One For the Butthole Surfers Fans Out There
At least you, William Berger. Original source (MP3) of the song immortalized and transformed by the Surfers on their genius Locust Abortion Technician album. No info, except that it's from something called Thai Shotgun Cassette, and kindly passed on to me by Andee Connors. If anyone has further info to share on it, please let us know!
That is truly amazing. I've been trying to figure out where that came from for years. Now, if only someone would upload the "Welcome to Texas" video, my life would be complete.
Posted by: Clayton | January 17, 2007 at 11:59 AM
WOW! I was hoping to hear the unadulterated version of that song someday!
My memories of that song are watching the Buttholes play at the Pine Street Theater in Portland on Halloween night in '86 or '87 - several people tripping hard - and that song playing on the house system while the band took a break. Paul Leary came out on stage and took his break, smoking the biggest joint I've ever seen outside of a Cheech and Chong movie - seemingly oblivious to the crowd.
Another was playing that song very loudly at the factory I worked at at the time (the Butthole's doctored version of it anyway) and putting it on nearly every mix tape for nearly a year.
Posted by: Chardman | January 17, 2007 at 12:04 PM
For some reason there's almost 30 Butthole Surfers shows available at the internet archive: archive.org
link to music archive:
http://www.archive.org/browse.php?collection=etree&field=%2Fmetadata%2Fcreator
Posted by: Amit | January 17, 2007 at 12:28 PM
may god bless you in heaven, brian turner...
Posted by: __ | January 17, 2007 at 01:33 PM
from an interview i remember , they said they used to frequent a thai restaurant and bought a randome cassette of thai music at the restaurant, i think because they said it had a cool picture on the cover. Serendipity I suppose. btw, thanks, Locust Abortion Technician is in my all time top 2 records and pretty much the source of inspiration for creating the BunnyBrains in 1988.
Posted by: Bobby Bunny | January 17, 2007 at 01:38 PM
yow! I've done a search on this about this about once a year since I had the internet. I thank you.
tidbit: LAT cover art is 'Fido & the Clowns' by Arthur Sarnoff
Posted by: Aa | January 17, 2007 at 02:31 PM
now if somebody could only translate...
Posted by: Holland_Oats | January 17, 2007 at 02:49 PM
Thanks much! It sounds like they're taking drags off a big joint between "kuntz" in the chorus....
Posted by: William Berger | January 17, 2007 at 03:28 PM
ho. ly. fuck.
top ten sharity, maybe top five... never *ever* thought i would hear this... thank you, mister brian...
Posted by: ratskiwatski | January 17, 2007 at 04:02 PM
This is the reason to read blogs right here. Thanks!
Posted by: Noah | January 17, 2007 at 06:10 PM
Wait, where's William Berger these days?
Posted by: Hugh Jass | January 17, 2007 at 07:20 PM
From; http://www.markprindle.com/butthola.htm
An ex-girlfriend who was half-Thai heard it at my house one time and immediately recognized the language as Thai. Her Thai not being too great, she borrowed the cd to play for her mother who was born and raised in Thailand. Her mom had a hard time understanding all of it (cuts in the song?) but she did say the basic premise of the song was an "itch" that "won't go away....the itch never leaves (etc)". I guess she was kinda annoyed at the song and refused to listen to it more than once. The chorus (the part that sounds like "cunts" over and over) is "itch"
Posted by: tim | January 17, 2007 at 07:40 PM
Hot damn. Thanks. Flashback to Cat Club, 80 uh seven? BAM 89?
Posted by: The Swami | January 17, 2007 at 08:40 PM
Chef's Special! I've come to a new appreciation of Khan [inhale] Toke cuisine. My favorite selection from the BS menu just got favoriter. Thank you hot chef Brian.
Posted by: The Cockroach of Del Monte | January 23, 2007 at 04:03 PM
Thank god someone is keeping up with this old stuff for me! Sweet, sweet psilocybin hazed memories...
Posted by: Larktavia | February 20, 2007 at 11:01 PM
Wow, for nearly 20 years that song has haunted me! So nice to hear the source. Thank you!
Posted by: H. Illg | February 20, 2007 at 11:37 PM
BHS fans...check out my webpage!...
every known gig \ setlists \ band comments, etc...ya may like it.
I have been provided many of the shows up'd to the Internet Archive.
Thanks fer the Thai Shotgun...I had never heard it, AND IT RULES!!
Posted by: notsaved | March 29, 2007 at 10:41 AM
Where are the rest of the songs from the cassette?
Posted by: Morgão | June 25, 2008 at 07:32 PM
Rumor has that the "itch" (kuntz) being referred to in the song is caused by gonorrhea. Perhaps grandmother did not want to be reminded of her glory days.
Posted by: wayoutwestes | July 18, 2008 at 09:53 PM