Coming March 22 : Butthole Surfers Vinyl Reissues
(photo by Pat Blashill)
"Butthole Surfer"
Photos by Gail Butensky, Video by Michael Speed
We are pleased to announce that Matador Records will reissue a number of key catalog titles by legendary Texas band, The Butthole Surfers, including classic albums and EPs recorded during the band’s strange, grotesque, and ultimately unparalleled first decade. All of the records have been remastered under supervision from the group.
Today, remastered audio of the first three releases in the series – 'Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac', 'Rembrandt Pussyhorse', and 'PCPPEP' – have been made available on streaming services, with vinyl to follow on March 22. Pre-orders are available HERE. You can also watch a new video for the song "Butthole Surfer" featuring rarely seen photographs of the band shot by Gail Butensky during the 1980s. Further titles will follow in the fall.
The Butthole Surfers were formed in 1981 by vocalist Gibby Haynes and guitarist Paul Leary. Drummer King Coffey joined in 1983. Together, they have remained the band’s three constant members across various recording sessions and touring incarnations.
stream / purchase Butthole Surfers reissues
(order all three albums at the Matador store and get 15% off --- with a limited three-pin set thrown in while supplies last)
(stream / preorder 'Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac')
‘Psychic…Powerless…Another Man’s Sac’ Track List
01. Concubine
02. Eye of the Chicken
03. Dum Dum
04. Woly Boly
05. Butthole Surfer
06. Lady Sniff
07. Cherub
08. Mexican Caravan
09. Cowboy Bob
10. Gary Floyd
(stream/preorder 'Rembrandt Pussyhorse')
‘Rembrandt Pussyhorse’ Track List
01. Creep in the Cellar
02. Sea Ferring
03. American Woman
04. Waiting For Jimmy to Kick
05. Strangers Die Everyday
06. Perry
07. Whirling Hall of Knives
08. Mark Says Alright
09. In the Cellar
(stream / preorder 'PCPPEP')
‘PCPPEP’ Track List
01. Cowboy Bob
02. Bar-B-Q Pope
03. Dance of the Cobras
04. The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey’s Grave
05. Wichita Cathedral
06. Hey
07. Something
Byron Coley on The Butthole Surfers:
More than four decades after the fact, I still remember walking out of my live introduction to the Buttholes in a state of happy confoundment. By 1982 there were already plenty of bands who'd ostensibly begun as part of the American hardcore scene but were now headed in other directions. One such unit was Austin's Big Boys, whose mix of gender-bending skatepunk and funk readymades were addictively brilliant. We went to see them at L.A.'s Grandia Room with low expectations for openers, the Butthole Surfers, who we'd figured were just another thrash band from Texas with a “shock” moniker.
The Buttholes had already begun their set by the time we got there, and it was immediately evident their sonic approach was far from what we'd expected. Some of their songs resembled a better, weirder version of the Dead Kennedys, but the comprehendible snippets of lyrics sounded great as hell – “There's a time to fuck and a time to crave/But the Shah sleeps in Lee Harvey's grave!” And the singer and guitarist looked like they were competing in the nuts boy sweepstakes. Even with the Grandia Room's impossible sight-lines, the band made a real impression. I asked Mike Watt what he knew about them and he just said they were, “out there.” Which I took as a good sign.
When their records started arriving, I bought them even though they were on Jello B's label (which I usually boycotted). ‘PCPPEP’ (actually recorded after the protean version of ‘Another Man's Sac’) sounded more whacked-out than the studio record that preceded it, and was also the first to feature the power of the band's classic two drummer line-up (King Coffey and Teresa Taylor). The synchronized percussive brutarianism of this pair (falsely rumored to be siblings) provided the perfect base for the unhinged blurt of the guitars and vocals then being shared by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary. We didn't manage to see the Buttholes again until they played the East Coast in '84, by which time a few bassists had come and gone, and the band had evolved into full freakout mode.
The early-mid '80s had their share of insane combos – The Birthday Party, Black Flag and Minor Threat had the raw power to melt your mind in seconds. SWANS, Einsturzende Neubauten and Big Black created enough overwhelming sonic pressure their sounds might actually flatten you. And Sonic Youth displayed such a dizzyingly unpredictable mix of art, pop culture and violence you'd sometimes leave their shows drooling. The Buttholes shared elements with all of these groups, but added a wild psychedelic edge and a propensity for bizarre spectacle.
