The Flavor That Kills deliver frenetic soul-punk and a dash of classic psychedelic sensibilities straight from Madison, WI -proudly declaring “now with synthesisers!” They  released their edgy, genre-fluid album Book Of Secrits (purposely misspelled) in 2024. Their follow up and second part of a planned trilogy, Thunderbird Lodge, that follows a surreal science-fiction narrative involving artificial intelligence, layered realities and erased identities, is out now.

Eric J Hartz, drummer/synths with the band, shares his love of Butthole Surfers and illustrates how the band has influenced his own band’s music.

Rembrandt Pussyhorse

I was 15 years old when I bought a copy of Rembrandt Pussyhorse. I was on vacation in Florida with my brother when my cousin took me surfing for the day. At the time, I was deep into punk rock and couldn’t wait to hear the album when we got back to the house. I remember feeling disappointed at first because it didn’t sound anything like the punk records I was used to.

But Creep In The Cellar immediately caught my attention with its haunting piano line and Gibby Haynes’ eerie, almost hypnotic vocal delivery. Their twisted cover of American Woman sealed the deal for me—I was completely hooked. Over the years, the album became one of my favorites and expanded my musical tastes far beyond punk into more experimental territory. That collision of punk aggression and avant-garde experimentation became a huge influence on the way I approached playing and writing music.

Psychic… Powerless… Another Man’s Sac

Later that same year, after returning home to Wisconsin, I went back and discovered the band’s first album. Songs like Dum Dum and Woly Boly blended rockabilly, punk, and metal into a complete smorgasbord of chaos that I found strangely enlightening. As a drummer, the album changed the way I thought about arrangements and the possibilities of combining completely different musical styles.

The sonic textures on the record created a sense of freedom for me—a feeling that there were no real boundaries. I remember constantly asking myself: How far can you go? Although I played in many bands over the years, it wasn’t until TFTK that I truly had the chance to explore music in that way: letting go, embracing unpredictability, and seeing where the songs might lead.

Hairway to Steven

This was always my favorite Butthole Surfers album—explorative, raw, and angry in all the right ways. Jimi felt like a pre-grunge explosion of texture and guitar work that pulled me even deeper into the band’s world. Then they would pivot into songs like Ricky or I Saw An X-Ray, completely shifting tone without warning. What struck me most was the sense that they played exactly what they wanted, how they wanted, whenever they wanted.

That mindset became a blueprint for how TFTK approaches recording. Nothing is off-limits, and nothing is sacred. We probably have an entire album’s worth of discarded riffs and ideas because we throw so much into the creative process. To me, the Butthole Surfers never seemed concerned with expectations or rules—they created warped, chaotic music simply because it sounded interesting to them. That’s the kind of band I always wanted to be part of, and that spirit is all over Thunderbird Lodge.

Independent Worm Saloon and Beyond

This is the era where The Butthole Surfers leaned further into metallic textures and grooves, and I absolutely love it. If Paul Leary’s guitar line in Goofy’s Concern isn’t one of the most infectious riffs of the 1990s, I don’t know what is. Independent Worm Saloon probably has the closest connection to TFTK’s new album, Thunderbird Lodge, because of the way it deconstructs traditional song structures and abruptly shifts between sounds and moods.

That unpredictability is something we intentionally embrace in TFTK. While the Butthole Surfers weren’t tuning to 432hz the way we do, their music still carried a very different energy from most bands because of their use of tape manipulation, psychedelia, strange instrumentation, and densely layered recording techniques. Their records always sounded like they existed in their own warped universe—and that willingness to experiment fearlessly continues to inspire the way we make music today.

Our thanks to Eric for his excellent insights.

You can read more from our extensive archive of Why I Love pieces from a wide array of artists on an even wider array of subjects, here.

The Flavor That Kills: Bandcamp

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