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Promo: ‘Locust Abortion Technician’, mid-80s
‘This album starts off with waves of blissful, ethereal music. Calming strings, harps, bliss…and the following dialogue: “Daddy?” / “Yes, son?” / “W-w-w-what does regret mean?” / “Well, son…a funny thing about regret is that it’s better to regret something you have done, instead of something you haven’t done. And if you see your mom this weekend, be sure and tell her…SATAN!!! SATAN!!! SATAN!!!” … and we’re shot headfirst into a sludgy, slow, bashing mangling of Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf”, with Gibby snarling something that sounds like “RAPE!!! OF DESIRE!!!” through a pile of delays and other electronic rubble. The effect of going from that intro to THIS is about as close as you get musically to the experience of being thrown into a pit of alligators.Welcome to Locust Abortion Technician, folks…one of the two arguable peak products of the Texan juggernaut of sheer psychosis known as the Butthole Surfers.
‘To attempt to describe everything on this album is pretty much impossible. Just trust me when I say that ANYWHERE you put the needle down on this slab is going to be totally over-the-top insanity, like some deranged miswiring of rock machinery from Cologne, Detroit, Houston, and Alpha Centauri hooked up in some way that’s almost certain to cause the whole mess to explode!
‘This thing is a total mental meltdown. That’s really the only term for it. It’s beyond psychedelia, and off into some turf that would land average people in the rubber room. Musically, it’s primal, primitive, assaultive…and damn close to unique. Even their previous effort, “Rembrandt Pussyhorse”, while still being a real brain-roaster, doesn’t have the attack stance this does. There was once a rave sampler called “Only for the Headstrong”…but those who thought they were down with that would probably be psychologically incinerated by “Locust Abortion Technician”. It just ain’t right, as they say down there in the Lone Star state. If you think you can handle this, be my guest, but don’t come complaining to me when the back of your head explodes JFK-style all over the wall behind your couch. I _warned_ you, dammit. ‘ — Julian Cope, Head Heritage
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Track 1: ‘Sweat Loaf’
”Sweat Loaf’ utilizes a warped riff similar to the verse riff from the Black Sabbath song ‘Sweet Leaf.’ Sounding like the soundtrack to the mind of a deranged psychopath and then some more, it belongs in the pantheon of “Most Repulsive Songs Ever Committed to Tape”.’ — Earthworm Jim
Studio version w/ fan video
live version at the Variety Arts Center, Los Angeles 1987
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Track 2: ‘Graveyard’
‘The first version of “Graveyard” lurches and crawls all over your forebrain, tape running at the wrong speed, everything dragging like some sort of hybrid of NEU!’s “Super 16” and The Stooges on dental anaesthesia.’ — Julian Cope
Studio version w/ fan video
live version at Lollapalooza, 1991
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Track 3: ‘Pittsburgh to Lebanon’
‘”Pittsburgh to Lebanon” is basically a Chicago blues played in Surfers-mode and with suitable lyrics (“When I crawled out of my mama, well I was blind as could be, I bought my first shotgun at the age of thirty”) that mercilessly abuses the genre.’ — guypetersreviews
Studio version w/ fan video
live version at Paradise, Boston, 2009
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Track 4: ‘Weber’
”Weber’ is 35 seconds of what is basically noise. It’s no-holds-barred experimental approach is bold and daring, tried only by the fearless, and listened to by the same. Some of it may admittedly be a racket, but it’s a fearless, edgy and focused racket which is presumably meant to provoke a reaction in the listener.’ — J. Roberts
Studio version w/ fan video
live version at Music Hall of Williamsburg, 2010
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Track 5: ‘HAY’
‘The song “Hay” is actually a redone, reversed version of “22 going on 23.” 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 speaking in the beginning of “22 going on 23”, including the repeated words.’ — Wiki
Studio version
Studio version slowed down and played backwards
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Track 6: ‘Human Cannonball’
”Human Cannonball’ is probably the most straightforward piece of rock music on the CD – that’s not saying it’s still not bizarre – it’s a hard-driving, bass-heavy mosh pit-inducer full of some ultra groovy lead guitar work and Gibby’s enthusiastic singing and screaming.’ — teamfreak16 @ epinion
Studio version w/ fan slideshow
live version in Houston, 2002
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Track 7: ‘U.S.S.A.’
