals, swirling around the audience -- are you kidding me? They were loose in the best possible sense.

Purple people eater!

http://www.buttholesurfers.com/DoubleLiveMP3.html

Though you can still order the LP from them.

It's from the era when they had two drummers, the topless dancer with glasses and king tut beard, an out-of-control smoke machine, and were projecting car accident and sex change operation films into said smoke. So you miss the visuals. But it gets point across pretty well.

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), September 17th, 2006.

On behalf of naked vulcans everywhere, thanks, but what the fuck took you so long?

Agreed. That's the one I really hate. The follow-up is almost as bad. But the follow-follow-up many years later (Weird Revolution) is at least fun again. Pioughd is a great album. Totally fucking stupid BUT it has PSY studio version and that "You always get to be Iron Man" song, which is the most hilarious thing they ever did, except for Gibby drunk in the studio.

Humpty Dumpty LSD, Widowermaker, Electriclarryland (not that good at all; practically IWS)

I was lazy! I'd hear it all before, of course.

"...and I walked on down the hall, and I saw my father again..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ9lCXVLpiY&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=butthole+surfers&search=Search

Marmot, ya gotta get Humpty Dumpty if only for the rousing froth-at-the-mouth track "I Hate My Job", which is the only other tune they've ever done that equals "Suicide".

No, there was plenty of '60s US garage psych that was intentionally dumb, intending it as humor. And plenty of it somewhat psychotic as well - though not making a real big POINT about it like the Butthole Surfers. Also plenty of '70s proto-punk w/ garbage-psych aspects that was fucked up as well.

The only thing I can think of is that Spazz song ("Get offa the floor, boy, people gonna think you're a Spazz") from the Pebbles comp and another one called "I Wanna Get Back (from The World of LSD)" or something like that... but I can't think of any where the singer WAS the fool. They were usually talking about the fool or being foolish. Hope you get what I'm saying.

For '70s proto-punk psych: Debris, Twinkeyz, Simply Saucer

I didn't reallize Simply Saucer was '70s. Some dude gave me a cd-r of one of their albums a few years ago and I sort of thought, "well, some things never change," thinking it was the new generation's alternapsyche. I'll have to dig it out again.

I'm pretty much convinced "Concubine" is one of the best songs I have ever listened to.

That is all.

What's this rumor about a 2008 Summer tour of Europe with Teresa & Pinkus? Anyone hear anything?

Total classic, was into them back in the day like some were into the Grateful Dead. Had mad bootlegs of their shows. But they lost it on Pioughd. Still a few good tracks on that lp, but maybe its Paul Learys production, or the upcoming big label support. I gave up on them in the 90s. Still think 'Double Live' is a fantastic record, 'Hairway to Steven' too. Punk, psychedelia, and a sick live show, what more could anyone want? I hear some Surfers in Comets on Fire for some reason, nowhere else though.

Classic, but my view of them these days is as much colored by the whole thing with Corey Rusk and T & G as it is by the swesomeness of Psychic Powerless.

Strange how a band so uncommercial in its amazing heyday should come to mean being all about the money, whatever shit you have to release, whatever friend you have to fuck over. . . .

Classic - for 'Psychic Powerless...' and any live Buttholes show. Humour.
The guitar in 'Mexican Caravan' . FFS. I could smell the desert dust on these deranged fucker's boots trying to score some smack.

Saw Pinkus' HONKY in Austin about 5 years ago. He was the softest, most loveliest piece of shit going. Just had to put his dog to sleep. It was sad.I think I mentioned it before but it's really not that interesting. RIP Pinkus' dog.

Sorry _ it was Jeff Pinkus' dog. It was ill. He had had to put it down before gig.
I wasn't very clear.

Total classic, was into them back in the day like some were into the Grateful Dead.

I hear ya. their stage show between '86 and '90 has never been topped. they bottled up crazy and sold it like lemonade.

all those shows at the old ritz in nyc were pro-filmed. I'm patiently waiting for the day they slip out of the vaults....

mind-boggingly detailed gigography here:

http://www.jasonramke.com/bhs/main.php

from their forum:

"Paul will not be going on the European tour but will likely join for the NY show after the European tour. The only US shows (as of now) will be on the East Coast - like Philly, NY and maybe DC.

Europe - so far looks like Scotland, England, Denmark, Germany, France, The Netherlands and possibly Spain."

scotland!!! so, i will possibly finally get to see them as they never played here back in the day. the question is, do i really want to see the buttholes 2008 version?

I'm asking myself the same question, for the same reasons. Find I haven't heard ANY of their 90's output.

".....probably with a slight flange."

I didn't read this whole thread, sorry if this is redundant. I am, like many of you I bet, supposed to be working!

i think everything up to pioughd is total classic, pioughd is still very good although the magic had started to fade, and everything post-pioughd is crap, bin it. i think they decided to take the grunge/alt rock dollar in order to fund their other projects. and why not?

that jack officers acid house album is a complete mistake though...

OTM except the Jackofficers record was a joke, get it?

everything post-pioughd is crap,

Independent Worm Saloon, Electriclarryland and Humpty Dumpty LSD do contain a lot of great stuff, though. The only ignoreable thing they ever did was Weird Revolution. (Don't know about any side projects, tbh)

I saw them at the Marquee in NYC (that obsessive site marks it as 4/25/91). One of only two shows at which I genuinely feared for my life. I had taken a whole bunch of cold medicine (for an actual cold) and then drunk a 40 oz. of Budweiser, and was somewhere between coma and hallucination for the whole set. The crowd was a massively oversold roiling mass, the films were scrolling, Gibby was shooting fireballs at the ceiling...I was terrified and exhilarated, and will forever regret not buying one of their tour T-shirts (a b&w photo of a newborn piglet being given an injection with a giant needle, with the Newport cigarettes motto "Alive With Pleasure!" underneath).

I recently stuffed Psychic...Powerless...Another Mans Sac, Rembrandt Pussyhorse, Cream Corn From The Socket Of Davis, Hairway To Steven, Locust Abortion Technician and Double Live into my iPod after having not listened to them for about a decade. Brilliantly fucked studio work - I'd forgotten just how great. I'm revisiting Flipper lately, too - wish their second album had come out on CD at some point.

Classic, up to a point. When I was in college I had this little balcony off my bedroom. We'd go out there and blare records from my bedroom. Next door was an irritating little dog that really bugged us. One day, by accident, we discovered that when we played Psychic, Powerless... the dog went crazy; barking and jumping around, etc. So...needless to say, that record got played quite a bit that summer.

And no...I don't feel sorry for the dog. It was really an awful little dog.

http://www.buttholesurfers.com/tourdates.html

Butthole Surfers will be playing shows on the east coast and Europe this summer.
For these shows, Jeff Pinkus will be on bass and Teresa Taylor (along with King Coffey) on drums. This is the rhythm section the band had for most of the 80s and marks the first time this line up has played together since 1989.

Paul Leary has prior commitments and unfortunately can't play the European dates (he will be on stage for the New York City show and possibly more stateside).

However, fear not, our European friends. Joining the band onstage for all shows in the US and Europe will be The Paul Green School of Rock All-Stars. This mob of teenage geniuses will blow your mind, forming a virtual Butthole Surfers Orchestra when they play with Gibby and company.

Check back for more confirmed dates/ticket info (more European dates announced soon).

