Butthole Surfers

This culminated in 'The Weird Revolution' (a reworking of an aborted album recorded for Capital called 'After the Astronaut') their most electronic album to date. On March 16th, however, the reunion was cancelled, with Fraser pulling out for "personal reasons.". As the 'nineties went on, the band became increasingly influenced by electronica, with Gibby namechecking Massive Attack, Tricky, and The Chemical Brothers as influences. On January 31 2005 Cocteau Twins announced that they would be reforming to perform at the Coachella Festival on April 30, 2005, and later indicated that additional tour dates through the fall would be added. In the early 'nineties Gibby Haynes and Jeff Pinkus released a side project (The Jackofficers) which produced a highly psychedelic take on House music. Elizabeth Fraser provided vocals for two songs on Massive Attack's Mezzanine in 1998, the soundtrack to the film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (and the second installment: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers), as well as for other, less known projects and groups, and is rumoured to be working on a solo album. At the same time a huge legal battle with Capital records began which ended up with the band being kicked off the label and signing to Hollywood Records (a subsidiary of Disney). Raymonde has released the solo album Blame Someone Else. Guthrie released his first solo effort Imperial and continues to create music with his band Violet Indiana.

Those records are now in print on their own Latino Buggerveil record label. Guthrie and Raymonde formed the record label Bella Union, and have produced releases from new bands signed to that label. In 1996 the band brought a legal action to recover rights from Touch and Go to their back catalogue, a case they eventually won in 1999. The former members of Cocteau Twins have remained active musically in the years since the band's demise. The story of the creation of this album is told in Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad (Little, Brown) amidst other tales from the American underground in the 1980s. Finally, in 2003, 4AD followed Stars and Topsoil with re-releases of digitally remastered versions of the first six Cocteau Twins LPs. However, probably their best album is the critically lauded Locust Abortion Technician (Touch & Go - US/ Blast First - UK). In 2000, 4AD released Stars and Topsoil, a compilation of selected songs--hand-picked by the band members--released during their years with 4AD, all digitally remastered by Robin Guthrie.

The band's most famous song is "Pepper" from the album Electriclarryland in 1996, which recounted the somewhat sordid stories of several high school students in Texas. The collection is a complete record of the band's appearances on UK radio programs from 1983 to 1996, with some rare and/or unreleased material included. They also contributed songs to the soundtracks of Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet and Mission Impossible around about this time. In 1999, Bella Union released a double-CD compilation entitled BBC Sessions. Soon afterwards they signed to Capitol Records and this one time underground band eventually became a mainstream commodity with songs on modern rock radio and Beavis and Butt-head. Fans of the group weren't however, left entirely empty-handed. In 1991 they were part of the first Lollapalooza tour. While a number of songs were partially recorded and possibly completed, the band has stated that it will likely never be finished or released in any form.

They recorded two more albums and numerous EPs for Touch and Go before leaving to record an album (Pioughd) for Rough Trade Records. In 1997, while recording what was to have been their ninth and final LP, the trio suddenly disbanded over irreconcilable differences (mostly related to the break-up of Guthrie and Fraser). bands such as Throbbing Gristle and Einsturzende Neubauten) as well as American eccentrics like Frank Zappa and The Residents. There were two singles for it, Tishbite and Violaine (both exist in two versions, with different b-sides included on each). The band, augmented by an extra guitarist and a drummer, toured extensively to support the album--their last with Mercury--and in live performances seemed to have found a cohesive freshness and power that had been lacking on their previous outing in 1993/94. A new song, "Touch Upon Touch," which debuted during the live shows and was recorded later in 1996, was the last Cocteau Twins song ever released. Their second album Rembrandt Pussyhorse showed the increased influence of the European avant-garde (e.g. The record, which some hailed as a "return to form," with heavily layered guitars and voice (Fraser began once again to obscure her lyrics, though not entirely), was released in 1996 to somewhat mixed reviews. It also showed the influence of heavy metal (especially Black Sabbath), again, many years before this sound became fashionable: in marrying punk and heavy metal it might be seen as one of the first precursors of grunge. As it turned out, some of the tracks on both Twinlights and Otherness were versions of songs from the band's eighth album, Milk and Kisses.

Along with The Teardrop Explodes in the UK this album might be said to have begun the psychedelic revival (psychedelia having been extremely unfashionable in the five years since punk). Both EPs were labeled 'experimental' by the press, since they were very different from the EPs the band released in the past. They recorded their debut EP on Alternative Tentacles, before moving to Touch & Go to release their debut album Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac. The former consisted of four gentle acoustic songs, recorded with only piano, acoustic guitar and voice; Otherness, by contrast, was a collaboration with Seefeel's Mark Clifford, and featured four electronic remixes of Cocteau Twins' songs. Mark Kramer (of Bongwater and Shimmy Disc) also briefly played bass. 1995 saw the release of two new EPs: Twinlights and Otherness. While their line-up changed frequently through the years, they had a core membership of Jeff Pinkus on bass, with King Coffey and Teresa Taylor on drums in addition to Haynes (vocals) and Leary (guitar). The band themselves explained that Four-Calendar Café was simply a response to the turmoil that had engulfed them in the intervening years, with Guthrie entering rehab and quitting alcohol and drugs, and Fraser herself undergoing therapy (the two had been in a long-term relationship, and by this time had a young daughter, Lucy-Belle, born in 1989).

