After their fluke hit “Pepper”, off 1996’s Electric Larryland, Butthole Surfers label, Capitol Records, wanted a follow-up. The band submitted After the Astronaut, but at the eleventh hour (with promotional copies already out), the label killed the album. Then, in 2001, on a new label, a revamped version titled Weird Revolution appeared. It went nowhere, and that was pretty much the end of the Butthole Surfers. Now the original record, shelved years ago, arrives.
While fans have had lo-fi copies for decades, this new release clearly displays what the Surfers were going for in 1998. Gone are the cataclysmic punk freakouts of their early years, and in their place are remedial drum loops and pedestrian synth-laden ambient space outs.
Tag Archive: Butthole Surfers
The San Antonio, TX based hardcore freak-punks, Butthole Surfers, were notorious for their live shows and the band’s newest archival release, Live at the Leather Fly, does a good job capturing their mid-career, chaotic noise sound.
The album is not dated or given a specific location where it was recorded, but it sounds like one complete show. Judging by the songs played it seems to have been captured around the release of their 1991 album Independent Worm Saloon. Mixed by guitarist Paul Leary, who, along with lead vocalist Gibby Haynes, Jeff Pinkus on bass, and King Coffey on drums, conjures up a cacophony of sound that exhilarates, irritates, and enthralls over the 21-song set.
The screeching guitars are right up front for…