6/24/08 - Asbury Park, NJ - Asbury Lanes - get tix here
6/26/08 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club - get tix here
6/27/08 - Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory - get tix here
7/04/08 - Glasgow, UK - ABC1 - get tix here
7/05/08 - Manchester, UK - Academy 2 - get tix here
7/06/08 - Wolverhampton, UK - Wulfrun Hall - get tix here
7/26/08 - London, UK - Kentish Town Forum - get tix here
7/29/08 - New York City - Webster Hall - get tix here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Green_School_of_Rock

http://www.schoolofrock.com/index.php

No reunion shows in Texas, and only half of them with Paul?

boooooooo

Might have to go to that.

CLASSIC until they started to sound like a Goth band, thereafter DUD
-- DadaFrom way upthread, but funny 'cuz to my ears, a lot of their best stuff sounded goth nearly from day 1 ("Cherub", "Concubine", "Whirling Hall of Knives", "Waiting for Jimmy to Kick", etc.).

Love the Butthole Surfers. Paul or no, I wish they were playing some West Coast dates. (Wish, too, they hadn't been such dicks to Touch & Go, but I guess that's another thread.)

i love the butthole surfers because they just don't give a fuck.

They def give a fuck about $$$$$. At least some of them.

Which is fine. But, as already discussed ad nauseum, the way some of them have achieved this has burned some bridges in lame ways in the past...

Still doesn't stop Psychic Powerless from being one of the best rock records ever.

"Gimme MAH BACON"

(it's about giving head when you're six years old)

it's about coming of age
it's about learning how to do it
it's about learnin' how to experience things the way they ought to be experienced
it's about growing up
it's about licking' the shit off the floor
it's about doing the things that you ought to do
it's about being a butthole surfer
it's about doing promotional work
it's about
it's about PR
it's about all these things
it's about loving yourself
it's about loving your mom
it's about loving your dad
it's about doing the things
it's about going to the go-kart track
it's about loving everything
your pop, your kitty
all the things
the catfood, the little bits of crayons
the melted pieces
the loving friends
all the things you wish you had

GREAT song. Always creeps me the fuck out (in a good way, of course). That's the thing about their early Touch & Go material - it's just seething with raw sickness. I remember reading an interview with the band circa 'LectricLarry, and interviewer guy was trying to get them to admit that there might be something, you know, a bit unwholesome about a song like "Cherub". And they flat-out denied it. Course, they're famous for being assholes to interviewers, but I wonder if in saying it they really believed it. That core of real (or real-seeming) pathology dropped after Locust Abo, in favor of the "weirdness" and strange comedy of Hairway and what came after. Wonder if they noticed the change, if they really understood just how disturbing/disturbed-seeming some of the earlier stuff was.

the Butts always knew and know exactly what they were doing in the grand scheme, with exceptions where they claim they had to live off recycling bottles while touring in varying cities in the mid 80s.

I interviewed Paul Leary circa Pioughd, one of my first college radio interviews. He was really nice and easy to interview, actually.

someone's been to any reunion show and can report?

Paul Leary is only with them at the NYC gig. The rest of the tour is without him (as far as I know)...

BTW these guys have the most entertaining and hilarious chapter in the entire Our Band Could Be Your Life book. Laugh out loud funny.

This sure makes it sound awesome

Nate - absolutely spot on about that Chapter. Had me recommending the book just for that - even for people for whom none of those bands weren't their lives.

jeebs , that's why i'm no writer, man. What an ugly sentence.

i saw em with stone temple pilots in full kiss makeup opening for them..and then once at an aids benefit w diamanda opening th show..crowd pleezinn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7EQY6tgCV8..oh yeah flamin lipz opened as well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7EQY6tgCV8

duh

http://www.buttholesurfers.com/tourdates.html

"The classic '80s lineup of Gibby Haynes, Paul Leary, Jeff Pinkus and the twin
drumming King Coffey and Teresa Taylor will be playing all upcoming dates.
Get your psych on, fools."

Oh Fuck , That Leary is a great guitarustist.
first admired in this head with Lady Sniff and Mexican Caravan. Genuistist.
Another man's ballbag

An enemy of Corey Rusk is an enemy of mine.

"Gimme MAH BACON"

-- Ned Raggett, Tuesday, May 20, 2008 6:17 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

^^^^

I have a hazy recollection .Perhaps I've imagined this?

An old mate of mine had a video of the Buttholes live - back when even live videos were an effort to snag.

There was a hilarious bit with some square looking suited up guy ( a real bad eighties white suit at that) came on with a fucking tuba and started blowing into it real earnestly - Buttholes style.

Cheesus Christ -I pissed myself. We had to rewind time and time again.

Whatever it was, must have been transferred to DVD?

Blind Eye Sees All is their live dvd (recorded in 1985, I believe) - I vaguely remember a saxophone being on there, but I'll have to rewatch it to be sure

Yeah, it's on there. Tuba, white suit.

according to wikipedia trevor plays the sousaphone on "something" on the blind eye see all vid - that sounds right. gibby plays the sax.

reunion footage looks depressing. it would be cool if they had something new to say but it looks like a cash-in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8NCijeX6Zg

Well, you did pick a pretty downtempo track there, though. Of course it's a cash-in, thank god they don't do anything new anymore after the last couple of years... I'm still psyched for the show in Ghent on Thursday, old reheated stuff or not.

in Ghent?

phenomenal. miss this tour at yr peril.

Lady Sniff.

yeah, I missed the show in Ghent. (xpost and xxpost)

that was the weirdest show ever yesterday, ending in a (sadly) Buttholic classic,weirdest way, as Hayens angrily throwing beer at the soundman, getting arrested,stopping the show (about after 75 minutes), leaving the crowd pissed off and amazed.
(good education for the scool of rock kids...)

http://www.prefixmag.com/news/butthole-surfers-concert-at-webster-hall-ends-in-n/20322/

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2008/07/butthole_surfer_1.html

weird show. felt stiff at first (esp. "Moving to Florida" but mebbe because Gibby was reading the gibbyerish lyrics?) and i really don't dig the IWS-era psychobilly stuff that the school kids played on the most. that said, the kids were perfect for "Cowboy Bob" (horns and shrieks) and right before the shit went down with the sound guy, they were really getting deep into the good stuff: "Cowboy Bob" "Two Parter" "Graveyard" and "Cherub." was praying for "Whirling Hall of Knives" (maybe the only Rembrandt Pussyhorse song that can actually get recreated live?) or "Jimi" when it all fell apart. even hoped that without Gibby they would've come out to at least encore "Psychedelic Jam" or "Something" (since Paul sings that anyway) but alas.
and is it just me, or is it Paul Leary the one who's actually been under a rock and hiding all this time?

at least they played most of it.great setlist, although the mediocre sound and that ?! ending.(i wonder what other songs were supposed to be played)
Setlist:

22 Going on 23
Fast
Suicide
Moving to Florida
100 Million
Watlo
Goofy's Concern
To Parter
Tornadoes
1401
Graveyard
Dust Devil
Ulcer Breakout
Roky
Cowboy Bob
Cherub
Sweat Loaf
Jimi
Cartoon Song
X-Ray
The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey's Grave

there's no way they played "Jimi," unless it was 5 seconds long or something.

The best detail out of that whole story is Genesis P-Orridge running onstage to tell everyone to calm down. I would have paid double-digits to see that alone.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3481/3277979314_498991cbba.jpg?v=0

yep that's my kid

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:(

its a video of my 2yo demanding to listen to the Butthole Surfers (specifically the Double Live LP)

precious moments

Bopples!

other bands requested by name: King Khan, the Cramps

That dbl live album was the forst thing I ever bought on CD. I did so coz it had extra tracks. It was really expensive and a kid in a Misfits t-shirt laughed at me whilst I was paying for being some sort of sell-out idiot.

first.

ha i think i was that kid, dude

Bump because ILM needs more purple. And because "John E. Smoke" just shuffled up in itunes.

holy shit i can't even read this it don't render right on my thing. but yes bumperino. have a negroni they are very good. john e smokes!

entirety of legendary Blind Eye Sees All film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_r9aI7TWeg&feature=youtu.be

This might be only resonating with me, but was just playing the Revillos' "From The Freezer" and there are some weird similarities between the demo version of "No Such Luck" and "Waiting for Jimmy to Kick." Probably just random, but I wonder if anyone else has noticed that...

http://open.spotify.com/track/530jF89CkUEU1PaxTeDlCK

I was told that early in their career they appeared on the original People's Court being sued about some pointless thing and kept repeating their band name by way of introduction again and again. It really sounds like the kind of thing they would find funny. Has anybody seen this, if it exists?

there's no way that's true

it's a popular internet rumor, but there doesn't seem to be any support for it

This story was told to me in no later than 1992 by a guy who claimed to have watched the episode, so at least I know it is not an "internet rumor."

I love "there's no way that's true" as an answer though. Guess what, I heard they were really The Banana Splits before they were The Butthole Surfers too.

pretty sure you couldn't say the word "Butthole" on TV during the Wapner era

also Eddie Haskell was played by Alice Cooper on Leave it to Beaver

pretty sure you couldn't say the word "Butthole" on TV during the Wapner era

― a dense custard of infinity (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, July 2, 2012 12:52 PM (56 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i heard that's what the case was about.

See, I've thought that over and am prepared to astonish everyone with my brilliant theory.

Before you knew of the Butthole Surfers, were you likely to put those two words together?
Now, imagine if you say something like

"I'm Gibby, of the Buh Hole Surfers"

pretty quick to an audience that does not recognize "Butthole Surfers" as a word, they probably are not especially likely to hear the "bad word." And if they did, they probably would not credit their own ears.

What I recall from the story was that they were being sued about some typical people's court bullshit, which is why it sounds so funny.

the video's been taken down but it does look like the Surf Punks (different band) were on People's Court. maybe that's what they were thinking of.

http://download-video-coolguy.blogspot.com/2009/10/court-tv-surf-punks-on-people-court-tv.html

merged with the L-l-l-l S-s-s-s D-d-d-d bedroom scenes from the Blind Eye Sees All video.

yeah, i have to believe that the butthole surfers story comes from someone misremembering or "spicing up" an account of the surf punks' appearance

Oh well. The world's a duller place if this story isn't true.

I just want to put in a good word for "PSY" from the first bad Butthole Surfers record Pioughd. PSY is their Marquee Moon, their Stairway to Heaven, buried on the record that would introduce their "inconsequential period" in which their main talent seemed to become getting unjustifiable record deals.

best BS tracks:

PCPPEP (all!!!!)
Psychic Powerless (all!!!)
Cream Corn: To Parter, Tornadoes
Rembrandt Pussyhorse: Creep in the Cellar, Sea Ferring
Locust Abortion Technician: it's a unity, so ALL
Hairway to Steven: ditto, it's all great
Widowermaker: Helicopter and Bong Song, but it's an EP so just play it all

The first record has versions of stuff that ended up on PCPPEP, where they were done better. But there's other good stuff on that hideous thing too.

Oh, by the way, I found the Jack Officers totally yummy throughout, but alas I haven't heard that one in ages. A first class pop novelty I'd say.

Butthole Surfers are CLASSIC, possibly putting out a larger quantity of good stuff in the 1980s than anybody else.

Oh, I forgot Perry from Rembrandt. Doing the Perry Mason theme was even funnier than doing American Woman.

haha finally saw that clip of Shakey Mo's kid :D

was just about to add, what about perry?! but you rectify that. rembrandt pussyhorse = so underrated!

"Whirling Hall of Knives" is my favorite. Guitar is just so awesome.

I think I need a better stereo system for whirling hall of knives

Maybe so, make it happen.

I'm a huge fan of Independant Worm Saloon, it was my first record of theirs, a very important record for me, I understand why people like the other stuff better, but this is probably my favorite record by them even though it doesnt represent what they do very well. IWS just has loads of amazing guitar playing, apart from the last few tracks I just adore the songs.

I'm still missing Widowermaker and Humpty Dumpty LSD, Jackofficers album, Leary's History Of Dogs, P (the 1995 album with Johnny Depp, anyone heard that?) and I havent bought anything by them in maybe five years.

Weird Revolution has some bad things on it but the Gibby Haynes album is the only thing that really didnt interest me much at all.

I saw them in glasgow on their last tour and it was okay, I enjoyed the support band Desalvo far more, who were really heavy and I had saw them support Dinosaur Jr before that. I think it would have been better if they had played new stuff, because while I enjoyed it a bit, they just couldnt compete with their 80s performances of the same material. I really do wonder if they could get the spark back, maybe Kramer could produce it. I think if they all got together and just tried to make something really deranged again, maybe it could work?

What have they all actually been doing? I heard Leary was producing pop records like Nelly Furtado and playing in John Paul Jones' band.

Weird Revolution is so underrated and such a genius piss-take on everything, including the Butthole Surfers. I think of it as the Jack-Officers 2nd LP.

P is real mishmash of nice buttlholian moments and really bad rock songs.

There's a complete 1985 show from Trenton NJ on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Liv8WjWPBq4&feature=context-cha&playnext=1&list=PL6422179C8CE402F6

i'm going to listen to their complete discography in order today

i've never really listened to them much

I went to a show last night and the DJ played "U.S.S.A." right before the first band went on. I don't think I've heard that song in close to 20 years.

Not sure i've ever heard this band. Never got around to it.

Whoa, is this thread on acid?!

of all bands i don't really get where these guys were coming from

I loved them long before I got them. They're way more Texan than I understood before moving here.

Psychic Powerless, Rembrandt Pussyhorse and Locust Abortion are all unimpeachably all time for me. OPO: ''Cherub"

When Boredoms came along they kind of made me forget the surfers for a good 10 years, so thorough was their weaponizing/transcendence of their basic style. Also, the surfers drove their good name into the fucking dirt with that unbearable 90s shit. But yeah. They were once titans.

of all bands i don't really get where these guys were coming from

rlly? to me, buttholes = classic rock + punk + drugs + being "weird" (they saw themselves as outsiders and were damn proud of it). all that framed by a cruel sense of humor and an taste for extremes. kind of the quintessential late 80s/proto 90s indie-alt sensibility, imo.

edit: and yeah, texas-style, like ez says

Also: the surfers taught me to love Sabbath.

ums I envy you, you are in for a freaky treat

Bloody LeRoy: Barbecue sauce replacing tomato juice, garnish with rib bone. Invented by the Reverend Horton Heat and Gibby Haynes during the recording of The Full-Custom Gospel Sounds of the Reverend Horton Heat, which Haynes was producing.[16]

"She [amy carter] was wearing a psychedelic furs t shirt"

[longest sustained laughter of the interview]

Blind Eye Sees All might be the perfect introduction to the Surfers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW0mXU2mkgo

no i get it....just...i dunno...sort of a mystery like how did these crazed ppl get together and do this stuff? i just find them fascinating as ppl i guess, but i don't relate to them at all. at all.

but it's sort of morbidly compelling...not many bands were this art damaged in a idgaf kinda way.

basically the Butthole Surfers are jocks on drugs. I think Gibby was a frat dude but yeah "Texan" comment from EZ snappin kinda pegs it....like did these guys ever turn into Republicans? I could kinda see that....just a sort of amoral do what thou wilt kinda acid libertarianism run amok, ransacking the corpse of classic rock and psych shit

on rembrandt pussyhorse now

man "whirling hall of knives" is a fucking amazing trip

Way underrated lp tbrr.

