Locust Abortion Technician

Locust Abortion Technician is the third full-length studio album by American rock band Butthole Surfers, released in March 1987. All songs were written and produced by Butthole Surfers, except for "Kuntz", which was by Thai artists Phloen Phromdaen and Kong Katkamngae, who were originally uncredited for their work. The album was originally released as vinyl on Touch and Go, and was remastered to CD on Latino Buggerveil in 1999.

Locust Abortion Technician
Studio album by
Butthole Surfers
ReleasedMarch 1987 (US)
1987 (Europe), (Australia)
Recorded1985–1986
Genre
Length32:34
LabelTouch and Go (original US release)
Latino Buggerveil (1999 US reissue)
Blast First (UK)
Au Go Go (Australia)
ProducerButthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers chronology
Blind Eye Sees All
(1986)		 Locust Abortion Technician
(1987)		 Hairway to Steven
(1988)


Background

Locust Abortion Technician was the first Butthole Surfers album primarily recorded at the band's home studio, which was originally assembled in a rental house they were sharing near Austin, Texas in 1986.[1] A private studio did not mean an end to the sub-standard equipment that had plagued their previous recording sessions, though. In addition to having just one microphone, they also used an outdated 8-track tape recorder instead of the 16-track gear used on Rembrandt Pussyhorse. However, guitarist Paul Leary believes that the inferior equipment forced the band to be more creative than they might otherwise have been.[2]

Additionally, the new studio freed the band from having to worry about recording costs, allowing them to experiment even more than on previous releases. Jeff Pinkus has also said that the home studio gave them the luxury of taking extended breaks for drug use.[3]

Many of the album's tracks also underwent extensive in-studio development. Although doing this had become a Butthole Surfers tradition, Locust Abortion Technician was one of their last recordings done in such a manner; on subsequent releases the band would go into the studio with more fully formed songs. Pinkus has expressed the opinion that the earlier, more chaotic recording sessions resulted in much of the spontaneous creativity that had propelled the group's early albums.[2]

Music

Locust Abortion Technician is an experimental blend of punk rock, heavy metal, and psychedelic music.[4] This fusion led the band to be associated with the emerging grunge and sludge metal sounds.[5] It also employs elements of worldbeat rhythms,[4] noise music,[5] progressive guitar,[5] and folk music,[5] and has been described as art rock,[4] noise rock[5] and alternative metal.[6] The song "Sweat Loaf" utilizes a warped riff parodying the verse riff from the Black Sabbath song "Sweet Leaf".[5] Not all the tracks are guitar-oriented, though; the song "Kuntz" was created by processing an original Eastern recording by a Thai artist through Gibby Haynes' "Gibbytronix" system.[2]

This album marked the debut of bass player Jeff Pinkus, as well as the return of co-drummer Teresa Nervosa, who had left the band in December 1985.[3] It was also the first Surfers full-length album to feature lead singer Gibby Haynes' Gibbytronix vocal effects, which feature on the songs "Sweat Loaf" and "Human Cannonball" (though Gibbytronix were employed on "Comb" on the Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis EP a year earlier).

The Butthole Surfers regularly play songs from Locust Abortion Technician during their live concerts, including "Sweat Loaf", "Graveyard", "Pittsburgh to Lebanon", "U.S.S.A.", "Kuntz" and "22 Going on 23".

Notes
  • "Sweat Loaf" is a take on the Black Sabbath song, "Sweet Leaf".
  • "Hay" is actually a re-done, reversed version of "22 Going on 23". In the last part of "22 Going on 23", what seems like mooing is actually the main lyrics of "Hay", only reversed and stretched. Also, in the final part of "Hay" there is something that seems to be a high-pitched voice speaking gibberish. This is the speech at the beginning of "22 Going on 23", including the repeated words.
  • "22 Going on 23" brought the band to wider UK attention when it was voted number 44 in John Peel's 1987 Festive Fifty.
  • "Kuntz" is a heavily distorted version of the song "Klua Duang" (or "The Fear") by Thai artists Phloen Phromdaen and Kong Katkamngae.[7]
  • "The O-Men" is a spoof on the speed metal band Omen, inspired by and lifting it's chorus from their song "Termination".[7]

Artwork

Locust Abortion Technician's front cover illustration of two clowns playing with a dog was painted by Arthur Sarnoff, entitled "Fido and the Clowns".

