The
Butthole Surfers are an American alternative rock band formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul
Leary in San
Antonio
, Texas
in
1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but the
core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and
drummer
King Coffey has been together since
1983.
Teresa Nervosa served as second
drummer from 1983 to 1985, 1986 to 1989, and 2009. The band has
also employed a variety of bass players, most notably Bill Jolly
and
Jeff Pinkus.Azerrad,
Our
Band, p. 289.
* Lieck, "Reissuing the Butthole Surfers: Tongue-in-Cheek Terror",
Austin Chronicle vol. 18 #52.
The Buttholes are best known for their chaotic and disturbing live
shows,
black humor, a sound that
incorporates elements of
punk rock,
psychedelia,
heavy metal,
noise
rock, and
electronica, as well as
their use of sound manipulation and tape editing. The Buttholes
have a well-reported appetite for recreational drugs, particularly
psychedelics, an evident influence on
their sound.
Although they were respected by their peers and attracted a devoted
fan base, the Butthole Surfers had little commercial success until
1996’s
Electriclarryland,
their only gold record to date.Azerrad,
Our Band, p.
274-311.
* Gold & Platinum Record Database, RIAA. The album contained
the hit single “
Pepper” which climbed
to number one on
Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart that year.
History Of the Buttholes
Pre-history
The
Butthole Surfers had their genesis at San Antonio
, Texas’ Trinity
University
in the late 1970s, when students Gibson “Gibby” Haynes, and Paul Leary Walthall (later just Paul Leary) met
for the first time. Though it was their overall strangeness
and shared taste in non-mainstream music that caused them to become
fast friends, both appeared to be headed for very conventional
careers. Haynes, as captain of Trinity's basketball team, as well
as the school's "
Accountant of the Year,"
soon graduated to a position with a respected Texas accounting
firm, while Leary remained in college working on his
MBA degree.
In 1981, Haynes and Leary published the
magazine Strange V.D., which featured
photos of abnormal medical ailments, coupled with fictitious,
humorous explanations for the diseases. After being caught with one
of these pictures at work, Haynes left the accounting firm and
moved to Southern California. Leary, at the time one semester shy
of his degree, dropped out of college and followed Haynes. After a
brief period spent selling homemade clothes and linens emblazoned
with
Lee Harvey Oswald's image,
the pair returned to San Antonio, and launched the band that would
eventually become the Butthole Surfers.
Early years (1981–1984)
Haynes and Leary played their debut show at a San Antonio art
gallery in 1981; at that time they had not yet settled on the title
"Butthole Surfers". By 1982, the band were backed by the sibling
rhythm section made up of bassist Quinn Matthews and his brother,
drummer Scott Matthews. The band did not gain a following in San
Antonio, and purchased a van to return to California later that
summer.Morthland & Patoski, "Feeding the Fish,"
SPIN
Magazine.
* Azerrad,
Our Band, p. 277.
During a
brief concert at the Tool and Die club in San
Francisco
, Dead Kennedys
frontman and Alternative
Tentacles overseer Jello Biafra
witnessed their performance and became a fervent fan.
Biafra
invited the group to open for the Dead Kennedys and T.S.O.L. at the Whisky a Go Go
in Los Angeles
, and soon made an offer that would launch their
recording career: if they could get someone to lend them studio time, Alternative Tentacles would
reimburse the studio when the album was complete. The band
then returned to San Antonio to record at BOSS Studios (a.k.a. Bob
O'Neill's Sound Studios, a.k.a. the Boss). However, the Matthews
brothers did not enter the studio with Haynes and Leary; the two
had quit following a physical altercation between Scott Matthews
and Haynes. The bass position was taken over by Bill Jolly, who
would play on the Surfers' next two releases, and a number of
drummers participated. The last of these,
King Coffey (born Jeffrey Coffey), is still with
the band to this day.
