Locust Abortion Technician is the third full-length studio album by American punk band the Butthole Surfers, released in March 1987. All songs were written and produced by the Butthole Surfers, except for "Kuntz," which was written by an unknown and uncredited Thai artist.
The album was originally released as vinyl on Touch and Go, and was remastered to CD on Latino Buggerveil in 1999.
This is the second of three Surfers albums to feature clown imagery on the cover, the others being 1984's Live PCPPEP and 1995's The Hole Truth... and Nothing Butt. Locust Abortion Technician's front cover illustration of two clowns playing with a dog was painted by Arthur Sarnoff, entitled "Fido and the Clowns". On the reissued digipack, the cover shrunk a bit.
This album was listed in the list 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Music
Arguably the Surfers' heaviest album, and without a doubt their darkest and most disturbing, Locust Abortion Technician is also considered by many critics and fans to be one of the band's best, harnessing aspects of punk, heavy metal, and psychedelia into a then-unique sound that could be considered noise rock. With its marriage of punk and metal producing a number of grinding, slower-paced songs, the album might also be seen as an early precursor of grunge. "Sweat Loaf" utilizes a warped riff similar to the verse riff from the Black Sabbath song "Sweet Leaf." Not all of the tracks are guitar-oriented, though; the song "Kuntz" was created by remixing an original Eastern recording by a Thai artist.[1]
This album marked the debut of bass player Jeff Pinkus, as well as the return of co-drummer Teresa Nervosa, who had left the band in December 1985.[2] It was also the first Surfers full-length album to feature lead singer Gibby Haynes' "Gibbytronix" vocal effects, which features on the songs "Sweat Loaf" and "Human Cannonball" (though Gibbytronix were employed on Comb on the Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis EP a year earlier).
Many Locust Abortion Technician songs are recurring features of the Surfers' live concerts, including "Sweat Loaf," "Graveyard," "Pittsburgh to Lebanon," "U.S.S.A.," "Kuntz," and "22 Going on 23."
Background
Locust Abortion Technician was the first Surfers album primarily recorded at the band's home studio, which was originally assembled in a rental house they were sharing near Austin, Texas in 1986.[3] A private studio did not mean an end to the sub-standard equipment that had plagued their previous recording sessions, though. In addition to having just one microphone, they also used an outdated 8-track tape recorder instead of the 16-track gear used on Rembrandt Pussyhorse. However, guitarist Paul Leary believes that the inferior equipment forced the band to be more creative than they might otherwise have been.[1]
Additionally, the new studio freed the band from having to worry about recording costs, allowing them to experiment even more than on previous releases. Jeff Pinkus has also said that the home studio gave them the luxury of taking extended breaks for drug use.[2]
Many of the album's tracks also underwent extensive in-studio development. Though this had largely become a Surfers tradition, Locust Abortion Technician was one of their last recordings done in such a manner, with the band going into the studio with more fully formed songs on subsequent releases. Pinkus has expressed the opinion that the earlier, more chaotic recording sessions resulted in much of the spontaneous creativity that had propelled the group's early albums.[1]
Track listing
All songs written and produced by the Butthole Surfers, except where noted.
Side A
- "Sweat Loaf" – 6:09
- "Graveyard" – 2:27
- "Pittsburg to Lebanon" – 2:29
- "Weber" – 0:35
- "HAY" – 1:50
- "Human Cannonball" – 3:51
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Side B
- "U.S.S.A." – 2:14
- "The O-Men" – 3:27
- "Kuntz" (unknown Thai artist) – 2:24
- "Graveyard" – 2:45
- "22 Going on 23" – 4:23
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Personnel
Trivia
- The opening of the first track, "Sweat Loaf", was sampled by Orbital on their track "Satan."
- The song "Hay" is actually a redone, reversed version of "22 going on 23." The last part of "22 going on 23" what seems like mooing, is actually the main lyrics of "Hay", only reversed and stretched. Also,in the final part of "Hay", there is something that seems to be a high-pitched voice speaking gibberishly. This is the speaking in the beginning of "22 going on 23", including the repeated words.
- The song "22 going on 23" brought the band to wider UK attention when it was voted number 44 in John Peel's 1987 Festive Fifty
- There is a Dallas, TX based Butthole Surfers tribute band named after the first song on the album: "Sweat Loaf" SWEATLOAF
- The song "Sweat Loaf" is referenced to the in the Red Hot Chili Peppers song "Deep Kick" from their album One Hot Minute.
References
- ^ a b c Ken Lieck, "Reissuing the Butthole Surfers," The Austin Chronicle Newspaper Vol. 18 Issue 52
- ^ a b Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 (New York, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2001) 303
- ^ Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 (New York, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2001) 303-306