By the time they started touring to preview and then support the revamped version of ‘Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac’, the Buttholes' live show was an berserk, evolving extravaganza of strobes, smoke, clothespins, naked dancing, bullhorns, raving lunacy and music that was as madly mind-blowing as that of any band who ever lived. ‘Another Man's Sac’ was also wildly advanced over the previous records. Parts of the LP swaddled their punk edge inside so much oink and babble you almost couldn't discern it, with other segments stretching out into a mutant form of garage blues, and others just swirling out of control.
This evolution continued on ‘Rembrandt Pussyhorse’, which featured a set of tunes for which the Buttholes' rock-based form destruction was mixed with experimental, tape-mangling passages of many flavors. Haynes was handling all audible vocals by this point, and his mastery of post-tongue dynamism was finally in full flight. Meanwhile, their live shows became legendary examples of excess and derangement, and their music just kept getting louder and stranger and more savage. It was the diametric opposite of the hardcore scene from which it had emerged, which was heading in ever more codified and stylistically conservative directions.
This first batch of reissues is certain to raise the roof for a lot of people who thought they had a pretty good handle on the outer realms of the '80s indie-rock scene. And while the recordings are not the fully immersive experience of the Buttholes in concert, you may still feel as though you've fallen down a rabbit hole the size of Texas itself.
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.
Yippie Yi Yo!
Butthole Surfers online
Bandcamp
VIDEO : Water From Your Eyes - "Out There"
"Out There" - directed by Sophia Feuer and Tyler Macri
New York’s Water From Your Eyes closed out 2023 with an avalanche of vastly-deserved praise for their Matador Records debut, 'Everyone’s Crushed', including nods from New York Times, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Vogue, Stereogum, The Guardian, NME, Wired, and many more.
There’s more to come in 2024. Next month, the band will embark on a full US tour with Brighton, UK’s Squid. These performances will formally debut the band’s new quartet lineup, featuring guitarist Al Nardo and drummer Bailey Wollowitz.
And today, you can watch a brand new video for the still-very-fresh 'Everyone’s Crushed' burner, “Out There.” (above)
From video directors Sophia Feur and Tyler Macri:
When we heard “Out There” for the first time, we connected with its intensity, and the feelings of pent-up energy and confinement it inspired. When we got to talking with Rachel and Nate about their vision for the album we sensed an overlap between their music and our visual inclinations as filmmakers; decaying consumer destinations, shopping centers, fluorescent hallways, that sort of thing. Keeping all of that in mind, we decided to use an old family-owned pet store in Queens for our primary location. The animals and well-worn look of things brought the emotion of the song to life for us, and we were able to approach the video in much the same way we do our 16mm documentary work.
The band and filmmakers will be holding a screening party for the video tonight at Alphaville in Brooklyn at 8pm.
Water From Your Eyes will remain on the road through much of the spring, including a US tour with Real Estate and appearances at Kilby Block Party, Primavera Sound, Best Kept Secret, and Wilco’s Solid Sound with further dates to be announced.
stream/purchase 'Everyone's Crushed'
stream/download 'Crushed By Everyone'
Water From Your Eyes on tour :
Wednesday, January 31 Duke University, Durham NC *
Friday, February 2 The Parish, Austin TX *
Saturday, February 3 Dada, Dallas TX *
Monday, February 5 Basement East, Nashville TN *
Tuesday, February 6 Terminal West, Atlanta GA *
Thursday, February 8 9:30 Club, Washington DC *
Friday, February 9 Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA *
Saturday, February 10 Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn NY *
Wednesday, February 14 Paradise Rock Club, Boston MA *
Thursday, February 15 SAT, Montreal QC *
Friday, February 16 Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto ON *
Sunday, February 18 Thalia Hall, Chicago IL *
Monday, February 19 Fine Line, Minneapolis MN *
Friday, February 23 Revolution Hall, Portland OR *
Saturday, February 24 Rickshaw Theatre, Vancouver BC *
Sunday, February 25 The Crocodile, Seattle WA *
Tuesday, February 27 Regency Ballroom, San Francisco CA *
Thursday, February 29 The Observatory OC, Santa Ana CA *
Friday, March 1 The Belasco, Los Angeles CA *
Saturday, May 11 Utah State Fairpark, Salt Lake City UT
Thursday, May 16 White Oak Music Hall Houston TX @
Monday, May 20 The Truman, Kansas City MO @
Tuesday, May 21 Delmar Hall, St. Louis MO @
Wednesday, May 22 Whirling Tiger, Louisville KY @
Friday, May 24 Orange Peel, Asheville NC @
Saturday, May 25 Haw River Ballroom Saxapahaw, NC @
June 1 - 2 Primavera Sound 2024 Barcelona, Spain
June 28 - 30 MASS MoCA, North Adams MA
* - with Squid
@ - with Real Estate
Water From Your Eyes Online
TikTok
Bandcamp
Coming March 8 : Kim Gordon - 'The Collective'
Photo by Danielle Neu
"BYE BYE", directed by Clare Blazary and featuring Coco Gordon Moore
(preorder/presave 'The Collective')
(stream / download "BYE BYE")
Musician and visual artist Kim Gordon returns with her second solo album, 'The Collective'. The lead track, “BYE BYE” is out now, driven by a
snaking bassline which guides us through a haunting packing list.
