Boiled Dove

The Butthole Surfers built their career on making audiences genuinely uncomfortable — live shows featuring strobe lights, film projection, and sonic assault designed to induce psychological collapse. Formed in San Antonio in 1981, they became one of the most singular acts in the American underground.

Boiled Dove, from Hairway to Steven (1988), shows their more meditative side — a lurching, sludgy piece that builds slowly rather than attacking immediately. The Butthole Surfers at mid-tempo could be genuinely eerie in a way their faster material sometimes missed.

The band's influence on 1990s alternative rock — on Nirvana in particular, who cited them as a major influence — is significant. Their willingness to be difficult without being merely unpleasant opened doors that hadn't previously existed.