"Pepper" will always hold a sappy place in my heart. It's not that it was the soundtrack to any particular event, it's just in a personal hall of fame containing songs from the mid-Nineties that I listened to incessantly back when I thought the radio was badass. But for me, "Pepper" is up there with "Hey Man, Nice Shot," "What Do I Have to Do," "Self Esteem" and (especially) "Backwater" as songs that don't necessarily define an era musically, just as specific of what I thought (and still think) was awesome.Despite holding the album's best-known song in such high esteem, I'd never listened to another Butthole Surfers song (their inclusion on Guitar Hero II notwithstanding) until today, when I bought Electriclarryland, which actually isn't the band's best album title. That trophy has to go to Locust Abortion Technician. But it's still pretty great. And the art...the art.
The record kicks in the door with the full-speed rave up of "Birds," and then takes things down a little with the more melodic-based "Cough Syrup." "Ulcer Breakout" sounds like a lost Zen Arcade track, and "TV Star" features a nice dose of well-played slide guitar. At more than a few points - and especially on "Ah Ha," the band suddenly sounds like a spitting image of REM, and it's hard to say if that would be tremendously insulting to the Butthole Surfers or not.
The more guitar-driven, rock tracks chug ahead with a brand of distortion that reduces the guitars to a buzzing blur, and the more experimental tracks must have been a laborious concoction birthed from various pedals, machines and non-instrument sources. But both types are pretty damn fun.
Electriclarryland feels a bit like a Mr. Bungle record in a way - not when comparing the sound, but both bands pull off something so eclectic yet so unified that it sounds more like listening to something that spans years rather than a single session. It's not the greatest record I've ever heard, but it's definitely one of the most fun that I've bought lately, and has opened the door for me to dig deeper into their discography.
"Ulcer Breakout" on the Larry Sanders Show
"Pepper" on Letterman
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