‘The first track of side 2 was my first intro to the Buttholes. I had spent the previous evening on some particularly heavy acid, and while coming down paid a visit to my collaborator in my ambient ensemble at the time. Jim had this manic grin on, and said “Have a seat…I have something YOU need to hear…RIGHT NOW!” And he dropped “USSA” on at full-blast. I have yet to recover from this. The whole thing starts off with industrial hammering while Paul Leary spuzzes along in the key of R. Then some sadistic bastard grabs the tape speed controls, and everything lurches violently, then Gibby starts screaming “USSA!! USSR!! USA!! USR!!!” through a fatally-damaged prison PA system as someone starts scratching a record. No, not as in hip-hop. Literally. Brutally dragging the tone arm back and forth as ‘percussion’. Good Christ. Leary returns to play such great notes and “KREEANNG!!” and “SPRAIIIGNNN!!!” and “BLEAAANNNGG!” over the whole demonically-possessed mess before it all just stops.’ — Julian Cope
Studio version
live version in 1989 (audio only)
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Track 8: ‘The O-Men’
‘Sometimes considered their best song, this tour de force of metal, hardcore, bad acid and juvenilia is alternately one of the most hilarious, most experimental and most sincerely disturbing turnes of all time. “The O-Men” is the closest anyone has ever come to truly recreating the sounds of a nitrous oxide hit. Not that many other bands have even tried.’ — Mike McGurk, Rhapsody
Studio version w/ fan video
live version at Music Hall of Williamsburg, 2010
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Track 9: ‘Kuntz’ (unknown Thai artist)
‘”KUNTZ” takes a Vietnamese pop tune and subjects it to electronic manglery to get the vocalist to start going “KUNTZKUNTZKUNTZKUNTZ…”…which gets worse and worse and more brain-damaged as this short treatise on what NOT to do with effects continues.’ — Alternative Tentacles
Studio version w/ fan video
The original Thai song w/ fan slideshow
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Track 10: ‘Graveyard 2’
‘”Graveyard” is a slab of droning sludge, with incomprehensible lyrics, impossibly low and grinding bass and a pace that’s terrifyingly slow and only bands like The Melvins dare to employ. Paul Leary squeezes the weirdest solos imaginable out of his guitar, often sounding like Jimi Hendrix on a bad acid trip, or a slow motion version of Tony Iommi.’ — Rockeroll
Studio version
live version at CBGB, 1986
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Track 11: ’22 Going on 23′
‘The song “22 going on 23” brought the band to wider UK attention when it was voted number 44 in John Peel’s 1987 Festive Fifty. “22 Going on 23” gets started with a snippet of radio psychology about someone who ‘cannot sleep’ before the sludge-o-tastic Surfers kick in over the top in a groove that sounds like a poppy and upbeat…ahhh…Melvins? Over this, swirling around in stereo like evil spirits, are voices repeating fragments: “…sleep problem…”, “…anxiety…”, “…medicine…”, and the woman at the beginning who keeps releating “I cannot sleep…” It sounds like pure insanity. It IS pure insanity. And with the sound of cows mooing, the whole episode is over.’ — Julian Cope
Studio version w/ fan video
live version in Barcelona, 2008
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*
p.s. Hey. ** Armando, Hey, man. After the real Ziggy and I got back in touch for a while, we lost touch again unfortunately. He was sort of moving around, so I have no idea where he is. But he’s a fascinating guy. Yeah, there’s definitely comedy in ‘TMS’, but it doesn’t run the show like it mostly did in ‘Ugly Man’. I hope you like it, obviously. Sometimes certain old Leonard Cohen albums work for me when I’m depressed, i.e. presenting a bottomed out place whereby I can right myself by comparison, and he’s still alive, and that helps too. Take care. ** ASH, Hey, man! Really nice to see you! Thanks about my stuff. How can I read yours? Possible somehow? I’d love to. Nice latest blog entry by you. I need to get that new PJ Harvey. I still haven’t for no good reason. No England readings planned at the moment. I’m going to London in early June for an art show thing that I’ll be saying more about here soon and maybe also if the ICA presents one of the theater pieces, which is in ‘talks’. How’s stuff with you? ** David Ehrenstein, There are still Hard Rock Cafes in the States, for better or worse. At least two in LA, last I checked. Planet Hollywood is the one that went defunct, although there’s still one of them over here on the Champs Elysee catering to the foreigners who really should know better. Yaki Soba sounds quite tasty. I’m going to see if I can find it or do something with the ingredients or something. Hope you had fun with your text-based doppleganger! ** Colin, Hey, man! ** Sypha, Hi, James. It’s sad when wispy twinks try to escape their hallowed destiny. Twink porn stars often try to butch up in their mid-20s hoping to extend their careers, but it only works one of out of maybe a dozen times. ‘The Celestine Prophecy’, wow. I haven’t heard that title mentioned in … decades? One decade at least. How was/it that? ** Bernard Welt, Thankfully for me, Alan was an interrogator of the golden age type, Walter Cronkite without the … Cronkite? Oh, goodness, I’m sorry to hear that about the lunch. I suppose it would rude to propose instead a picnic along the banks of a hot tub? ** Bollo, As much as I like the idea of an evil museum wing, I hope you’re right too. Business cards … well, aren’t you fancy. I personally much prefer it