UK & US: alternative tentacles. virus 32 / 7 tracks / 1983

RI (CD): latino buggerveil. lbv08 / 18 tracks / jan 2003

+ lyric sheet. The original Alternative Tentacles pressing was self-titled; it also didn’t list any of the song titles on the back cover. The A.T. UK version had a slightly different front cover (bigger name font) and lists a different London-based label address on the back.  A.T. US then reissued the album sometime later (mid-’80s?) and renamed it as “Brown Reason to Live”; this version was pressed on both brown and grey marble colored vinyl, and the song titles are now listed on the back cover; some also came with a Subterranean Records catalogue. More recent A.T. vinyl pressings are back on standard black vinyl, but keep the “Brown Reason” name. Now on CD via the Butthole Surfers’ own label; this version reverts back to self-titled name, and it includes all of Live PCPPEP and four bonus tracks (two PCPPEP outtakes, a studio outtake, and a demo). Marching Plague singer Keith Rumbo is the vocalist on “The Revenge of Anus Presley.”

The big achievement of the Butthole Surfers was to completely break the mold of generic hardcore while staying wild, weird and anarchistic. The first track is still almost hardcore, but then the band departs into indie rock, screamy rap core, artsy noise rock and whatever bizarre combinations of post punk genres you can think of. Still, this is fun to listen to, well, most of the time. Classic. [8]

Erste EP der Surfers, die schon einen Anhaltspunkt dafür gibt, wo die Reise hingehen soll: Komplette Vernichtung aller eingefahrenen Hardcore-Riten, aber trotzdem wild, anarchistisch - und immer sehr seltsam. Der erste Song geht noch am ehesten als Hardcore durch, der Rest ist eine abenteuerliche Reise durch Rap, Indie Rock, Artpunk und jedes andere Post-Punk-Genre, das man sich damals vorstellen konnte. Klassiker.

Tracks: the shah sleeps in lee harvey’s grave / hey / something // bar-b-que pope / wichita cathedral / suicide / the revenge of anus presley