Zack; This album made me feel like a bit of a
hypocrite for liking it so much. It’s very much similar to what Sonic Youth
does, but I just thought the Butthole Surfers did it better. Maybe it’s the way
they incorporate more punk and psychedelic sounds. Or maybe it’s just because
when they make screechy noises it’s not anywhere near as pretentious and
annoying as when Sonic Youth do it. It’s just kind of heavy and weird but in a
good way. I guess that’s the difference buckets of drugs can have. All I know
is it sort of sounded like a lot of bands rolled into one. There was definitely
some Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, and a few other things I couldn’t
quite put my finger on. Anyway, I loved it. It was a merger of a lot of
different types of music in a way that was different from how most artists
produce those types of albums. Typically, a lot of those genre-benders will
change the type of music from song to song. Maybe one song will be a superfast
punk-inspired jam and the other is a slower ballad or something. This wasn’t
like that. All the different influences were rolled together into one cohesive
unit that really kicked ass.
Favorite Tracks: 22 Going on 23; Human Cannonball; Sweat
Loaf
Emily: With a band called the Butthole Surfers, you have
to expect their music to be weird. Double that for an album called Locust
Abortion Technician. What I didn’t realize, however, was just how absolutely
bizarre the 35 minutes I spent listening would be. The album is avant-garde and
driven by noise and distortion. The early tracks are not melodious, and perhaps
a bit hard on one’s ears, but some later songs are more guitar-driven and edge
towards punk. Perhaps the best example of the weirdness is the closing track,
22 Going On 23. It’s not a song persay, but a series of sound clips of a
sexually assaulted woman from either a therapy session or a distressed 911
call, warped and played over a loop of distorted guitar. I’m not sure how
fucked up one has to be to come up with that idea, but the Butthole Surfers
certainly have accomplished it.
Favorite Tracks: Human
Cannonball; Kuntz; Graveyard
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