I think I've got Butthole Surfers on the brain. Ew.

So I've got a $100 turntable. I've discovered that I really like buying and listening to vinyl LPs. I certainly don't think of myself as a 'record collector', since I'm not into the Beatles nor the Stones, nor terribly interested in investing a lot of money in old jazz or blues recordings. We have the signal running into a bookshelf stereo that's plenty solid/loud enough for our apartment, and I don't see us investing in better equipment anytime soon. But, my wife and I have some cool stuff that was given/lent to us by parents and friends who no longer have turntables: Led Zeppelin, Chet Atkins, Willy Nelson, etc. And we've made some pretty good (cheesy!) finds at thrift stores: early Bowie, Men At Work, Styx, Loverboy, etc. Somehow it's ok to play music on vinyl that you would never play on CD. And it's all so cheap, the turntable has really paid for itself.

So here's my new obsession: I picked up a reissue of the Butthole Surfers' first EP (given a title upon reissue: Brown Reason to Live). It's from '83, and it's best described by a term that my wife, to my knowledge, coined especially for it: Vomit Rock. Personally, I find it fascinating on a few levels. I can't imagine what the recording process was like; it's so chaotic and random. It's so incredibly different than their newest (Weird Revolution, 2001)...but it strikes me as very similar in some almost intangible ways. Anyway, that probably came off as pretty overstated, so I'm gonna move on. So I liked this EP so much I went back to the shop and picked up old imports of Rembrandt Pussyhorse (1986) and Locust Abortion Technician (1987). And then I started systematically downloading all the bootlegs and sample mp3s they have up on their website. And now I'm searching Ebay for deals on the albums I don't own.

I also want...

I think I've got Butthole Surfers on the brain. Ew.

So I've got a $100 turntable. I've discovered that I really like buying and listening to vinyl LPs. I certainly don't think of myself as a 'record collector', since I'm not into the Beatles nor the Stones, nor terribly interested in investing a lot of money in old jazz or blues recordings. We have the signal running into a bookshelf stereo that's plenty solid/loud enough for our apartment, and I don't see us investing in better equipment anytime soon. But, my wife and I have some cool stuff that was given/lent to us by parents and friends who no longer have turntables: Led Zeppelin, Chet Atkins, Willy Nelson, etc. And we've made some pretty good (cheesy!) finds at thrift stores: early Bowie, Men At Work, Styx, Loverboy, etc. Somehow it's ok to play music on vinyl that you would never play on CD. And it's all so cheap, the turntable has really paid for itself.

So here's my new obsession: I picked up a reissue of the Butthole Surfers' first EP (given a title upon reissue: Brown Reason to Live). It's from '83, and it's best described by a term that my wife, to my knowledge, coined especially for it: Vomit Rock. Personally, I find it fascinating on a few levels. I can't imagine what the recording process was like; it's so chaotic and random. It's so incredibly different than their newest (Weird Revolution, 2001)...but it strikes me as very similar in some almost intangible ways. Anyway, that probably came off as pretty overstated, so I'm gonna move on. So I liked this EP so much I went back to the shop and picked up old imports of Rembrandt Pussyhorse (1986) and Locust Abortion Technician (1987). And then I started systematically downloading all the bootlegs and sample mp3s they have up on their website. And now I'm searching Ebay for deals on the albums I don't own.

I also want to own a copy of Stereolab's Dots and Loops on vinyl. I have a copy of the CD and it's one of my favorites. I picked up Emperor Tomato Ketchup on vinyl a few months back and I think it's getting lonely. Too bad Ebay sellers charge up the ass for shipping. I understand that for a lot of sellers it's more a result of the forces of the Ebay market than plain assholedness, but it sucks to pay 25-33% total cost to flat-rate shipping.

Back to my Vomit Rock. Word to your mother(s).