What a difference a hit single makes. The veteran scourge of U.S. underground rock, the Butthole Surfers, are now heavy-rotation dudes, thanks to "Pepper," which, in all honesty, is one of the lesser entries – too much Beck (a la "Loser"), not enough brown-acid mischief – on Electriclarryland. OK, Larryland itself is no Locust Abortion Technician or Hairway to Steven; the gonzoid locomotion of today's Buttholes is more streamlined and conventionally metallic, except for strategic diversions like guitarist Paul Leary's wah-wah outbursts in "The Lord Is a Monkey." But underneath the overheated-amp noise and megaphone-vocal gargling of the bad old days, the Butthole Surfers were basically a hot Texas-boogie band with a primitivist lead singer. In that sense, Electriclarryland is squarely in the tradition.

Yes, I'm impressed that Chris O'Connor – who is Primitive Radio Gods – made his album for about $1,000, and that his thrift and determination paid off with the hit "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in My Hand." But the hook and most of the heat on that single came from an old B.B. King record ("How Blue Can You Get"), and the shut-in, one-man-band feel of Rocket wears perilously thin over the other nine songs, especially when the didactic wallop of O'Connor's lyrics busts through. "My shit's clean like a washing machine/I'm alive/It's a fact you can't attack, and now/I'm taking over," he declares in "Chain Reaction." Yo, cool don't advertise. (RS 750/751)

DAVID FRICKE