i have to be contrary. what's always frustrated me about the butthole surfers is that they're actually really good musicians. like, zappa clued into the reality that half his fanbase had absolutely no interest in his sense of humour and released a slew of instrumental records for them. when i go through his discography, now, decades later, there's the odd thing with vocals that stands out, but the truth is that pretty much the only zappa i have time for is the instrumental stuff.
they never really released a great record. all their records are half brilliant.....and half incredibly stupid. what this band really needs to do is put together a compilation that strips out all the dumb stuff they did over their career.
Devin Begley
The "dumb stuff" is what makes them so fun and unique. They are perfect in their own ridiculous way and should be appreciated for it.
deathtokoalas
the problem is that it has very little relistenability. even the little bit that is legitimately humorous loses it's point within a handful of listens.
i don't really care what other people listen to, but i think there would really be a lot of people that would benefit from a single cd or 2xcd retrospective that focuses purely on the band's music, leaving the adolescent humour for the 30 year old tour bootlegs.
Mike Rogers
The Butthole Surfers are a band that really don't have much of a middle ground. People either love them (like I do) or hate them. Those of us that love them (despite latter day sins) love the humor and never tire of it. Especially when those songs and jokes remind us of times in our youth when this music was made.
Justin Sane
they couldn't be any better
Peter Macaluso
relistenablity? sounds like laziness to me. there's plenty there if you'd just quit treating the music like some kind of novelty from the get-go//
deathtokoalas
you don't think the farting noises get a little old after a while?
Peter Macaluso
No. Nor has the entire species. They're the band the makes farting noises.
skinnydoggyz
farting never gets old.
fictitiousarts
This record had many people convinced the BHS had jumped the shark back in the day. Even the sharks wanted nothing to do with it. Too many drugs polluted their sound.
Jedi Yoda
I agree with you that they are great musicians and are capable of making huge hits(pepper hit #1 in 96), but when Gibby and Leary put the band together in 1976-1977 they had no intentions on being famous, mainstream, or successful, they shared a taste in non-mainstream music and they just wanted to make some of there own, here is what Gibby and Coffey said , Coffey "we keep trying, we keep trying, it's the failure that is the beauty of it, if we succeed then we fail", Gibby "when you set out to do something good...and something good happens, then they're are no mistakes...so from that perspective we made no mistakes, it is only a mistake if something undesirable happens, we have made no mistakes so screw mistakes hahaha!"(the interview was before there success/failure with pepper) you may think that they were half brilliant half incredibly stupid but to them they've only succeeded in what they wanted to do, but I can see how putting all of there..."best" songs in one album could be cool to some people, but the surfers would know it's just the record companies trying to milk a dead cow for money and many of the hardcore fans they created would see this too.
deathtokoalas
i think the average bhs fan is probably pushing 50 at this point. if releasing a compilation record that cuts out their more juvenile material offends them, they need to grow up. they don't have to buy it...
for purposes of their legacy, it would probably help quite a bit to have that as a go to. otherwise, history will not treat them well.
Mr. Evans
Hey now I'm only pushing 39! I love all the early stuff. Actually stopped listing around electriclarryland or when ever Pepper came out. I felt they finally learned how to play which didn't help the sound at all.
lismcorb 8
I appreciate honesty--there are some stuff that creates a nuance in my brain and body that is obviously rejecting some stuff--not much a fan of structured vocals in the later albums. I enjoy the noisey stuff--chaotic and even when it gets ugly-humorous. Not a fan of whimsy-humor-ugly. not sure, but yea. I am honest with my self and I'm not going to force my body to stubbornly agree on everything when clearly the nuance is there. I love 70 percent of the stuff--but not 100percent really--based on my nuance level sensors and the same rings true to Zappas stuff. The only successful 100percent non nuance perturbation I completely enjoy listening to is Cap. Beefheart--he was consistent
