The Butthole Surfers are a unique band. Their unusual combination of Rock, Metal and Psychedelia with some dark humour left a permanent impression on the underground Alternative scene of the 1980s in the USA. This was at stark odds with the prevailing artists that were popular at the time, such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince and others during this musical era. This album was not recorded in a professional studio, which saved the band dollars and also forced them to become more creative as a result. This is their third album release and their lineup consisted of Gibby Haynes (vocals), Paul Leary (guitars), Jeff Pinkus (drums), King Coffey (drums) and Teresa Nervosa (also on drums). This album was also reportedly one of Kurt Cobain’s favourite albums in a list he drew up by himself. Let’s take a listen to this album and hear what the Butthole Surfers offer here.

Sweet Loaf is a take on Black Sabbath’s Sweet Leaf. It begins with some silence before the song itself fades gradually in. This has some rather ethereal textures to boot from a keyboard and sounds very spacey. This is different, all right. Some edited vocal conversations are here, and this song gets kicking away nicely. It sounds just as good as the Black Sabbath effort, in its own way, although that song has a completely different musical intent throughout. Soon into it, the main riffs stop and this launches into a clean, guitar-driven arpeggio musically, with the sound of wind whooshes and other sonic sounds present. Soon enough, this launches back into the main riff with some laughter and a nonsensical feel to this music. Nonetheless, this does sound superb and amazing throughout. Another breakdown occurs, which gives this song a particularly Progressive Rock feel to it all. A really great listening experience is here, and it is an exciting and different take on the classic Black Sabbath piece of music. Weird, yet wonderful, this does sound unique. All in all, a brilliant take on an awesome tune. This is over six minutes long but is never dull or boring throughout. Towards the end are pitch-shifted vocals and a spacey wind-whooshing outro. Brilliant.

Graveyard begins with some weird guitar parts and launches into a highly unusual and dirge-like piece with distorted vocals. This is not really music per se, it is more like an artistic experiment. It honestly sounds bad in parts, but that is the idea musically. A weird and unusual listening experience that makes little to no sense, this is certainly odd. It is like the much more discordant side of Nirvana if this music is relatable to anything. It fades out with heavy fuzz-laden guitar parts at the end.

Pittsburgh To Lebanon begins with birds chirping, and some drumsticks clacking and launches into a rather discordant and horrible listening experience. This is a short song that is an unusual take on Blues Music. It makes a lot of sense if you dig Grunge guitar music, but otherwise, this is not for many listeners out there. It takes a certain mind and mood to appreciate this sludgy, proto-Grunge Music. Much more an artistic concept not dissimilar to The Velvet Underground. This ends with high-pitched buzz and the sound of a radio playing. Different.

Weber launches into some piercing guitars that, quite frankly, sound really awful. Fortunately, this only lasts barely over 30 seconds before it fades out and concludes. Very weird.

Hay begins with some weird chanting mocking farm animals in the right channel, followed by edited tape loops in the left channel. The tape loops intermittently come through to overlap the chanting, and this constantly changes and sounds weirdly different but enjoyable for what it is. A very unusual listening experience, this gets very tripped out and odd towards the conclusion of this tune. Weirdly different.

Human Cannonball begins with a clacked drumstick intro and some interesting drumming, launching into a weird and manic piece of music with lots of screaming throughout and dark-sounding guitar parts. There is a lot of aforementioned modified screaming and tape trick editing in this piece, making it sound incredibly unusual. Again, this is much more like an artistic concept than anything else. Feedback-laden guitar parts are present throughout this tune, and it sounds like one weird piece of music. Nonetheless, this is actually fairly enjoyable as a song on its own. A really good listen, through and through. Towards the middle of the song, some lyrical singing is present about weird concepts. Again, this is much more like an artistic concept than anything else. Still, it sounds magically powerful for what it is. A very good song from this mixed bag of an album, it sounds very different. A powerful and unique listening experience for some conceptual music at hand. Nonetheless, great to hear. Different and upbeat. It ends with some weird backwards feedback-laden guitars.

U.S.S.A. is a sonic pastiche that sounds really weird, and quite awful, to be honest. It is a take on the USSR name, recorded at the time that the Eastern empire was failing. It sounds like Nine Inch Nails sections of Industrial Music as well. This quickly changes near the midsection into something really beyond weird with modified guitars and sounds that are really weird. A very strange and odd listening experience, there are screamed vocals that repeat the song title on this tune. This stops briefly and then continues to the end. Pretty ordinary, to be fair.

The O-Men begins with some electronic sounds and some weird yet punchy guitars and drums. This music makes no sense upon listening to it. This is a three-and-a-half-minute-long song that sounds like fun yet garbage listening. It is try-hard USA humour that is mixed with weird sounds. For the most part, USA-based humour is poor. This is no exception as a result. There are some interesting musical editing and guitar parts, but otherwise, nothing too special to listen to on this tune. Strangely enough, this is annoyingly catchy. Most definitely weird, and sometimes wonderful, the Butthole Surfers sound beyond weird. In any case, this music has a lengthy outro and concludes after nearly three and a half minutes. Very unusual.

Kuntz begins with some odd guitars and horn melodies, alongside some bongo-styled percussion. This is followed by accordion and singing, which is very weird and unusual. Some tape editing present is very, very good and has many uses of profanity in the title of the song. Very out there, and extremely unusual sounding with a ton of tribal vocals and other weird editing and sounds throughout. This is less than two and a half minutes in length, and it sounds tripped out and unusual. It fades out at the end. Different.

Graveyard – Pt. 2 begins with some creepy breathing before launching into a really weird piece of slide guitar and bad Jimi Hendrix-styled copycat playing. This enters into a song section that is really unusual and odd. This eventually has vocals enter into it towards the middle, and this is twisted genius set to music. Nonetheless, it sounds very peculiarly different as a tune. Out there and odd, the Butthole Surfers sound way more unusual than any type of music or genre prior to their existence. Just plain weird, this ends with some odd sounds and a quick conclusion.

22 Going On 23 is a tune that begins with some weird sound pastiches, a recording of a phone call about unsavoury events, as it details sexual assault. This is followed by a bunch of thunder and lightning sounds and has some weird delayed vocals as well. A very unusual and odd tune, this is more like Industrial Music in its orientation than anything else in the world of music. The stereo-panned and delayed vocals are very unusual, and this tune stops for a continuation of the phone call itself. This goes on terribly. Understandably, this is not music that is really well done or professional, much more like an artistic concept put onto tape that is really out there. There is some weird slide guitar work in the second half that sounds odd, and which adds as a textural thing. Wacky and out there, this is weird music for the outcasts at high school. This rubbish song ends with the phone call recording concluding and a bunch of farm animals making noise. The album concludes here.

This is a good album that is a test to one’s ears about the weirdness of music. Sure, it sounds all over the place and is fairly inconsistent, but it still retains its freshness, difference and innovation musically to this day. It is one of the best mixtures of raw, Punk-based music and Industrial Rock Music throughout the album. Should you take a listen to this album? If you like weird, go ahead. Be warned, however. This is as unusual as anything to listen to and requires some appreciation of such a thing to enjoy the album.

Different.

7/10