This thread made me listen to Rembrandt Pussyhorse (through speakers, so my coworkers could enjoy it too) at lunchtime today. It really holds up.

It's the peak of the first evolution. The next few records got poppier, then they went into a demented butt rock stage most everyone deplores.

man this record is TRIPPING BALLS

they really stood on the edge and took a dump into the abyss

make shit like ween seem so cowardly

"Whirling Hall of Knives" is the best. Love that song so much.

they really stood on the edge and took a dump into the abyss

This is the best description of the Surfers ethos I've ever read. Kudos.

otm

hard for me to call a champ between rembrandt pussyhorse and locust abortion technician. while the former's more experimental and the latter more greasy, they're both about equally anticommercial. and trippy as fuck.

psychic powerless is getting slighted a little. it's uneven, but "cherub" and "concubine" might be my two favorite butthole surfers tracks.

My favorite is still LIve PCPPEP. First I heard, and I played it on the wrong speed without knowing it for months.

i understand why people don't like the 90s stuff but i think independent worm saloon is pretty good, i think this was one of the first ten CDs i ever bought

me too! though it didn't take me that long to figure it out. several of my friends have mentioned the same thing.

xp to ez

i'm okay with independent worm saloon. it's p great for what it is, but not really my kinda thing.

Whoa, is this thread on acid?!

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, July 10, 2013 12:21 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's so great this thread has gone all purple, cuz yeah, Buttholes = Drugs.

There's good tunes on the 90s stuff, but it's a different vibe to the 80s work. I don't mind it, but given a choice I never take them out to listen.

And I do think most fans of the band denigrate those records, maybe a bit unjustly, but in my experience most think they're pretty crap.

Hairway is great imo. Something a bit Thin White Ropeish about some of those songs eg X-Ray Of A Girl Passing Gas.

Late 80s New Years Eve gig I saw in DC: Cramps, Butthole Surfers and Dead Milkmen.

Wow.

Amazing how popular they were back in the late 80s, considering the vast uncommerciality of records like RemPuHo and LoAbTech (as I'm going to start calling them).

I only ever saw them once and that was at the Reading Festival, sandwiched somewhat incongruously between the Voice of the Beehive and the Wonderstuff iirc.

Only once for me too, at first ave mpls on the locust tour. This was before there was always automatically a mosh pit for every show. But there was certainly a huge pit for this one and it felt unhinged and dangerous to my health. The naked stage dancer was present and accounted for.

Haynes was a star on his high school's basketball team, and he attended Trinity University to study accounting. While at Trinity, Gibby was the captain of the basketball team, president of his fraternity, and was named the Accounting Student of the Year. After graduating, he went to work as an auditor for the accounting firm Peat Marwick.

Love the story of the dancer (Kathleen?) going to see a doctor for seizures after she had left the band and being asked "have you ever been exposed to strobe lights?" Her mental response - "you have no idea"

i remember the buttholes chapter in "our band could be your life" being pretty great.

buttholes = classic rock + punk + drugs + being "weird"

also: chrome

yes, that's where that story comes from xp

13the Floor Elevators + Chrome + The Residents + Dead Kennedys really. Shame the acid-fried craziness descended into fart jokes and Al Jourgensen collaborations, but that's the way it goes with most drug cases innit.

re: their politics, there's some open ridiculing of their peers leftist "principles" in Our Band Could Be Your Life as well that make it pretty clear their politics tended more toward the libertarian. factoring in their anti-pc-ness only makes this more apparent.

nonetheless, amazing band, occupied a bizarre space that doesn't really exist anymore.

the Ween comparison is apt to a point - these dudes were more evil, hostile, and generally unpredictable than Ween ever were. the jamband crowd was never gonna go for these guys, too many "bad vibes". They totally befuddled audiences at Lollapalooza (firing off shotguns onstage etc)

They seem like actual bad ppl not just nerds acting toughl like big black or Jesus lizard. Like they would probably steal from you if let them stay at your place

Most definitely. I always love when this thread gets bumped.

I think sleeve's strobe light story is actually Teresa, the 2nd drummer's? From what I remember of OBCBYL, the dancer wasnt much of a talker and refused to shower, so it seems kind of contrary to her character...? Just a Just how I remember it; sorry for bein nitpicky.

Ums i remember you saying something about Flaming Lips bein classic rock frat dudes who stumbled into a cult audiencr; I def feel this is in sone ways even more true for the Surfers.. Except that they were total music nerd/performance artist freaks at the same time. EZ came up with a great term for fratboy/avid rock strain of pigfuck tho: 'bro-hemian'

Anywats RPH is the only one of the 1st 4 LPs thst I havent spent much time with, and now I feel like,I really need ti rectify this, but I am p much a big fan. Also I dont hate Piouhgd...

piouhgd is tough. i don't hate it, but it's definitely the weakest of their indie albums, might even prefer IWS. for one thing, the production is horrendous, completely stripped of detail and intensity. worse, it sounds forced, like they're trying so hard to be all "hey, the butthole surfers, we're so wacky!" instead of just being themselves and doing it.

i made an edit while back, re-glued the jams arbitrarily broken into separate tracks (the 2 parts of "revolution", "blindman" + "ironman"). included just those two plus "hurdy gurdy man", "something", "P.S.Y." and "barking bogs". sounded pretty good to me, but still a low water mark.

Wasn't Pioughd their fuck-off to Rough Trade? I seem to remember it being a contract-filler so they could get started with Capitol.

Haha brohemian is perfect

The whole SST crew fits that too

Haynes: Nixon was a good president.

Coffey: Yeah, but he had a potty mouth.

Haynes: LBJ had a potty mouth.

Leary: He used to bark his orders to his aides from the toilet. I used to work for a guy like that at the lumber yard.

Is that from the forced exposure interview? I'd love to read that again...

starting off again halfway thru Locust Abortion Technician

got kind of exhausted yesterday!

this is good...i think i might slightly prefer Psychic Powerless but it's close...

it's from this, Jon: http://ngro_obsrvr.tripod.com/articles/pachuco.html

Wasn't Pioughd their fuck-off to Rough Trade? I seem to remember it being a contract-filler so they could get started with Capitol.

Following a final EP for Touch and Go—1989's Widowermaker—the band left their longtime recording partners to sign with longtime supporter Terry Tolkin at Rough Trade Records who had also brought them to Touch and Go, for a reportedly generous one-album deal.[44]

the band signed with capitol the year after rough trade collapsed.

didn't they fuck over corey rusk?

yes

"22 Going On 23" is pretty fuckin gross :/

nah backstory behind it is hilarious

(ie woman was a habitual caller to the radio show, made up different shit every night etc)

so the story was fake?

features a tape of actual radio call-in show (Dr. Harry Reubens' to be specific) in which a woman described being sexually assaulted - it's a terrifying listen, although as it turns out, the woman was a pathological liar who called the show every night - This Band Could Be Your Life

The guitar part at the end of "22 Going on 23" is pretty damn righteous ....

