Arguably one of the most notoriously named bands in rock history, Butthole Surfers made a career out of upending the establishment and irritating the easily annoyed. Their albums were abrasive yet tuneful, much like their live performances. Rising to the challenge of bottling these audible antics, Sunset Blvd. is prepping the release of Butthole Surfer’s third live album, LIVE FROM THE LEATHER FLY on May 9, 2025 (pre-save). Unearthed in the archives of Butthole history, the 21-track performance’s origins are shrouded in mystery. The “where” or “when” it was recorded is debatable, but the band have created a mythos surrounding it. “Back in the ’80s, Gibby [Haynes, vocalist/guitarist] used to fantasize about a nightclub called The Leather Fly. He wanted it to have a stuffed leather fly hanging in front of it,” reminisces Paul Leary (guitar/vocals/”art master”) about the illusory venue that this show was recorded.
The first single released from the set is the appropriately titled “The Annoying Song.” Premiered by Brooklyn Vegan, the song is a gritty and rhythmic banger, fueled by Gibby’s droll and distorted vocals, fed through a toy megaphone. Remembers Paul about the origins of the song, “We were invited to participate in the first Lollapalooza Festival in 1991. At some point of the tour Gibby got a hold of a toy battery-powered small megaphone that pitched his voice up,” he laughs. “He was annoying everyone within earshot backstage, speaking through it in a rhythmic manner. I found it hysterical enough to write music to it. That became ‘The Annoying Song’.”
Unpredictable, brash and, in typical Butthole Surfers’ fashion, so in-your-face that it penetrates your skull, their live performances pummel with the tight rhythm section of Jeff Pinkus‘ pounding bass and King Coffey‘s hale and hearty drums, Paul’s searing guitarwork, and Gibby’s frenetic and eccentric vocal stylings. Deeply gonzo and often psychedelic, their hallucinogenic-soaked punk rock is sludgy yet melodic, like a fudgesicle made of sewer mud and Belgian chocolate. It’s this gritty scuzz-rock that defined them and propelled their legacy far beyond the underground, even dabbling with Top 40.
But they never lost sight of what made them notorious. UK’s The Guardian described their live shows as “Nudity, raging fires, belching smoke, blinding strobes, nightmare-inducing surgical videos, fights and firearms: these are some of the things you may have encountered at a Butthole Surfers show while being pummeled by a squealing cacophony of acid-fried psychedelic noise-rock, as a man tripping wildly in his underpants screams at you through a megaphone.”
Live At The Leather Fly captures that grittiness, which The San Antonio Current likens to a “potent fusion of post-punk, performance art, Texas psych and theater of the absurd, cementing it as one of the era’s most enigmatic and compelling musical ensembles” and Rolling Stone hails as “the American underground’s most notorious live act, a nomadic carnival of terror.”
Kicking off with “Graveyard” (from 1987’s Locust Abortion Technician) and its spooky guitar effects that launches into a sludgefest with Paul’s piercing guitars, slicing holes through the song’s heavy corduroy textures, Live At The Leather Fly never lets up. From the Texas-punk stylings of “Gary Floyd” (taken from 1984’s Psychic… Powerless… Another Man’s Sac and written for the lead singer of The Dicks) to the discordant cacophony of “Bong Song” (from 1989’s Widowmaker EP), to the fan favorite “P.S.Y.” (from 1991’s piouhgd), the 21 tracks of Live At The Leather Fly is a perfect encapsulation of what made Butthole Surfers important in the first place: Grade A Texas-Sourced punk.
Emerging from the 1980s hardcore scene, Butthole Surfers was formed by Gibby and Paul while in college in San Antonio, Texas. Bonding over a shared distaste for mainstream music, Butthole Surfers traipsed through the music industry, always in the fringes. Championed by Dead Kennedys, Nirvana, and Orbital and compatriots of Scratch Acid, Flipper and Big Black, they remained a fixture in the music scene’s counterculture. In a moment of mainstream acceptance (they scored a #1 Modern Rock Hit with “Pepper“), the band always embraced the obtuse and the obstinate. Though the band has never quite broken up, their legacy still inspires other acts, including Gwar, Flaming Lips, Jane’s Addiction, White Zombie, Monster Magnet, Primus and dozens more.
Butthole Surfers is Gibby Haynes (vocals, guitar), Paul Leary (guitar, vocals, “art master”), Jeff Pinkus (bass, vocals), and King Coffey (drums). LIVE AT THE LEATHER FLY was mixed by Paul Leary and mastered by Gene Grimaldo (Johnny Cash, Lady Gaga, Rancid) at Oasis Mastering. It will be released on May 9. 2025 via Sunset Blvd.
