Dorsey Burnette

Dorsey Burnette died of a massive coronary in Canoga Park, California and is buried with his brother Johnny in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. 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. He is best known for his prolific writing talents, including songs recorded by then teen idol Ricky Nelson. As the 'nineties went on, the band became increasingly influenced by electronica, with Gibby namechecking Massive Attack, Tricky, and The Chemical Brothers as influences. He played bass in his younger brother Johnny Burnette's rockabilly group, and as a solo artist had a few significant hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s such as Tall Oak Tree, Big Rock Candy Mountain and Hey Little One. In the early 'nineties Gibby Haynes and Jeff Pinkus released a side project (The Jackofficers) which produced a highly psychedelic take on House music. Dorsey Burnette (December 28, 1932 - August 19, 1979) was an early Rockabilly singer in Memphis, Tennessee. 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).

Those records are now in print on their own Latino Buggerveil record 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 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. However, probably their best album is the critically lauded Locust Abortion Technician (Touch & Go - US/ Blast First - UK).

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. They also contributed songs to the soundtracks of Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet and Mission Impossible around about this time. 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. In 1991 they were part of the first Lollapalooza tour.

They recorded two more albums and numerous EPs for Touch and Go before leaving to record an album (Pioughd) for Rough Trade Records. bands such as Throbbing Gristle and Einsturzende Neubauten) as well as American eccentrics like Frank Zappa and The Residents. Their second album Rembrandt Pussyhorse showed the increased influence of the European avant-garde (e.g. 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.

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). They recorded their debut EP on Alternative Tentacles, before moving to Touch & Go to release their debut album Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac. Mark Kramer (of Bongwater and Shimmy Disc) also briefly played bass. 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).

Incorporating elements of hardcore, psychedelia, and performance art, their live shows also made heavy use of strobe lights, background films and naked dancers. The band was founded by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1982; the pair met while students at Trinity University. The Butthole Surfers is an American indie and punk band. Humpty Dumpty LSD (2002).

Weird Revolution (2001). After the Astronaut (unreleased) (1998). Electric Larryland (1996). Independent Worm Saloon (1993).

Pioughd (1990). Double Live (1989). Widowermaker EP (1989). Hairway to Steven (1988).

Locust Abortion Technician (1987). Rembrandt Pussyhorse (1986). Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis EP (1985). Another Man's Sac (1984).

Powerless.. Psychic.. Live PCPPEP (1984). Butthole Surfers EP (1983) (alternate title: "A Brown Reason To Live").

Download sample of "Pepper" from Electriclarryland.