Butthole Surfers
Formerly known as the Ashtray Baby Heads, this maverick quartet from Austin, Texas, USA, made its recording debut in 1983 with their self-titled mini-album. Gibson Gibby Haynes (vocals) Paul Leary Walthall aka Paul Sneef (guitar) and King Koffey (drums) were initially indebted to the punk/hardcore scene, as evinced by the startling The Shah Sleeps In Lee Harvey's Grave, but other selections were inspired by a variety of sources. Loping melodies, screaming guitar and heavy-metal riffs abound in a catalogue as zany as it is unclassifiable. Lyrically explicit, the group has polarized opinion between those who appreciate their boisterous humour and those deeming them prurient. Having endured a succession of bass players, including Kramer from Shockabilly and Bongwater, the Buttholes secured the permanent services of Jeff Pinker, alias Tooter, alias Pinkus, in 1985. The Surfers' strongest work appears on LOCUST ABORTION TECHNICIAN and HAIRWAY TO STEVEN, the former of which includes Sweet Loaf, a thinly disguised version of Black Sabbath's Sweet Leaf. On the latter set, tracks are denoted by various simple drawings, including a defecating deer, rather than song titles, a practice which emphasized the group's controversial standing. In 1991 the release of DIGITAL DUMP, a house-music project undertaken by Haynes and Tooter under the Jack Officers epithet was released, followed closely by the Buttholes' ninth album, PIOUGHD which showed that their ability to enrage, bewilder and excite remained as sure as ever, and was marked by a curiously reverential version of Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man. This set was closely followed by Paul Leary's excellent solo THE HISTORY OF DOGS.