Customer Reviews

Rembrandt Pussyhorse

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Rembrandt Pussyhorse is my second favorite Surfers album, under the obscenely demented 35-minute acid trip that is Locust Abortion Technician.

Make no mistake: Pussyhorse is still ultra-bizzare and experimental. The Surfers decided to throw in some unorthodox instruments into the mix, such as violins, cellos, organs and pianos. The result is chaotic and other-worldly - after all, we ARE talking about the Butthole Surfers back in their deranged acid-drenched days. Pussyhorse stands out as being the Surfers most "artsy" album, filled with sonic experimentation that ranges from gothic to trippy to downright evil, or all of these at once.

I assume that many of these songs cannot be played live due to their complexity. Most of this album is overflowing with all sorts of special effects and studio tricks that make it sound ethereal. Anyone who appreciates the Surfers knows they are extremely talented in the studio, and it really shows here.

This album demonstrates all of the Surfers music styles. It has wierd-yet-accessible alt-rock (creep in the cellar, Sea Ferring, To Parter). Insanely disturbing freak-out songs (Waiting for Jimmy to Kick). Funny songs (Moving to Florida). Trippy instrumentals (Stangers Die Everyday, Mark Says Alright) and old-school punk (Tornadoes).

Explaining the Butthole Surfers 80's music is like trying to explain colors to a blind person. You just have to experience it to know it.

This is the most complex and intelligent CD to come out of the '80's post-punk scene. The Buttholes were funny and violent and weird both before and after REMBRANDT PUSSYHORSE, but they were never as cohesive. This is not a scary CD, it's just powerful.

The addition of the CREAM CORN ep is nice but it messes up the tone.

this is a good album that you can use when you need that good occasional chill to run down your spine. i like all the mixes and sounds along with the violins and that eastern touch that this album carries. this is like a bottle of liqour in the form of an album.

REMBRANDT PUSSYHORSE is the 2nd full-length by the Butth*le Surfers. I do prefer this over LOCUST ABORTION TECHNICIAN. I just think there is more variety, more spaceyness, & overall better songs(besides Human Cannonball on Locust). Yes, REMBRANDT PH is really a lot of experimentation, even more so than other Surfer albums. This Re-release adds the Cream Corn EP. Some different instruments are on this which include a piano, a organ, and a violin played backwards on opening track: "Creep In the Cellar." It sounds really great and makes for an interesting listen, maybe challenging listen for some.
It's really hard to describe their music to someone who has never heard it before: LSD madness trip psychadelia post-punk? Maybe I don't know just really spacey, seems fresh compared to other bands Iv'e heard in the '80s. A band that may have been influenced came out around the same time that I can think of is Scratch Acid.
I love lead-vocalist Gibby Haynes' manic screams all over the album.
There are two songs that always bring a smile to my face when I hear them, "Moving to Florida," & "Perry" psychotic laughter in this song; Gibby also says Cancer about six times & yells; a little crazy sure, but funny too. This also features a cover of "American Woman" w/ supercompressed drums. "Mark Says Alright" features a dirgy heavy bass put to a female pit-bull barks!
Just psychotic and nuts! all around. -4 stars

This was the first Butthole Surfers' album I bought on my own; a friend had introduced me to them a few months before with "Independent Worm Saloon" and "Pioughed", so I felt I was ready to venture into the unknown, unassisted. The reverbed drums and the backwards fiddle on "Creep In The Cellar" should have warned me away, but it made me crave more; years later, when I found out the secret behind the fiddle, makes me more appreciate its presence and it's vitality to the song. Then, what completely blew me away was "American Woman", absolutely the finest cover song ever recorded by any band. As for more insight, I'll have to update this once I get my new copy of the CD in the mail, since I lost the tape I had and it has been a while since I heard this album...

I discovered the Butthole Surfers in the early 90's on a quest for the most strange, evil, and bizarre tunes.I had bored myself with heavy metal and grunge, and I cannot stand pop or anything remotely radio ready. I was looking for original, authentic, demented. With songs like, "Waiting of Jimmy to Kick" , and "Strangers Die Everyday" , and "Whirling Hall of Knives" , I was extremely impressed. If you're looking for weird, this is it.

America's most sonically demented band abandons the ordinary punk rock structure and and makes a soundtrack for a fun house in outer space. Rembrandt may not the the Surfers' most accomplished record, but it is probably their strangest, which is saying alot given the rest of their catalog. High points are their bent take on the Perry Mason theme, the double drummers on "Whirling Hall Of Knives", the backwards fiddle squiggling thru "Creep In the Cellar", and of course, their cubist cover of "American Woman" which would make Lenny Kravitz widdle in his vinyl pants. The Cream Corn EP is included with the CD, which makes this a great buy, as at least half of it is essential Surfers. I'll take this moment as I have in the past to lament the sad, sellout demise of this band, who went out like a popcap gun instead of a shotgun.

great sounds set this apart from other music. really a masterpiece i think. an incredible cover of 'american woman'.

The Surfers' second album, which gets my vote for best album title ever, is a little less scary, but still wildly weird as their debut "Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac". As an added bonus, when recently released on CD by Latino Bugger Veil, the songs from the Surfers' EP "Cream Corn From The Socket Of Davis" (released around the same time as the original record, in 1986) are included at the end.
Song highlights: the pounding acid-drenched cover of "American Woman", the bizaare Daffy Duck-like whooping vocals in "Waiting For Jimmy To Kick", the watery sludgyness of "Strangers Die Everyday", "Mark Says Alright" which only vocals are a distorted freaky growling, and the hilarious "Moving To Florida", where Gibby gleefully sings away about potty-training the Chairman Mao and sausages dancing on the hood of Ray Bolger's car. Priceless stuff.
A close call, but it edges out "Sac" for my favorite Surfers album. Buy it!

This is the BHS most effective album. I didn't say "best" I said effective.
Their goal: to freak you out or drive you mad.
A buddy bought this just after release and played it on the way to Vegas while I drove. After tormenting me with it for hours, I nearly drove off the road pissed off and mean with an electric pain in my skull. We nearly came to blows.
Certain frequencies and modulations of sound can make you ill, passive, pissed or fearfull and I think this album has them, by design or accident.
This won't have the same impact it did in 1986...or will it?