rught
Released on Alternative Tentacles in July 1983, the resulting EP,
Butthole Surfers
(also known as
Brown Reason to Live and
Pee Pee the
Sailor), offered songs with provocative titles like "The Shah
Sleeps in Lee Harvey's Grave" and "Bar-B-Q Pope," alternately sung
by Haynes and Leary. (Haynes would become the band's primary singer
by the time of their first
LP.) The album
cover, like the many bizarre illustrations that would accompany the
Surfers' succeeding work, was designed by the band itself. Teeming
with humor,
Butthole Surfers laid the foundation for what
was to come. It influenced at least one future superstar in
Nirvana frontman
Kurt Cobain, who listed it as one of his top 10
favorite albums in his
Journals. Cobain would later meet his
wife,
Courtney Love of
Hole, at a Butthole Surfers/
L7 concert in 1991.
Soon after
the release of Butthole Surfers, the band recruited a
second drummer, Teresa Nervosa (born
Teresa Taylor), who had previously played with Coffey in a number
of high school marching bands in the Texas' Fort
Worth
and Austin
areas.Leland
& Robbins, "Butthole Surfers biography", Trouser
Press.
* Interview, Flipside #46. She and Coffey would
drum in unison on separate, stand-up
kits, adding to the spectacle of the Surfers' ever-evolving stage
show. Though Nervosa and Coffey repeatedly referred to themselves,
and were referred to, as siblings, it has since been revealed that
the two only presented themselves as such due to their similar
appearances, and are not actually related.Leland & Robbins,
"Butthole Surfers biography",
Trouser Press.
* Interview,
Flipside #46
* Interview (King Coffey), SonicNet.com.
* Azerrad,
Our Band, p. 280. With her arrival, the band's
core "classic lineup" – Haynes, Leary, Coffey, and Nervosa – was in
place. With the exception of a number of different bass players and
Nervosa's brief sabbatical from late 1985 to 1986, it remained
largely unchanged until her final departure in 1989. In 2008, she
returned to the band--the band's website announced 2009 tour dates
including "Teresa Taylor."
In September 1984, the Surfers issued a second EP on Alternative
Tentacles,
Live PCPPEP.
Primarily featuring live performances of songs from their debut, it
prompted some critics and fans to joke that they had released the
same album twice. What many didn't realize, however, is that the
band had already returned to BOSS Studios to record enough material
for a full-length album months before
Live PCPPEP's
release. (Jolly left shortly after these sessions, but did perform
on the live EP). Moreover, they had started a second album at the
same studio. Both were originally offered to Alternative Tentacles,
with
Psychic...
Powerless...
Another
Man's Sac arriving first.
Before either album could be released, though, Alternative
Tentacles had to acquire the
master
tapes from Bob O'Neill, BOSS Studios' namesake and owner. He
refused to release them until he'd been reimbursed for the
sessions, and Alternative Tentacles couldn't immediately afford to
pay. After waiting months, the band issued
Live PCPPEP out
of financial desperation, and O'Neill was preparing to release
Psychic... on his own Ward 9 label to recoup his
expenses.
Legend grows (1984–1987)
With some members working as dishwashers, the group was apparently
not thrilled with the album being released on Ward 9.
Terry Tolkin, a friend and their east coast
booking agent, signed the band to Corey Rusk's then-nascent
Touch and Go Records in
Detroit.
Psychic... Powerless... Another
Man's Sac was released in 1984.
The Baffler, Volume
4.
* Azerrad,
Our Band, p. 292.
* Interview,
Forced Exposure #11. Building on their first
EP, the Surfers made psychedelia a much bigger part of their sound
on this release, which made full use of the tape editing,
non-traditional instrumentation, and sound modulation that came to
define their studio recordings.
Just before
Psychic...'s debut, and with new bassist
Terence Smart in tow (the first of many through 1986), the band
commenced their first nationwide tour. It was on this outing that
they truly established a national presence, starting at Touch and
Go's early headquarters in Detroit before heading to New York City,
where they impressed members of
Sonic
Youth, as well as
Shockabilly (and
future Butthole Surfers) bassist
Mark
Kramer. They then crisscrossed the country for several months,
including a show in Seattle, that made a fan of future
Soundgarden guitarist
Kim
Thayil. While in San Francisco at the end of the tour, and
without a place to live, the band collectively decided to move to
Winterville, Georgia, where they admittedly made a hobby of
stalking members of
R.E.M.. Smart quit after
falling in love with a friend of the band, and
Trevor Malcolm, a young Canadian musician
recommended by Touch and Go, replaced him on bass.
Word was spreading about the band's bizarre stage show by the time
they hit the road again, resulting in ever-larger audiences at
their concerts. Not long after Malcolm's arrival, the Surfers
recorded their act for posterity by filming two concerts at
Detroit's Traxx club. Some of this footage was eventually packaged
as
Blind Eye Sees All,
their only official video release to date. They purchased their
first 8-track recorder at this time, and used it to record two
songs later used on the A-side of
Cream Corn from the Socket
of Davis.
Reportedly unhappy with life in the band, Malcolm quit in the early
summer of 1985. A friend of the band's from Athens, Juan Molina,
was brought in for a brief U.S. tour, but was not interested in
becoming a full-time member. Without a permanent bassist and a
quickly approaching European tour looming – the band's first – they
contacted Kramer, who quickly agreed to join. Meanwhile, their
second LP, which had been submitted to Alternative Tentacles as
Rembrandt Pussy Horse, was still in limbo. The reasons for
Alternative Tentacles' actions are unclear, but it is known that
the label delayed a decision for about a year before ultimately
refusing to publish it. While waiting, the band released the
four-song
Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis EP on Touch
and Go in late 1985. Once Alternative Tentacles finally declined,
the group went back into the studio to record two new tracks to
replace "To Parter" and "Tornadoes," which were originally intended
for
Rembrandt... before appearing on the
Cream
Corn... EP's B-side.
Following the European tour, the Surfers experienced more upheaval
when Nervosa left around Christmas 1985, as she was tired of the
living conditions associated with constant touring and had a desire
to be with family. She was replaced by another female drummer,
known as Cabbage, who in turn introduced the band to their
legendary "naked dancer,"
Kathleen Lynch (a.k.a. Kathleen,
a.k.a. Ta-Da the Shit Lady). Kramer left during this period and was
replaced by
Jeff Pinkus, who gave the
band's bass position its longest period of stability by staying
until 1994.
Their second LP was finally issued as
Rembrandt Pussyhorse on Touch and
Go in April 1986. Coming out some two years after the original
sessions, it featured a different mix and song selection than
Alternative Tentacles' unreleased version. Best known for its
minimalist reworking of
The Guess
Who's "
American Woman," it
is one of the most experimental albums in the Surfers' heavily
experimental career. Following a particularly out-of-control tour,
even by Butthole Surfers standards, the band semi-settled in
Austin, Texas in the summer of 1986. Nervosa rejoined them (Cabbage
having been fired months earlier), and they went to work on
crafting their first home studio in a rental house on the outskirts
of town. Before long, they started a leisurely recording session
for their third full-length project. Released in March 1987,
Locust Abortion
Technician is one of the heaviest Butthole Surfers albums,
and it is often considered their finest to date. Harnessing aspects
of punk, heavy metal, and psychedelia, its unique sound produced a
number of grinding, slower-paced songs, arguably making it an early
precursor of
grunge.
Evolution (1987–1991)
Around the time of
Locust Abortion Technician's debut, the
group bought a home in Driftwood, Texas, approximately outside
Austin. It was a ranch house built into the side of a hill, with of
surrounding property. As with the rental home, the compound was
turned into a
de facto recording studio. They did not live
together in the new house for long, though, with Coffey being the
first to move out and get his own place. They all had separate
residences by 1991.
