Review #89: Butthole Surfers - Cream Corn From the Socket of Davis (EP) (1985)

CREAM CORN FROM THE SOCKET OF DAVIS (EP)

Year: 1985

Genre: Punk Rock
Sub-Genres: Post-Punk, Hardcore
Label: Touch & Go Records
Tracks: 4
Length: 16 Minutes (Short)
Style: Weird/Funny
My Rating: 6/8

This is the fourth Butthole Surfers to be released. It's one of the more under-rated releases in their catalog, and it's a 12" EP with four songs on it. It's pretty similar in style to "Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac", the record that came out almost a year before it -- a deranged mish-mash of backwoodsy psychedelic-punk-weirdo-rock.

1. Moving Down to Florida
The song is two parts interspliced into different parts that swing back and forth between eachother, rather than playing the vocals and instruments simultaneously. The spoken parts are narrated by a hilariously creepy hillbilly, discussing his plans to move to Florida as well as various outrageous conspiracy theories he's heard about everything from Lyndon B. Johnson to gigantic radioactive tadpoles... all in Florida! The musical parts are rockabilly-style repetitive beats, with the occasional big-guitar-solo. In the end, the vocals are spoken alongside the instruments, in a more traditional song style.

2. Comb
Starts off with some ominous noizy droning, and the sounds of Gibby vomiting. After about a half-minute, the signature Butthole Surfer-sludge tempo kicks in, with abrasive, atonal guitar riffs, and Gibbytronix-produced unintelligble distorted moans, groans, screams, and yells. The song ends with a similar setup to how it began. A brief really funny-sounding noize is heard. That's the end of Side 1...

3. To Parter
As the title suggests (sort of), it's a two-part song. The first half is a repetitive No-Wave-y lead-driven instrumental piece -- reminds me a lot of early Sonic Youth. The second half is more melodic, as Gibby sings about a group of white men who sold qualudes to some monkeys, who all got addicted to them and "died up in the trees". The song goes on to criticize the teachers of the world, comparing us human beings to the aforementioned qualude monkeys. Gibby screams a bunch. The song ends.

4. Tornadoes
The shortest song on the album. It's a fast Dead Kennedys-esque song -- the riff and the rhythm are pretty straightforward, but it's still got that psychedelic flair to it... perhaps it was one of their real early songs (a lot of their earliest songs -- before "Brown Reason to Live" even -- sounded like this). The gang makes funny noises and scream in the background. And that's all, folks!

I can understand why it's not exactly heralded as a masterpiece... it's good, but there just isn't enough! Of course, it's just an EP. The original 12" vinyl pressing has been long out-of-print, but the contents of this EP can be found on the American CD version of "Rembrandt Pussyhorse", and the U.K. CD version of "Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac". So yeah, if ya like Buttholes and Surfers and Butthole Surfers, you should totally listen to these songs. But I'm real tired and pissed off and can't think of anything else to say. So, good day, all y'all!

MUSIC VIDEO FOR "TORNADOES"