Eugene Chadbourne

[Gregory Torso]

I thought he was a jazz fiend, or a Derek Bailey clit picker, but he seems to be something else...
A friend gave me a copy of "I've Been Everywhere" and it's just mental, twisted squeaky country music with odd samples in between the songs, something like Sun City Girls/Alvarius B mixed with Preggy Peggy. I always assumed he was a John Zorn free jazz free wails dude, and his discography looks pretty daunting, so anyone know about him and can recommend some records?

[wosl]

I can recommend the one Chadbourne record I have, which is the Greatest Hits EP by Shockabilly - a sprawl of twisted bluegrass, haunted-house rock 'n' roll thrash, gurgling cartoon-character vox and general unhinged playfulness.  I'm very rarely in the mood for that sort of thing these days, but it serves to scratch the itch when I am.

[first skeleton on mars]

Just about everything by Shockabilly (Eugene's band with Dave Licht and pre-Bongwater Kramer) is golden, but I'd recommend starting with Earth vs Shockabilly or Vietnam (playlists for both are on youtube, but possibly only the dubious remasters). If you're looking for something less than album length but no less bizarre, there's this Beatles Medley off LSDC&W, which does at times include John Zorn honking away on the saxophone.

Post-Shockabilly he's recorded an absolutely staggering quantity of material which I'm less familiar with, but I know it's much more varied in style and comprehensibility (his lockdown project was an interpretation on banjo of Messiaen's Catalogue d'oiseaux which is something like six hours long). I'd recommend Corpses of Foreign War (recorded with the Violent Femmes, minus their frontman). It's kind of a bridge between Shockabilly and his more recent stuff, which tends to be more along the lines of Pachuco Cadaver, an album of Beefheart covers (mostly) recorded with Jimmy Carl Black. Their performance of The Dust Blows Forward and the Dust Blows Back is really truly excellent.

I also have to mention this performance of Nazi Punks Fuck Off, unfortunately age-restricted on youtube, so there's a weird mirror instead.

^{only four years late to the thread}