In early 1988, the Surfers were ready to record a new album and
wanted to use a modern studio for the first time, choosing a
state-of-the-art facility in Texas. The following sessions took
only one week, as the band had been performing most of the material
for years. The band opted to follow this album's blueprint on
future projects. In contrast, songs on their earlier recordings had
undergone far more in-studio development and experimentation.
Pinkus has expressed the opinion that the later, better-organized
sessions stifled much of the spontaneous creativity that had
propelled their earlier releases.
Hairway to Steven was
issued in April, and marked a midway point between the band's punk
rock roots, and the more accessible recordings that would follow.
While half of the material is as extreme sounding as their earlier
work, other songs are more conventional. This was the first Surfers
album to make extensive use of acoustic guitar.
Hairway to
Steven did not have song titles when first released, and
instead represented each track with an absurdist, often
scatological, cartoon.Leland & Robbins,
"Butthole Surfers biography",
Trouser Press.
* Lieck, "Reissuing the Butthole Surfers: Tongue-in-Cheek Terror",
Austin Chronicle. The band traveled widely in support of
the album over the next year, including a very successful tour of
Europe (helped in part by the influence of new UK distributor
Blast First). Like their studio
recordings, their live shows were beginning to lose much of their
earlier chaos.
While touring during the winter of 1988, the Surfers used a
portable
DAT recorder to tape
various concerts. The strongest of these recordings were packaged
as
Double
Live, a limited edition double album released on vinyl and
cassette in 1989, and on CD the following year. This was the first
release on the band's
Latino
Buggerveil label. Though the album, as of spring 2007, is out
of print, its songs are available as free
MP3
downloads on the band's official website. Issued in response to
widespread, for-profit
bootlegging of
their live shows, it contained performances of songs from all of
their previous studio albums and EPs.
Double Live was to be the last Surfers album to feature
Nervosa, who left early in 1989. Shortly after leaving, she was
diagnosed with an aneurysm, and was forced to undergo brain
surgery. She further began to suffer from strobe light-induced
seizures. In 1991, Nervosa (who has gone by Teresa Taylor since her
retirement) had a small role in
Richard Linklater's film
Slacker. She was employed at the
Texas
School for the Blind and Visually Impaired as recently as
1995.
Slacker page, IMDb.com.
* Interview (King Coffey), SonicNet.com.
The Surfers did not seek to replace her at the time, and opted to
continue as a quartet. Following a final EP for Touch and Go
–1989's
Widowermaker– the band
left their longtime recording partners to sign with longtime
supporter
Terry Tolkin at
Rough Trade Records who had also brought
them to
Touch and Go , for a
reportedly generous one-album deal. Prior to the new LP's debut,
Rough Trade talked the band into first releasing 1990s
The Hurdy Gurdy Man, which
previewed material from the coming release. The same year, Rough
Trade issued
Digital Dump by
The Jackofficers, Haynes and
Pinkus's psychedelic
house music side
project.
piouhgd (pronounced "p.o.'ed," as
in "pissed off") was the band's fifth full-length studio album, and
their first for Rough Trade. Released in April 1991, it featuring
more electronic instrumentation, but was largely viewed as a
disappointment in comparison to past recordings. Both Haynes and
Leary have since expressed displeasure with the album.Young,
"Butthole Surfers biography", RollingStone.com.
* Leland & Robbins, "Butthole Surfers biography",
Trouser
Press.
* Nunez, "The Hole Truth... and Nothing Butt",
Fiz
Magazine. Regardless, the band was invited to be part of that
summer's inaugural
Lollapalooza tour.
Around this time Haynes collaborated with
Ministry, contributing vocals on their 1991
single "
Jesus Built My
Hotrod", which was later included on 1992's
Psalm 69:
The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs.
Mainstream recognition (1991–1999)
Rough Trade filed for bankruptcy in 1991, but not before releasing
Leary's solo project,
The
History of Dogs.