Gordon will also play six live shows around 'The Collective'’s arrival, beginning March 21 in Burlington, VT.
The video for “BYE BYE” stars Coco Gordon Moore and was directed by photographer and filmmaker Clara Balzary, with cinematography by Christopher Blauvelt.
There was a space in Kim Gordon’s No Home Record. It might not have been a home and it might not have been a record, but I seem to recall there was a space.
Boulevards, bedrooms, instruments were played, recorded, the voice and its
utterances, straining a way through the rhythms and the chords, threaded in some shared place, we met there, the guitar came too, there fell a peal of cymbals, driving on the music. We listened, we turned our back to the walls, slithered through the city at night. Kim Gordon’s words in our ears, her eyes, she saw, she knew, she remembered, she liked. We were moving somewhere. No home record. Moving.
Now I’m listening to 'The Collective'. And I’m thinking, what has been done to this space, how has she treated it, it’s not here the same way, not quite. I mean, not at all. On this evidence, it splintered, glittered, crashed and burned. It’s dark here. Can I love you with my eyes open? “It’s Dark Inside.” Haunted by synthesized voices bodiless. Planes of projections. Mirrors get your gun and the echo of a well-known tune, comes in liminal, yet never not hanging around, part of the atmosphere, fading in and out, like she says - Grinding at the edges. Grinding at us all, grinding us away. Hurting, scraping. Sediments, layers, of recorded emissions, mined, twisted, refracted. That makes the music. This shimmering, airless geology, agitated, quarried, cries made in data, bounced down underground tunnels, reaching our ears. We recalled it – but not as a memory, more like how you recall a product, when it’s flawed.
She sings “Shelf Warmer” so it sounds like shelf life, it sounds radioactive, inside our relationships, juddering, the beats chattering, edgy, the pain of love in the gift shop, assembled in hollow booms, in scratching claps. Non-reciprocal gift giving, there is a return policy. But - novel idea – A hand and a kiss. How about that. Disruption. I would say that Kim Gordon is thinking about how thinking is, now. Conceptual artists do that, did that. “I Don’t Miss My Mind.” The record opens with a list, but the list is under the title “BYE BYE.” The list says milk thistle, dog sitter…. And much more. She’s leaving. Why is the list anxious? How divisive is mascara? It’s on the list. I am packing, listening to the list. Is it mine, or hers.
She began seeking images from behind her closed eyes. Putting them to music. But I need to keep my eyes open as I walk the streets, with noise cancelled by the airbuds rammed in my ears. quiet, aware, quiet, aware, they chant at me. What could be going through Kim’s head as she goes through mine? - Josephine Pryde
Recorded in Gordon’s native Los Angeles, 'The Collective' follows her 2019 full-length debut 'No Home Record' and continues her collaboration with producer Justin Raisen (Lil Yachty, John Cale, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Charli XCX, Yves Tumor), with additional production from Anthony Paul Lopez. The album advances their joint world building, with Raisin’s damaged, blown out dub and trap constructions playing the foil to Gordon’s intuitive word collages and hooky mantras, which conjure communication, commercial sublimation and sensory overload.
‘The Collective’ Tracklist
- BYE BYE
- The Candy House
- I Don’t Miss My Mind
- I’m a Man
- Trophies
- It’s Dark Inside
- Psychedelic Orgasm
- Tree House
- Shelf Warmer
- The Believers
- Dream Dollar
Kim Gordon on Tour, Tickets on Sale Friday at 10am local time
Thursday, March 21 Higher Ground, Burlington VT
Friday, March 22 Black Cat, Washington DC
Saturday, March 23 Knockdown Center, Queens NY
Wednesday, March 27 Regent Theater, Los Angeles CA
Friday, March 29 Ventura Music Hall, Ventura CA
Saturday, March 30 The Fillmore, San Francisco CA
Kim Gordon Online
Official Website