 
|
GIBBY HAYNES & HIS PROBLEM
self-titled (Surfdog Records)
Reviewed by Sherman Wick
Gibby Haynes & His Problem would be the best Butthole Surfers record since the group signed to Capitol Records - and that's not saying much - except the record is a solo project by the band's lead singer. Like the band's records before moving to major label it mostly rocks, and does not contain drum loops and mountains of keyboards.
Haynes and his youngish backing band create a record split between maudlin and sappy versus cool weirdness. There are eleven tracks on this record, and unfortunately, the bad far outweighs the good. Both "Woo" and "Superman" are almost as dopey as late period Butthole Surfers, at least without the overproduction. "Woo" features a cheesy keyboard riff and dumb lyrics about, ahem, love and commitment; "Superman" is both musically pedestrian and accompanied by pretentiously stranger-than-thou lyrics about the man of steel. And perhaps the worst song is the boring and cliched "Redneck Sex," which repeats the title ad infinitum, and is elaborated by enough utterances of the f-word that you'd swear Haynes was back in junior high and had just discovered a new word. The song may have been intended as good-bad - but it's totally bad-bad.
Fortunately, the record also includes a couple of outstanding tracks. "Kaiser" is reminiscent of the Butthole Surfers in their glory days. The song is a throttling anthem featuring Haynes' reverb soaked Texas twang against propelling guitars, bass and drums. It even includes wacko lines like "I'll feed the kaiser, you'll wear the diapers." Other standouts are also rockin' and anthemic, such as "15000" and "Nights." Haynes' attempts at crazy psychedelic jamming are only half-realized and fail in comparison with his previous band's classic acid tripping insanity.
Overall, it's an okay comeback: it's not the mid-'90s self-parody of craziness the band was mired in at the end, nor is it an example of their early '80s classic scary-as-hell punk-psychedelia. And that's okay. Because even a little of the insane genius that was the Butthole Surfers in their heyday greatly exceeds their dopey imitators like Korn and their apostles.
© 2004 - Sherman Wick