The following year, The Surfers shocked many
fans and critics by signing with the major label Capitol
Records
.Azerrad, Our Band, p. 311.
* Leland & Robbins, "Butthole Surfers biography", Trouser
Press. Capitol immediately reissued
piouhgd
and paired the band with their first big-name producer,
John Paul Jones, best known as
the bassist for
Led Zeppelin. The fruit
of their partnership, 1993's
Independent Worm Saloon,
featured a more straightforward rock approach at Jones's
insistence. This paid off for the Surfers, giving them their first
minor radio hit, "Who Was In My Room Last Night?" It reached number
24 on
Billboard's Modern
Rock Tracks singles chart, while the album peaked at number 124 on
the
Billboard 200.Charts
& awards – Billboard singles,
Allmusic.
* Charts & awards – Billboard albums,
Allmusic. Two of
the new songs were featured on episodes of
MTV's
Beavis and
Butt-head.
When Pinkus left in 1994, the remaining members enlisted a series
of fill-in musicians, and continued to tour sporadically, even as
all three pursued side projects. Haynes was working with
Johnny Depp,
Bill
Carter, Sal Jenco,
Flea, and
others in a new group,
P.
In 1993, Haynes played
with this band in Los Angeles' Viper Room
, on the night the actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose.
Meanwhile, Leary was building a reputation as a skilled music
producer, while Coffey set up his own record label
Trance Syndicate. According to Leary and
industry insiders, Haynes was increasingly dependent on hard drugs
at this time, though Haynes has downplayed their concerns.
In 1995, the band contributed a cover of the
Underdog theme song to be included
on the
tribute album Saturday Morning:
Cartoons' Greatest Hits, produced by
Ralph Sall for
MCA. Later that year, Haynes's
side project, P, issued an eponymous LP on Capitol, while Coffey's
Trance Syndicate label released the first Butthole Surfers
compilation album.
P, 1995.
*
The Hole Truth... and Nothing Butt (album), 1995. Titled
The Hole Truth...
and Nothing Butt, it was mostly live tracks recorded at
different venues from 1985 to 1991. In December, the Surfers
initiated what would become an extended legal battle with Touch and
Go. At first they were seeking to increase their profits from the
albums released by the label, because the label chose a strategy of
non-promotion. The case quickly became a fight for all ownership
rights that dragged on for more than three years.
In 1996, Capitol released the Surfers' only gold record to date,
Electriclarryland, which
climbed to number 31 on the
Billboard 200; the single
“
Pepper” topped the
Billboard
Modern Rock Tracks chart.Gold & Platinum Record Database,
RIAA.
* Charts & awards – Billboard albums,
Allmusic
* Charts & awards – Billboard singles,
Allmusic. Their
songs started appearing on the soundtracks of major Hollywood
movies, including
Baz Luhrmann's
Romeo +
Juliet and
John Carpenter's
Escape from L.A. Despite
improved sales with their second Capitol album, the group's
relationship with the label was increasingly troubled. A planned
1998 project,
After the Astronaut, was scrapped and the
Surfers acrimoniously split with their manager, Tom Bunch. In 1999,
the Surfers won their lawsuit against Touch and Go. Despite the
outcome, several of the Surfers' peers in the alternative music
community, including
Fugazi and
Minor Threat lead singer
Ian MacKaye, criticized them for having pursued
the lawsuit. Haynes and others said they wouldn't have initiated
the proceedings if they felt Rusk's dealings had been honorable.
Rusk provided the band with indecipherable accounting statements.
Rusk continued to insist his actions were honest even though the
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit found
otherwise. With the case resolved, the band reissued
Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's
Sac,
Rembrandt Pussyhorse (with the
Cream
Corn... EP),
Locust Abortion Technician, and
Hairway to Steven on their Latino Buggerveil label.