They seem like actual bad ppl not just nerds acting toughl like big black or Jesus lizard. Like they would probably steal from you if let them stay at your place

― "If you like the Byrds, try Depeche Mode" (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, July 10, 2013 10:14 PM (Yesterday)

this comment is a great testament to the quality of their art tbh. albini's ooh-I-said-a-dirty-word steez always struck me as more weirdly conservative in bent than these filth-bathers, who were pro-gay and pro-woman in their actions (frequently playing gay bars, one of the few early T&G mixed gender bands which was a very dude-ly label), if not their art, which to my mind was an exorcism of america's fecal id and not necessarily a reflection of their own point of view. yes, there's an openly savage nihilism running through their best work, and a v real scariness, but you could say the same about throbbing gristle or the birthday party or flag-era rollins or hunter s thompson or w/e. plus I was an unfortunate witness to the moment when the abyss dumped back on them - when teresa was assaulted by the crowd at the ritz in '89 - and in retrospect their backing away from the edge during the 90s makes perfect sense.

that said, what they did to T&G was unconscionable, and I coined the phrase "the buttholes are assholes" after a run-in w/ their organization circa '91. but the 80s underground is littered with great, great music made by ruthless assholes and/or prejudiced jerks, i.e. greg ginn, bad brains etc.

ps rembrandt pussyhorse rules

hate that song. would always skip it, still do. back in the day, i figured the caller for a voice-modulated band member or friend making a prank call, but that didn't make it seem any funnier to me. whether or not we believe the story, there's something seriously ugly about the joke, moreso than gibby's usual "touch me doctor" grotesquerie.

too weak for the butthole surfers i guess...

albini's ooh-I-said-a-dirty-word steez always struck me as more weirdly conservative in bent

otm

i was looking online earlier to remind myself of the details of the butthole surfers-touch and go falling out and this is a really balanced look at what happened: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/touch-and-go-v-the-buttholes/Content?oid=898923

...I was an unfortunate witness to the moment when the abyss dumped back on them - when teresa was assaulted by the crowd at the ritz in '89 - and in retrospect their backing away from the edge during the 90s makes perfect sense.

― truth bomb lawyer mean mean pride (Edward III), Thursday, July 11, 2013 12:08 PM (21 minutes ago)

jfc, never heard that story :(

Yeah wau!

I've never read anybody in the band talk about it, for pretty obvious reasons. that was the last show she played with them. she took an ill-advised leap into the pit, actually landed on me and knocked me to the floor. I don't want anybody's imagination running away with them, at the same time I don't really want to go into details. but it was ugly. not woodstock 99 korn ugly, but ugh why am I still even typing this

so uh change of subject - contenderizer is yr ilx hooked up to yr email?

listening to hairway to steven now

on the 2nd half of "Jimi"....dudes basically just talking over a Meat Puppets outtake at this point

"i saw an x-ray of a girl passing gas" is a really amazing song

always preferred the demo version of "jimi" from the texas trip comp... nb this may be a substance-related opinion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeJBl7xrwqE

hairway is kinda like the butthole's "up on the sun" i guess

iirc hairway was the first record they planned out and recorded in a studio instead of making it up as they went along at home. I like it fine but def something lost, it's more wacky hijinks than out of control crazy.

are you doing the EPs too? cream corn from the socket of davis is great (actually inseparable from rembrandt for me since my cassette had both), post-hairway widowermaker is pretty good too.

cream corn is the only thing that's not on spotify for some reason

just started widowmaker (it's thrown on the end of pioughed but i'm listening to things chronologically)

i guess grooveshark might have cream corn

Cream Corn is on Spotify, just not labeled. Last 4 songs on Rembrandt. No idea why it's called "TP Parter" instead of "To Parter", though I think they'd appreciate it.

haha ok well i already heard it then and it was good!

inseparable on spotify as on cassette world without end

xxp yeah hairway's songs had been written and honed while touring and then recorded quickly. on the previous albums the songs were mostly worked out as they recorded.

pioughed:

revolution pt. 2 - them chanting gary shandling over guitar soloing, etc you can definitely feel the self parody beginning

sounds like you moved on but this is essential hairway-era viewing

http://www.youtube.com?v=pVusQjMv114

er
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVusQjMv114

and yeah when they went from goofy badasses to just plain goofy is when the going gets tough

be sure to check out their career rarities comp humpty dumpty LSD, there are some truffles worth rooting from that trough

xp

"lonesome bulldog" - if there is one thing in music i would erase from history it would be punk/underground/indie/alt rock bands' "funny" country songs. a pox on humanity.

here's another classic hairway-era track, don't think this ever got an official release?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3l-wS5thl8

oh and this is one of my all time favorite buttholes tracks, it was on a giorno poetry systems comp from '87 or '88

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiIQXzBTyfk

pioughed kinda sucks so far

"hi, I'm gibby, and I play the soul of a dog trapped in the body of a man wrapped around the candy cane of reality"

you are in for a rough stretch of road dude

xp

maybe you should delay the inevitable by listening to the 89 double live alb, it's free to download from their site

http://www.buttholesurfers.com/DoubleLiveMP3.html

contenderizer is yr ilx hooked up to yr email?

― truth bomb lawyer mean mean pride (Edward III), Thursday, July 11, 2013 1:36 PM (4 hours ago)

well, it is hooked up to an e-mail account, but it's one i don't very often. will check in.

P.S.Y. is the only good song on pioughed IMO

on to Independent Worm Saloon

btw guys there's something on Spotify called "Humpty Dumpty LSD" but I can't tell what it is...album is dated 2005 but spotify is kinda weird w/dates

i forgot about "who was in my room last night"! first butthole surfers song i heard, 120 minutes whaddup

the wooden song is pretty good, god a pirate sea chanty vibe

Humpty Dumpty is a career spanning rarities set. Actually pretty solid.

P.S.Y. is the only good song on pioughed IMO

yeah, that's the best bit anyway. i do like the donovan cover & "barking dogs" (a bonus track), "blindman" is okay-ish.

"strawberry" is my favorite indie worm track. like "P.S.Y.", it had been floating around as a live staple for quite a while before they finally got around to recording it.

also i take back saying "i might even prefer IWS" to piouhgd. had a very hard time getting through the latter earlier today. IWS at least has energy, focus and a bunch of memorable tracks.

All the best stuff from the Piouhgd era is on Widowmaker and The Jackofficers Digital Dump.

be sure to check out their career rarities comp humpty dumpty LSD, there are some truffles worth rooting from that trough

xp

― truth bomb lawyer mean mean pride (Edward III), Thursday, July 11, 2013 8:03 PM (2 hours ago)

who was in my room, dust devil and tongue are all keepers from IWS

My copy of Psychic, Powerless... has Cream Corn EP tacked on the end of it, and the song To Parter is called Two Part on that version.

A lot of Google sites call it "To Partner" as well. And then there's the case of "Lou Reed" sometimes being known as "Comb", except that BOTH titles appear separately on "Double Live" so I guess they're separate songs after all.

Side A
"Moving To Florida" – 4:32
"Comb" 1 – 4:57
Side B
"To Parter" 2 – 4:20
"Tornadoes" – 2:36

1 Titled "Lou Reed" on UK editions.
2 Titled "Two Part" on UK editions.

"pioughd" rules precisely because of the verse chorus verse songs, the DI guitar sound, the alesis drum noises, the shitty casio strings. it's a "fuck you" to buttrock "extremity". reunion shows tragic.

it's WACK AS FUCK

and therein lies the beauty of it.

And then there's the case of "Lou Reed" sometimes being known as "Comb", except that BOTH titles appear separately on "Double Live" so I guess they're separate songs after all.

