Friday, April 9, 2010

BUTTHOLE SURFERS
Psychic, Powerless, Another Man's Sac - (1984)

The Surfers' Touch and Go debut remains their highlight for many fans, an inspired blast of ugly noise, knowing idiocy, drugged-out insanity and some backhanded surprises. Haynes is still relatively interpretable here; the vocal distortions are only on a few songs, like the opening "Concubine," and what one can't quite understand one can still sense. The band's self-production brings out the mighty rumbles of drummers Coffey and Nervosa and Leary's avant-junkyard guitar work with clarity and a big, thick punch. Leary begins with screwy blues and gentle strums, then cranks up the amps and lets fly. The band also officially recorded their semi-theme song "Butthole Surfer," after which they were accidentally named; the bizarro backing vocals and sudden sped-up shifts at the end are just part of the oddities on display. "Negro Observer" is one of the most straightforward, calmest songs of the bunch, and even that's saying something, with Haynes going off about the title characters — described as aliens coming to "count heads in singles bars" — like a barely stable street crazy, insane laughter and all. When it comes to full-on craziness, though, nothing beats the obscene "Lady Sniff," which sounds like an amped-up blues act fronted by a 100-year-old man, and the hallucinatory "Mexican Caravan," with Haynes raving about "that heroin BROWN!" The nods to rock history are subtle but present, from the Black Sabbath-quoting (specifically "Children of the Grave") opening rhythm of "Dum Dum" to the fried Tex/Mex-ranting of "Gary Floyd," written about the legendary Dicks bandleader. However, the Surfers' crazy blend is completely distinctive, taking punk and the inspiration of their acid-addled Texas forebears to new heights. (allmusic.com)

http://www.mediafire.com/?mqjmyy2jzmz

5 comments:

  1. I'm not sure what to write. It just seems fuckin weird not to write something. This album was my favorite for a few years. Today I rank it my #2 album of 1984 (check http://rateyourmusic.com/list/FenceWilson/top_cds_of_1984/ ). The last 2 years of my HighSchoolin' it was my favorite. RepoMan Soundtrack was way up on my charts as well. Now that my rep is fully in place I admit to being of the charts queer for PurpleRain. Honestly the SpinalTap Soundtrack was probley played the most that year(84). Think I heard "Psychic...Powerless..." in '85. Again not sure what to say 'bout the album. It's pretty fucked.

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  2. Please note that in my 7th sentence (to thee above comment) it should say, "I admit to being off the charts". Not "of the charts". I'm a DumDum!

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  3. Why am I the only MoFo who leaves a comment? I'm not gonna bitch too much. I almost never leave a comment at sites. Sometimes I'll just thank the person who took the time to post the music. DitchDigger does put some serious ass music up in here. You all should give this dude a nod or something. Dude had a bitchin Comedy site while back and quit it. Maybe because no one showed him love(or comedynazis shut it down). I'm saying keep it up. It's always the first thing I go to online. THANKS!

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  4. thank you very much my friend. glad that you enjoy the blog and approve of my postings. as always, feel free to make some requests. thanks again !!!

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  5. hey, you probably know this, but the link is broken. You may be interested to know that this blog comes up on Captain Crawl searches, so there may be more people stumbling across these old links than you think.

    Cheers

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