I Don't Mind The Sun Sometimes
Death trippin' with the Butthole Surfers.
As an old person geriatric millennial, I should be used to the fact that all pop culture commemorations and release date observances feel legit insane now.
Still, haven’t been able to wrap my head around the fact that Butthole Surfers’ “Pepper” is currently celebrating it’s thirtieth (!!!) anniversary.
If you’re not up on band lore, there is a documentary with the fantastic title The Hole Truth And Nothing Butt as well as an oral history of Texas punk out this fall with an even better one, Someday All The Adults Will Die!
TL:DR is broadly: Austin maniacs who turned druggy experimental music and confrontational live performances into a multi-decade career, littered with side quests from Todd Flanders to CB4 to Supreme.
“Groundbreakingly talented and undeniably perverse,” as David Letterman put it moments before frontman Gibby Haynes attempted to burn down the Ed Sullivan Theatre.
The most perverse thing they ever did was have an actual hit.
Like many of their peers, BH caught a whiff of Buzz Bin-adjacent success in Nirvana’s wake. But Cornholio himself could never in a million years imagine this band going Top 40 with “Pepper” in the Summer of ‘96.
Some pegged the tune as a piss take on Beck’s “Loser,” but that’s selling it short. In fact, Gibby’s on record as a fan, per “Songs That Explain The ‘90s”:
Beck meeting the lead singer of the Butthole Surfers, and the lead singer of the Butthole Surfers liking Beck, it’s like finding out that the Muppets universe coexists with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre universe. My first thought was, Beck and Gibby Haynes don’t live on the same planet. And my second thought was, Of course they fucking do.
“Pepper” was — and still is! — a candy apple with a worm rotting inside, pulling a gold certified fast one in the final days of major label largesse and MTV monoculture. Breakbeats were powering everything from Madonna to “MMMbop” at the time (shout out Dust Brothers, always) but the Surfers were interested in subversion, not sample pop.
There’s a Charles Burns’ Black Hole quality to Gibby’s teenage sex ‘n death lyrics: “Marky got with Sharon / Sharon got Sherice / She was sharin’ Sharon’s outlook on the topic of disease / Mikey had a facial scar, and Bobby was a racist / They were all in love with dyin’, they were doin’ it in Texas…”
Meanwhile, Gavin Bowden’s music video paired Lee Harvey Oswald aesthetics with Erik Estrada and a conga line of cops in cowboy hats.
This isn’t ironic collage; it’s Misfits-worthy Americana.
Their (death) trip hop detour would also bless us with a Romeo+Juliet OST highlight — no small feat — plus some UNKLE and Rabbit On The Moon remixes, tho the band never truly capitalized on “Pepper” and its surprise success.
I doubt they even wanted to!
Three decades later (again: yikes) I still have an enormous soft spot for anything that shares even a hint of “Pepper” DNA. Feels like there’s been an uptick lately, from FCUKERS’ slack sprezzatura to this Monster Rally x Allah-Las jam, both carrying the weirdo torch of their ancestors.
Quite possible these aren’t individual moments so much as one ongoing loop.
The Cleaners From Venus’ spoken-wordish “No Go (For Louis Macneice)” — a 1990 cassette release based on a 1930s poem about societal decay — stopped me cold at Furnish Green the other day, while my brain screamed YOOOOO HE DID THE “PEPPER” FLOW FIRST!?!?
This is a safe space to scream about flows.
Gibby’s got a month-long residency happening at Union Pool in August, and the band’s Electriclarryland follow-up LP finally drops in its original, unedited form at the end of the month.
What’s that if not a butthole?
Fenix Flexin & Purps On The Beat, “Rubberz” — song of the moment, NGL. Perhaps you find it “divisive” and/or “ass,” I just want to blast BANKROLLS ON THE TABLE / WATCHING LOCAL CABLE at destructive volume from a Polaris Slingshot. Fenixomar out here collecting all the Cali infinity stones: Coachella shuffling, Morrissey fandom… Shoreline Mafia contains multitudes.
Mexican Institute Of Sound & Meridian Brothers, “Ruido Tovar” (more Beck!)
Johnny Blue Skies & The Dark Clouds, Mutiny After Midnight (Deluxe)
The Creem, A Taste Of Cherry (heaterrrrrr)
Automatic, “Don’t Wanna Dance (Mario C Mix)” (yes that Mario)
Global Village Coffeehouse — don’t have a ton of patience for “rare aesthetics” but I am pro mall memories in all forms. “We'll break down the folk art movements and artists who laid the groundwork and why You've Got Mail is secretly the most Global Village Coffeehouse film ever made.” Sure!
The Woman Who Saved Star Wars (RIP)
Talking Revolutionary Film And “The Overseer Class” With Craig Jenkins
Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze deep dive (this still goes crazy)
Strange Signals & Folk Horror Cinema mix by OffBeat Folk Film Club
The Day YouTube Wept: Marcus Batto’s Found-Footage MJ Memorial
“Goth Girl Spit” becomes a real energy drink and it’s already sold out
Playlists updated…