Band of the Week - Butthole Surfers

I remember heading with my brother over to Tempe's Roads to Moscow one fine day in 1983 and flipping through the records. Often times we discovered new music simply by finding the most outrageous album covers. That is how we discovered Klaus Nomi, and this day that is how we discovered The Butthole Surfers.

Their first EP cover was pretty hard to miss and about the most outrageous thing at the time, so we bought it. Once we got it home and cranked it up, we realized it wasn't just a crazy cover, it was a crazy bunch of people making insane, but incredibly great music. From the opening notes of the Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey's Grave, you know this is something different. Hey went on to become a favorite, something the whole family could enjoy, which was a really weird experience in my family. Wichita Cathedral, Suicide, Revenge of Anus Presley, all of them were just fantastic and really made an impression on me in my weird teen years. Years later this original EP (which I think my bro still has) was reissued on CD with their second EP of live stuff. Just got it in the mail the other day and can't quit listening to it. Not quite punk, nothing like 80s new wave at the time, just something totally different and great.

Really weird to think that many years later they would have a hit single with Pepper. Hilarious how they were called the B-Hole Surfers by many media outlets. Electric Larryland, with Pepper on it is a great album, but my personal favorite is 1993s Independent Worm Saloon. Wow, just mind blowing from beginning to end. I cannot picture the calm and stoic seeming John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin hanging in the studio with Gibby and the boys producing this record, must have been amazing. Standouts for me include Wooden Song, Goofy's Concern, Alcohol and Annoying song, but all of them are great. This is a must have.

I could go on and on about them, but you just got to hear it. Go out and get these three I mentioned, then go get everything else. They are just freaking awesome. That is why they are my band of the week.

http://buttholesurfers.com

Best Films of the 2000s

Coming soon, my favorite films of all time. The #1 film of course is Apocalypse Now. For now though, I will just do the top 30 or so films of the decade so far (2000-2005). Here goes (not in order necessarily, but mostly):

Donnie Darko, Royal Tannenbaums, Eternal Sunshine, Amores Perros, Maria Full of Grace, O'Brother Where Art Thou, Motorcycle Diaries, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Life Aquatic, Finding Neverland, Sideways, High Fidelity,
Lost in Translation, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Best in Show, Ghost World, The Pianist, Memento, Chocolat, Godsford Park, Wonder Boys, Sin City, Garden State, Mystic River, Rabbit Proof Fence, Napoleon Dynamite, In America, Traffic, Blow, Requiem For A Dream, Time of the Wolf, Adaptation

There has been some great stuff so far this decade, many of these will also be on my all time list. I didn't list the Lord of the Rings trilogy but I guess they are in there somewhere, obviously great stuff, but not necessarily my favorites.

What I Dig

Guess up front I should say what I dig in music and film.

Bands/artists I consider vital (in no particular order of importance and not complete, just off the top of my noggin)

The Clash Led Zeppelin David Bowie Pink Floyd Modest Mouse Johnny Cash Wilco Son Volt Jay Farrar Uncle Tupelo U2 Butthole Surfers The Rolling Stones (late 60s and early 70s) ABBA Prince At The Drive In The Mars Volta Beatles Richard Buckner Lucinda Williams Rage Against the Machine Screaming Trees Mark Lanegan Alice in Chains Pearl Jam Neil Young Alison Kraus Bruce Springsteen Concrete Blonde The Talking Heads The Dead Kennedys Devo Willie Nelson Dire Straits George Jones Tupac Merle Haggard Waylon Jennings Crowded House Flaming Lips Frank Zappa Gram Parsons Flying Burrito Brothers Jane's Addiction The Jayhawks Jeff Beck Joe Jackson Loretta Lynn Spirit Thin Lizzy Lyle Lovett Radiohead The Pretenders XTC The Police

Rampant Fervor

Rampant Fervor is my blog in which I rant about two of my favorite interests, Music and Film.

I am addicted to both of them, obsessed, always they are on my mind. I honestly have a rampant fervor for film and music. In deciding on a name, I Googled "rampant fervor" and most of the hits concerned religious fanaticism. That is about the way I look at film and music, like some rattle snake handling nut case from Alabama so caught up with what he believes in that nothing else matters. OK, I am not as obsessed as all that, but it is close.

So without any more babbling lets get to the meat.