the history of the Anal Obsession...

I decided to create this to supplement the Anal Obsession page I've been running for the last 3 years or so. It seems like it may make things easier to share thoughts, pictures, comments suggestions than just plain email...

The Anal Obsession started out as a WORD document in the mid- 1990's I called the Live Discography, or LIVE DISCO fer short. The LIVE DISCO was started, at first, as a way to archive my growing collection of live material by the band. It was difficult to keep track of line-ups and the slew of unreleased material that comprised most of their sets, so I started writing it down fer my own personal use. As my love fer the band grew, and I began to accumulate some lists from folks around the globe, I began to add shows to that I didn't have...sort of as a check list of things I needed, again, fer my own personal use. Erik Denning's list was a huge inspiration fer getting this started. After I got Erik's list, I began searching fer folks who had shows he didn't have, so I could go trade them to him. My collection of BHS recordings began to grow, and as it did, so did my curiosity.

At some point, I was contacted by Paul Wehle, who was as interested in getting things sorted out as I was. He asked fer a copy of the Live Disco, and began to write up a history of past incarnations of the band. We kept in touch fer a while, trading war stories, gathering info and shooting the shit fer a while and became tight. But, that was it. The band that inspired us to do all this work was becoming destined to be relegated to the used bins at the local record store. We knew that the band was (IS!) more important than being a footnote in the history of rock music.

As I traded with more and more folks, I began get some really positive feedback on the Live Disco. Folks began to write me about how important the band was to them. How they saw them at such-&-such a place on such-&-such a date and it was mind altering. Soon, I was starting to get emails from folks who said they had heard about the Live Disco from a friend and needed one and blah blah ya da ya da. It was becoming obvious that the Butthole Surfers were, as Paul and I had always believed, an important band to a lot of people.

Eventually, through the Butthole Surfers Forum page, I was contacted by Jason Ramke, who said he'd like to host the Live Disco off of his webpage. I began the arduous task of accumulating old lists and emails, pictures and flyers i had accumulated on floppy discs and, later CDs...setlists of shows i went to and collected from the stage...and getting them all posted in one spot.

Despite the wealth of material littering many drawers, baskets, buckets and assorted Rubbermaid tubs, I was able to get most of it posted within a month and we launched the site.

After bringing the site to the attention of King, he was impressed with the efforts, but wasn't crazy about "Live Disco" name. He didn't want any confusion that these recordings were authorized by the band...tolerated, perhaps, authorized hardly. The band after all had a pretty vehement anti-taping policy back in the day. For good reason...they were POOR, and the host of bootleg products bearing the Butthole Surfers moniker was pretty extensive. The band's stance on live recordings (not bootlegs!) has thankfully softened and now is very taper tolerant...perhaps even taper -friendly...hell, they've certainly been kind to me.

So, anywho, I knew King was right. Live Disco was a stupid name. I wasn't married to it. I was also not very bright and couldn't think of another one myself. Thankfully, after viewing the mass of info on the page, and the meticulous nature with which it was organized, Dave DK from the BHS forum thanked me for my anal obsessive organization of the details.

Anal Obsession! YES!!

Over the course of the 3 years I've been maintaining the AO, MANY new friends have been made. Lots of folks have contacted me and saying thanks, or better still, YOU are wrong about this...or yer MISSING this show. Or here's a copy of a flyer I found...or better yet, I have a recording not on yer list, do ya want it? (ahh, the sweetest words of all). I appreciate the help everyone has given me to make this the greatest resource on the greatest band.

Thanks all!