Recent years (2000–present)
In 2000, the band hired Nathan Calhoun as bassist. Having resolved
their dispute with Capitol, the Surfers re-recorded most of
After the Astronaut's songs for
Weird Revolution, on the
Hollywood Records/
Surfdog Records imprint. The album was
released in August 2001, and reached number 130 on the
Billboard 200. It was their most electronic album to
date,Charts & awards – Billboard albums,
Allmusic.
* Kennedy,
Weird Revolution review,
Allmusic. and
the single "The Shame of Life" peaked at number 24 on the
Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Since then, the group has released two compilations on Latino
Buggerveil: 2002's
Humpty Dumpty
LSD is a compilation of studio outtakes, while 2003's
Butthole Surfers/Live
PCPPEP, combines their first two Alternative Tentacles
EPs.Track listing & liner notes,
Humpty Dumpty LSD
(album), 2002.
* Track listing & liner notes,
Butthole Surfers/Live
PCPPEP (album), 2003. In 2004, Haynes formed Gibby Haynes and
His Problem, who released an eponymous album on Surfdog Records
later that year. While promoting the side project, Haynes indicated
that another Butthole Surfers studio album was likely, and remarked
that it would be "noisy." However, no release date has been
announced.
The song "Who Was In My Room Last Night" was featured in Guitar
Hero 2.
The band reunited with
Jeff Pinkus and
Teresa Nervosa for a tour of the east
coast and Europe in Summer 2008. It was the first time the reunited
line up played together since 1989. The group performed at the
All Tomorrow's
Parties festival curated by
Melvins and
Mike Patton. The reunited 86-89
"classic" lineup continued to tour into 2009, with stops in the
United States & Canada.
In
Austin,
Texas during their last scheduled show for the North
American/Canada 2008-2009 tour on October
31, 2009 Haynes said "We played our first
show as the Butthole Surfers in Austin. And this may be our
last." Haynes has not yet clarified this statement.
Name
The band did not begin as the Butthole Surfers, although they did
have a song of that title, possibly an early version of 1984's
"Butthole Surfer". This changed at their first paid concert, when
an announcer forgot what the band was called and used the song
title for the group’s name. They decided to keep the moniker, and
have largely been billed as such ever since. Prior to that, the
Surfers performed under a different name at every live show. Early
aliases included the Dick Clark Five, Nine Foot Worm Makes Own
Food, the Vodka Family Winstons, and many others.
The name has long been a source of trouble for the band. Many
clubs, newspapers, radio, and TV stations refuse to print or
mention their full name, and instead opted to use "B.H. Surfers",
or other abbreviations.
Live performances
In the 1980s, the Butthole Surfers earned a reputation for putting
on particularly wild, often disturbing live performances that were
both decadent and violent. As a result, they began to attract a
wide range of curiosity seekers within a few years of their debut,
in addition to traditional fans of
punk
rock who had supported them from the beginning. A staged
reproduction of the band's live show was filmed for 1988's
Bar-B-Que Movie, a short
Super 8 movie directed by
Alex Winter, best known as "Bill S. Preston,
Esq." from 1989's
Bill & Ted's Excellent
Adventure and its sequel. A spoof of 1974's
The Texas Chain Saw
Massacre, the film ends with a music video-style
performance of the song "Fast" (a.k.a. "Fart Song"), featuring
Haynes, Leary, Coffey, Nervosa, and
Jeff
Pinkus, as well as dancer
Kathleen Lynch. The track
displayed many of the band's stage gimmicks, such as the burning
cymbal, strobe lights, films, and smoke.
By the time Lynch left in 1989, the Surfers' stage show had become
more predictable, with previously random shockers being done at the
same point in each night's performance.
Teresa Nervosa quit for good around the same
time, and
King Coffey became the band's
sole percussionist. Strobe lights, smoke machines, and even
Gibby Haynes' burning cymbal are still
part of the presentation, but the chaotic spontaneity of their
1980s performances is no longer on display.
