Music / Butthole Surfers

I don't mind the Sun sometimes, the images it shows
I can taste you on my lips and smell you in my clothes
Cinnamon and sugary and softly-spoken lies
You never know just how you look through other people's eyes

—"Pepper"

Butthole Surfers is a Noise Rock band formed in San Antonio, Texas in 1981, well known for its bizarre and often disturbing lyrics, heavy synthesizing, and macabre live shows. They also use a lot of Black Comedy in their lyrics.

The Surfers began in 1980, when lead singer Gibby Haynes met guitarist Paul Leary while going to college in Texas, where they became friends due to their shared overall weirdness and interest in strange music. They published a magazine, Strange V.D., with a lot of pictures of strange diseases and illnesses, long before they actually started playing in 1981. Throughout The '80s, they built up a cult following in the college rock world through their melding of Punk Rock and Psychedelic Rock, plus a multi-media stage show (including a naked female dancer and grotesque film clips projected on a giant screen) that was an assault on the senses, all capped off with a twisted sense of humor.

Their mainstream commercial breakthrough finally came in The '90s, when big labels were scrambling to sign Alternative Rock acts in the wake of Nirvana's success. After a decade of releasing their music on small indies such as Alternative Tentacles and Touch and Go, the Buttholes signed with Capitol Records; their second Capitol album, Electriclarryland, contained their first big hit "Pepper", which topped the Billboard Modern Rock charts in 1996. Afterwards, they became featured on many movie soundtracks, such as William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and John Carpenter's Escape from L.A..

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Discography:

Studio Albums:

• Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac (1984)
• Rembrandt Pussyhorse (1986)
• Locust Abortion Technician (1987)
• Hairway to Steven (1988)
• piouhgd (1991) — Pronounced Pee-Owed
• Independent Worm Saloon (1993)
• Electriclarryland (1996)
• Weird Revolution (2001)

Studio EPs:

• Butthole Surfers (later retitled Brown Reason to Live) (1983)
• Widowermaker! (1989)

Band Members:

• Gibby Haynes - lead vocals, guitar, saxophone 1981–present
• Paul Leary - guitar, vocals 1981–present
• King Coffey - drums 1983–present
• Jeff Pinkus - bass 1986–1994, 2008–present
• Teresa Nervosa - drums, 1983-1989, 2008-2009, died in 2023
• A lot of other bassists and drummers

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Rembrandt Pussytropes:

