The latest repress of this classic mutoid hardcore platter, issued in a new 2017 green vinyl edition limited to one thousand and nineteen copies.

I haven't followed much of what the Butthole Surfers have done over the past two decades; wasn't into the goofy alt-rock direction that the band went in after moving to the majors in the early 90's, and their acrimonious, high-profile split with Touch And Go was one of the uglier moments in indie rock's recent history. Their early records are pretty crucial, though, and still hold up as some of the most zonked hardcore punk to ever come out of the American underground. Their debut EP has been out of print on vinyl for some time, and (surprisingly) has just been repressed by Alternative Tentacles - for fans of early hardcore, this is a crucial piece of U.S. HC history, but this 1983 slab from the Butthole Surfers should be heard by anyone into seriously freaked-out heavy underground rock.

The music on this 12" is, for the most part, much more hallucinatory than the Surfers you've seen on MTV videos, seven songs of crazed, LSD-snarfing punk like the opening track "The Shah Sleeps In Lee Harvey's Grave", mashing caustic, hyperfast hardcore thrash with bizarre lyrical rantings, histrionic vocals, blasting drums...the stoned psychedelic trudge of "The Revenge Of Anus Presley" through wrecked acid-guitar, weird sound effects and simplistic pounding dirge..."Bar-B-Q Pope"'s squawking, twangy punk...it's a whacked out mashup of early hardcore, psychedelic rock and experimental music that was incomparable to anything else happening in the American underground at that time, and this EP still blazes with it's unpredictable music, ferocious energy and lunatic visions. Highly recommended, especially for you folks into the weirder side of hardcore punk - few HC bands have ever matched the weirdness of the early Butthole Surfers records.