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"Weird Revolution" Butthole Surfers |
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Here's the whole truth and nothing butt… this is a strange record. Actually "weird's" more like it, yes, weird, strange… revolutionary, hmm… But then again we've come to expect nothing less from the Surfers now haven't we? Now for Jane's Addiction, Filter, The Chemical Brothers even Kid Rock, who non-coincidentally shares the writing credits for the surprisingly catchy "The Shame of Life," (which if I didn't already know it I wouldn't have believed it!) doing the radio rounds at the moment, this is perfectly normal. In fact the quirkiness placed before us on this record, the shifting styles from a bit o' Funk, Hip Hop, Trance are unusual to begin with… by song three in fact, speaking of unusual, maybe more like ridiculous, is this a take on Hansen's first hit by some sort of sick pervertive influence? "Dracula From Houston," yeah bud, you definitely got lost somewhere about five time zones from home… if you hurry you can make it back by sundown and maybe we'll forget we ever ran into ya-worst song they ever did. Ever the experimentalists, The Buttholes' never hang onto a typical style for so long that it becomes synonymous with what they are. Their earlier records were more of a crossbred type of Punk Rock with Folk-like acoustic influences and of course with a character like Gibby out front, anything that comes out of the mic is bound to shatter precept. Apparent label conflicts delayed this record some four years as the follow up to their "Electric Larryland" breakthrough, and for anyone who remembers long enough, a fair number of these tunes follow in the footsteps of "Pepper," their hit single from that record and their continued embracing of electronic elements, sampling, and a wealth of dance-friendly pick up beats and casual club calls. Assuredly, there's also plenty
o' background noise and Gibby's garbled drawl to insure the old faithful
they haven't lost their minds altogether, then again some will argue that
happened two or three years after they started during the "Rembrandt
Pussyhorse" days Musically this is reasonably well put, stylish and sometimes stupid, at one with the hip-shaking enthusiasts-phat beats for a funky butt, or something like that… different, tuneful in its occasional seriousness-"Intelligent Guy," "Jet Fighter," "Yentel…" although they must've still been up in the clouds when they were doing this one. "Weird" is the
perfect description to begin with here, pledging their allegiance to the
God of modernity, though these twenty year vets know how to still rouse
the listening rube Released by Hollywood Records Review by Vinnie Apicella [va85@columbia.edu] |