Last night the second volume of Stranger Things' final season premiered on Netflix with its most unlikely needle drop yet. [Consider the following a light spoiler coming from someone who stopped watching the series during season three…] The show's penultimate episode "The Bridge" (S05E07) featured a minute of "Human Cannonball" from Butthole Surfers' 1987 album Locust Abortion Technician, and it was discussed by the show's characters. The LP was chosen by Mike (Finn Wolfhard) for a record player bomb he built to blow up the Upside Down.
"One thing is, I don't know if we can blow up the Upside Down to the dulcet tones of the Butthole Surfers," Robin (Maya Hawke) said while admiring the device.
MIKE: I built the bomb. I should be able to pick the record.
ROBIN: You can pick the record. You just have to follow one simple rule, which is pick a good record.
MIKE: This is a great record!
ROBIN: As far as save-the-world soundtracks goes, this one's wrong.
MIKE: What album would you pick?
ROBIN: The Replacements. You can't not pick a better record.
MIKE: Okay, okay. Enough, Lester Bangs.
(Big week for Lester Bangs.)
There was some foreshadowing if you saw a certain Stranger Things junket interview with WatchMojo last month. Wolfhard told the outlet that Mike’s 1987 listening habits would be “[on] the pipeline going from metal into punk-ish,” thanks to the influence of Joseph Quinn’s hesher character Eddie, “so like Butthole Surfers.” (“Great name,” Gaten Matarazzo, who plays Dustin, chimed in.)
While Butthole Surfers haven't released an album since 2001, the Stranger Things sync caps off a busy year for the Texan noise-rockers. In May they released Live At The Leatherfly (its AI slop album cover is perhaps on brand) and in September they reunited for a surprise first performance in eight years at the premiere of Tom Stern's new documentary about them, The Hole Truth And Nothing Butt. (I also saw S.G. Goodman salute their previous brush with the mainstream, 1996's "Pepper," with an awesome cover at Newport Folk Festival over the summer.)
So it's possible "Human Cannonball" could have a moment, even if Butthole Subredditors have mixed feelings about it. But based on Robin's dialogue quoted above, could an even higher profile '80s college rock needle drop (i.e., the Replacements) be coming in the finale?
Wolfhard, who will make his SNL debut next month, is a big 'Mats head in real life. He's accurately identified Paul Westerberg as "one of the greatest songwriters of all time" and a few months ago we learned the Sharp Pins collaborator is adapting Bob Mehr's essential 2016 biography Trouble Boys for a feature film. Mehr has credited Wolfhard's Stranger Things castmate Winona Ryder with bringing him and Wolfhard together. She’s said the Replacements are her favorite band of all time.
Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer recently told Entertainment Weekly that they're especially proud of a song placement in the final episode — a track that's never been licensed for a TV show before. "I think because of Kate Bush we were able to get the rights," Matt said. "Under normal circumstances, they would not have allowed us to get the rights."
Even if you don't watch Stranger Things, you know the show was responsible for a Kate Bush revival in 2022. "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" became the English art-pop icon's first US Top 40 hit after it was used as Max's (Sadie Sink) favorite song in Season 4. The track reached #3 on the Hot 100 in 2022, 37 years after its release.
"Huge congratulations to the wonderful Duffer Bros for their latest series of Stranger Things," Bush posted on her website just yesterday. The song played at the beginning of this most recent episode, too, so she has reason to keep celebrating. She continued:
Bravo! It’s absolutely fantastic! You can see the enormous amount of craft and hard work that’s gone into every episode. It feels like every character is getting the chance to shine and the whole look of this series is stunning with just incredible visual effects. I feel so, so privileged and honoured that RUTH has been chosen as Max’s totem. I can’t wait to find out where it all goes.
Stranger Things concludes on New Year's Eve so we'll find out then if the world gets saved by a Butthole Surfers song or a Replacement song (that wasn't already licensed for The Bear), and if Barb comes back to life.
On streaming services today the official Stranger Things Season 5 soundtrack was expanded with "Human Cannonball," and the song will be on the CD, vinyl, and cassette editions out Jan. 30 via Legacy Recordings.
Unfortunately we may need a Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) spin-off for the Fall to get their flowers.
Speaking of t-shirts... Robin is wearing a Tom Waits shirt, Winona-style, in that Butthole Surfers scene.
"Pussy Palace" notwithstanding, I like Jim's shirt too:
