Sister Teresa
The passing of the Butthole Surfers drummer ends our slacker era
Even before the gross projections and the topless dancer and the fiery cymbals, when they were just a band with no special effects, the Butthole Surfers were mind-blowing. And that was because of the drums.
King Coffey and Teresa Taylor’s claim that they were brother and sister became true when they stood next to each other onstage and pounded out that tribal beat that stirred such strangeness from Paul Leary’s guitar. It was like the drum corps found the ritalin. They played like the rest of the band wasn’t there, so lost in the rhythm. And so you in the audience would join the expedition.
The Butthole Surfers were basically homeless for a couple years in the mid-’80s, perpetually on tour. It was four or five dudes and a dog and Teresa living out of their van. A girl could take only so much! When she finally took a break of about a year, the band wasn’t the same. King was now sitting at his kit (and playing his ass off), and the deranged visuals were taking over.
She did rejoin the Surfers, playing on Locust Abortion Technician (1987) and Hairway to Steven, her 1988 finale with the band. In 1990, having recovered from brain surgery for an anyreurism, Teresa was a standout in Rick Linklater’s Slacker (she’s the Madonna pap smear pusher).
Teresa had brain surgery for an anyeurism in 1993, and passed away thirty years later-June 18, 2023- from lung disease at age 60. She rated the lead obit in the New York Times.
RIP Teresa. You are missed.