Butthole Surfers - what is their best 80's studio record?

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Poll Results

OptionVotes
Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac (1985) 15
Locust Abortion Technician (1987) 10
Hairway to Steven (1988) 9
Rembrandt Pussyhorse (1986) 8
Butthole Surfers (brown reason to live) ep (1983) 5
Widowermaker ep (1989)1
Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis ep (1986) 0


Zeno, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 02:17 (seventeen years ago)

tough call

Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 02:29 (seventeen years ago)

Brown Reason to Live is about the only Surfers recording that I could listen to front to back without either skipping or programming out a track on a CD player.

earlnash, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 02:43 (seventeen years ago)

the answer is probably Psychic, it has the perfect balance between the insane anarchy experiments of Locust and Rembrandt and the more melodic stuff from Hairway and the ep's.

Zeno, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 02:45 (seventeen years ago)

though still, a tough call

Zeno, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 02:46 (seventeen years ago)

if you're including EP's it is a crime to omit Brown Reason To Live.

sleeve, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 02:58 (seventeen years ago)

oh shit, never mind, it's there, but out of chronological order.

sleeve, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 02:59 (seventeen years ago)

Psychic ftw

sleeve, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 02:59 (seventeen years ago)

Locust (partly b/c I know it best).

Mark Rich@rdson, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 03:15 (seventeen years ago)

psychic has my favourite songs but rembrandt is my favourite to listen to it all.

stirmonster, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 03:18 (seventeen years ago)

Psychic ... Powerless = best record any of the Touch & Go Central Standard Time bands put out in the 80s except maybe Songs About Fucking

dad a, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 03:26 (seventeen years ago)

Rembrandt Pussyhorse, even though nothing on it is quite as good as Cherub/Lady Sniff/Moving To Florida, etc. As a whole, it hangs together best.

dlp9001, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 08:46 (seventeen years ago)

always been a big fan of rembrandt... but I had the cassette version with cream corn tacked on at the end and I still have a hard time thinking of the album without those tracks. agree that it's more low-key but also a more consistent listen than any of the others, it really works as an album.

I anticipate a pretty even spread between psychic/rembrandt/locust, and assume locust is going to take it.

Edward III, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 12:57 (seventeen years ago)

My CD of Psychic... has Cream Corn EP tacked on the end, so I'm used to it being on that one! They renamed a couple of the songs as well so I'm used to To Parter being called Two Part. Which is one of my favourite songs of theirs. If I could vote for that CD combo I probably would, otherwise I guess Locust Abortion Technician takes it.

Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 13:07 (seventeen years ago)

The first EP. But their funniest is definitely Locust Abortion Technician - "Sweat Loaf," "Kuntz." Major lolz.

Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 13:14 (seventeen years ago)

All of these are great! Could vote for any one of these, thought about Widowermaker but went with Hairway in the end.

StanM, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 13:17 (seventeen years ago)

I don't think there's a bad song on any of these. Hell of an impressive run.

dad a, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 13:31 (seventeen years ago)

I went with the initial EP because my introduction to the Surfers was PCPPEP, and my love for those songs is strong. I'd take the live versions over the studio ones, but it is such a minor quibble.

Really amazing run, as dad a said.

EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 14:10 (seventeen years ago)

Well, at least one vote in for Hairway -- not necessarily because I'm 100% convinced it's the best, but because I strongly believe that any album with a song about seeing an X-ray of a girl passing gas deserves to win SOMETHING. This may not be the best rationale, I admit.

Sean Carruthers, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 14:19 (seventeen years ago)

Ah, I see Stan beat me to it. Strength in numbers. Hairway is gonna be the sleeper fave.

Sean Carruthers, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 14:20 (seventeen years ago)

"Locust" just ahead of "Psychic"

Tom D., Tuesday, 22 July 2008 14:21 (seventeen years ago)

Why is this limited to the '80s? It's not like there's an unmanageable quantity of albums/EPs up there...

Oh well, makes no difference: P...P...AMC is my 6th favourite record of that entire '80s. Not a bad song in the bunch, and none of 'em sound alike, really. I love how the flanging and fly's-ear vocals and bodily-fluid FX are employed as instruments in their own right.

Really, though, I don't think these guys (and girl) released a bad cut through the entirety of the '80s.

Myonga Vön Bontee, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 15:57 (seventeen years ago)

"Why is this limited to the '80s? "

from pioghed and on, it's a total decline

Zeno, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 16:10 (seventeen years ago)

Independent Worm Saloon had its moments...

stevie, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 16:17 (seventeen years ago)

Hairway

but LAT close second

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 16:20 (seventeen years ago)

i agree, but in any case, non of those 90's-00's records would win and it's tougher and tighter contest between the 80's records, which are all great more or less.
xpost

Zeno, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 16:31 (seventeen years ago)

hairway - my problem with this record is mainly side b - which is good but not as good as the remarkeble side a.

