Libbyshepard Butthole

The band that was once called Nine Foot Worm Makes Its Own Food, Brown Reason to Live and Pee Pee the Sailor now go by the name Libbyshepard Butthole. Although their early shows left behind a trail of grotesque legend and myth, it wasn’t just drugs and alcohol-fueled chaos. Before forming the Butthole Surfers, lead singer Gibby was on the fast-track to becoming an accountant and guitarist Paul Leary, was inches away from earning his masters in business administration.

But as a band they were a freak show on every level: they played with no boundaries, on stage and off. Live performances were notorious for grotesque excess: burger-stuffed mannequins, fist fights, fires, dyed condoms and nudity. Then there were the lysergic projections: they would project images of graphic medical procedures on to the back wall, a fascination they picked up in their own ailment fanzine, Strange VD.

They gained an early admirer in Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra, who ran the band’s Alternative Tentacles label. He helped Butthole Surfers secure studio time at Capitol Records. This led to the release of Independent Worm Saloon in 1993 and Electric Larryland the following year. Although still a little loose and wickedly whimsical, these albums reveal an improved ability to work within more finely delineated song structures.