Songs

• After the End: "The Last Astronaut" is a series of messages from an astronaut in low Earth orbit to ground control, slowly realizing that nuclear war has just broken out, and he may well be the last human alive.
• Answer Song: "Pepper" is one to Beck's "Loser," which the band thought was a rip-off of their sound.
• Badass Boast: The Eldritch Abomination that narrates "Jimi" makes one that borders on a Blasphemous Boast.
  "What do you know about reality? I AM reality! What do you know about death? I AM death! AAAHHH!"
• Black Comedy: A lot. Especially "Pepper" and "Jimi".
• Careful with That Axe: "Jimi", to a disturbing extreme.
• Country Matters: Subverted with their song "Kuntz" — the clip is edited to make it sound like the other word, but it's really just the Thai word for "itch".
• Cover Version:
  • Of a more interesting version, "Dum Dum" is basically an original composition over the drum beat from Black Sabbath's "Children of the Grave". They'd revisit the idea of sampling portions of Sabbath songs later in their career when they slightly altered the main riff to "Sweet Leaf" for the opening track of Locust Abortion Technician, appropriately titled "Sweat Loaf".
  • "Kuntz" is a remix of a song by Thai artist Phloen Phromdaen the band allegedly found on a mix tape at a takeout place they frequented.
  • Their cover of Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" from pioughd also parodies the original version's delayed vocal effect by taking it to extremes, deliberately distorting it beyond comprehension.
  • They've also covered The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer In The City" for the benefit album M.O.M., Vol. 3: Music for Our Mother Ocean, The 13th Floor Elevators' "Earthquake" for a Roky Erickson tribute album, The Guess Who's "American Woman", and the Underdog theme for Saturday Morning Cartoons' Greatest Hits.
  • "The O-Men" features elements borrowed from "Termination" by Power Metal group Omen. The band had once attended a Motörhead concert where Omen were the opening act, and found the song so "ridiculous" it became something of a Creator In-Joke; Since "The O-Men" was meant to be a metal spoof, they incorporated chants of "Terminate!" and "Cyborg lust!" from "Termination".
• Epic Rocking: Subverted in the case of "They Came In"; It's technically 22:23, but it's really 4 minutes of "They Came In", 17 minutes of silence, and then a short reprise of "The Last Astronaut". As for actual examples:
  • "Cherub" from Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac, "Sweat Loaf" from Locust Abortion Technician, "John E. Smoke" and "Backass" from Hairway to Steven, and "Dust Devil" and "The Ballad of a Naked Man" from Independent Worm Saloon are all around 6 minutes in length.
  • Independent Worm Saloon also has the 8 minute "Clean It Up".
  • The two parts of "Revolution" add up to around 9 minutes in length, though part 2 is 7 minutes on its own.
  • Their longest track is "Jimi" from Hairway to Steven at 12:38. It beats "P.S.Y." from pioughd (12:12) by 26 seconds.
  • Live versions also got pretty lengthy. "Psychedelic" in particular was an live-only jam that was usually around 10 minutes long.
• Gratuitous Spanish: "Dracula From Houston" includes the lyric "¡Esta Noche enchilada, pinche cabron ni por nada!", which would mean "tonight enchilada, fucking bastard or for nothing!".
  • Similarly, "Mexico" has the line "eco suda la chinga", translating roughly to "echo sweats the fuck".
• Harsh Vocals: Possibly parodied by "Mark Says Alright", which uses the growls of a pitbull as "vocals". Probably also parodied in "The O-Men" (which Word of God says is a Heavy Metal spoof) where the verses consist of Gibby growling nonsense syllables like the Tasmanian Devil.
• I Call It "Vera": Non-weapon example. Lead singer Gibby Haynes named his system of distortion pedals/effects◊ that he's used in studio/live since the Locust Abortion Technician era his "Gibbytronix" system.
• In the Style of: When they re-recorded their early song "Something" for pioughd, they did it in the style of The Jesus and Mary Chain as a joke. This version is in fact deliberately suspiciously similar to JAMC's "Never Understand".
  • Paul Leary's solo album Born Stupid features drastic remakes of two songs he originally sang for Butthole Surfers - "The Shah Revisited" turns "The Shah Sleeps In Lee Harvey's Grave" from a noisy Hardcore Punk parody to lyrically dissonant gospel-tinged country music, while "Gary Floyd Revisited" turns "Gary Floyd" from garage punk to equally lyrically dissonant acoustic Folk Rock.
• Intentionally Awkward Title: Just try to say Butthole Surfers in a public conversation. Or, the names of most of their songs. College radio DJs, wishing to avoid the wrath of the Moral Guardians, usually referred to them as the B.H. Surfers.
• Joke of the Butt: Why else would they have chosen that name?
• Ku Klux Klan: Mentioned in the lyrics of "P.S.Y.".
  Nikki was in the KKK
  and Lisa was a Nazi too
  they both had half a brain
  so together they were sane
  and looked about as smart as their shoes
• Limited Lyrics Song: Other than some wordless screaming and hooting, the only proper lyric to "Booze, Tobacco, Pussy, Cars" is the whole band repeatedly chanting the title together.