― Sir Lord Baltimora (Myonga Vön Bontee), Friday, July 12, 2013 1:40 PM (5 hours ago)

they're the same song

lou reed works in a beehive

"pioughd" was the first buttholes album i ever heard. put me off them for quite a while tbh. i like "revolution", "psy" and "hurdy gurdy man" though. isnt there some lame JAMC pisstake on that album too?

jeez watching the Buttholes do their cymbal fire thing (and any of their 80s party tricks) on TV shows in the 90s is depressingly lame in a way I can't describe

Maybe slightly more palatable at Lollapolloza or whatever

it's a "fuck you" to buttrock "extremity".

sometimes a lazy, halfassed album is just a lazy, halfassed album

and if there's any band i'm not gonna take just half an ass from...

You want the hole butt, obv

They should have split after 1993 - IWS should have been the last gasp

They don't suit late 90s/00s at all

re: Piouhgd;

1) the Donovan cover was one of my favorite songs for a while and was likely the thing that eventually that led me to go, er, deeper into their discography

2) I first got into them thru Hairway/Double Live, and Piouhgd def seemed like a natural extension, if a bit watered down by that point. The fact this is where Psychedelic Jam/PSY and Something had popped up, plus the aforementioned hurdy gurdy, kind of made it seem just this side of essential. Plus, I still love No I'm Iron Man, though def by this point Ween need not fear

this thread has revived my abiding interest to hear the P album.

I knew it was the end of an era when they played lollapalooza...

I think "play" is a bit of a misnomer. Way more of a noise terrorist set than when I saw them on Stairway. All vocal fuckery, shotguns, and ten minute versions of "Hey". It was awesome.

lol I forgot that PSY had singing over it

fuck this album!

I still love No I'm Iron Man

This track shocked me when I heard Pioughd, 'cause I was working at a lollege radio station in 1987/88 where onetime ('85) Buttholes bassist Trevor Malcolm was also working and making music. And I was listening to the station one morning and somebody played a solo recording he'd made a few days before, just freefrom atonal acoustic slide guitars and goofy overdubbed voices going "I'm iron man!" "No I'M Iron Man!" and so on - really ridiculous. But it amused me, and when I saw Trevor a coupla days later I told him how I'd heard it and really liked it. He acted really pained, said that he recorded the track while drunk and was embarrassed by it and had already erased the tape.

So years later I buy "Pioughd" and hear "No I'm Iron Man" and go "aha!" Maybe that track and Malcolm's earlier recording both derived from some silly shared idea that was going around during his tenure in the band? Seems plausible, given the halfassed recycledness of that album.

(Radio station in question was CJAM in Windsor, Ontario btw. Occasional ilxor peepee was a program director there at the time.)

jeez watching the Buttholes do their cymbal fire thing (and any of their 80s party tricks) on TV shows in the 90s is depressingly lame in a way I can't describe

naw it was ace when they did it on the larry sanders show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GmeD18ttWY

http://www.hark.com/clips/ywyyyxbdws-butthole-surfers-on-cb4

Master of Treacle is right. Once they hit the festival/ bigger stages all the fun of the stage show went out the window. In the 80's you were up close dodging flaming cymbals and piss wands in a club full of smoke, flashing lights and autopsy movies...Last time I saw them firing blanks was the big part of their performance?!?!

The Donovan cover isn't really a very creative cover and it's just good because that's a really good song. Their arrangement is just a half asst version of Donovan's
This was my first time really listening to this band and life is way too short for pioughed

(I just got a ilxor royalty cheque...thanks Sir Lord)

:D

http://www.windsorpark.info/september-2014-yard-of-the-month-jeffrey-king-coffey-and-craig-stewart-of-1705-northridge-dr/

:-)

Anyone hear the Melvins record with Leary and the bassist on it?

Sitting here listening to "American Woman" and thinking there should be more covers like this of big classic rock songs, that are neither reverent nor pisstakes

Am I alone in thinking "Cowboy Bob" is a straigh-up rip of the Sisters of Mercy "Floorshow"?

There's a similarity, but I think it would be pushing it to say it's a rip. I'd be surprised if in 1983 when they wrote it the Butthole Surfers had heard a then unreleased demo from a UK band that had basically zero presence in the States.

Book about them, Let's Go To Hell, came out a few months ago. It's not cheap on Amazon, looks to be well-done. Anyone have it? One of the few bands where I do kind of want to know what the hell was going on. Watched their '84 performance along with early Beastie Boys the other day...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bezWjn1rT1E

I often wonder what Gibby has been doing for the past decade. Aside from the live tour, painting and the occasional guest appearance. Wikipedia says he done radio, maybe he does that now?

I'm not sure I've ever heard of Leary's newer band Carny.

did any of the late 90s/early 00s noise scene acknowledge the Butties as antecedents? Been listening to them all day and the similarity in goals/aesthetics/styles seems kinda obvious

http://thequietus.com/articles/22036-butthole-surfers-locust-abortion-technician-paul-leary-interview

As much as I loved Indepedant Worm Saloon, it really does seem right that they'd go back to the Locust Abortion Technician way of doing things, if they do another album.

Re: Leary saying this is an ideal time to do another album because of Trump. "Lady Sniff" springs to mind.

I don't think I've heard any similar music in years, I miss this kind of stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFVUvKm7ZzY

I couldn't tell if the sound was coming out of my speakers or out of the toilet.

As Ramtha said in a toast: TO THAT WHICH IS CALLED LIFE!

A tooooooooooooooooooooast.

I can't even listen to this!

Did you ever not drink for like six or seven or eight years and then have some vodkae to brimg a situation to ahead finally and finally? Yes? We; that's what we have here/

It is indeed a shit or get off the pot moment. Jesus this fucking Lenovo keyboard all the keys are in the wrong place.

I had a Dell that last like 15 fucking years and I didn't buy another Dell!

Self-inflicted wound.

I am distraight about a classical Chinese medicine practitioner with the fakesteyebrows in history. Maybe I can get over it, mayve not. It's not ven being in love. No, betrayal. Oh, I work with emotions, all about emotions. I didn't ven ask for fucking emotions. Just an allergy treatment. But okay, you want emotions,here tyou go. Oh, wait, no that's too much emotions. I should have known betterfrom her photo. But she looks so much better without all them aekup really.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVemUWvl_z4

Native born New Mexican Taoist shaman with most likely Arab or Sephardic roots.

OMG shut this down no don't let him go on.

But it's not100% abiouyt that.Just 994 [eret

hey hey hey

because you see
you see
it's like this
I can't predict

anything

and all these Ice Queeen Aquariuzes with genuine Spanish roots, you knwo? Crypto-Jew or not.

Idon't know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVemUWvl_z4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVemUWvl_z4

OK. Exactly. I said ok I will drink the vodak I have said aside. I think it's going to be ok after all. Maybe more alcohol and drugs needed, like EVBERY FUCK ONE ELSE except Mormons and who knowx what they are really doing. Yes, everyone. The Palestinian who ran Jerusalem Foods in Philadelphia who kept arak or somehing else un drinkable under the coumner. Undrinkable to me. Staight. I do like arak. And M. Kominiarek was correc that i is the drink of philsopjhers. Doesn't really get you fucked up. Leaves you lucid. But today I am drinking dovbake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFVUvKm7ZzY

Lathy Acker talks about some sort of zen experience where she was just walking into cars and notdtying, and she wsn't enjoying it so her zen aster stod her to gbetdrin,/

I think I need to change my voicemail message.

Me and Michael Rectenwald: Allen Ginsberg connection. Unknown.

Didn't hear it from me.

Right, husband of Haco?

Hello C********** S******* and friends!

So anyway, blatant Buttholesurfersisms on that Melkbelly album I like, but I like it, and really they have largely been lost to history, which is probably a good thing. Something needs to be lost.

