Who are Butthole Surfers? Discover Their Best Songs

Butthole Surfers is an American psych-punk noise rock band that formed in 1981 by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary, who were pals at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. They are known for their experimental and psychedelic sound, as well as their provocative and often controversial lyrics and stage antics. They are loud, they are obnoxious, and they are awesome. Any consumer of rock-n-roll should have at least one Butthole Surfers record in their collection, as belong in the pantheon of great 1980s American rock-n-roll bands like R.E.M., Metallica, and Flaming Lips.

What is the biggest Butthole Surfers song?

“Pepper” is easily the most successful and well-known song in the Butthole Surfers discography. Released in 1996 as the lead single for Electriclarryland, the band was able to capitalize on the sound Beck created with “Loser” with their own take — to enormous success. The song reached #1 on the US Modern Rock Billboard chart and Electriclarryland was certified gold for shipping more than 500,000 copies. The video also features the famous Erik Estrada! 

 

What other songs are Butthole Surfers known for?

“Who Was In My Room Last Night?” from the 1993 album Independent Worm Saloon has appeared in soundtracks like Son in Law and Love & A .45, and was a minor hit for Butthole Surfers. Thier cover of Donovan’s “The Hurdy Gurdy Man” from the 1990 album piouhgd charted in Australia and New Zealand. “Human Cannonball” from 1987’s Locust Abortion Technician is a huge fan favorite and just could be their best song. Hear it for yourself!

What movie/tv soundtracks have Butthole Surfers appeared on?

If any Butthole Surfers songs other than “Pepper” are familiar to you, it may because their songs made regular appearances on the soundtracks for movies and television shows throughout the 1990s and early aughts. They include Son in Law, Brainscan, Dumb And Dumber, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, John Carpenter’s Escape from L.A., Beavis and Butt-head Do America, Spawn, subUrbia, Mission: Impossible II, Scrubs, and plenty of others. Butthole Surfers are not exactly the most accessible band in the world, but these soundtracks contain songs like “Human Cannonball,” “Hurdy Gurdy Man,” and “Who Was in My Room Last Night?” that make for good one-song introductions to the uninitiated.

What bands influenced Butthole Surfers?

Butthole Surfers were influenced by a wide range of musical styles and bands, including punk rock, psychedelic rock, and heavy metal, taking their cues from a wide range of acts like The Stooges, Captain Beefheart, Pink Floyd and Pere Ubu, among plenty of others that favored an experimental and avant-garde approach to rock-n-roll.

Click on the surfer to buy Independent Worm Saloon on vinyl!

What bands were influenced by Butthole Surfers?

Butthole Surfers have inspired plenty of future rock-n-roll acts with their loud, obnoxious, provocative sound in addition to their loud, obnoxious, and provocative live shows, like Flaming Lips, Melvins, Primus, and Ween — bands who have all aspired to be as weird as Butthole Surfers. Kurt Cobain has referenced Butthole Surfers as influential to Nirvana’s sound, particularly the debut 1983 EP Butthole Surfers (sometimes called Pee Pee the Sailor). What’s more, Cobain and Courtney Love met at a Butthole Surfers/L7 show in 1991.

What other names did Butthole Surfers have?

Butthole Surfers have obviously often run into trouble with their name being used in print and billing for performances — but it could’ve been much worse/better. According to a conversation Gibby Haynes once had with filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, the band considered such names like Ed Asner is Gay, Fred Astaire’s Asshole, The Right to Eat Fred Astaire’s Asshole, and The Inalienable Right to Eat Fred Astaire’s Asshole. According to an interview with Rolling Stone in 1996, Gibby said if he could go back in time, he’d rename the band I’m Going to Shit in Your Mother’s Vagina. Fortunately or unfortunately for the rest of us, they eventually settled on the much more mainstream-friendly Butthole Surfers.

Click on the t-shirt to buy your very on Butthole Surfers t-shirt!

Butthole Surfers and R.E.M.

There is a connection between Butthole Surfers and R.E.M., however forced by the former’s part. According Michael Azzerrad’s fantastic Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 and Butthole biographer Max Easton, the band actually moved to Athens, Georgia to stalk R.E.M — mostly because they were jealous of R.E.M.’s growing success. While Paul Leary says they never actually burned down their van in front of Michael Stipe’s house, Butthole Surfers paid tribute to R.E.M. with this phenomenal and glorious 8-minute cover of “The One I Love.”

 

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