Locust Abortion Technician

Untitled

Locust Abortion Technician (Sometimes shortened as "Locust Abortion" or "LAT") is the third full-length studio album by American alternative rock band the Butthole Surfers, released in March 1987. All songs were written and produced by the Butthole Surfers, except for "Kuntz," which was written by an unknown and uncredited Thai artist.

The album was originally released as vinyl on Touch and Go, and was remastered to CD on Latino Buggerveil in 1999.

This is the second of three Surfers albums to feature clown imagery on the cover, the others being 1984's Live PCPPEP and 1995's The Hole Truth... and Nothing Butt. Locust Abortion Technician's front cover illustration of two clowns playing with a dog was painted by Arthur Sarnoff, Entitled "Fido and the Clowns". The cover is considered as a classic by most fans for two reasons. Either it is nothing more than misleading, and for others it fits perfectly, as the clowns are "evil looking". On the reissued digipack, the cover shrinked a bit.

This album was listed in the list 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Music

Arguably the Surfers' heaviest album, and without a doubt their darkest and most disturbing, Locust Abortion Technician is also considered by many critics and fans to be one of the band's best, harnessing aspects of punk, heavy metal, and psychedelia into a then-unique sound that could be considered noise rock. With its marriage of punk and metal producing a number of grinding, slower-paced songs, the album might also be seen as an early precursor of grunge. "Sweat Loaf" utilizes the verse riff from the Black Sabbath song "Sweet Leaf." Not all of the tracks are guitar-oriented, though; the song "Kuntz" was created by remixing an original Eastern recording by a Thai artist.

This album marked the debut of bass player Jeff Pinkus, as well as the return of co-drummer Teresa Nervosa, who had left the band in December 1985. It was also the first Surfers album to feature lead singer Gibby Haynes' "Gibbytronix" vocal effects, which features on the songs "Sweat Loaf", "Graveyard", "Hay","Human Cannonball" and "O-Men".

Many Locust Abortion Technician songs are recurring features of the Surfers' live concerts, including "Sweat Loaf," "Graveyard," "Pittsburgh to Lebanon," "U.S.S.A.," "Kuntz," and "22 Going on 23."

Background

Locust Abortion Technician was the first Surfers album primarily recorded at the band's home studio, which was originally assembled in a rental house they were sharing near Austin, Texas in 1986. A private studio did not mean an end to the sub-standard equipment that had plagued their previous recording sessions, though. In addition to having just one microphone, they also used an outdated 8-track tape recorder instead of the 16-track gear used on Rembrandt Pussyhorse. However, guitarist Paul Leary believes that the inferior equipment forced the band to be more creative than they might otherwise have been.

Additionally, the new studio freed the band from having to worry about recording costs, allowing them to experiment even more than on previous releases. Jeff Pinkus has also said that the home studio gave them the luxury of taking extended breaks for drug use.

Many of the album's tracks also underwent extensive in-studio development. Though this had largely become a Surfers tradition, Locust Abortion Technician was one of their last recordings done in such a manner, with the band going into the studio with more fully formed songs on subsequent releases. Pinkus has expressed the opinion that the earlier, more chaotic recording sessions resulted in much of the spontaneous creativity that had propelled the group's early albums.

Track listing

All songs written and produced by the Butthole Surfers, except where noted.

Side 1

1. "Sweat Loaf" – 6:09
2. "Graveyard" – 2:27
3. "Pittsburg to Lebanon" – 2:29
4. "Weber" – 0:35
5. "Hay" – 1:50
6. "Human Cannonball" – 3:51

Side 2

1. "U.S.S.A." – 2:14
2. "The O-Men" – 3:27
3. "Kuntz" (unknown Thai artist) – 2:24
4. "Graveyard" – 2:45
5. "22 Going on 23" – 4:23

Personnel

• Gibby Haynes - lead vocals
• Paul Leary - guitar
• Jeff Pinkus – bass
• King Coffey - drums
• Teresa Nervosa - drums

Trivia

• The opening of the first track, "Sweat Loaf", was famously sampled by Orbital on their track "Satan."
• The song "Hay" is actually a redone, reversed version of "22 going on 23." Also, the last part of "22 going on 23" what seems like mooing, is actually the main lyrics of "Hay", only reversed and stretched.
• The back cover of the "deformed baby" is said to be Jimi Hendrix.
• There was a promotion video of this album that was aired at MTV.