The Butthole Surfers may be one of the weirdest bands in existence. The band's career track includes acid casualty tripping, shocking stage antics, battles with labels (both major and indie) and the slugdiest brown noise ever created. Started in San Antionio Texas when Gibson "Gibby" Haynes met Paul Leary in some college. Haynes graduated with an accounting degree but with Leary decided to avoid the 9 to 5 lifestyle in start a band. With Haynes on vocals and Leary on guitar, they recruited brothers Quin and Scott Matthews on bass and drums respectively. Hardly knowing how to play, the band immediately joined Texas creative punk scene which includes The Dicks, The Big Boys, MDC and Really Red and wrote their own brand garage/sludge/acid punk. Over their career, the Buttholes would be known for playing a load of different styles and going all over the spectrum on their albums, with one common factor, the brilliant, slugde guitar of Paul Leary. However, they weren't even the Butthole Surfers until 1982. First, Dick Clark 5, Vodka Family Winstons, Ashtray Baby Heads and even Dicktit. In '82 after Quin Matthews left, the group got paid under the name Butthole Surfers and stuck with it. After a track on the Cottage Cheese from the Lips of Death compilation, the group was signed to Alternative Tentacles records, owned by Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra. After recording part of their self titled debut e.p. Scott Matthews was replaced by Jeff Koffee a.k.a. King Coffee who completed the record. Their self titled debut 12" e.p. set a precedent for Butthole records. They never listed who played on them and with the delays in recordings and rapid member changes (usually involving bass players) tracking who played on what became a messy task during the 80s. The record's mix of noisy hardcore, captain beefheart influence and even pop set another precedent for complete diversit on their records. In '84 the group added second drummer, King Coffee's twin sister Teresa Nervosa and the group set an insane trip of moving all of the country (mainly Texas and Detroit, Michigan) , often living in squaler. getting money from their new label Touch & Go for recordings,booze, adicd and pot, and insane surreal stage shows featuring Gibby with clothes pins in hair, playing sax, lighting himself on fire, nude dancers, flashing strobe lights and video footage of driver's ed car crashes and penis reconstruction surgeries. Their Touch & Go (owned by Corey Rusk) debut Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac released at the end of 1984 was great noise, followed by Cream Corn for the Socket of Davis e.p. in mid 85, during which their bass player was alternative music producer Mark Kramer who started Shimmy records. By 85's end Tereas quit and in 86 was replaced by another female drummer named Cabbage who lasted only until the end of 86. Earlier that year, the group added longest lasting bassist Jeff "Tooter" Pinkus who did not play on the group's next full release Rembrandt Pussyhorse (86), a piece of experimental art/psychadelia dating back more than two years. With Teresa back in the group, they followed with Locust Abortion Technician, heavily focused on the sludgiest Paul Leary guitar yet, with lots of vocal distortion and still no Jeff Pinkus on bass. The first album he played on was Hairway to Steven released in 1988 and mixed the classic acid sound, use of acustic guitars, rockabilly and good song writing. For the first time in their carreer, the group got reviews from the mainstream press. That year, the group starte its own Latino Buggerveil label. In 89, Tereas quit permanently and the group was reduced to a four piece. Their final released through Touch & Go, Widowmaker mini LP was followed by the quick to go out of print Double Live, the group's officially issued live bootleg. That year, singer Haynes and bassist Pinkus formed the side project Jackofficers during their switch from Touch & Go to Brittish indie label Rough Trade. Their side project Digital Dump, a collection of computerized noises, was released through the new label which happily dumped a lot of money into the group. Their next album Pioughd released in 1990 was an underated album that followed up on Hairway and includes the 12 minute psychadelic jam "P.S.Y." Paul Leary even released his solo album The History of Dogs in 1991, on which he played all the instruments. With climate in the early '90s favoring punk and alternative music, The Buttholes performance on the first Lollapalooza gained major labe attention, especially with Nirvana's big success that year. Rough Trade went broke and out of business but the group was quickly resigned to their first major label, Capitol. This was an experiment to see how much farther the label could take the bands music essentiall rather than selling out. Capitol reissued Pioughd. In 92 Gibby's side projects included singing on Ministry's "Jesus Built My Hotrod" off their 1992 album Psalm 69 and appearing on the GWAR home video movie Phallus in Wonderland not to mentin GWAR videos "Have You Seen Me" and "The Road Behind". In 93 Haynes produced The Full Custom Gospel Sounds of Reverend Horton Heat by Texan rockabilly star Reverand Horton Heat. The band also returned with Independent Worm Saloon early in 1993. The album was produced by former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones but hardly effected the group's acid drenched sound which on this album was added to a metal/punk approach and leading song "Who Was In My Room Last Night" who's video played on MTV and especially Beavis and Butthead who cheared for "Gibby".
Independent... sold 350,000 copies which was huge for the group but small for the label who still saw potential, especially in the group's 93-94 arena tour opening for Nirvana. After the tour, bassist Jeff Pinkus quit the band after eight years. The group settle with it's three main members Haynes, Leary and Coffee and did other projects. King Coffee started his own label Transe Syndicate in the early 90s releasing other deranged Texas band included classic 60s psychadelic/garage guitar hero Rocky Erickson. Through the label, Coffee also released the authorized Butthole bootleg The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt in 1995. Gibby also in 1994 started another side project, this time with Butthole Surfers fan and popular actor Johnny Depp called P. P's self titled debut was released in 1995 through capital as well. However, the group finally hit the mainstream in 1996 with the release of Electriclarryland. Although the album was weird and contains its share of guitar powerchord punk noise, country songs, psychadelic pop melodies, it contained the first use of programmed triphop drums, used in an experimental toon called "Pepper". "Pepper" became the group's mainstream hit with a trip hop beat, trippy guitar and a poppy chorus resulting in near platinum album sails or Electriclarryland. In 1996 the group also suid former label Touch & Go for lack of royalties. The label was forced to give up sales of all the Buttholes Touch & Go albums. The group experienced backlash from the indie community labeling the band greedy sellouts but the band saw it as more of the label not paying them for their music which still supports them. All their Touch & Go releases were reissued through the group's own Latino Buggerveil records in 1999. Regardless, a tour and compilation appearance followed in 96 and 97, including collaborating with techno artist moby on "Tiny Rubberband" from the Spawn movie soundtrack. On tour the band used a touring bassist and second guitarist. In 98, the band recorded After the Astronaut by Capitol didn't see a hit and refused to release the album. The Buttholes spent the next three years trying to sue the label to get off and find a label to release their album. During that time, the album was reworked constantly. A new deal with Hollywood/Surfdog resulted in the release of the group's first album in five years. Weird Revolution was released in 2001 and was the group's most electronically computer driven album yet. It even includes a collaboration with Kid Rock called "The Shame of Life". Many a fans did not welcome the new album. The tour also featured official new bassist Nathan Calhoun who joined in 2000. For the old fans, the group once again through Latino Buggerveil issued the rarities collection Humpty Dumpty LSD in 2002 which contains odds and sods from 82-94 and followed with a cd reissuing the group's first to Alt. Tentacles releases on one cd as well.
Bio written by: edo |
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