First put online on the Head Heritage website in 2004
To say that the world (well, okay...my world) needed more of the completely fried thoughts, sonic actions and sheer mental mayhem of the Buttholes, in the mid-1980s, is putting it mildly.
Back in 1977 however, there were two Texans attending college in San Antonio, these fine young fellows were one Gibson Haynes and one Paul Leary, who would meet and start sewing the demon-seeds that would burst out of the pods in 1981, not before Haynes emerged as a fully fledged accountant!
But(t)....Haynes and Leary had decided to travel down the chemical brick road to yet more loud music and lots more fun!
Moving from group names such as 'Vodka Family Winstons', 'Ashtray Baby Heads' and 'Nine Foot Worm Makes Home Food', they settled on the Butthole Surfers via a radio announcer who had mistaken a song title to be the groups name. The song name apparently came from an irrate spectator at an early show who leapt onstage and shouted:
"You're all a bunch of butthole surfers!".
They had a more full-bodied (or should I say 'out of bodied') feel than all the other ensembles in the U.S. Hardcore scene of the time.
There was a lot brewing in these scrambled but strangely organised brains. A 10 track cassette release then surfaced in 1982.
They soon attracted lots of attention, and Jello Biafra then took them under his wing, not to mention his Alternative Tenacles, which released the 'Butthole Surfers EP' (aka 'Brown Reason To Live') in 1983 and the raucous 'Live PCPPEP' in '84.
After getting a deal with Touch and Go, in 1985 they would release the album "Psychic....Powerless...Another Man's Sac" and EP "Cream Corn From The Socket Of Davis". This EP however, would be more in the direction of their next opus, 'Rembrandt Pussy Horse'.
Group members came and went, until they settled with the line-up of: Gibby Haynes (Vocals, Electronics, Guitar), Paul Leary (Guitar, Bass, Devices, Keyboards), Paul 'King Koffee' Coffey (Drums,Perc.), Jeff 'Tooter' Pinkus (Bass Guitar- but doesn't play on this album. Kramer-of Shimmy Disc / Bongwater fame was drafted in.) and the frail acid-soaked remains of Theresa 'Nervosa' Taylor (Drums,Perc.).
Theresa would leave the line-up in late 1985.
'Rembrant Pussy Horse' was a galvanising album for the Buttholes.
After unleashing the frazzled, sonorous and literally mind-blowing evil-psychedelic country punked mayhem in their first couple of years, this album saw a mellower, but no less exciting set of glorious tracks.
Side One:
"Creep In The Cellar"- is very folk-styled and quite startling
considering their usual head-in-the-sonic-frying pan approach.
By the opening piano chords, for a second you think they're going to launch into a version of Neil Young's 'Heart Of Gold'!.
"There's a creep in the cellar that I'm gonna let in
there's a hole in his brain where his mind should have been
when he starts talkin' backwards your head starts to spin..."
Nice violin playing too. Legend has it that they recorded this track on a used reel of tape, left behind by an anonymous group of country musicians who couldn't afford to pay the recording fee, so the Buttholes decided to leave the violin in there.......a happy accident indeed.
"Sea Ferring"- This is one of their many styles of song that I like to call 'Butt Shanty'. You can't say 'Sea Shanty', as it's not about the sea of course, but the feel of these type of songs that they sometimes have is even more crazy than stuff like 'Mexican Caravan' from 'Powerless' or later numbers like 'I Saw An X-Ray Of A Girl Passing Gas' from "Hairway To Steven".
Very mellow again (for them) with basic drums, bass guitar and slightly tremolo-effected guitar and as ever, some great lyrics:
"Like a tickworm, like a seahorse, like a graveyard, like a girlfriend,
like a tissue, like a car-port, like a brick-wall... Like a Dream!...
...Waiting TO BE!!......"
As if your head hadn't started to spin already, they then launch into a brilliant but crooked version of The Guess Who's -"American Woman", a U.S. chart topper from 1970.
This must be one of the best if not craziest covers of all time.