Reception & legacy
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[5]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[8]
The Great Rock Discography8/10[9]
Head Heritagevery favorable[10]
MusicHound[11]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[12]
Spin Alternative Record Guide8/10[13]
Sputnikmusic[14]
Trouser Pressfavorable[15]
Uncut[16]

Steve Huey, reviewing the album for Allmusic, writes:

The aural equivalent of a nightmarish acid trip and arguably the band's best album (or worst, depending on your point of view), Locust Abortion Technician tops the psychedelic, artsy sonic experimentation of Rembrandt Pussyhorse while keeping one foot planted firmly in the gutter. The record veers from heavy Sabbath sludge (even parodying that band on "Sweat Loaf") to grungy noise rock to progressive guitar and tape effects to almost folky numbers in one big, gloriously schizophrenic mess.[5]

The album received critical acclaim upon initial release, appearing in the year-end lists of noteworthy publications such as Melody Maker,[17] NME[18] and OOR.[19] It would go on to feature in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die[20] and Terrorizer magazine's "The 100 Most Important Albums of the 80s",[21] while Alternative Press ranked it at #28 on their list of the "Top 99 Albums of '85 to '95".[22] In 2018, Pitchfork included the album on their list of "The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s", writing:

From the John Wayne Gacy-indebted cover art to the turbid sounds within, the group’s third LP took a chainsaw to hardcore, psychedelic rock, country blues, Black Sabbath, and, on closer “22 Going on 23,” the sound of mooing cows and the agonizing confession of a sexual assault victim. Butchering every notion of good taste in their path, the Butthole Surfers revelled in the most cartoonish and nightmarish aspects of reality without regret.[23]

Kurt Cobain listed it in his top 50 albums of all time.[24][25] Doug Martsch included the album among the 10 records that shaped the music of his band Built to Spill.[26]

Samples, covers & tributes

Track listing

All songs written and produced by Butthole Surfers, except where noted.

Side A
No.TitleLength
1."Sweat Loaf"6:09
2."Graveyard"2:27
3."Pittsburgh to Lebanon"2:29
4."Weber"0:35
5."HAY"1:50
6."Human Cannonball"3:51
Side B
No.TitleLength
7."U.S.S.A."2:14
8."The O-Men"3:27
9."Kuntz" (written by Kong Katkamngae, performed by Phloen Phromdaen [uncredited])2:24
10."Graveyard"2:45
11."22 Going on 23"4:23

Personnel

Charts
Chart (1987) Peak
position
UK Indie Chart[30] 3
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gollark: You fixed the parser thing? Yay.
gollark: I want to improve the rest of the parsing first.

References
  1. Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 (New York, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2001) 303-306
  2. "Ken Lieck, "Reissuing the Butthole Surfers," The Austin Chronicle Newspaper Vol. 18 Issue 52". Archived from the original on November 10, 2007.
  3. Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 (New York, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2001) 303
  4. Ankeny, Jason. "Butthole Surfers – Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  5. Huey, Steve. "Locust Abortion Technician – Butthole Surfers". AllMusic. Retrieved March 17, 2010.
  6. Christe, Ian (2003). Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal. HarperCollins. Chapter 13 Transforming the 1990s: The Black Album & Beyond.
  7. Graham, Ben (20 March 2017). "The Day Of The Locust: Paul Leary Of The Butthole Surfers Interviewed". The Quietus. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  8. Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-85712-595-8.
  9. Martin C. Strong (1998). The Great Rock Discography (1st ed.). Canongate Books. ISBN 978-0-86241-827-4. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
  10. "Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | Unsung | Reviews | Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician". Julian Cope presents Head Heritage.
  11. Gary Graff, ed. (1996). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide (1st ed.). London: Visible Ink Press. ISBN 978-0-7876-1037-1.
  12. Young, Charles M. (2004). "Butthole Surfers". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 123–24. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  13. Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  14. "Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician (album review ) | Sputnikmusic". www.sputnikmusic.com.
  15. "TrouserPress.com :: Butthole Surfers". trouserpress.com.
  16. "Butthole Surfers: Locust Abortion Technician". Uncut: 84. [P]robably the Buttholes' finest work....They're best remembered as purveyors of the best sort of '70s excess.
  17. "Melody Maker". Rocklist. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  18. "NME". Rocklist. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  19. "OOR". Muzieklijstjes. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  20. Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (7 February 2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 0-7893-1371-5.
  21. "Terrorizer". Rocklist. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  22. "Altpress". Rocklist. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  23. "The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s". Pitchfork.
  24. "Top 50 by Nirvana [MIXTAPE]". Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  25. Cross, Gaar, Gendron, Martens, Yarm (2013). Nirvana: The Complete Illustrated History. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-7603-4521-4.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  26. Lucy Dayman (26 May 2015). "The 10 Records That Shaped Built To Spill". Tone Deaf. Retrieved 5 July 2020. This record taught me that anything can be considered music.
  27. Darzin, Daina (5 October 1995). "One Hot Minute". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  28. Jeff, McCord. "All Grown Up". Texas Monthly. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  29. Camp, Zoe (20 February 2018). "HEAR MELVINS' INSANE JAMES GANG/BUTTHOLE SURFERS MEDLEY "STOP MOVING TO FLORIDA"". Revolver. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  30. Lazell, Barry (1997). Indie Hits 1980-1989. Cherry Red Books. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved September 5, 2014.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
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