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Artist / Heroes,

Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers Spotted with a Soundblox Pro Classic Distortion

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Posted by: Jeffrey McAlack | Posted in: Artist / Heroes,

 

 

 

Have you seen this man? We just got word from the folks at 30th Street Music in Manhattan that Gibby Haynes of the iconic punk/psychadelic/art rock band The Butthole Surfers was in their store shopping for a new dirt box and walked out with the Soundblox Pro Classic Distortion. Gibby was, as the story goes, particularly impressed with the ProCo Rat inspired distortion type, El Raton.  Gibby is known to run his vocals through a fairly elaborate effects rig which he controls from the stage. I personally have never heard vocals through the Classic Distortion, but I'm damn curious to find out how it sounds. Gibby's purchase is great news to the entire Source Audio crew, we proudly add him to the list of boundary pushing musicians using Source Audio pedals.

You've got to love the Butthole Surfers, they never conformed to the sound of the times—the sound of the times conformed to them!Personally, I remember the 80s and the stranglehold mainstream radio had on the airwaves. It certainly wasn’t like today when music comes from a million different places, catering to every imaginable taste. In the bad old days, if you didn’t like what popular radio played you were out of luck. Thank God for college radio, the place where bands like The Butthole Surfers, The Dead Kennedys, Sonic Youth, Black Flag or Fugazi reigned. Station budgets were minimal and the reception was invariably fuzzy, but the music was great. Usually loud and fast, with subject matter far removed from the predictable tales of top 40, the music of college radio may have sounded stupid and obnoxious to many, but to us it was bold and exciting. The Butthole Surfers, with their name alone, sent a clear message that they were not in the game to sell truckloads of records. Songs like “22 Going on 23” off of Locust Abortion Technician or “Bar-B-Q Pope” from the Surfers’ debut EP are pure and exhilarating works of art, untarnished by aspirations of commercial success. As most of us know, commercial radio changed drastically in the early 90s and the Butthole Surfers, ironically, ended up selling a lot or records. Particularly, their 1996 release, Electriclarryland that reached number 31 on the Billboard 200 chart with its song “Pepper” (a tune that made it to the top of the Modern Rock Chart). Gibby and the boys obviously had their day—sometimes, adventurous spirits are rewarded.

So are we excited that Gibby Haynes purchased one of our pedals? Hell yeah, we are!!!  Anybody who works in musical equipment business will tell you that conservatism rules and “vintage” is the eternal buzzword. Don’t think that we haven’t heard it from all directions that analog beats digital processing every time, or that wah filters are controlled by pedals, not rings. We love the music and technology of the past, but we always keep in mind that there was actually a time when effect pedals like the Fuzz Face, Octavia and Big Muff Pi were considered out-of-step and unusual. The only thing that keeps the ball rolling is forward thinking musicians and sound engineers. So we appreciate the fact that a rock pioneer like Gibby Haynes is turned on by what we do. We also look forward to hearing him perform through the Classic Distortion!

Here's a blast from the past, the Surfers covering Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man." This is one bad trip of a video - I absolutely love it!!!

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