COMIC SPECTACLE : * * * * <i> Great Balls of Fire</i> * * * <i> Good Vibrations</i> * * <i> Maybe Baby</i> * <i> Running on Empty : </i>

* * * * “LOCUST ABORTION TECHNICIAN.” BH Surfers. Touch and Go. In a world gone rigid and gray with Yuppiedom it’s good to know that the occasional raving lunatic can still earn a decent wage. I refer to this Texas quintet, a band of musical marauders so wild, free and completely out of control that the fact that they manage to make records and actually get them into stores is nothing short of miraculous. “LAT” is the Surfers’ fourth record and to describe it as music tells but a fraction of the story. Launching a double-barreled assault on the popular conception of music, the Surfers are equal parts natural disaster, comic spectacle and heavy-metal rave-up. On first hearing, they sound like nothing more than a glorious mess, but there is in fact a consistent and focused style lurking at the center of their hurricane. Recurring elements of the Surfers’ aesthetic include the heavily amplified groan of grinding metal, Gibby Haynes’ free-associated vocals screeched through a bullhorn, snatches of dialogue taped off the radio and some of the most savagely inventive guitar work since Hendrix, courtesy of Paul Leary. You get all this and more on “LAT,” which also features bits of Tony Grant-esque phone-in radio therapy, a chorus of mooing cows, and a track called “Sweat Loaf” that offers Haynes’ approach to the shared parenting duties of divorced couples. It’s one of many hilarious highlights on this fantastic record.