After Leary starts solo with the main chords from the song, only to drop out to let a pounding beat of processed drums bend your ears.
At the time in the U.K., DJ John Peel was playing lots of the heavy 'electro' tracks, the likes of T La Rock's 'Breakin' Bells', when that type of sound was new, dangerous and exciting.
So hearing this version of 'American Woman' with the heavy 'in vogue' beat coupled with Leary's excellent sustain guitar, was a wild ear-opener...oh Paul Leary.....well it's been said before I know...but this man is a fantastic player!!...zany, poetic, proficient, less is more, more is less...GENIUS!
The track also features a great bit where some percussion is sampled then processed and laid over the top of the brazen rhythm, but then gradually starts to slow down, melting into the madness.
Certain words of the original song are picked out by psychotic female bursts while Gibby counter shouts through his megaphone to ease her plight.
It's like a mad scene from a protest march where the whole town has been spiked-
....."American Woman!.....sit still please!!"
"Waiting For Jimmy To Kick"
Drums, Piano and some insane babbling, laughing and throat-gurning from Gibby. Blocks of his vocals sampled and twisted to new lengths that would start to bring about the infamous...'Gibbytronics'.
He would have a couple of Sampler-Pedals and other electronic sundries like delay units etc. and be able to alter his vocals (in real-time) with fantastic results that would become an integral part of the Butthole's psychedelic canon (Gibby had been using these techniques for quite a while).
"Strangers Die"
A very eerie, haunting but thought-provoking recording that features great hammond organ (possibly played by Kramer) and marvellous gibbytronics and deep bubbling mud sounds. Gibby's mutant cries of "strangers...DIE EVERYDAY", probably gets the message across more to the point than anyone strumming an acoustic guitar and trying to sound meaningful.
Side Two:
This second side comes crashing in with "Perry".
Flailing drums, driving bass, sweeping hammond organ, guitar splinters...
Apparently it's a skit on the 'english public schoolboy', or rather someone sent over from the U.S. who has been dumped in some such surroundings in the U.K.
"Hello Perry...I've got news for you and it's not so fuckin' skinny.....
....it's about growing up in england....it's about bein' a slave boy....."
No radio play for this little number.
This wild tale then drifts out to the voice stating-
"it's about loving everything....your pop....your kitty...all the things....
...the cat food...the little bits of crayons....the melted pieces........
......the loving friends...all the things you wish you had"
"Whirling Hall Of Knives"
Starting with the drone of an ebow guitar which runs the length of this great er....Butt Shanty....it's a very hypnotic and steady paced cut that
is powerful in the fact that it doesn't change pace, but just slowly drives along with a mild rocking bliss while shimmering harmonics hover over the instruments, with Haynes in full shanty mode.
"Mark Says Alright"- beginning with a growling dog, probably the loyal Butthole pet pooch of the time, which they had named 'Mark Farner' after Grand Funk Railroad's erstwhile frontman, the title is also a GFR track title, but sounds quite different to this, although it's clear that the Buttholes have soaked up everything from their youth considering the usual outbursts.
A steady paced instrumental with great drums and bass guitar and Leary's careering delayed guitar...and more dog growls coming in to throw you off guard.
"In The Cellar"- is a dreamy dubbed version of side one's opener
which becomes more psyched-out as a result of the studio tinkering.
Well, it looks as though the 'creep' has been let in and has manifested itself into the bloodstreams of the group members, only to add more fantastic, crazy, strange, eerie and utterly fantastic ideas to future albums from this point. Every home should have at least one Butthole Surfers album. We simply NEED to really escape from time to time.
From this album on, Butthole Surfers would release a batch of albums that would have the people who owned them, all have a different viewpoint as to which is THE one.
I'm not going to comment (much) on that 'Buttholes v Touch & Go' court wrestling match, except that this group were NOT the money grabbers that the certain areas of the muso press (and others) made them out to be.
Thank God that Haynes and Leary didn't take the other path all those years ago and turn out to be slick white collar workers or something similar and starve us of some truly inspired recordings....
