Let's See If This Works...
Anyone from the Hampton Roads area circa late 80's/mid 90's may remember the band Buttsteak. Probably one of the most popular groups from my home town during that time period, they were famous for their zany stage antics as well as their meld of 70's guitar-punk aggression with 80's new wave poppy sensibility, with wacky lyrics redolent of The B-52's, Devo, and Ramones. Had a lot of memories catching these guys perform, never quite seeing the same intro skit twice before each performance, acting out spacy moon landings with antiquated spacesuits, and West Side Story-style choreographed "knife fights". And keyboardist Julie McDermott always kept her board facing away from the crowd and her back almost always to us (I always assumed it was to keep the moshers from knocking over her set. I remember once someone in the pit got tossed on stage and toppled over her stand, and she blew a gasket).Their first album was the now extremely rare Fatty's Got More Blood (Merkin), of which the track "Wow Groovy Cool" got considerable airplay on our local alt-station around 1989 and 1990. Many of the songs revolve around people and places from within the Norfolk music scene, and remains my favorite out of their three disks. In 1994 they followed up with Shit... Cool It's The Honeycomb Generation (Merkin) which features probably my favorite Buttsteak song of all, "Mant", about a guy who is half man and, well, half ant. Now I think Moroccan VD came out next on the Go-Kart label but it's hard to remember from way back when, and then their final album, put out after making a scene shift to Baltimore, Maryland, was Men Who Pause (also Go-Kart) which I never actually heard. The band received a little international fame, mostly on the east coast, locally as well as Baltimore, Washington D.C., New York City, and once Joe even spoke to a booking agent from California who got pretty darn excited when he told her that he was from Norfolk -- "Oh my God! Home of my favorite band, Buttsteak!" she shrieked. And this was just after Fatty's Got More Blood was freshly released.
The band has since broken up, but when I get hit with the nostalgia tsunami I like to plug in their first two albums and recall those sweaty summer afternoons in the early 90's living in downtown Norfolk listening to their albums with my upstairs neighbors, then practically residing at the King's Head Inn every evening, collecting together at their concerts. These four tracks in particular always remind me of that time period.
These songs are temporary files and only last for a week, so check them out while you can!
Wasteful Pigs MP3 (from the CD Fatty's Got More Blood)
Wow Groovy Cool MP3 (from the CD Fatty's Got More Blood)
Charlie Brown Stain MP3 (from the CD Fatty's Got More Blood)
Mant MP3 (from the CD Shit... Cool It's The Honeycomb Generation)
posted by Melissa at 8:54 AM
9 Comments:
I loved Buttsteak- they always came up with unique performances and were good folks to deal with.
My fave Buttsteak scam was when they told CMJ that their drummer had died(when actually he had left the band due to "artistic differences") - sadly CMJ was not inot being punk'D and I think it cost the band some press cred-for whatever that is worth.The Buttsteak vibe and presentation was a welcome change from the grunge standarounds of the day
Didn't they used to have flyers on all the telephone polls in town stating something about the drummer being MIA as well? I remember the whole "faked death" affair -- it was pretty surreal. A lot of people weren't even sure if they were kidding or not. There were these hilariousButtsteak drummer "sightings" all over town.
Also the bass player used to deliver Bamboo Hut to my door every time I ordered from there (which was a lot).
They were lots of fun. One of my fave's back at the "artsy-fartsy garage sale bar" Mexicano's in KDH,NC.
I was there one night when they were having obvious difficulties and they split up just as they were starting to get recognition on the alternative scene. I miss their great energy/performance.
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nice read. I would love to follow you on twitter.
atariflashback.blogspot.com; You saved my day again.
Some of the members were in a Norfolk band called "Nocturnal Zoo" which was great. No released records, I think, although they did some great small pressings and demos.
revisiting Fatty... and Moroccan tonite - never knew there was an album in-between!
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