Really, I shouldn't have put my faith is someone speaking stilted Newagesque jargon, like my Gemini sister with the BIG ILLITERATE HANDWRITING (a la Orwell) had she not gone Calvinist. Fell in love: "converted" to Calvinism. WHO WILL BRING A CHARGE AGAINST GOD'S ELECT?! Holding her little red Bible screeching like some woman from China's Cultural Revolution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QggUzp5pPhE

Now hopefully the authorities will chill out. Like Albuquerque cops don't have something better to do than do welfare checks on me.

I didn't know that was by Melissa Manchester.

Headphones.

One day she's tearing into my shoulders to release toxins from my lymph nodes, the next: YOU ARE NO LONGER MY PATIENT. Didn't do anything but talk about self-destructive emotions. Never trust a New Mexican born Taoist healer with fake eye lashes that make her look worse than her natural face.

(Especially if she's probably ANOTHER Aquarius. I used to avoid those people what is wrong with me?)

wrote:

Most current email (post police visit)

*

Fucking bullshit. Oh, my tradition works with emotions. Emotional healing 24/7. She was going to fucking bleed me for Christ's sake, to deal with past emotionally problematic experiences. We talked about that. Now, suddenly, uh, no, you need to look elsewhere. My emotions are too extreme for someone who practices BLEEDING to deal with troubling emotional experiences from the past.

(And why did she respond to a copy with her note about the welfare check on it?!)

Probably none of this would have happened had I not used Sudafed this weekend. Makes me crazier, way crazier. MUST SEND MY BOSS'S BOSS EMAILS ABOUT FEELING SUICIDAL! That was before though. I learned to stop that.

Anyway, the Butthole Surfers are pretty great but all the grotesqueness and nihilism are a turnoff, except for right now like the old days.

Seriously pretty unfuckwithable musically:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPKP7LOBo68

Also, one would not necessarily expect Gibby to enunciate so clearly, yet he does.

I wouldn't say they were un-influential, it just got folded into other things, somewhat invisibly.

Stoli, actually.

I don't think I give a fuck about what I'm saying here. Believe me, it's the least of my worries.

Kind of sucks, she actually had gotten some good results, but I guess I will just move on to the people she referred me to though not convinced she didn't pull them all out at random. Still, they are somewhat obscure. Not Google first hits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qy0vs80T5M

Me: Oh, let's dance.
White salsera friend: you like this?

Bilea Valentin
Bilea Valentin
1 month ago
savage 90s

Have some extreme narrative clashing going on in my head.

Please vote for Melkbelly. Not breaking new ground but really well done.

I sent this to a work-provided psychotherapist I wasn't happen with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhh-XF01Ats

I think Body Music is seriously underrated. Really, come on people.

Granted, I didn't like it until a year or two later. But 2011 was the year I started getting electronic dance music somewhat (thanks largely to Tim F's praise for Tropical 2).

She was very insistent that I knew who Billy Crystal was but I didn't know who the fuck Billy Crystal was. OK? I was forced to go to bed early, and then when I could stay up late I didn't watch SNL.

So much of my getting in trouble these past couple years has just been about DEVIANT COMMUNICATION.

Well, okay, hopefully the worse that can happen is that I will have to agree to go to a psychotherapist. Fuck those people. Total fucking power relationship and they don't want to deal with someone who dares to question the Guru, I mean, shrink. Fuck those people. 99% of them suck ass many days of the week. The funny thing is, the studies basically prove that. But it's basically an impossible job.

And yet everyone is so confident: GET PROFESSIONAL HELP! Oh, okay. It's so easy.

(She was helping me with the fucking tui na. Why does that have to end? Fine, I would be more than willing to go elsewhere for emotional support, but she's the one who talked emotions.

Oh, men don't want to express their emotions during bleeding. She actually talked about that. The same. . . . one who now tells me I am NO LONGER MY PATIENT after I expressed overly intense emotions.

I'm the man who expresses my emotions and then I get a fucking welfare visit. Like, I am the most unmacho man around so don't tell me about how I might be uncomfortable expressing my emotions.)

Well fuck that.

I don't fucking care. This is just ILX. Seriously. Whatever. Enemies? Great! Enjoy the show!

At least I am not an anus unraveller. My professor for Systems of Psychotherapy used to like to talk about anus-unravellers. The students described him as irrational-non-emotive. Honors/graduate seminar. It was a fun class because there was this big muscular behaviorist guy who used to go at it at with this somewhat chubby Jungian girl who wore an army jacket. She was very Jungian. He was very behaviorist.

The instructor was some sort of Heideggerian existentialist who had a soft spot for Albert Ellis.

Total insanity.

I. Do. Not. Care.

And Aluna can go to the White House and worship Obama, but I still love her. Sorry, but this transcends dopey politics.

She made a song for ME. That's enough.

NO! DO NOT LOG IN TO YOUR WORK EMAIL!

Have some more to drink.

Those "heys" kind of Siouxsie-esque.

I hear it as "with a theory in our heads."

You alright man

Past their prime but not bad for past their prime:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE_MzjyC7lA

I also lost my hair stylist this weekend, but she was kind of rude and pompous anyway.

*

Man, I hope this works out.

But shit, this is Albuquerque. Hold a family at gunpoint and be let out the same week.

Why should I be locked up just for being a little crazy over the weekend and engaging in DEVIANT COMMUNICATION. (That's actually just my term but echoes of discussions about linguistics classes.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE_MzjyC7lA

Mostly alright. I will be alright as long as the authorities don't fuck with me.

They should really worry more about drug addicts breaking into people's homes and attacking them with wooden crosses:

ok what the fuck happened to that story? Censored? Maybe they gave out more info. than they should have.

This kind of stuff tends to happen in my neighborhood but not necessarily my block.

Somewhat of a tradition to post long drunken series of posts.

http://krqe.com/2018/01/07/woman-prompts-swat-situation-by-breaking-into-home-yelling-at-homeowner/

Man I'm so much better than people who do drink and drugs hahahahahaha.

I'm still on my first mixed drink. Just zero tolerance at this point and the elevation probably doesn't help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9ZqUWJZKyI

Baz Ghawanmeh
5 years ago
Great song.. can do without the Hilary duff pics though

Not the Azar Habib song I was looking for but okay.

I'm fucking between San Mateo and San Pedro (east-west) and Zuni and Central (north-south). Now go map where crazy things happen. Not far from there, I assure you.

Here's the Azar Habib song. Ridiculous drug:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ih9ky99hoU

Really, WTF is going here?

Definitely a Best Song.

The jump-cut at the beginning for one thing.

samklasvegas
samklasvegas
4 years ago
I want to love you where ever you are ... You are my candle lights in my holidays . Awesome!!

Exactly.

lock thread

so far off from the topic of butthole surfers and moved to a place of free association

if this is a veiled cry for help, i hope you can be alright man

Oh, for pete's sake. No veiled cry for help. Thanks for your concern. Moving elsewhere.

If you don't think Azar Habib's songs are a little bit coterminous with the aesthetic of the Butthole Surfers, you haven't got ears.

Plus it's a Butthole Surfers thread.

The Butthole Surfers thread is too chaotic! Shut it down!

Really.

I am so not me OMG. I mean, NORMALLY, not now.

<3 you rudipherous

You have not lived until you've read Kramer's in-depth story of the Butthole Surfers and Norway (in toto). Third of the three questions here:

https://believermag.com/logger/three-questions-for-kramer/

“He has told me that he has all ten of your records.”

