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***There's a time to fuck and a time to crave, but the shah sleeps in Lee Harvey's grave. So begins The Butthole Surfers' first song on their first record, a tune that paid tribute to and killed American hardcore once and for all while single-handedly ushering in a new Post-Everything era. Over the course of the next 20 minutes listeners hear the band raving about a Bar-B-Q Pope and the revenge of Anus Presley, thoughts of suicide, and eating cheese and rice. There's even a three-minute pop song ("Hey"), just to confuse matters more. This legendary Butthole Surfers EP was made by a couple of young ex-accountants with bad hair, who, despite Yankee reviewers' claims, had never even heard Captain Beefheart or Faust. Mixing Flipper with fart jokes doesn't sound like the stuff of legend, but like a fat Elvis or fatter Brando, humor and horror can make interesting bedfellows. As a follow up, the band went to a bar in their hometown of San Antonio and recorded their live set, for the Live PCPPEP. Many feel these EPs were the best records the band ever recorded and both have been only available on vinyl until now. As if the first two Butthole Surfers EPs on one portable CD isn't a sweet enough deal, there are bonus tracks: a two-song encore ("Gary Floyd" and "Matchstick") added to the live EP; "Sinister Crayon," recorded for the first EP and not mixed until 2002 (it appears on the vinyl version of Humpty Dumpty LSD); and an early demo version of "Something." If you can't find something to love on this CD, chances are you're dead. |