Zeno, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 16:32 (seventeen years ago)

Come on, it contains songs like

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0e/Butthole_Hairway_7.jpg

StanM, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 16:41 (seventeen years ago)

Locust Abortion Technician by some margin for me, and it's the only one I can see me digging out, though Psychic . . has some good stuff on it.

Soukesian, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 17:02 (seventeen years ago)

1. Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac (1985)
2. Butthole Surfers (brown reason to live) ep (1983)
3. Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis ep (1986)

I could easily switch # 1 and #2. (Live PCPPEP would be up there too.) Cream Corn is a distant third (or fourth, if you'd included that first live EP); the stuff after that never seemed all that great to me.

xhuxk, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 17:58 (seventeen years ago)

Went with Psychic...Powerless as it contains several of my all-time favorite BHS tracks (Concubine, Cherub, Dum Dum, Cowboy Bob) as well as a couple of the most iconic (Lady Sniff, Butthole Surfer). And 'cuz that's where I came in.

Locust Abortion Technician seems more interesting and "important", somehow (maybe just 'cuz it's so damn hard to deal with), but it's got fewer stand-alone GREAT songs. So it comes in second. Third place probably winds up a tie between Brown Reason, Cream Corn and Hairway.

contenderizer, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 19:41 (seventeen years ago)

Psychic Powerless. It was the first thing I heard - it did my head in!

Contenderizer(xpost) sums it up perfectly but i would add Mexican Caravan - that was almost a standard punk rock tune

Fer Ark, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 20:13 (seventeen years ago)

hi! i have the old blast first version of Locust Abortion and was wondering if the new remastered version is really good, or just sound the same and there is no need of replace it. thanks

minerva estassi, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 23:39 (seventeen years ago)

Between Psychic and Locust.
Psychic, because "Concubine" personifies the band for me

Ivan, Wednesday, 23 July 2008 00:19 (seventeen years ago)

PSYCHIC! Not a bad song on it. For you people who didn't vote Psychic, what is your reasoning? Just wondering. I think their others are pretty spotty (Hairway possibly excluded) but still undeniably great. One of my favorite bands (this period, at least).

Reatards Unite, Wednesday, 23 July 2008 00:44 (seventeen years ago)

Rembrandt is just a weird weird album, and in very weird ways. I can kind of understand how someone would come to write, say, "Lady Sniff," but have no idea how you wake up in the middle of the night with the idea for "Perry." Just different shades of weirdness, I guess, and Rembrandt has always struck me as stranger. I can think of stuff that sounds vaguely like Psychic, but I don't think I've ever heard another album that sounds like any part of Rembrandt.

dlp9001, Wednesday, 23 July 2008 00:55 (seventeen years ago)

what is your reasoning?

my reasoning is that i prefer listening to "rembrandt pussy horse". if someone were to ask me which buttholes album to buy i would recommend "psychic.." in a second. it contains my favourite song by them, one of my favourite songs by anyone in fact in "cherub", but the album is slightly let own by the production which makes it a hard album to listen to all the way through. the production on "rembrandt" was a giant leap forward (the drums on "american woman"!!!) and overall it's an easier album to enjoy in one sitting. perhaps it's their MOR album?

stirmonster, Wednesday, 23 July 2008 00:59 (seventeen years ago)

I can think of stuff that sounds vaguely like Psychic,

Which ones, for instance? Genuine question, by the way

Ivan, Wednesday, 23 July 2008 01:03 (seventeen years ago)

i think dlp9001 is right. there is stuff on psychic that wouldn't sound out of place on a flipper or savage republic album bur rembrandt is pretty much out there on its own.

stirmonster, Wednesday, 23 July 2008 01:16 (seventeen years ago)

Chrome?
xpost

Zeno, Wednesday, 23 July 2008 03:09 (seventeen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

ILX System, Friday, 25 July 2008 23:01 (seventeen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

ILX System, Saturday, 26 July 2008 23:01 (seventeen years ago)

YES YES YES FUCKIN LEAPING AROUND THE ROOM TO THE VICTORY, FIRES BURNING, BABIES SCREAMING, SURGERY GONE TITS UP
I HATE MY FUCKING JOB

Fer Ark, Saturday, 26 July 2008 23:05 (seventeen years ago)

I missed out on this poll, but the results are exactly how I would have rated them.

rockapads, Monday, 28 July 2008 07:47 (seventeen years ago)

22 Going on 23 was the first song I heard by them, on some public radio show in Houston when I was a kid. It's still one of my favorite songs to throw into noisy mix tapes, since it doesn't automatically seem like the Buttholes.

rockapads, Monday, 28 July 2008 07:59 (seventeen years ago)


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