Butthole Surfers

If not for the Butthole Surfers, I may never have started writing about music. Like many middle schoolers in the '90s, the Surfers lured me in with "Pepper," arguably the decade's most left-field hit that isn't about whiskey drinks and vodka drinks. But unlike most middle schoolers, I liked "Pepper" enough to pick up Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac, which promptly knocked my brain out the side of my head. Nothing I had ever listened to before sounded the same.



Psychic... Powerless certainly wasn't Third Eye Blind. Once I regained composure, I started checking out more bands on Touch and Go and Alternative Tentacles and never looked back.

Mason, one of my favorite concert buddies, also enjoys "Pepper" and recently told me that he wished he knew more about the most infamously-monikered band in history. I didn't know whether to start him off with the catchier but less challenging Electriclarryland, or something as outright unhinged as Locust Abortion Technician. So I made a mix.

Butthole Surfers

1. "The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey's Grave"
2. "Bar-B-Que Pope"
3. "Butthole Surfer"
4. "Lady Sniff"
5. "Gary Floyd"
6. "Creep in the Cellar"
7. "Moving to Florida"
8. "Sweat Loaf"
9. "Human Cannonball"
10. "I Saw an X-Ray of a Girl Passing Gas"
11. "The Hurdy Gurdy Man"
12. "Who Was in My Room Last Night?"
13. "Pepper"

13 tabs of Surfers history, narrowed down to some of their most memorable experiments. I still don't know what to make of these songs, which is partly why I keep listening to them, but hopefully Mason will offer some insight. Finally, I didn't come up with a creative title for this mix because I didn't know how to compete with Locust Abortion Technician, Independent Worm Saloon or Hairway to Steven. Those will be next for you, Mason.