The Comedy of Errors: Buttsteak - Peel Session (15 May 1992)

There’s a little bit of cheating going on here as I only heard the first 95 minutes of Peel’s show for 15/5/92, which meant I only heard the first 3 songs of Buttsteak’s session.  The video offers the full session, but that’s fine as they would have all made it on to my metaphorical mixtape.

If you take an excursion through Buttsteak’s Discogs page, you will alight on song titles that do not promise an extravagance of lyrical brilliance cf: Johnny’s Got a Butt with a Hole, Clitoris, Date Rape, All Fags Aboard and more.  I haven’t heard any of these tracks, so who knows - I could be missing out on some of my favourite ever songs.  But what I can say is that, on the evidence of this Peel Session, Buttsteak would have been my favourite band of the week had I heard them in May 1992, just as they currently are in May 2019.

Specialising in 90 second bursts of rocking, punky energy but with a loopily, humourous twist, Buttsteak serve up 7 tracks across the 12 minutes and the level of interest never lets up except perhaps in the final track, It’s..., which can’t help but seem like tacked on filler after the epic sweep of Western Opera (and if anyone can tell me which piece of music they’re quoting from, I’d be most grateful.  It sounds like The Animals Went in Two by Two, which itself got adapted for a Western theme but I don’t know which one).*
Along the way we get treated to cherry popping (Keith Meet Theif which works in part of the James Bond Theme) , bar-room brawling (The Kidd), unscrupulous bosses (Garnishy Wages), Darwin Award candidates (I Saw Him Burn His Head) and youthful steps into commerce (Wine Dealership, which finds time to invent The Yeah Yeah Yeahs a decade early.) All human life is here.  All American life is here and in contrast to the remembrances of American guitar pop in the early 90s, Buttsteak shine out because they’re rude, crude, alive and fun.  A band to be cherished.  My mother celebrated her 46th birthday on 15 May 1992, and although I’m sure she would have accepted it with a glassy smile and a halting thank you, this session is so brilliant, I’d have gift-wrapped it and given it to her as a present.  I can offer no higher praise than that.

*My thanks to William aka The Jukebox Rebel for suggesting that Buttsteak were riffing on Ghost Riders in the Sky during Western Opera.

Video courtesy of Fruitier Than Thou