Brown Reason to Live / Live PCPPEP

From the opening salvo of “The Shah Sleeps In Lee Harvey’s Grave” where we learn among other things that singer Gibby Haynes “smokes Elvis Presley’s toenails when I want to get high,” the Butthole Surfers were out to offend on whatever level it took. That they did everything with a wicked sense of humor might be lost on those easily offended, but for anyone willing to take the trip with them, each of their albums has proved to be a wild, unexpected ride. This is a collection of two early EPs: the studio debut Brown Reason to Live and a live collection that finds the band in anarchic form. Though the Texas freaks attached themselves to the hardcore punk scene, they were more determined to warp rockabilly and the blues into shape for Captain Beefheart. “Something” channels a psychotic trudge through swamp-blues. “Bar-B-Q Pope” powers the band through a dark psychedelia that would surface in the band’s later work. “Suicide” is remorseless. The live material is simply relentless. “Shah,” “Hey” and “Gary Floyd” show the band had musical chops hiding underneath their sensationalistic outrage.