Locust Abortion Technician cover

Locust Abortion Technician

Released

The Butthole Surfers’ third album is split nearly 50-50 between goofy tape/noise experiments (“Kuntz,” “Weber,” “Hay”) and surprisingly heavy rock songs (“Sweat Loaf,” built on the riff from Black Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf,” the imitation thrash metal of “The O-Men,” and most amazingly, “Human Cannonball,” a cranked-up arena anthem with clearly audible — if still nonsensical — vocals and a massive, pounding beat). Two versions of the hellish stoner blues “Graveyard” bracket the album, and it ends with the nightmarish “22 Going On 23,” a psychedelic sludge jam introduced by a tape of a woman revealing herself (falsely) to a call-in radio show as the victim of sexual abuse.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
Maroon Cloud cover

Maroon Cloud

Nicole Mitchell
Black Woman cover

Black Woman

Sonny Sharrock
Antico Adagio cover

Antico Adagio

Lino Capra Vaccina
Offering - Live at Le Guess Who cover

Offering - Live at Le Guess Who

Moor Mother, Nicole Mitchell
Golden Valley Is Now cover

Golden Valley Is Now

Reid Anderson, David King, Craig Taborn
The Dark Keys cover

The Dark Keys

Branford Marsalis
Last Desert cover

Last Desert

Liberty Ellman