Performer Notes

Butthole Surfers: Gibby Haynes (vocals); Paul Leary (guitar); King Coffey (drums).
Additional personnel: Fooch (pedal steel guitar); John Hagen (cello); Mark Eddinger (keyboards); Andrew Weiss, Bill Carter (bass); Danno Saratak (drum programming).
Producers: Paul Leary (tracks 1-2, 5, 8, 11-13); Steve Thompson (tracks 3-4, 6-7, 9-10).
Engineers: Stuart Sullivan (tracks 1-2, 4-5, 8, 11-13); Chris Shaw (tracks 3, 6-7, 9-10).
The notorious Butthole Surfers continue their onslaught of gloriously twisted guitar rock on ELETRICLARRYLAND. Singer Gibby Haynes is like a skid-row bum in a Kabuki theater, donning the masks of various characters and investing all of them, from the psychedelic shaman of "Pepper" to the apocalyptic ranter of "Birds," with trailer-park trashiness. The other Surfers match Haynes step for step, generating an unrelenting barrage of organized chaos.
Over the course of their decade-plus tenure as kings of bizarro avant-punk, these Texans have learned to temper their freneticism with a more reserved, if equally skewed, sensiblility. Toward this end, "Let's Talk About Cars," with its low-key atmospherics, and the almost pastoral "Pepper" provide a welcome contrast to the band's famous sonic assault.
Personnel: John Hagen (cello); Mark Eddinger (keyboards); Andrew Weiss, Bill Carter (bass guitar); Danno Saratak (drums, drum programming).
Audio Mixers: Christopher Shaw ; Paul Leary; Stuart Sullivan.
Audio Remixers: Mario Caldato, Jr.; Mickey Petralia.
Illustrator: Paul Mavrides.
Photographer: Will Van Overbeek.
On Electriclarryland, their second major-label album, the Butthole Surfers continue the streamlined direction they began with Independent Worm Saloon, which basically means it's a loud guitar rock album. Even though there's potential for the record to become unnecessarily generic, it's to the Buttholes' credit that they still have the desire to throw enough bizarre wrenches into the machinery to keep most of their diehard audience satiated. Certainly, Electriclarryland will sound way too tame for fans of Locust Abortion Technican and Hairway to Steven, and they're right, to a certain extent. For listeners accustomed to their unhinged, perverse '80s recordings, there is nothing on this guitar-heavy record to please them. But Electriclarryland is a logical maturation for the band. It's odd to think of the Buttholes maturing, but that is the case with this album. They have a couple of jangly pop numbers that appear to be played relatively straight and the heavier numbers have a piledriving inevitability that make them memorable. In short, Electriclarryland rocks and it rocks hard, with enough energy for bands half of the Buttholes' age. And underneath the seemingly normal surface, the Buttholes have thrown in enough jokes and have twisted around enough clichs to prove that the band may mature, but they'll never really grow up. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone (12/26/96, p.190) - "...underneath the overheated-amp noise and megaphone-vocal gargling of the bad old days, the Butthole Surfers were basically a hot Texas-boogie band with a primitivist lead singer. In that sense, ELECTRICLARRYLAND is squarely in the tradition."

Spin (6/96, pp.111-112) - 7 - Flawed Yet Worthy - "...the Buttholes emerged from the rubble of deconstruction better musicians, if trapped in the no-man's land between tribute and irony....ELECTRICLARRYLAND is the rock-solid rock album you knew they always had in them..."

Entertainment Weekly (6/21/96, p.66) - "...there's enough weirdness in the album's punk, pop, psychedelic, and trip-hop to satisfy the heaviest acid casualty." - Rating: B

Q (7/96, p.107) - 3 Stars - Good - "...the Texans have mutated into a self-consciously weird mainstream band....another pleasant...agglomeration of the sweetly freaky,...the doomily menacing,...the skewed and grungy....and the nuttily kitsch..."

Option (9-10/96, p.96) - "...this is a great record. Perhaps more than any other band to emerge from the post-punk underground, the Austin combo has grown to incorporate a wild range of influences--from rap to industrial to country rock--without losing any of the perverse intensity that's driven their music..."