• The Masochism Tango: "Human Cannonball" appears to be about this kind of relationship.
• Non-Appearing Title: Too many to list, but well-known examples include "Pepper", "The Annoying Song" and "Sweat Loaf".
• Recycled Lyrics: Recycled scatting, actually - Much of Gibby Haynes' manic scatting on Ministry's "Jesus Built My Hot Rod" was taken from a Butthole Surfers song called "Watlo". "Watlo" was being played live before "Jesus Built My Hot Rod" was released, but a studio version didn't come out until afterward (it appears on Independent Worm Saloon as "Some Dispute Over T-Shirt Sales").
  • The rarity "All Day" is effectively Daniel Johnston singing the lyrics to his own song "Running Water" over an improv piece by the band.
• Scatting: Used a lot, one notable example being "The O-Men".
• Self-Titled Album: Their first release (a 12" EP that came out on Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label in 1983) was originally this, but was retroactively named Brown Reason to Live.
• Sensory Abuse: Arguably, in the case of their music. The earlier into the band's discography you go, the more likely their music will fall under this category, especially to those who aren't used to noise rock. Leary even noted in a Guitar World interview that "I'm surprised we've had any success. I listen to our old records like "What were we thinking?" We obviously weren't. It's like we were trying to be bad."
  • Their live shows during the 1980's on the other hand, are undoubtedly examples of this trope. For starters, the band would be playing at absurdly loud volumes, flashing strobe lights at the audience at speeds that would induce nausea and seizures in some members of the audience, and displaying a combination of 16mm films Gibby had fraudulently obtained^note He pretended to be a doctor in order to get films meant to be seen by people in medical school, for example of things like male to female sex change operations, autopsy footage, driver's ed gore, medical examinations of people with sexually transmitted diseases, and even "innocent" things like episodes of shows like Charlie's Angels - played upside down in reverse, of course. The band would then compliment this with a series of props/stunts (flaming cymbals, dual-drummers, papier-mache dummies being ripped to shreds, copious amounts of fog, a naked dancer...), and improvised various other stunts on top of that to create a complete hellscape of a live show.
• The Something Song: "The Annoying Song", "Bong Song" and "The Wooden Song". "Fast" is also known as "The Fart Song" among fans.
• Step Up to the Microphone: Paul Leary sings three out of the seven songs on their first EP - "The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey's Grave," "Something," and "Bar-B-Q Pope" ^note Since one of the remaining songs, "The Revenge Of Anus Presley", features a guest vocalist, this means he sings as often as Gibby Haynes does on that particular release. After this, he'd still get a lead vocal part now and then, singing "Gary Floyd", the choruses on "Lonesome Bulldog", the Donovan cover "The Hurdy Gurdy Man", the piouhgd version of "Something" and "Dancing Fool".
• Studio Chatter: "Birds" begins with Gibby Haynes saying "Alright, what are we doin' here?" over the intro, then laughing and clearing his throat, before starting the song more properly with a scream.
  • "Lady Sniff" has a brief sampled musical interlude (if it could be called that) where a barely audible "Got it?" can be heard before it cuts back to the song itself.
• Surprisingly Gentle Song: "The Wooden Song", a Folk Rock-influenced ballad featuring acoustic guitar, is probably the straightest example they have. "Rocky" from Hairway to Steven also qualifies.
• Title by Number: "The Colored FBI Guy" is also known as "1401" (on the band's set-lists and on the UK edition of Widowermaker!) - 1401 was the address number of a home the band once lived in together.
• Title-Only Chorus: "Kuntz" again, if you consider that to be a chorus. Also "Hay", except its the ENTIRE SONG.
• Toilet Humor: Lots of it, starting with the band name.
• Word Salad Lyrics: "The Annoying Song", "Lady Sniff", "I Saw an X-Ray Of A Girl Passing Gas"...hell, a decent chunk of their discography.
  • "Moving To Florida" seems to be written from the point of view of a Talkative Loon:
    Well I been movin' down to Florida.
    I'm gonna potty train the Chairman Mao
    I'm gonna make the governor write my doodoo a letter, child
    And I'm gonna grind me up a White Castle slider out of India's sacred cow
• Word Salad Title: Almost every album, and many of the songs as well.
  • Cream Corn From The Socket of Davis was originally going to make some sense in context; the original concept for the cover art was a drawing of Sammy Davis Jr.. with his Glass Eye removed and creamed corn coming out of the empty socket. The band commissioned an artist to draw it, but didn't like any of the results and scrapped it in favor of a totally different cover ^note the US edition had a photo of a little girl in a pink dress, the UK edition had a woman in a turtleneck and glasses instead, retroactively making the title totally nonsensical.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: An audio version can be found in "Clean It Up" from the Independent Worm Saloon album.

