Throwback Thursday: That Time the Butthole Surfers Ran TV Promos
Back in 1996, after many years of toiling away underground, the legendary Butthole Surfers made their presence known to the music-consuming masses. Electriclarryland was their second album released under big-time label Capital Records, and the first to really make a splash in the mainstream.
Today's video is actually a series of television promos that were weird at the time, and, to be honest, are still pretty weird today. They just don't make album promotions like this anymore. See for yourself above.
The Butthole Surfers flirted with MTV-esque success with their first major label release, Independent Worm Saloon, but it wasn't until the strangely intriguing song "Pepper" came out that the average music listener at the time finally paid attention to them.
The band really ramped up their presence within pop culture after the release of Electriclarryland, too. They had a song on Beavis and Butthead Do America, as well as the Chris Farley and David Spade classic, Black Sheep. They made appearances on numerous talk shows, including the Larry Sanders Show and Late Show With David Letterman. And as a matter of fact, we have the latter of those two performances below for your immediate Butthole Surfers gratification: