The second part of Matador's reissues of the essential early records by Texas's Butthole Surfers continues with three of their most insane slabs - 1985's Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis, 1987's Locust Abortion Technician and 1988's Hairway to Steven. The period during which these records were first issued parallels the Butthole's transition from being weirdo Texas outcasts to becoming internationally recognized smut-kings of the American underground. In 1985 they were still the sole province of hallucingen-soaked punk rock freaks. By 1988 they had toured Europe, had records licensed out internationally, and bought a house in Driftwood Texas to serve as their home base. But we're getting ahead of ourselves... Hairway to Steven is a blast, ranging from the blood-smeared guitar-overload of "Jimi" to the acoustic guitar-based sing-along sweetness of "I Saw an X-Ray of a Girl Passing Gas" to the Fugs-like ranting of "John E. Smokes." Yet somehow, the album managed to get the straight media to actually notice. For all its strangeness, Hairway got rave notices in places that had never paid the band any attention previously. It was the Butthole's last album of the 80s and marks the beginning of their ascendance into something akin to commercial success. Not that the band actually imagined anything at all like that occurring. When I interviewed them in February 1986, I asked Gibby about their plans, he said, "Weve got a bunch of new songs recorded that dont even have names. We dont know what theyre called or anything. Its totally out of control. We have no plans whatever. We never claimed to be quick or smart or anything. Maybe we just have one song and we fuck it up so much people think we have more. I guess the album after Locust Abortion Technician might be called The Butthole Surfers Buy a Synthesizer. Weve written lots of songs, weve forgotten lots of songs. Thats the way it goes." Of course, thats not the way it went. But I dont think anyone was more surprised about that than the band themselves. And so it goes. --Byron Coley