....and the occasional Butt Shanty of course.
Back in 1977 however, there were two Texans attending college in San Antonio, these fine young fellows were one Gibson Haynes and one Paul Leary, who would meet and start sewing the demon-seeds that would burst out of the pods in 1981, not before Haynes emerged as a fully fledged accountant!
But(t)....Haynes and Leary had decided to travel down the chemical brick road to yet more loud music and lots more fun!
Moving from group names such as 'Vodka Family Winstons', 'Ashtray Baby Heads' and 'Nine Foot Worm Makes Home Food', they settled on the Butthole Surfers via a radio announcer who had mistaken a song title to be the groups name. The song name apparently came from an irrate spectator at an early show who leapt onstage and shouted:
"You're all a bunch of butthole surfers!".
They had a more full-bodied (or should I say 'out of bodied') feel than all the other ensembles in the U.S. Hardcore scene of the time.
There was a lot brewing in these scrambled but strangely organised brains. A 10 track cassette release then surfaced in 1982.
They soon attracted lots of attention, and Jello Biafra then took them under his wing, not to mention his Alternative Tenacles, which released the 'Butthole Surfers EP' (aka 'Brown Reason To Live') in 1983 and the raucous 'Live PCPPEP' in '84.
After getting a deal with Touch and Go, in 1985 they would release the album "Psychic....Powerless...Another Man's Sac" and EP "Cream Corn From The Socket Of Davis". This EP however, would be more in the direction of their next opus, 'Rembrandt Pussy Horse'.
Group members came and went, until they settled with the line-up of: Gibby Haynes (Vocals, Electronics, Guitar), Paul Leary (Guitar, Bass, Devices, Keyboards), Paul 'King Koffee' Coffey (Drums,Perc.), Jeff 'Tooter' Pinkus (Bass Guitar- but doesn't play on this album. Kramer-of Shimmy Disc / Bongwater fame was drafted in.) and the frail acid-soaked remains of Theresa 'Nervosa' Taylor (Drums,Perc.).
Theresa would leave the line-up in late 1985.
'Rembrant Pussy Horse' was a galvanising album for the Buttholes.
After unleashing the frazzled, sonorous and literally mind-blowing evil-psychedelic country punked mayhem in their first couple of years, this album saw a mellower, but no less exciting set of glorious tracks.
Side One:
"Creep In The Cellar"- is very folk-styled and quite startling
considering their usual head-in-the-sonic-frying pan approach.
By the opening piano chords, for a second you think they're going to launch into a version of Neil Young's 'Heart Of Gold'!.
"There's a creep in the cellar that I'm gonna let in
there's a hole in his brain where his mind should have been
when he starts talkin' backwards your head starts to spin..."
Nice violin playing too. Legend has it that they recorded this track on a used reel of tape, left behind by an anonymous group of country musicians who couldn't afford to pay the recording fee, so the Buttholes decided to leave the violin in there.......a happy accident indeed.
"Sea Ferring"- This is one of their many styles of song that I like to call 'Butt Shanty'. You can't say 'Sea Shanty', as it's not about the sea of course, but the feel of these type of songs that they sometimes have is even more crazy than stuff like 'Mexican Caravan' from 'Powerless' or later numbers like 'I Saw An X-Ray Of A Girl Passing Gas' from "Hairway To Steven".
Very mellow again (for them) with basic drums, bass guitar and slightly tremolo-effected guitar and as ever, some great lyrics:
"Like a tickworm, like a seahorse, like a graveyard, like a girlfriend,
like a tissue, like a car-port, like a brick-wall... Like a Dream!...
...Waiting TO BE!!......"
As if your head hadn't started to spin already, they then launch into a brilliant but crooked version of The Guess Who's -"American Woman", a U.S. chart topper from 1970.
This must be one of the best if not craziest covers of all time.
After Leary starts solo with the main chords from the song, only to drop out to let a pounding beat of processed drums bend your ears.
