Electriclarryland is the seventh studio album by the American rock band Butthole Surfers, released on May 6, 1996, by Capitol Records. This album brought Butthole Surfers their first Top-40 hit with "Pepper". The album was certified gold by the RIAA on August 20, 1996. The title of this album is a parody of Jimi Hendrix's third studio album entitled Electric Ladyland. This is the second time the band has used a parody title for one of their releases. The first was Hairway to Steven, which references the song "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin. The album's original title was going to be Oklahoma!, but fearing lawsuits, Capitol forced the band to change the name.
Although the album has no Parental Advisory label, it was also released in a "clean" version with profanities removed, an alternate album cover, and the band being credited as "B***H*** Surfers".
The song "The Lord Is a Monkey" was featured in two 1996 films, an alternate "Rock Version" in the Beavis and Butt-head Do America soundtrack and the original in Black Sheep. Additionally, the band performed "Ulcer Breakout" on an episode of The Larry Sanders Show.
The basic recordings were made at Paul Leary's house in Austin, Texas, at Arlyn Studios, also in Austin, and Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York. Mixing and mastering was done at Ocean Way Recording in Los Angeles, California.
Album cover The album cover, drawn by Paul Mavrides, is a cartoon of a man's ear being impaled by a pencil. The same artwork, without text and in monochrome, was previously published in the 1994 surreal humor book Revelation X: The "Bob" Apocryphon, published by satirical religious group the Church of the SubGenius, of which Mavrides was a founding member. The clean version of the album, as well as Japanese editions, replace it with a photograph of a prairie dog taken from the inside jacket; a detail of the same photo, zoomed in on the animal's face, was earlier used as the cover for the "Pepper" single.
Critical reception
The album received mixed reviews from critics.
Track listing All songs written by the Butthole Surfers.
Personnel Butthole Surfers Gibby Haynes – vocals, keyboards Paul Leary – guitar, bass (tracks 1, 3, 5, 8, 11 and 13), production, mixing King Coffey – drums
Additional personnel Andrew Weiss – bass (tracks 4, 6, 7, 9, 10) Bill Carter – bass (tracks 2 and 12) John Hagen – cello (track 2) Fooch – pedal steel guitar (track 7) Mark Eddinger – keyboards (track 3) Danno Saratak – drum programming (tracks 3 and 10)
Technical personnel Steve Thompson – production Christopher Shaw – engineer, mixing Stuart Sullivan – engineer, mixing Paul Mavrides – illustrations, cover design, cover art Will Van Overbeek – photography Tommy Steele – art direction Wendy Dougan – art direction, design
Charts
Weekly charts Chart (1996) Peakposition
Year-end charts Chart (1996) Position US Billboard 200 131
Singles YearSingleChartPosition1996"Pepper"US Mainstream Rock Tracks19US Modern Rock Tracks1US Top 40 Mainstream38
Certifications
References