"Love (s)Poke(n) Here", or: here's where Texan psychedelia from the nineties has arrived/ended up born in the magical sixties under the aegis of the International Artists of Red Crayola and 13th Floor Elevators and then passed through the dirty hands of the Butthole Surfers.

In '87 in Austin, there was a Vietnamese restaurant, the Dong, that boasted a level of hygiene lower than a public toilet. No one knew that there were no cooks in the kitchen; simply when you ordered something, the waiter would cross the street and have a dish prepared at the fast-food joint across. Or, if you asked for a beer, they would buy it on the fly from the cheap supermarket around the corner. The restaurant was all a pretext to host bands that were not wanted in official venues on weekends. Groups with eloquent names, like Scratch Asshole Surfers, performed, and the shows were the most messed up around. Many musicians, without much pretension, entertained the customers; however, the undisputed heroes always remained (and on this the audience was in agreement) the fantastic ED HALL.

Their sound was a mix between the most liquid psychedelia and the cruelest noise brutalities, yet managing to maintain an almost pop appeal. They soon began to attract more and more people and when their first LP came out in '89, they were already famous throughout the region. Riding on the ever-growing wave of enthusiasm, they began touring the States, gathering hordes of adoring fans, and by the time their second album was released in 1990, they had become the undisputed masters of the genre.
"Love (s)Poke(n) Here" is an album every Butthole Surfers' follower should have, a frolicking sarabande of blasted electric discharges and wild tribal rhythms. The level of cannibalistic ferocity has been lowered in favor of a dizzying schizophrenia launched into the stars. Everything is in here: frenzied cats as background to an unhealthy psychedelic jam, plate scratching, smoky noir film atmospheres indecently violated, melodies that would make the Beatles envious buried under a cloak of debris, horrifying detunings, and wild screams, all under the banner of the most imaginative eclecticism.

Ed Hall is a group unjustly forgotten, perhaps the greatest and wildest killer clowns of the early decade. Their lopsided compositions cheerfully say screw you to thirty years of rock history and are at the same time damnably catchy. Without too much trouble, they have surprisingly managed to update the sound of the legendary Texan scene to the grunge era: the result has the devastating power of an atomic bomb.

When in '91 the Butthole Surfers called them for a tour with them, they had long since surpassed the masters.

Tracklist and Videos

01   Pay for Me (02:19)

02   Ollie Ollie (04:19)

03   Millionaire's House (04:11)

04   Blue Poland (04:04)

05   Cornbull (02:58)

06   Turkey (05:13)

07   Hearty Tom Foolery (03:05)

08   Car Talk (02:07)

09   Buddha (03:24)

10   Go to Sleep (03:41)

11   Sam Jackson (03:48)

12   Gilbert (05:28)

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