“We only have two. Believe me.”

“Well, then maybe he is now dreaming. The Swedes are big dreamers."

Fucking hell.

A great read, thanks Ned!

"Of the ten or so times in my nearly sixty years that I have witnessed my life flashing before my eyes, Gibby was right there for eight or nine of them."

Incredible. There needs to be a book.

All 3 answers were just fantastic. I have had to revise my near life long idea of what Daevid Allen was really like.

But that Stavanger gig, OMG!

Thanks for the link.

Whoa. Why is this thread purple. Is this a flashback.

As good a time as any to note that there's a Kickstarter for a documentary happening -- already reached its goal and seven days to go, seems like it'll be good fare based on the people behind it:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theholetruth/the-butthole-surfers-movie/

i have everything by them!

Thank you! xp

and also thanks for linking those three questions to Kramer! what a story teller.

just something from 2017 I didn't know: https://superiorshit.blogspot.com/2017/06/how-artwork-fo-butthole-surfers-ended.html

on Kickstarter--Pledge $250 or more
"What Does Regret Mean?" Book
Get a special edition Melodic Virtue/Aaron Tanner's Butthole Surfers coffee table book, "What Does Regret Mean?" - the first 100 donors who will pledge $300 or more for this reward will receive a book signed by Gibby Haynes, Paul Leary, and King Coffey!

Anyone hear Leary's new album yet?

Born Stupid? Yeah, I thought it was surprisingly enjoyable.

Just leaving this here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj38l9n98aE

there are several clips with Gibby Haynes with The Paul Green Rock Academy on YT, from last Summer. All quite hectic.

crucial chunks of the Butthole Surfers catalog are now available via Matador on digital services ; LP reissues coming down the road (please look both ways). Stream / download : https://t.co/6uSVENanQq
more detail : https://t.co/mhmcRvgwwB@buttholesurfers pic.twitter.com/XeKtLQz9Ld

— Matador Records (@matadorrecords) May 24, 2023

crucial chunks of the butthole

No bonus material? It's just a (bowel) movement then

haha they removed Negro Observer

https://store.matadorrecords.com/psychic-powerless-another-man-s-sac

I just had a good look at the images of the vinyl, and it looks the the record covers all have a logo in the upper left hand corner now?

I just cancelled my order, these seemed like a good deal but not if they're messing around with the music and art.

I think that's just a sticker maybe?

I assumed that at first, but since when do they show stickers on the mockups with the record coming out of it?

Maybe it is, but messing with the music is my main problem with it. Part of the appeal was getting proper versions of these but I can't say that's the case now. And if they're willing to cut a song, who knows what other alterations there may be. I get being... embarrassed, maybe the Surfers themselves wanted the song removed. But for a B.S. song that has the word "negro" in the title, it could be a lot worse. Why not just change the title to "Observer?"

"I Wanna Be Black" isn't the best Lou Reed song but I'm not buying a version of Street Hassle that doesn't have it.

the remasters are very good though, heard the download versions and they're definitely improvements over the 1999 (?) reissues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WQ8p5A_jWc

the kids are alright

Bummer news about the director of the forthcoming documentary — while it sounds like some last parts of it had yet to be filmed and were affected by the loss, at least the overall film appears to be okay.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-tom-rebuild-after-eaton-fire

Per this story, sounds like some of that last footage was saved at least:

https://www.newsweek.com/filmmaker-tom-stern-recounts-losing-home-eaton-fire-just-gone-2013451

Have been meaning to get cds of the run of lps up to Hairway or maybe just before since i have that one. Did other tracks than Negro Observer disappear?
I think I just saw massive prices on previous versions which put me off.
& it is something I had been meaning to do for ages. Probably put on something of a backburner by being semi aware of shenanigans with Touch & Go though not having the complete picture.

I have the Forcedexposure article which told their history up to that point in some depth. Did mean to get the oral history cos those tend to be pretty great. Have one on the Meat Puppets and now one on MC5.I'm aware of there being a good one on Dinosaur Jr too.

I think prices I'd seen for that oral history seemed high from time of release.
I think it was an oral history anyway.

No other songs have disappeared on the new reissues, but there have been some edits and changes. I had preordered the first round of reissues and when I heard about Negro Observer being cut I immediately cancelled.

I guess the song was removed because it was thought to be racist. Speaking as a half Kenyan half English person mainly brought up in white suburban culture I used to quite like the song.
Is that me being under sensitive.

The purple background to this thread seems appropriate but is still freaking me out.

Leary has said that it was Matador's decision to remove the song.

"Matador was concerned that it was racist. Which it is not. It breaks my heart that the song was excluded from the reissue, as it is one of our prettiest songs. Sigh."

What are the other edits and changes?

Matador already fucked up the Gang of Four reissues. Awful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNWm-ntRocw
Not sure I caught it right but I think Pinkus said he and Leary do some of their would-be Butthole songs on Grow A Pear?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI5YdycnKXI

oh, it IS the kickstarter one - good.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theholetruth/the-butthole-surfers-movie

the trailer, and presumably also the doc, appears to be suggesting that Gibby is, to use an archaic coinage, a wastoid. I was around him fairly often in the 2010s in NYC, and he is (or was 10 years ago, I doubt he would have deteriorated since) absolutely on top of it. He might be a little chastened by his former depravity, but he's not at all roky erickson-ed out, which is what this trailer is implying.

What I think is much more pertinent is Albini's castigation of the band as "bad people," which very obviously is a reference to the lawsuit against Touch and Go. What those guys say about the problem now would be interesting, as it was initiated when they had further prospects as a major label band and were surely advised by industry lawyers and management. and since that state of affairs evaporated and they were left with a reputation as sellout pariahs, what do they think of the lawsuit now?

the trailer, and presumably also the doc, appears to be suggesting that Gibby is, to use an archaic coinage, a wastoid. I was around him fairly often in the 2010s in NYC, and he is (or was 10 years ago, I doubt he would have deteriorated since) absolutely on top of it. He might be a little chastened by his former depravity, but he's not at all roky erickson-ed out, which is what this trailer is implying.

That wasn't the impression I got. I can easily believe that he's sharp and on his game, as you describe, but he also seems like someone with a lot of secrets and an ugly history he doesn't feel like sharing with interviewers, camera crews, or anybody else, and he may have quite a bad temper if/when pushed. I found his presence very scary and intimidating when I saw them live (more in a cramped club setting than on the giant Lollapalooza stage, to be fair) and I suspect he'd be scarier and more intimidating one on one.

well yeah, see the Kramer interview linked above

he's not at all scary and intimidating; he's very pleasant and friendly, and I think he would be to anyone. Fatherhood contributed to his comportment, surely… I was around him due to mutual friends in NYC ten years ago, and it was clear that being in Brooklyn with his wife and son, or more importantly away from Texas was very very helpful in that regard… I interviewed him and the band in the 90s, and he was very quiet and withdrawn, maybe Roky Erickson/Syd-ish in his demeanor at this time, but this was down to his recent experiences in recovery.

So there's that new archival live album from 1992 and I had some thoughts:

https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/reissue-of-the-week/the-butthole-surfers-live-review/

.. I don't like it. Effects and screaming by the numbers, less than accurate guitar playing, it's like their hearts weren't in it anymore.

They had lots of great great stuff until 1990, fabulous bootlegs galore, but - to be maybe a bit too harsh - they should have stopped with Double Live.

(great piece by Ned, though)

Independent Worm Saloon is by far my favorite (though not very representative) and Electric Larry Land is really solid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCKpa0QrT9c

the David Crosby story made me laugh