Incorporating elements of hardcore, psychedelia, and performance art, their live shows also made heavy use of strobe lights, background films and naked dancers. This, along with audibly comprehensible lyrics--something previously elusive, as Fraser tended to sing in a style that masked or otherwise obscured her lyrics--led to mixed reviews: some critics would accuse the group of selling out and producing an 'accessible album,' while others would praise the new direction as a worthy successor to Heaven or Las Vegas. The band was founded by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1982; the pair met while students at Trinity University. It was a departure from the heavily-processed, complex and layered sounds of Blue Bell Knoll and Heaven or Las Vegas, featuring crystal-clear, minimalistic arrangements. The Butthole Surfers is an American indie and punk band. The band's seventh LP, Four-Calendar Café, was released in the fall of 1993. Humpty Dumpty LSD (2002). 4AD and Capitol released a Box Set in 1991 that compiled the band's EPs from 1982 to 1987, including a bonus disc of rare and/or previously unreleased material.

Weird Revolution (2001). While on their international tour supporting Heaven or Las Vegas, the group signed a new recording contract with Fontana in the UK and elsewhere, while retaining their ongoing US relationship with Capitol. After the Astronaut (unreleased) (1998). They parted ways with 4AD following Heaven or Las Vegas, partially because of conflicts with its founder Ivo Watts-Russell, and were close to breaking up over internal problems, due in large part to Guthrie's addiction to drugs including alcohol. Electric Larryland (1996). However, despite the success of the record and the tours, not everything was well with the band. Independent Worm Saloon (1993). The most commercially successful of their many recordings, the album rose to the top of the charts immediately after its release.

Pioughd (1990). The style the group began exploring with Head Over Heels reached its peak on Heaven or Las Vegas, released in late 1990. Double Live (1989). While remaining a 4AD band internationally, Cocteau Twins finally signed a major-label contract with Capitol Records in 1988 for distribution in the US, and released their fifth proper LP, Blue Bell Knoll, in October of that year. Widowermaker EP (1989). To commemorate the event, the compilation The Pink Opaque (1985) was released as a way of introducing the new, broader audience to the band's back-catalog. Hairway to Steven (1988). In 1985, with a major-label release still years away, 4AD signed an agreement with Relativity Records for distribution of Cocteau Twins in the US and elsewhere.

Locust Abortion Technician (1987). He returned to the group for The Moon and The Melodies (1986), which was a collaboration with Harold Budd, and was not released under the Cocteau Twins name. Rembrandt Pussyhorse (1986). Raymonde, who was collaborating on the second This Mortal Coil LP, did not participate in the recording of the fourth Cocteau Twins LP, Victorialand (1986), a predominantly acoustic record which featured only Guthrie and Fraser. Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis EP (1985). These included The Spangle Maker (1984), Treasure (1984), Aikea-Guinea (1985), Tiny Dynamine and Echoes in a Shallow Bay (1985) and Love's Easy Tears (1986). Another Man's Sac (1984). With Simon, the band released a series of critically acclaimed albums and EPs, exploring their new style.

Powerless.. In 1983, the band participated in 4AD's This Mortal Coil project (this spawned a cover-version of Tim Buckley's Song to the Siren performed by Guthrie and Fraser, which became a major hit), and during their work for that, they got to know Simon Raymonde (formerly a member of Drowning Craze), who joined the group later that year as a bass player. Psychic.. Despite being very different from its predecessor, Head Over Heels was well-received by both press and fans. Live PCPPEP (1984). This led to establishing the Cocteau Twins' signature sound: heavily effected guitars combined with Fraser's ethereal voice. Butthole Surfers EP (1983) (alternate title: "A Brown Reason To Live"). Since the band's sound on its first three recordings relied heavily on Heggie's rhythmic basslines, Guthrie's minimalistic guitar and Fraser's voice, Cocteau Twins' next full-length LP, Head Over Heels, had to rely solely on the latter two.

Download sample of "Pepper" from Electriclarryland. Will Heggie left the group after the tour that followed the 1983 release of the band's second EP, Peppermint Pig. Their debut recording, Garlands, was released by 4AD in 1982, and was an instant success, as was the subsequent Lullabies EP. The name Cocteau Twins itself comes from an early (unreleased) song by Simple Minds. The band's influences at the time included The Birthday Party, Sex Pistols and Siouxsie & the Banshees.

At a local hotel disco club, Nash, they met Elizabeth Fraser, who eventually provided (vocals). The band was formed in 1980 by Robin Guthrie (guitar) and Will Heggie (bass), both from Grangemouth, Scotland. Their trademark sound of layered, ethereal guitar and indecipherable vocals inspired the 1990s shoegazing genre, which included numerous bands such as Lush, Slowdive, Pale Saints, and My Bloody Valentine. Cocteau Twins were an influential and prolific British band formed in 1980, their music becoming nearly synonymous with their record label 4AD.

Stars and Topsoil (2002). BBC Sessions (2000). Box Set (1991). The Moon and The Melodies (1986) with Harold Budd.

The Pink Opaque (1985). Other: