Butthole Surfers

The unusual journey of the Texas based Butthole surfers begins in Texas in the late 1970s when Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary met and began performing, playing under a different band name every gig. Their controversial moniker came about when someone mistakenly introduced them as that, and they decided to stick with the name full time. They built a cult following for their outrageous live shows, and their committedly uncomfortable humor. They played atonal, though sometimes appealingly melodic, rock and noise experiments, and this devoutly underground aesthetic made them a perfect fit for indie label Alternative Tentacles who issued their debut self-titled EP in 1983. That same year they settled on a drummer, King Coffey. Over the next ten years they built a small but devoted fanbase, took on full-time bassist Jeff Pinkus, and remained far outside the mainstream. However, after signing to a major, Capitol Records, in 1993, they had their first charting album, Independent Woman Saloon, and then managed the most unlikely turn of their career two years later by having a number 1 US hit on the Modern Rock Track chart and going top 40 in multiple countries with “Pepper”, a hip-hop inflected minimalist track about death. The song’s success would drive the album it appeared on, Electriclarryland, to number 30 on the album chart, the biggest success of their career. Five years later they released Weird Revolution, and then continued to play live until 2016 when they announced a hiatus.