Psychic … Powerless … Another Man’s Sac (1984)
Inaugural cavity
search of rambling Captain Beefheartisms, abrasive No Wave freak-outs, and Dicks tribute “Gary Floyd.” 
Rembrandt Pussyhorse (1986)
More psychedelic than its predecessor, this house of mirrors warps the Guess Who (“American Woman”).
Locust Abortion Technician (1987)
A crude, schizophrenic masterpiece of acid rock mutations laced with Gibbytronix and Leary’s hemorrhaging guitar lines.
Hairway to Steven (1988)
An unlikely melding of the Buttholes’ early lowbrow experimentation and more polished major label turds.
Pioughd (1990)
Jeff Pinkus: “That record was something we gave to Rough Trade ’cause we didn’t really like them.”
Independent Worm Saloon (1993)
Drugged-out dirges into depraved heavy metal, pristinely produced by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones.
Electriclarryland (1996)
Gilded palace of sin, home to the Butts’ biggest hits (“Pepper”) and misses (“Let’s Talk About Cars”).
Weird Revolution (2001)
The Surfers’ stillborn Achtung Baby, a sardonic club makeover, neither weird nor revolutionary.
For more on the Butthole Surfers’ first four LPs, see “Tongue-in-Cheek Terror,” Aug. 27, 1999.
This article appears in September 26 • 2008.