At the time in the U.K., DJ John Peel was playing lots of the heavy 'electro' tracks, the likes of T La Rock's 'Breakin' Bells', when that type of sound was new, dangerous and exciting.
So hearing this version of 'American Woman' with the heavy 'in vogue' beat coupled with Leary's excellent sustain guitar, was a wild ear-opener...oh Paul Leary.....well it's been said before I know...but this man is a fantastic player!!...zany, poetic, proficient, less is more, more is less...GENIUS!
The track also features a great bit where some percussion is sampled then processed and laid over the top of the brazen rhythm, but then gradually starts to slow down, melting into the madness.
Certain words of the original song are picked out by psychotic female bursts while Gibby counter shouts through his megaphone to ease her plight.
It's like a mad scene from a protest march where the whole town has been spiked-
....."American Woman!.....sit still please!!"
"Waiting For Jimmy To Kick"
Drums, Piano and some insane babbling, laughing and throat-gurning from Gibby. Blocks of his vocals sampled and twisted to new lengths that would start to bring about the infamous...'Gibbytronics'.
He would have a couple of Sampler-Pedals and other electronic sundries like delay units etc. and be able to alter his vocals (in real-time) with fantastic results that would become an integral part of the Butthole's psychedelic canon (Gibby had been using these techniques for quite a while).
"Strangers Die"
A very eerie, haunting but thought-provoking recording that features great hammond organ (possibly played by Kramer) and marvellous gibbytronics and deep bubbling mud sounds. Gibby's mutant cries of "strangers...DIE EVERYDAY", probably gets the message across more to the point than anyone strumming an acoustic guitar and trying to sound meaningful.
Side Two:
This second side comes crashing in with "Perry".
Flailing drums, driving bass, sweeping hammond organ, guitar splinters...
Apparently it's a skit on the 'english public schoolboy', or rather someone sent over from the U.S. who has been dumped in some such surroundings in the U.K.
"Hello Perry...I've got news for you and it's not so fuckin' skinny.....
....it's about growing up in england....it's about bein' a slave boy....."
No radio play for this little number.
This wild tale then drifts out to the voice stating-
"it's about loving everything....your pop....your kitty...all the things....
...the cat food...the little bits of crayons....the melted pieces........
......the loving friends...all the things you wish you had"
"Whirling Hall Of Knives"
Starting with the drone of an ebow guitar which runs the length of this great er....Butt Shanty....it's a very hypnotic and steady paced cut that
is powerful in the fact that it doesn't change pace, but just slowly drives along with a mild rocking bliss while shimmering harmonics hover over the instruments, with Haynes in full shanty mode.
"Mark Says Alright"- beginning with a growling dog, probably the loyal Butthole pet pooch of the time, which they had named 'Mark Farner' after Grand Funk Railroad's erstwhile frontman, the title is also a GFR track title, but sounds quite different to this, although it's clear that the Buttholes have soaked up everything from their youth considering the usual outbursts.
A steady paced instrumental with great drums and bass guitar and Leary's careering delayed guitar...and more dog growls coming in to throw you off guard.
"In The Cellar"- is a dreamy dubbed version of side one's opener
which becomes more psyched-out as a result of the studio tinkering.
Well, it looks as though the 'creep' has been let in and has manifested itself into the bloodstreams of the group members, only to add more fantastic, crazy, strange, eerie and utterly fantastic ideas to future albums from this point. Every home should have at least one Butthole Surfers album. We simply NEED to really escape from time to time.
From this album on, Butthole Surfers would release a batch of albums that would have the people who owned them, all have a different viewpoint as to which is THE one.
I'm not going to comment (much) on that 'Buttholes v Touch & Go' court wrestling match, except that this group were NOT the money grabbers that the certain areas of the muso press (and others) made them out to be.
Thank God that Haynes and Leary didn't take the other path all those years ago and turn out to be slick white collar workers or something similar and starve us of some truly inspired recordings....
....and the occasional Butt Shanty of course.
_______________________________
Written by Tim Jones in october 2004
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