when people hand me their business cards than promise to text me their info. That’s what those little pockets in wallets are for, right? Hope the paintings finished up at your command. ** Andrew, Yes, I did. Weird. She must have paid for her utilities awfully far in advance. She must have had very disinterested friends. I mean, that’s the weirdest part for me. I hope some wing of the media sticks around that story long enough to solve its niggling mysteries. ** L@rstonovich, No, they don’t, in a word. Or, rather, I’ll find out, but, to take a guess, no they don’t. East coast trip, nice. Where and for how long? What’s on your Eastern to-do list? ** Math, Hello! ** Schoolboyerrors, It’s not only priceless, it’s absolutely true, which is why it’s priceless, ultimately. You can’t put a price on truth. You’re doing pretty damned good for a blocked guy. I’ve read comments by blocked people that would make your hair stand on end. You’re doing good, man. I’m cool with tattoos, I just don’t want to get any. Well, I wasn’t so cool with all that modern primitive tattooing back in the mp/radical fairy fad days. I mean I was cool with it, but I thought it was kind of, I don’t know, lame? Or something. Yours sounds top drawer, btw. Albers, abstract structures meets the organic, etc. I’m all for and into that. A photo once it’s implanted please? ** Steevee, Nice going on the pounds, man. The only thing by Melanie Gillian that I’ve seen is this multi-part series also called ‘Crisis in the Credit System’. Based on the short maybe? It was pretty interesting. I couldn’t get a feel what exactly what she does in general from it, but it was smart and stylish and intriguing. Curious to hear how that piece is, if you go. Some interesting things in the MIgrating Forms Festival this year. Wish I was there for it. ** Pisycaca, Aw, thanks, pal. Earliest I could get my new laptop is Friday, so … we’ll see. Love from me. ** Alan, Hey, man. Thanks, you know, a lot again, you know. No, the break-ins surely helped. It’s just that in computer years, mine was already pushing it a year ago. ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, ‘Immortals’ is an interesting test. How many weird, interesting artists have said, oh, if I was rich and successful, I could even more and better weird, interesting things, then, upon finding said success, quickly blanded out? Well, I don’t have that number at my fingertips, but there must be a lot. Guitar, good, that’s no lose choice. Be like Fahey. The world needs a new Fahey. We’ve had a million new Dylans but no new Faheys or any that spring to mind this morning. ** Polter, Hey! It’s always so nice to see you! Exams definitely wouldn’t help spring be what spring is supposed to be, which is … what .. a time of flowering and rebirth, I guess, historically or mythologically. That’s true and beautifully said about dreaming what you see more realizing it’s there. Wow, that was nice. I think maybe you’re thinking more clearly than you think you are? Living on the stars with living stuffed animals would be a really nice death. It’s guess it’s remotely possible? Very, very remotely possible? I hope so. I had pets as a kid, and they all dried tragically, so maybe not having had them has a positive side? I’d love to see you whether you cut the strings or not. But of course you will. Cut mine while you’re at it. Love from me. ** _Black_Acrylic, Well, unfortunately the real PR interview is a whole bunch of me meandering on about substructures and stuff. The storm after the calm. ** Alfonso, Hey. That’s probably just a problem of the brevity of your encounter with him. I suspect he was just talking about himself, and you were, due to the surprise and quickness, functioning as a trigger of his own past, and that if you guys had talked longer, the real stuff he thinks about you would have come spilling out. I’m with you about thinking the past was meant to be that way and fuck wishing you could revise it. Yeah, Calhoun was based on a real person too. He and I are still good friends and have never stopped being so against the odds, which is great. It really does sound like the right direction is where you’re going. I’m looking forward to following your progress. Oh, yes, Ricci Forte. I know about ‘Macadamia Nut Brittle’, and I’ve been in touch with them a little via Facebook, but I didn’t get the chance to see that piece. I can’t remember if it played in Paris or not. I’m very curious about it, naturally, and they seem very cool. Great that you’re doing a workshop with them. If you want, let them know that you and I are pals and say hello to them for me. ** Christopher/ Mark, Hi, Mark! Yeah, I think Hard Rock Cafe still has a firm grip on certain parts of America. You can’t even get iced tea at Starbucks here. It’s bizarre. Really, the only places in Paris where you can get iced tea that’s not some horribly artificially flavored and bottled item is at Hard Rock Cafe and this tiny little restaurant in the Marais called American Breakfast that specializes in, yes, American breakfasts. I hope you’re doing great, man! ** Ken Baumann, If they made a movie about the life of Michael Bay, which I suppose they will some day, and if Leonardo DiCaprio played Bay, which is not inconceivable, I suppose, then there could be a really moving scene where ‘Bay’ writhes in agony and gesticulates at a cruel God while trying to figure out the tone problem in his work. I’ll co-write the screenplay with you, if you’re game. You’re so lucky about the Herzog., Fucking France, man. Wtf?! ** Chris Cochrane, Good name for a drag queen too. ** Bill, It’s weird when writers’ books start to kind of bloat once they get successful. Clive Barker, De Lillo, Phillip Roth, and on and on. I don’t think ‘Dhalgren’ counts as best seller, no. Not to me. Was it a best seller? If ‘Dhalgren’ was, it seems like it must have been one of those lucky break best sellers like ‘Infinite Jest’ or, uh … I’m trying to think of another best seller that was also pretty great. And I can’t. How was the Villaronga? ** Inthemostpeculiarway, That cockroach story was a true story. Man, you want to talk about being grossed out. I’m just counting the minutes until the combination of the Apple factory in China and the unlovely French postal service solves my Mac problem for me. For now, I’m still typing like I’m holding a little mirror under a possible dead body’s nostrils. That was intense about your angry/ crying friend. I liked the paragraph that both was and wasn’t a dialogue. It was quite formally interesting. Oh, gosh, about your friends’ theatrically cutting roommate. I wouldn’t know what the right thing to do was. Call their … boyfriend/ girlfriend, best friend, mom, … ? I don’t know. Or maybe, yeah, the tough love approach like she’s doing is right? I’m glad I’m not her much less the cutter. Based on how you wrote it, it doesn’t seem sexist necessarily to me. It’s quite odd and telling about something or other about him though. Your song of the day was moody and nice. I guess I have a song of the day because it was playing on the sound system of the supermarket, and then it got stuck in my head only because was a big hit here a few years and has a catchy thing going on in it, and this is it. My day yesterday was actually pretty busy. Uh, first this guy Isaac from Love Magazine came over to interview me. He was really cool, and it was actually fun and interesting to talk to/with him. He even said he would put together a guest-post for the blog about … well, you’ll see. Then it was time for the photo session, so he and I cabbed it over the 13th arr., which is this part of Paris where you never go unless you live there unless I’m missing something, because Love Magazine was using a studio there to shoot the portraits of the Paris-based interviewees: me, Christophe Lemaitre, and Charlotte Rampling, not in that order obviously. So, anyway, the photographer and all the magazine people there were very nice, and they managed, thanks to an undercoating of organic white cotton, to dress me up and style me to a point where they were okay with me and I wasn’t suffering apart from a slight numbness that I get when the allergy thing is set off in a mild way. I was in a high collar Dolce & Gabanna shirt, a Kooples jacket, a bowtie by some fashionable bowtie designer whose name I didn’t catch, and with an Alexander McQueen overcoat draped over my shoulders. I turned down the hats and gloves they wanted me to wear. They let me be myself from the waist down because they were doing a roughly head and shoulders portrait. Then they shot me moving my head and eyes around slightly at their commend for about forty five minutes. They asked me if I wanted to see the photos, and I said no, but I did see one of them in the corner of my eye as I was leaving, and I thought I looked like an eighty year-old vampire, so I don’t want think about the portrait anymore until it’s published and I have to. Then Isaac metroed back here with me, and he went off to take a nap before, I think, interviewing Charlotte Rampling. So, it was okay, and hanging out with Isaac was cool. Then I ate food quickly, met up with Kiddiepunk, Oscar, and Yury, and we went to see Hunter Hunt-Hendrix perform at the gallery where the show of Gisele’s photos is currently on display. H-HH might be familiar because I posted something by him in the last Varioso, and he heads up the band Liturgy. So, he performed — chanting which he looped and looped into this dense drone then played complicated drone guitar over which he looped and looped and then chanted again and looped that until he was finished. I really liked it. Afterwards, I talked to him for a while, and he was cool, and he was already interested in the theater pieces by Gisele and Stephen and me, and we made plans for all of us to meet up when Liturgy comes back to Paris on tour in the fall. Then I came home, did some internet stuff, watched an episode of ‘Twin Peaks’ dubbed into French on Arte, and crashed. That was my day. How was yours? ** Misanthrope, Is that true about big heads? Interesting. But … what about the Elephant Man? Wait, I guess he was successful in a kind of horrible (for him) way. Let them eat sheet cake! ** Okay, your gig this time centers around an ultra-great album by the younger and ultra-great Butthole Surfers, so everyone wins today, and congratulations! See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
we say live ver. plus whatever he's having
we're only on track 7, having seizures. cool how the sun and its rays do look like a butt's hole.
Ah the Butthole Surfers!
No chnce to meet Charlotte Rampling should ever be passed up. She grows more legendary with each passing year.
Great fun seeing Daid Ehrenstein again. We drove to the beach and walked along the park on the cliff overlooking the beach near the Shangri-La Hotel. His son is 12 now and "more of a science nerd than I am," he said. The convention this year was about "dark matter," and one fo the guests was the primare writer for "The Big Bang Theory — the great cult TV show about science nerds — which utilizes actual Physics theory in its sorylines. His daughte, who's about 9, wants to have a career in musical theater, so Bill and I were full of advice for her.
You wore a bowtie?
http://vzaar.com/videos/769973
In light of Trent Reznor's recent accomplishments, perhaps one of the dumbest things he ever did was to trust Gibby Haynes to keep his copy of the "Broken" movie a secret. Given Haynes chaotic lifestyle, drug use, etc., it wasn't a very likely prospect. Of course, Reznor may have been doing the crazy-like-a-fox thing, since he embedded numerical codes on the copies of that longform video, "just in case" somebody didn't play fair…yeah, right. For Sleazy's sake, I wish Trent would release a good clean copy of it, to the masses, as it were…is ?
Nice to see this post today, just came across this album while trying to thin out my collection… obviously it didn't go in the outgoing pile. I only ever saw them at the first lolapalooza when I was about 15-16, but it was great, they were smashing (prop) bottles over each others heads and firing a shotgun with blanks into the air throughout the set (no gold painted dancers or fire, though). Sure beat Jane's Addiction…
Dennis,
… "I did see one of them in the corner of my eye as I was leaving, and I thought I looked like an eighty year-old vampire…" That's the funniest shit I've read all morning! And it's also why I don't like having photos taken, especially in today's digital era, where every flaw, frown line and crow's foot can be zoomed in at, like, 1000x. From about age seven to twelve, I looked like an Asian sex doll, but then puberty hit. I can send you (via email) one of my Asian sex doll photos if you'd like, I think I was about 11 years old at the time… my mother snapped a photo of me with a handheld Vivitar as I was getting dressed for school (fifth grade?); so it was morning, and I'm pretty much naked, and I guess it could be considered kitty porn, except for the fact that my weird mother took the photo… if you want, I can send, via email, but then that requires purchasing a flatbed scanner. I've had my eye on a Canon for a while, but the $70 seems prohibitive, but if you said 'Yes' then it would give me a perfect excuse to finally buy the thing… Like you, I hate spending money on myself, unless alcohol counts, hee hee. But that's pretty much my childhood in a nutshell, weird photos at inoppotune moments by family members who, at times, resembled a pack of wolves…
I just googled Love Magazine… is this the same magazine that only publishes two issues a year? I googled Love Magazine and about 1000 hits came up for a fashion mag with Justin Beiber on the cover, which I'm having totally impure thoughts about right now, is that the magazine, Dennis? Is it published in the UK? Seems like a difficult item to get here in the States, but then maybe that's because I live in a trailer park.
I'm trying to picture you in a bowtie, Dennis, and I just… can't… do… it!
Thank you for posting the Buttholes stuff today… Like Julian Cope, I too was introduced to them while under the influence of a hallucinogen, which shall remain nameless, in a friend's dorm room… it was about 1989, thereabouts, and I was all of 19years old… still a virgin, for the most part, musically and physically, and the Butthole Surfers pretty much destroyed all that… they took the best years of my youth and shit it out backwards.
Any ideas on the release date of the DC issue of Love Magazine?
Much love to you, Dennis.
XOXO
James
Latest FaBlog: Fait Diver — Pretty As A Picture
Man, I haven't heard this album in ages. All I really remember of it is the first track, to be honest. I think, scratch that, I know it's the only album of theirs I own.
Dennis, "Celestine Prophecy" was published about 15-16 years ago. It's one of those bestselling "new age" novels. Chalk it up to whimsy. When I plan what books to read each month, my weird sense of humor propels me to create interesting and diverse-looking juxtapositions (for example, in 2009 I followed my reading of the Bhagavad Gita with Kathy Griffin's autobiography, while in 2010 I read the Upanishads upon completing Justin Bieber's book). I like the idea of some scholar looking at my reading lists hundreds of years from now and wondering if I was schizophrenic or something, ha ha.
I'm reading "Prophecy" half for laughs and half in seriousness: after all, the back cover does proclaim it as "a book that comes along once in a lifetime to change lives forever." It's basically about an unnamed narrator who goes to Peru in search of an ancient manuscript wittingly entitled "The Manuscript" (yes, capitalized every time). This manuscript was "9 key insights into life itself" and it's trying to be suppressed by the government of Peru and "The Church." The book is divided into nine chapters, each chapter revolving around one of the insights. The book follows a predicable formula: in each chapter the narrator encounters a stranger (who coincidentally is also looking for the manuscript) who provides the narrator with one of the key insights. For example, in chapter 3 we learn that there's an energy field invisible to most people that hovers around all living things. Being well-read as I am in matters of the occult and the metaphysical, none of what the book has said so far I've found all too surprising: just a lot of "human potential" new agey-type stuff.
Ah, one of my favorite albums back in the day. I probably loved Rembrandt Pussyhorse a little more, just a little.
Your description of the portrait session is pretty funny. Is this going to evolve into a short piece?
I'd love to see Gisele's photos, by the way.
The Villaronga is in 12 hours. Will report afterwards.
There's an interview with Michael Fassbender in last Sunday's NY Times. It mentions an upcoming David Cronenburg film with Fassbender as Jung, and Viggo Mortenson as Freud. Wow.
Bill
word verification: dered
A- Butthole Surfers. You know, if there was a band that was destined to be associated to you by their name, or if you were to name a band, or if you formed a band and had to name it something very DennisCooperian, well, that's what it'd be. It just seems to fit, dude. Also, they're excellent, so it's not just the name. Though ii could be argued that excellence is born from the name, predestined. Or maybe it's the other way round in an unbreakable cause-and-effect link. Who knows.
B- Trust me, if you want to keep loving PJ Harvey, you want to avoid her latest. And that's coming from someone who was not so long ago her greatest fan. I mean, we've got the same nose; i can't just slag her off like that. Dna. But that last album sucks hairy balls. Then again, that's, like, my opinion, man. (Am i allowed to overquote The Dude at that rate? Mmh. Do i give a shit?)
C- Blogger ate my comment yesterday, What was i saying? Something about that semi-fake interview being the Donkey's Dungarees (better than the Cat's Pajamas or the Bee's Knees, even better than the Weasel's Easel. I have a whole list like that, you wouldn't believe.)
C2 – Also saying that this train thing would indeed be "full of win", like they say on the web, and that we should book that presto-ish. Still checking whether we can be in Paris before, and once that's ok-ed i'll let you know.
C3 – just had my tattoo re-inked (just in sync with Camarade Hester's sleeve), and my endorphin supply died after 2hours, which sucked, so now i'm fucking wrecked after an hour of torture. Tattooing's weird; sometimes i barely feel it and the next minute i'm fucking dying. Oh well, it's over.
C4 – Yeah, popcorn with salt too.
When I described CRISIS as a short, I was a bit hasty. It is indeed being presented as a four-part series. Gilligan seems to like showing her work on-line as though it were a TV series. POPULAR UNREST is being shown as a 80-minute feature by Migrating Forms, but it's presented as a 5-episode series on its website.
Hello DC,
Nice to be back. I was all "I aint coming back to the blog until he starts paying me some attention on facebook!" JK. Been crazy for the past few week covering the Tribecca Film Festival. Saw two good movies, "Grave Encounters," a horror movie about a reality TV team of Ghost Hunters and this comedy called Treatment about a guy who checks into rehab to befriend a celeberity to get him attached to his screenplay idea.
So, I see you've got a an upcoming novel, I'd love to do an interview, you down?
I noticed that you got profiled by Disinformation. They're interesting. What do you think about Magick? Sigils and such? I tried it once, but my novels still not published so as of now, I don't believe in magaick. Aliens,on the other hand, those I believe in.
Here are some abortive recording sessions produced by Arthur Russell featuring the future Vin Diesel back when he was aspiring rapper Mark Sinclair: http://soundcloud.com/garylucas/second-edition-vin-diesel-vs
Hi Dennis,
I was catching up on DCworld and wanted say, in response to your mention on zombie Joy Williams Day, that yes I'm still out there, still reading the blog; still finding it wonderful. I've been teaching five classes a semester for a while now, which has left me pretty drained, energywise, and seemingly behind on everything; thus the silence. But changes are in the offing, so I'm hoping for more time/brainspace soon.
The Butthole Surfers! Is this level of crazy possible anymore? Musically speaking? The chapter about them in Our Band Could Be Your Life is pretty awesome.
Hi David E
Hi Bernard
Hi Wolf
Hi Sypha
Aw DC, how do you just continue to exude positivity and goodwill? You are truly exceptional. Okay, get this: on my way back from the tattooist I was stopped by some woman whose colleagues were doing some kind of vox-pop of young guys on the street and offered me ten quid for a ten minute filmed interview. I'm too much of a narcissist to turn down the opportunity to talk about myself and also I needed cash for grub so I said why not… Anyway, so they asked me lots of questions about me and my identity and filmed my answers, which were probably overwrought and pretty useless. But they asked me about my world-view I guess and I said that I'm a recovering nihilist and the only code I've got is to live in such a way as to have the least adverse effect on the world, its animals and its people: I'm vegetarian, I recycle, and I like to listen. All this to say that every day in your emotional and intellectual generosity you make that creed look cynical and insufficient! I salute you.
And butthole surfers rock!
Hey wolf! I think the tattooists in Brighton must've all set their needles deeper today: mine killed! Ordinarily I enjoy the pain and kinda crawl up inside it, take my shoes off and get a cool one from the fridge, so to speak. This time it was like I crawled up inside it to find fucking Jason smashing my head repeatedly on the coffee table. Grim.
Hey gregoryedwin: thanks again for the Joy Williams Day!
Peace! Diarmuid xx
Dennis, so I made this picture for contest to win tickets to the sold out Odd Future show.
I hope I win!
well now a veritable Gabby fest…it's hotter than Hades here…or at least hotter that Heater in Hellmouth County (as Firesign would say). Like and dislike it at the same time…even heat incites my natural penchant for "gray areas".
Pool robot killed by poseur neighbor getting gravel in the pool…of course, I say nothing…I just walk around singing, "Everything is beautiful" while working on my Voodoo curse that will render him incontinent in public! Swine!
Tightening up the back yard…in hopes of some summer socializing…jury is still out on a 50th bday party…strikes as silly to have a party for oneself when all you did was abuse yourself and not die…I guess that's something…but not noteworthy by any means.
Still I'm gonna drag Joel over here someday and fete him with Ozzie and Harriet's greatest hits…he may never come back. But, in the inimitable words of the irrepressible one, Ricky Nelson, "I don't mess around boy!"
Nothing to report here…beyond the weather…love you muchly
M
Hi Dennis
thats about as fancy as i get but i assume they will mostly end up as roach paper or in the bin : )
thats the only butthole surfers album i have and its fucking great! it sad that i first heard the sweat loaf vocal sample in the orbital track satan live.
went to a great opening with lovely food and beer tonight. had a dinner of bretzils and cheese yum!
if you could let me know soon about the thing that would be great.
sleep time!
Alan – if you're reading this, that post yesterday was hilarious & pretty brilliant.
Dennis – Nice Butthole Surfers post. I wish I had gotten to see them in their heyday. The films they back projected alone sounded unforgettable. Did you see them often?
Is it cool to ask you some questions about TMS here? Or would you rather I wait until it's more widely available?
I'm going to start writing an indie book review column for local website and looking forward to that. It'll be a round up and examination of 2-4 worthwhile titles each time. Tackling new books by Blake, Scott McClanahan and Michael Kimball for the first one.
Butthole Surfers – so off my radar at the time, not quite sure why. are you going to post Utrecht pictures? I'm feeling nostalgic.
loving Fleet Foxes – last time I'll mention it – grist for some new songs or some such
anyway – till next time
So game to write that screenplay. And I'm going to hold you to it.
Wolf, Chilly: Thx!
I used to listen to a radio station that played this band a lot and they had to call it “The BH Surfers” or the “The B-Hole Surfers.”
Dennis, When a character in your fiction is inspired by someone irl, do you feel like you’re writing about that person? I think about that a lot. My gut answer is no, or at least not unless it’s supposed to work like that, but I’m never sure how to explain that, and I wonder how you feel about it.
whee! i got a part time job today! at 1 of my top choice places to work in sf! i will be working the front desk / towel bin / etc at 'eros', a gay sexclub on market st. the place has been here since the early 90s and has an awesome history. plus, i start training there on 23 may, so, i still get to go to los angeles. for shorter than i'd planned, but i still get to go! im going to try to get there this weekend. dennis, at this point i'll just assume i wont be seeing you there, haha.
i like butthole surfers
happy birthday keith haring
i always have a rad day on your birthday
xxmath+
Yes!
FAVORITE BAND EVER.
Fond memories of being 15 and my friend's house had speakers in every room. Needless to say this album created mayhem on our minds.
And great Lollapalloza footage. I stayed up all night drinking in a construction site because the campgrounds were full and then they were the second band and I was just leaning on the security gate as he shot beach balls with a shotgun. What happened to real rock and roll?
Yeah, the whole thing is so surreal and funny, even though it's tragic. The Suburbs are a breeding ground for this kind of stuff though.
Did you get to keep the McQueen. A former Vogue employee said that they were charged with keeping up with the pieces for a Warhol photo-shoot, and when it was all over with Warhol just walked off with a one of a kind leather Versace trenchcoat. When he tried to go after it one of Warhol's handler interviened and brushed him off with 'Andy keeps whatever he likes'.
@Alan, I think the Butthole Surfers sampled Casey Kasem or Rick Dees calling them 'The BH Surfers' or "The Surfers' when they cracked the Top 40.
Denniiissss!
how is it my friend?
just read and devoured (no intended pun) the Marbled Swarm, in a day. ow. feel chewed and ready again to start it. what a disorienting (in the best way) and hyper-real experience. so fucking beautiful and shapeshifting and itchy and new. you woke it hard. so much.
more to say on this but still alive in the thought, but wanted to say yessssss.
hope i get to see you when you're back over here for the readings i imagine are coming. hope you are happy and well.
xx
b
Hey Dennis!
