Legendary Texas psych-punk weirdos Butthole Surfers are getting remastered reissues of many of their out-there classics via Matador Records. The first of those — 1984’s Psychic…Powerless…Another Man’s Sac, 1986’s Rembrandt Pussyhorse, and 1984 live record PCPPEP — hit streaming services today (including 24-bit versions on Bandcamp) and will be out on vinyl on March 22.
For more on the reissues, here’s an excerpt from new liner notes by Forced Exposure‘s Byron Coley:
This is the sound of the Butthole Surfers before they were name-checked by Kurt Cobain, and signed by Capitol in a frenzy to not-be-left-out of the indie-rock sweepstakes. Before they had an actual Billboard hit with “Pepper,” from their 1996 LP, ‘Electric Larryland’. Before people saw them as something like a progenitor for theatrically oddball outfits like the Flaming Lips and Animal Collective. The Buttholes’ early recordings for independent labels, and the shows they played throughout the 1980s, stand as pure exemplars of the most cussedly Dionysian vom ever spewed.
Check out Byron’s full Butthole Surfers essay, and remastered tracks from the reissues and a new video for “Butthole Surfer” below.
‘Psychic…Powerless…Another Man’s Sac’
Concubine
Eye of the Chicken
Dum Dum
Woly Boly
Butthole Surfer
Lady Sniff
Cherub
Mexican Caravan
Cowboy Bob
Gary Floyd
‘Rembrandt Pussyhorse’
Creep in the Cellar
Sea Ferring
American Woman
Waiting For Jimmy to Kick
Strangers Die Everyday
Perry
Whirling Hall of Knives
Mark Says Alright
In the Cellar
‘PCPPEP’
Cowboy Bob
Bar-B-Q Pope
Dance of the Cobras
The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey’s Grave
Wichita Cathedral
Hey
Something