Band
Lead vocalist and saxophonist Haynes (who sometimes sang through a
bullhorn), guitarist Paul Leary, dual
drummers Coffey and Nervosa (the latter briefly replaced by
Cabbage), and whichever bassist happened to be filling in at the
time. Then came the visual aspect, beginning with the musicians
themselves. As with their music, their appearance was exceptionally
non-conventional in the early days, including sideways mohawks,
dreadlocks, unnaturally colored hair, and the like.
Known for taking the stage at early concerts with hundreds of
clothespins attached to his hair and clothes, Haynes would often
strip throughout a show until he was down to his underwear, or
less, by the end. Other attire included flasher-style trench coats
over his nakedness, ridiculously home-styled wigs and
cross-dressing; often enjoying a skirt made of an American flag and
a large '60s torpedo-style stuffed bra. At other times he would
hide condoms full of stage blood in his clothes and repeatedly fall
to the floor, appearing to bleed profusely. Some of Haynes' other
favorite tricks involved throwing handfuls of photocopied cockroach
images into the crowd, rolls and rolls of toilet paper tossed
across the audience, as well as filling an inverted cymbal with
lighter fluid, setting it (and sometimes his hand) on fire, and
repeatedly hitting it with a mallet. As previously mentioned he
would sing through most anything that would alter his voice,
including toilet paper rolls and megaphones early on, which
eventually evolved into "Gibby's kit," a.k.a. "Gibbytronix;" a rack
of vocal effects stacked as high as he could reach, before which he
would often stand for the majority of the show in later
performances. He also often utilized various foot switches which
would be used to activate certain vocal effects, and when thought
to be dancing during some performances he would actually be
stepping on his various pedals. Adding to the spectacle were Coffey
and Nervosa, who played in unison on stand-up drum kits; behind
which they would collapse onto the floor and out of eyeshot, to
collect their breath and strength before rising just in time to
play the next song. Finally, the whole band would often tear apart
stuffed animals while on stage.
In 1986, they first met Lynch (a.k.a. Kathleen, a.k.a. Ta-Da the
Shit Lady), who was then working at a strip club called Sex World
in New York City. Though never an official member, she became the
Surfers' famous "naked dancer," performing intermittently with them
through 1989. One show in Washington D.C. with G.W.A.R. saw
Kathleen take the stage to dance in nothing but gold body paint and
antique wooden snow shoes. And at another particularly wild concert
in 1986, Haynes and Lynch reportedly engaged in sexual intercourse
while on stage, as Leary used a screwdriver to vandalize the club's
speakers. This came after only five songs, during which time Haynes
had started a small fire.
Equipment
The Surfers began to take the collection of visual equipment
seriously following Coffey's recruitment in 1983, when he added a
clear plastic drum fitted with a strobe light to their show.
Shortly afterwards, the band purchased what was reported as several
thousand dollars worth of stolen strobe lights at a bargain rate,
and their visual equipment soon took up more space than their
instruments. Smoke machines were later added. Equally memorable was
the band's propensity for projecting a variety of films behind them
as they played, beginning with one 16-millimeter projector, before
adding others. This set-up allowed them to play a number of
overlapping movies at the same time which were often
strangely-angled, upside down or played in reverse. Combined with
the increasing number of strobe lights, the effect created a
visually disorienting atmosphere, which occasionally caused
epileptic seizures in audience members.The films' subject matter
was often as disturbing as the manner in which they were played;
with images of accidents, nuclear explosions, meat processing,
spiders & scorpions stalking prey, gory drivers education
films, and penis reconstruction surgery.Azerrad,
Our Band,
p. 293.
* Morthland & Patoski, "Feeding the Fish,"
SPIN
Magazine. Not all of the movies were horrific, and they often
included nature, wildlife, and aquatic footage; as well as a color
negative of a
Charlie's
Angels episode.
Band members
Though the Butthole Surfers have been through numerous official and
unofficial members since 1981, current members Gibby Haynes, Paul
Leary, and King Coffey have been together since 1983.