Albums

• All Lower Case Letters: The title of piouhgd is always rendered this way.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The album title of Locust Abortion Technician is pretty much this.
• Credits Gag: the labels on their first two EPs (self-titled and PCPPEP) claim that the records should be played at "69 RPM" ^note record players usually have settings for 33 RPM and 45 RPM - there's not really a way to play a record at that speed.
• Ear Ache: The cover for Electriclarryland depicts a pencil being shoved in someone's ear point-first - it's drawn in a cartoony style, but there's some blood. Apparently it was potentially squicky enough that the "clean" version of the album substitutes a closeup of a groundhog (which is one of the pictures inside the booklet of the explicit version).
• Extra Eyes/Eyes Do Not Belong There: The cover for Hairway to Steven depicts a man with an extra pair of eyes on his cheeks.
• Hidden Track: The Weird Revolution has a 30-second clip of Gibby Haynes speaking with a distortion effect hidden after the last track "They Came In". This is taken from an alternate version of the song "The Last Astronaut" - the CD edition of the album has it hidden after a long gap of silence, but some digital versions give the piece its own track and call it "The Last Astronaut (Reprise)".
• New Sound Album: The Weird Revolution had a more electronic sound and added more Rap Rock elements (as did the more experimental Missing Episode album After the Astronaut, which had different versions of many of the same songs). This new direction was hinted at by some of their late-90's soundtrack work: "Whatever (I Had a Dream)" from William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet was a moody trip-hop song, while "Tiny Rubber Band" from the live-action Spawn film also had a trip hop feel and was a collaboration with Moby. A less direct precursor was The Jackofficers, an Acid House-influenced experimental electronic side project of Gibby Haynes and Jeff Pinkus, who put out their only album Digital Dump in 1990.
• No Title: None of the songs on Hairway to Steven have titles, instead marked by crudely-drawn sketches. However, the self-released Live Album Double Live features almost every song from Hairway to Steven, and the back cover gives them actual names instead of drawings, which are generally treated as their proper titles. The one Hairway to Steven track that didn't appear on the live album is pretty much universally referred to as "Julio Iglesias" because of its lyrics.
• Non-Ironic Clown: The cover for Locust Abortion Technician.
• Pun-Based Title:
  • Hairway to Steven is a play on Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven".
  • Electriclarryland is a Parody of Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland.
  • "Sweat Loaf" is a parody of "Sweet Leaf" by Black Sabbath. Bonus points for (sort of) using the same riff.

Music Videos

• Animated Music Video/Deranged Animation/Surreal Music Video: The video for "Who Was In My Room Last Night" combines all these tropes.
• The Cameo: Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea shows up as a bartender in "Who Was in My Room Last Night".
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Apparently some images in the "Hurdy Gurdy Man" video looked too squicky, so they had captions put on them, such as "Belly Button" and "Foamy Apple Juice".
• Fight Fur Your Right to Party: Played Straight and Inverted in the music video for "Shame of Life". Straight examples include a man in a pig mask who eventually gets in a bath with a nude woman while still wearing the mask, and dancers in deliberately creepy squirrel makeup; the inversion involves men in squirrel masks and nice suits coming to drag people away and stop the party.

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"Crazy, crazy fuckin' world! HA HA HA HA! Crazy goddamn world! HA HA HA HA!"

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