RXTT's Top Ten Butthole Surfers Songs

The Butthole Surfers.  Don't they look like wholesome, all-American kids?

Ahhhh, my beloved Butthole Surfers.  Ever since I first dipped my ears into your insanity I have been hooked.    I used to see your albums at Sound Exchange when I would go shop for cheap used cassettes, and your covers always scared me off.  Something truly bizarre was contained within, it seemed to me.  I was right.  I was so right.  I was seeking the musically deranged and I found it.  My man Barnaby Struve was a huge fan and he made me a mix-tape of the choicest nugs.  I played that mix-tape so much that I had to create a second version!  I wore it out, often blasting it's weirdness and forcing my friends to listen to it over and over again.

Over the years I have always found my way back to the Butthole Surfers.  I love them so much.  They might be my second favorite band of all time.  

*WARNING*  The Butthole Surfers are  not for the faint of heart, nor are many of the fan-made videos to follow.  You have been warned.


Butthole Surfers - "Mexican Caravan" 
Let's begin with one of the best fast rippers that the Surfers ever put on wax.  Mexican Caravan comes off of the amazingly titled "Psychic...Powerless..Another Man's Sac" LP.  It tells the tale of a man hoping to head to Mexico, learn how to pass as a Mexican, all so he can score some of that "heroin brown."  



 
Butthole Surfers - "Jimi"
This was one of my first dips into the Surfers' world.  What a dip!  From the slow, tribal, brutish beat and shifted vocals at the beginning ranting horribleness to the full-on guitar squall freakout in the middle to the frankly beautiful and pastoral ending (cows, dogs, birds, people speaking unintelligibly, and bowling!), this song contains everything you will ever need.



Butthole Surfers - "I Saw an X-Ray of a Girl Passing Gas"
I think this song is about going to the doctor's office while wasted on psychotropic intoxicants, but you never know.  I have loved this song ever since I heard the first line, "Ten foot tall and the nurse stuck a needle in my aaarrrrrrmmmmmmmmmm."  The Butthole Surfers have always been hilarious!



 
Butthole Surfers - "Something"
This is off of the Butthole Surfers first EP, a twisted song, shouted by Paul Leary, which seems to describe a conversation held with a deranged woman who "danced all over [her] daddy's grave" and who "ate some cheese and rice today."  Just weird.


Butthole Surfers - "Colored FBI Guy"
This amazing and melodic track off of the Widowermaker EP is one of the more straightforward tunes the Surfers ever put out.  It is a beautiful song, and ends with that timeless refrain, "I hope I'm together when I die."



Butthole Surfers - "Sea Ferring"
A real twisted track from the equally bizarre "Rembrandt Pussyhorse" album.  It starts off like a sideshow sea-chanty with some fat-bottomed bass.   This is a hard one to describe.  I love Gibby's singing on this, as well as his screams at the end.



Butthole Surfers - "Kuntz"
Kuntz, Kuntz, Kuntz, Kuntz, Kuntz, Kuntz, Kuntz, Kuntz, Kuntz, Kuntz, Kuntz, Kuntz...
This one is just fucking hilarious.  



 
Butthole Surfers - "Human Cannonball"
Yes!  Yes!  Yes!  Such a raging beast!  I love this song so much.  From the detuned vocals at the beginning to the perfectly deranged guitar solo that kicks it off, to the perfect lyrics. "Pardon me, I'm only bleeding..."  Another one with amazing Gibby Haynes screams and hollers.



 
Butthole Surfers -"Sweat Loaf"
Amazing.  Amazing.  What a way to start off an album.  Alternating between a fat riff stolen from Black Sabbath and lyrical segments where the guitar feels almost angelic, this track begins with the immortal wisdom, "Son, the funny thing about regret is, it's better to regret something you have done than to regret something you haven't done, and by the way, if you see your mother this weekend would you be sure to tell her SATAN!  SATAN!  SATAN! SATAN!"  



 
Butthole Surfers - "Wooden Song"
Sometimes the beautiful looks even more so when surrounded by insanity and ugliness.  This is one of those tracks.  The Butthole Surfers always fucked around with all sorts of musical genres, and this quasi-sea chanty is one of those tracks.  There is absolutely nothing bizarre here.  Even the fuzz-heavy guitar solo serves the melody.  This is a drinking song for the ages.