I missed the boat first time round, and I've never really gotten down with psychedelics, so it took me a long time to decide I liked the Butthole Surfers' music, but when it finally happened, that was it. Side one of 'Hairway To Steven' is pretty perfect. I like the way you presented today! Isn't Julian's writing about music fun to read? It's fairly full-on Bangs worship, but his heart's in the right place: it's "How much fun am I having?!?" rather than "Oh guys, how cool am I for feeling this way about Jane's Addiction?!"
Sometimes I feel as though I enjoy Fahey's writing more than I do his guitar playing. I'd love to read "How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life". It's not in the university music library, unaccountably. (Tongue in cheek.) I attempted to order my guitar yesterday, there being a few other things to sort out, like how to do banking transfers. Oh man, it can be a mission, this ex-pat stuff, huh? Well, I hope you're having a good day. I found a ROM of Earthbound for ya, but I should test it before I send it over.
DFG –
Fahey's writing is amazing. Though if I was forced at gunpoint to choose between his book and a record I'd take a record.
Hey Dennis,
Oh, yeah, that cockroach story just got a whole lot grosser. That's terrible.
Yeah, her roommate… I don't know what to do about it, and my friend doesn't know/doesn't care too much, so I think everybody's just going to forget about it until she either finds another way to get attention or it gets worse.
I liked your song. I only understood the 'Bridget Jones' part, but I liked it.
I'm glad Isaac was nice. And your dress up sounds nice, too, and much better than what it could've been. Didn't you use to own a bowtie with a camera in it whenever you were a kid?
Hunter Hunt-Hendrix sounds cool. And that's really great that he's interested in you and Gisele and Stephen's pieces.
My day:
Sleep, a little.
Wake up, tried not to, didn't work, oh well.
Shower.
Met my friend:
"Do you know what momentous day it is?"
"What day is it?"
"The fourth."
"Oh. It's Audrey Hepburn's birthday? Not that I'm not knocking it or anything, but why?"
"May the fourth be with you!"
"Okay then."
"It's Star Wars!"
"Oh."
"When I was little I was convinced Luke Skywalker lived in my TV. I mean, not the TV, but the VHS."
"That makes more sense, I suppose. Is that your light saber?"
"Yes."
"The sound effects are my favorite part."
"Shut up. Star Wars is awesome and you know it."
"No. But it is funny how he fucks his sister."
"HE KISSED HER! AND HE DIDN'T KNOW!!"
"What about Jar Jar Binks?"
"Oh, fuck you."
She played this song among others, but I liked it the most, so: http://youtu.be/V2oLAw6kwl0
She eventually told me where we were going, because it looked familiar but I couldn't figure it out at first, and her reasoning was that she couldn't deal with her on her own. So we picked up her grandmother, who amuses me but I understand why she doesn't like her. We had to take her shopping because she had nothing in her apartment, and she shops by wheeling slowly down every aisle, picking something up, putting it down, finishing one side and then going down another doing the same thing, and then tells you to go back and get what she wants. She also stocks up like the world's about to end in three days, so that was kind of awful but it sort of kills your brain after a while so that you give up on ever getting out and just become used to the routine. Her grandmother knows that she does this, though, so she always insists on buying you things, and I told her not to, but she bought me gummy bears anyway, so that was really nice of her.
Back to her apartment, unload everything, sit for a while and watch one of those judge shows while her grandmother talked to me and my friend sprawled on a big cushiony chair and lolled her head back and forth and sighed. Before we left I looked at her calendar (I think I told you about this before but I'm going to tell you again because it's still funny) where her grandmother writes down people's names and the things they did to 'wrong her' on the days. There was nothing for today, but on Sunday and Monday it said my friend's name – didn't answer phone.
Left, got a text from my friend, we went to visit her at Starbucks. Starbucks friend and other friend know of each other sort of, but not really, but we were both so exhausted for different reasons that it didn't feel as awkward as it probably was. Went in with my friend so she could order, and the cute barista was there, and he acted excited to see me and then said "oh, man, rough night?", which made me feel just wonderful of course, but I said "no, not really," and didn't elaborate, so that made it worse. But oh well.
Went outside and felt sick, so I went to the car and got my gummy bears, and they wanted some, so we all rummaged around in the torn bag until my friend got a clear one and said 'ew', and I said the clear ones are the best, and she put it in my mouth, so I found one and put it in her hers, and my other friend didn't want to be left out, so we were talking and pausing to turn and accept the gummy bears and the inevitable finger tip. So it was a strange mixture of condensation, cigarettes, skin, and gummy bears (and eventually a little saliva), whenever the cute barista walked out and saw us. I just did the half smile/eye widen/slow eye roll thing, and he stopped, looked around, found an empty chair, started to read, and thankfully the gummy bears ran out. So that was, I don't know. It sounds really gross now that I read it, though. So, hm. Damn.
Left, came back here, watched some TV but nothing interesting, and yeah. That's it. How was your day, Dennis?
Amazing blog…………..!
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