Butthole Surfers - Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac LP

$16.98

Our Review:

Few bands have managed as perfect an opening career salvo as Texas drug addled psychedelic noise rock weirdos the Butthole Surfers. Sure lots of bands have pulled off a perfect debut. And of those, a handful somehow avoided the sophomore slump, and even then, a few managed to make a third record as good as the first two, but by record four, we're talking a very select few. One of those rare bands would indeed be the Butthole Surfers. Their first four records are pretty much untouchable, their 1984 debut, Psychic… Powerless… Another Man's Sac, 1986's Rembrandt Pussyhorse, Locust Abortion Technician from 1987, and finally 1988's Hairway To Steven. Each a very different, very dementedly fucked up beast, but each a stunning milestone in knuckle dragging outsider psychedelic drug rock.

"Concubine" starts things off with a detuned dirge with dueling tribal drumming and Gibby's hysterical insane vocals. The sound is loose, unhinged and crazy catchy. That really describes most of Psychic, but other highlights include "Negro Observer", which is one hell of catchy song ever moving into the old school punkiness of "Butthole Surfer", the stumbling, lumbering "Woly Boly," with its ridiculously demented vox. Then the record gets really good. "Lady Sniff" is a lurching sound effects loaded psychedelic dirge, with Gibby doing his best raspy bluesman vocals against the battery of scatological sound effects. Then in rolls "Cherub" which is like the Buttholes doing krautrock, all tranced out and motorik. A WTF classic.