Butthole Surfers

As music journalist Michael Azerrad famously put it, the Butthole Surfers seemed as if they came from another planet. The Texans’ Frankenstein-like stitching of psychedelia and DIY punk to experimental art and lysergic toilet humour was ruthlessly weird, shocking even. Gibby Haynes, Paul Leary, King Coffey and their supporting cast of freaks weren’t interested in opening third eyes so much as scooping them out. Yet the Butthole Surfers were also profoundly influential. The band’s run of releases from 1984’s Psychic…. Powerless…. Another Man's Sac to 1996’s unlikely hit “Pepper” reshaped vast swaths of modern music. While twisted classics like 1986’s Rembrandt Pussyhorse and 1987’s Locust Abortion Technician helped launch noise rock and alt-metal, their postapocalyptic look and ritualistic performance style (replete with nudes and fires) seeped into industrial, as well as the murky fringes of rave culture—an impressive legacy for a group of people who had frequently resorted to scavenging in bins to feed themselves on early tours.