At a time in the ‘80s when hardcore was on the wane and college radio was increasingly dominated by future yuppie-rock arena stars like REM and U2, the Butthole Surfers stuck out like an angry boner. True to their Texas roots, they did nothing small, spiking their twisted but virtuoso experimental punk with heretical genres like acid rock and prog, all half-digested and projectile-vomited onto the burgeoning audience for the music that would eventually come under the catchall of “indie rock.”
The Butthole Surfers were creatively fearless, gleefully unpredictable, utterly glorious. Live performances were overwhelming and often just flat-out frightening multimedia affairs featuring projections of alarming/disgusting surgical footage, a nude dancer named “Ta Da The Shit Lady” who’d reputedly indulge a bandmate in the occasional onstage sex act, a pair of tandem tribal drummers, and vocalist Gibby Haynes recklessly playing with fire WAY too close to the audience (and his own penis). Nothing else at the time came close to that level of danger and excitement, and even when they toned the volatility down after improbably getting signed to Capitol Records in the heat of the ‘90s corporate-alt moment, they still remained one of the key yardsticks by which fuckedupedness was measured.
One particularly hilarious but not often seen expression of the band’s demented lysergic ethos was “Entering Texas” (a/k/a “The Bar-B-Que Movie”), which surfaced in 1988 on a VHS oddity called Impact Video Magazine. If you can track it down (and afford the punitive, if not downright larcenous prices decent copies can fetch), there’s much to recommend it. Directed and compiled by Alex Winter (“Bill” of Bill & Ted’s Yadda Yadda Yadda fame), it includes segments on Jane’s Addiction, Public Enemy and Bill Hicks, but “Entering Texas” is the tape’s high point. Starring the Surfers as an unhinged Texas Chainsaw Massacre-ish clan that’s enticed an unwitting family to join them for a barbecue… well, just watch it.
Heads-up for trainspotters: See if you recognize the nervous dad.
If this is the sort of wrongness that appeals to your baser instincts, it may interest you that the band is reissuing its first four albums on vinyl. The press release from their label, Latino Bugger Veil, claims that these will be the first vinyl pressings since the original ‘80s releases on the Touch And Go label (whom, it can’t go unmentioned, the band infamously sued in 1996, a move which cost them significant goodwill in the underground that made them famous to begin with), though CDs and digital downloads have been continuously available. 1984′s Psychic, Powerless…Another Man’s Sac, 1986′s Rembrant Pussyhorse, 1987′s Locust Abortion Technician (the one to get if you can only get one) and 1988′s Hairway To Steven will all be re-released on October 1st. The press release makes no mention of the contemporary Butthole Surfers (a/k/a Brown Reason to Live), Live PCPPEP or Cream Corn From The Socket Of Davis EPs, all of which include some must-have material, but even without the EPs, these four albums, taken together, comprise a crucial document of the development and creative peak of the single most combatively weird band ever to find a mass audience.
For a taste of their signature weirdness from their embryonic period, we leave you with some rare footage of the band in its early days, in a wonderful performance/interview segment from NYC cable access’ The Scott And Gary Show in 1984.
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
The Butthole Surfers: The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey’s Grave
Butthole Surfers live in Austin September 11, 2011
The Butthole Surfers: Live in Concert 1996
The Butthole Surfers bring the gospel to West Virginia, 1985