Rough Trade 1991. RTT240R
This 12″ came free with the first few (UK) copies of the Piouhgd album. It comes with no information at all, nor can I find anything on the net about it, so all I can tell you is that it contains three remixes of Hurdy Gurdy Man, originally on the album and also a single. I have no idea what the remixes are called or who did them. I suspect that it was intended as a separate release, but only a handful of test pressings were made which were given away when the project was abandoned.
The song is a Donovan composition from 1968, and the Butties are surprisingly faithful to the original, especially the extreme vibrato Donovan used. Donovan used John-Paul Jones (of Led Zep) for the noisy guitars on his version – there are more noisy guitars here. The result I think is excellent and it suits their style very well. These remixes mostly obsess over detail – picking a small element of the original which they emphasise and repeat it to make something which is both instantly recognisable as a remix, but also totally new. The idea of a Butthole Surfers remix 12″ is bizarre, but the quality of these mixes means they pull it off I think.
Piouhgd has been re-issued and you should buy it. It’s not their best work, but it’s a fine album and includes the Widdowermaker EP, but not these tracks.
ultramegabit
http://************.com/file/details/XEghJnSf-Yg
wow, never even heard of these! thanks! man, I wish these guys would actually put out a new album of mind-numbing psychedelia again…
It’s weird how forgotten these remixes are – I can’t find out anything at all about them. It’s also weird that they only had a UK release when they’re a US band. Maybe the band didn’t authorise them and they insisted they disappear. They seem to be creatively a spent force now – I’m not expecting anything worthwhile in the future. Great while they lasted though.
Thanks man, I love the original Buttholes version of this… and I didn’t even know they’d remixed it. Thanks again 🙂