Butthole Surfers – “Weird Revolution”

album1-4“On behalf of Doctor Timothy Leary, in association with the legions of illuminated social rejects, and as an influential administrator and creator of musical chaos in these so called United States, I stand as a messenger of strangeness this evening, in order to impress upon or at least to instruct the honorable musicians as to the methods and the motives of a truly bizarre reality, the Weird Revolution.”

These are the opening lines to the title track of the Butthole Surfers latest CD, Weird Revolution. The song, inspired by the speeches of Malcolm X, came so close to Malcolm’s original words that they had to be re-recorded at the last minute for copyright purposes. Lead singer Gibby Haynes explains his fascination for Malcolm X: “When I was a kid he freaked out my parents.” He goes on to say, “Now I’m into the revolutionary aspects of being weird. It’s about a weird guy who freaks out this normal guy, and the weird guy gets even freakier because of the normal guy’s reaction. It’s a freak out chain. We can’t be passive about being weird anymore. It’s time to get down and get weird. It feels a lot better to be honestly weird. Let your freak flag fly: that’s the concept.”

Weird Revolution contains at least two hit songs: the first single, “Shame of Life” was co-written by Gibby and “American Bad-Ass” Kid Rock, which is obvious from un-Butthole Surfer lines like, “I love the girls and the money and the shame of life”. “Dracula from Houston” is a catchy little tune that is guaranteed to have you humming at least once after you hear it (Although Mark’s Record Reviews calls it, “the absolute WORST EVER PIECE OF SHIT this band has ever issued”. Go figure. Some other songs to check out on the album are the anthem-like “Shit Like That”, “Intelligent Guy”, and the ballad “Jet Fighter”.

This album is actually part of an earlier album, After the Astronaut which was never released because of a fallout with Capitol. Now under Surfdog/Hollywood Records they have released Weird Revolution, which is a remix of eight of the songs from the unreleased album, and 4 new ones. Butthole Surfers’ have also signed on Surfdog label head Dave Kaplan as their new manager.

The band consists of Gibby Haynes on vocals, Paul Leary on guitar, King Coffey on percussion, and new guy Nathan Calhoun on bass. They also plan on adding a second drummer and a DJ to handle the electronics when they tour.

It seems as if the Texas band may have succeeded in rejuvenating there image with this attempt. With a song co-written by Kid Rock, and more than a few toe- tappers in the mix, they might after almost 20 years attract a new generation of listeners.

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