Embedded Files
DISCOGRAPHY
Butthole Surfers (EP, 1983) 8/10
PCPPEP (live EP, 1984) 6/10
Psychic Powerless... Another Man's Sac (1984) 8/10
Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis (EP, 1985) 6/10
Rembrandt Pussyhorse (1986) 7.5/10
Locust Abortion Technician (1987) 7/10
Hairway To Steven (1988) 7/10
Widowmaker! (EP, 1989) 5.5/10
Piouhgd (1991) 5.5/10
Independent Worm Saloon (1993) 5.5/10
Humpty Dumpty LSD (archival, 1982-1994) 5/10
P: P (1995) 6/10
Electriclarryland (1996) 5/10
Weird Revolution (2001) 6/10
Gibby Haynes: & His Problem (2004) 4/10
The Butthole Surfers exhibit the most depraved edition of 90s alternative rock by the early 80s. Their filthy aesthetics in psychedelia make them sound as if Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was a band.
Their boisterous use of ditortion and flange shape the record Psychic Powerless... Another Man's Sac into a masterpiece of brainless and perverted post-punk, noise rock, hard psychedelia, and psychobilly. The dynamic emotions in Gibby's performances elevate each song by evoking both terror and primal euphoria. Melvins, Pixies, and Nirvana would all indulge in similar territory for their own degenerate and grungey sounds, but Psychic Powerless would evoke the agony and ecstasy of drug abuse, receding into a devolved and visceral consciousness while delivering what is also simply nasty-cool proto-grungey and experimental noise rock, art punk, whatever you want to call it. It is the exemplar of "artfully idiotic" media that justifies its sensational depravity by reminding us how fun it is to embrace the monkey part of our minds.
Rembrandt Pussyhorse was the Surfers' most formally experimental album, as if a Public Image Ltd session was sabotaged by a cloud of laughing gas.
The project known simply by the letter "P" involved Gibby Haynes, celebrity Johnny Depp, and two Austin musicians (Bill Carter and Sal Jenco).
Two years after their formation the self-titled record P would fuse the half-country, half-acid rock sound of the Butthole Surfers' Worm Saloon with the pop-punk eclecticism of the Clash's Sandinista. Though the band lacks the Surfers' usual round-up (no Leary, no Coffey, no Pinkus) with Gibby alone the album sustains the charm of the Butthole Surfers: it is vulgar, demented, mind-bending, and fun.
EXTERNAL LINKS
Footage from Lollapalooza, 1991 -- Graveyard performed live
Butthole Surfers short film -- last three minutes depicts the band's live experience
Fan-made video for Something at 33rpm -- visuals are in the spirit of the psychedelic effects projected at the band's concerts
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