Previous members
| Name |
Position |
Tenure |
| Nathan Calhoun |
bass |
2000–2002 |
| Trevor Malcolm |
bass |
1985 |
| Terence Smart |
bass |
1984–1985 |
| Bill Jolly |
bass |
1982–1984 |
| Quinn Matthews |
bass |
1982 |
| Scott Matthews |
drums |
1981–1982 |
| Andrew Mullin |
bass |
1981–1982 |
| Scott Stevens |
bass |
1981 |
Touring members
| Name |
Position |
Tenure |
| Jason Morales |
[additional drummer] |
2002 |
| Josh Klinghoffer |
guitar, drums |
2001 |
| Kyle Ellison |
guitar |
1996 |
| Owen McMahon |
bass |
1996 |
| John Paul Jones |
Bass |
1993 |
| Kathleen Lynch |
dancer |
1986–1989 |
| Cabbage |
drums |
1985–1986 |
| Mark Kramer |
bass |
1985 |
| Juan Molina |
bass |
1985 |
| Terence Smart |
bass |
1984–1985 |
Discography
Footnotes
- Young, "Butthole Surfers biography", RollingStone.com.
- Amy Yates Wuelfing, The Rumpus,
http://therumpus.net/2009/03/how-did-it-comes-to-this/
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 274-311.
- Charts & awards – Billboard singles,
Allmusic.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 276.
- Morthland & Patoski, "Feeding the Fish: An Oral History of
the Butthole Surfers", SPIN Magazine.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 277.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 277-278.
- Morthland & Patoski, "Feeding the Fish," SPIN
Magazine.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 278.
- Azerrad, Our Band, pp. 275, 288, 294.
- Cobain, Journals.
- Kelly, "Kurt and Courtney Sitting in a Tree", Sassy
Magazine.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 280-309.
- Butthole Surfers Tour Dates
- Interview, Forced Exposure #11.
- Paytress, "The Butthole Surfers: Mark Paytress Unravels the
Career of the Cult American Band", Record Collector
#114.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 291-292.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 292.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 295.
- Paytress, Record Collector #114.
- Inteview, Tripping Yarns #2, interview conducted
1987.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 299.
- Leland & Robbins, "Butthole Surfers biography", Trouser
Press.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 303.
- Locust Abortion Technician review,
Allmusic.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 306.
- Lieck, "Reissuing the Butthole Surfers: Tongue-in-Cheek
Terror", Austin Chronicle.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 307-308.
- Double Live MP3 download page, Butthole
Surfers.com.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 309.
- Orr, "Journey to the Sphincter of Your Mind or...
Cowabunghole", Reflex Magazine.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 311.
- Cohen, "In Through the Back Door: The Butthole Surfers are the
certified shock jocks of the next wave", Rolling
Stone.
- Butthole Surfers page, IMDb.com.
- Lieck, "Reissuing the Butthole Surfers: Tongue-in-Cheek
Terror", Austin Chronicle vol. 18 #52.
- Lieck, "Reissuing the Butthole Surfers: Tongue-in-Cheek
Terror", Austin Chronicle vol. 18 #52.
- Track listing & liner notes, Saturday Morning:
Cartoons' Greatest Hits (album), 1995.
- Liner notes, The Hole Truth... and Nothing Butt
(album), 1995.
- Young, "Butthole Surfers Resurface: Austin Iconoclasts Exit
Legal Morass, Sign to Surfdog/Hollywood", Billboard
Magazine.
- Rock, "Dr Rock VS Gibby Haynes", PlayLouder.com.
- Butthole Surfers tour dates [1]
- Morthland & Patoski, "Feeding the Fish," SPIN
Magazine.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 293.
- Bar-B-Que Movie page, IMDb.com.
- Bar-B-Que Movie, YouTube.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 288-289, 309.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 282.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 288-289.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 299, 301.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 300.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 289, 293.
- Azerrad, Our Band, p. 294.
References
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