Thursday 9 October 2008

Cream Corn Surfing

I know, I know.
Butt hey, it is the best of the bunch. And I'm really posting this for its wonderful cover art.
And together with this U.K. cover; this is the perfect package.

I'm not sure how available this was elsewhere, butt in Britain it is one of the more sought after pieces of Surfers' vinyl.

And what a cover!
Who she is; I have no idea. Butt who cares!
She is wonderful; and I'm glad to own a little piece of her.

So much better than the U.S. package:

Leary chose this image while looking through some photos at his dealer's house. Apparently.

As for the story behind the alternative U.K. cover; well I don't know it, but if anyone does know anything...

I mean, if it is your Nan or something...
Recorded after the band had put Rembrandt Pussyhorse together in 1985, Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis was quickly assembled and released due to their album being held up by legal problems; something that dogged the band throughout their career.

Well, we can't all be Sting, right.

'To Parter' is one of the greatest Surfers' songs ever recorded. Leary's picking is superb and tight, butt still managing to retain the Surfers' spontaneous spirit.

The title really comes from the fact that it is two tracks, the first an instrumental, somewhat reminiscent of the Magic Band on a good day; and the second a warped kind of sea shanty with Haynes performing some of his greatest lyrics:

'And all the sailors who were junkies
All went sailing out to sea,
And the white man sold quaaludes to the monkeys,
And they all died high up in the trees

And all the teachers who were flunkies
They all taught you and me,
And the white men, I'll be goddamned if they're
still selling quaaludes to the monkeys,
And they're all you and me dying high up in the trees'

I once heard 'Moving to Florida' described as the most annoying piece of music ever recorded.
It is obviously intentionally humorous. Butt the speaker did have a point.
Haynes does start to become infuriating, so much so its as if the rest of the band lose patience with him, and just decide to play over the top of his insistent 'Seasick Steve' kind of ramblings (see I can be topical!).

'Comb' begins with animal sounds created by a feed-backing guitar, juxtaposed with Haynes retching (he liked to include a barf, 'Lady Sniff' from Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac features the sound of a right good chuck hitting the toilet pan); he then seems to go on and rant about Lou Reed, through the medium of Gibbytronix, of course.

'Tornadoes' is aptly titled as it delineates in sound just that: a tornado.
Butt it's a kind of psychobilly tornado... predicting a sound they would go on to explore on in their 88 release Hairway to Steven.

I think this is one of their best packages; not as bombastic or as shambolic as their first e.p. butt actually proving that as a band they were a pretty hot outfit, and a world away from any of the material they would go on to release post-88.

This e.p. was really the beginning of the end.

Butthole Surfers - Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis (1985)

Moving to Florida
Comb
To Parter
Tornadoes

Ripped from vinyl @ 256kbs

Get it here

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Phew - What a mess! It seems you have played this here slab o vinyl a little too much. Somewhere all of the high end has been ground down to a cottony muffle. Out of the tens of thousands rips I have collected over the years, this is only the 3rd one I've ever deleted due to its overwhelming awfulness. I've heard 78 rpm shellac rips with more clarity and detail.

What is you means of transcribing from vinyl to digital? A wind up turntable with a carbide tip?

Gotta run, time to pull my pristine copy and made it right.

Anonymous said...

I hope "anonymous" shares a pristine copy of this. I really enjoyed seeing the alternate cover! My current wife (an old high school friend) and I re-connected, after 6 years, at a Surfers show in '93. Stone Temple Pilots and Flaming Lips opened. I was tripping and lost my wallet in a port-o potty...a punk chick pissed on my blanket. Not the best of times( I retreated to the nearby woods to enjoy the music in peace), but the butthole sound was right-on, and we ended up getting married. 14 years later...we are still together. I hope all is well with you, roy, and you have a friend in me, should you ever need one.

roy rocket said...

Good to hear from you Psycho Cat.
All is hunky dory here; and I'm regularly catching up with your outpourings on your blog. Nice one!
Shanti, roy.

Anon, I am sorry the quality of the piece of free music didn't meet your expectations - you obviously don't download too many demos or bootlegs.
Yes, my vinyl is much loved and much played; but if you don't happen to have a copy of a piece of work that you really want; then fuck the quality!
I've got a load of Zappa bootlegs that would obviously not pass muster with you; but to me they are precious and essential...
As for hardware: Goldring deck, (running almost new Goldring stlus & cartridge priced at around 180 euros) into soundcard into audio editing software, set at 256kbs. I could run at 320, but I feel with vinyl ripping too much sibilance and surface noise is eveident when ripping at that rate.
So, as I said before, I'm sorry you were dissapointed with your download.
But one can't help asking the question: if you already had a pristine copy of this, then why the fuck did you bother and download it?
Shanti, roy

Diablo Rules said...

That's the reason why I closed my blog..for people like "anonymous". They don't appreciate the effort of bloggers. Do you want great quality rips?...are you a musical producer, anonymous? or what? I really like this blog and I very appreciate that roy can offer something really different. People who "really" likes the music don't bother in quality details. Well said roy!!

Anonymous said...

I have just played back this download and it sounds like an old vinyl record.
This is the Butthole Surfers not sigor ros.
I think anon needs to get out a bit more.
thanks Roy. Appreci8ted.
Phoenix.

Anonymous said...

exactly i love music and sometimes a bit of crackle adds to the excitement can we dig this yes we can

pokerface said...

Buttholes played just about all of this EP at the Forum london last year. i was down the front under the nose of paul to the point at the end of the gig i got his track listing sheet, that night was all the things i had hoped and feared of a buttholes reunion, But after witnessing the track listing i knew i was in for a fucking brilliant time. Its good to have them back again, But for how long i wonder

Richard said...

Anonymous can suck my socks.

This'll do me. Job's a good 'un. Cheers.

Grebo Guru said...

I had this 12" single (with alt cover). Sold it for $10
Been kicking my ass raw ever since...