These Ohio pranksters actually began their wild ride as wee lads, clear back in 1986. Owing to licensing restrictions for unauthorized samples, a good two-thirds of their material, if not more, remains unreleased to this day. Despite at one point taking an eleven year gap between studio albums, they have in fact been remarkably prolific when their career is taken as a whole:
1986 Goofy Guys
1987 Goofy Guys II
1991 The Flush
Hot Curly French Fry
Paint It Green (compilation)
1992 Reent-Toont-Teent-Toont-Tee-Noo-Nee (EP)
Pigfart
Jubapa Splat
1993 Countdown To Smell
Kirk Gibson (EP)
1994 The Lakesiders (EP)
Goofy Guys III (2 CD) (compilation)
The Montanya Brief
1996 Table Manners (2 CD)
1997 Goofy Guys (4 CD)
2002 The President Is Missing (rarities)
2004 Why But Of Chaos (2 CD) (compilation)
Though limited edition copies do exist on disc, this collection waited ten years (2014) for a digital release, albeit in much smaller form – only 18 of the original 37 tracks. Owing to uncleared samples and rights to parodies of popular songs, the band spent ten years battling for just this much, but what’s available is definitely worth seeking out.
2008 Butcher’s Premium: Chop House Originals
2010 Early To Mid Late Classics (compilation)
Roughly speaking, their career can be split into four distinct phases. In the early years, banging around on the equivalent of pots and pans and recording themselves on a boombox, drastically different lineups completed the first two albums (Doom J Warrior being the only constant member on both) before taking a long hiatus. In 1991, with founding member XT Force returning and a new recruit, Quigley G brought into the mix, they entered their most steadily productive era, one that, like a low budget Beastie Boys, focused on lifted samples and amateurish rhymes with very little live original music, despite, if nothing else, Quigley’s chops on numerous instruments. Beginning in late ’93, however, the group initially struggled to survive his loss of input, as he was fired under mysterious circumstances, and the band also suffered during this period two separate episodes of Doom J quitting, and the death of Dustin Bones, who had been with them since Goofy Guys II.
Somewhere around mid ’95 they did hit their stride again, with the remaining trio of XT, Doom J, and Weezy now playing a great deal of the material themselves, moving more in an indie rock direction and away from the crude clownishness of their earlier offerings. Finally, after another extended break, during which the three members confess they may not have picked up an instrument once, Quigley G was reinstated in February of 2001 at the urging of XT Force, and the two of them began compiling a monolithic tower of material with sizable contributions by the other two and their first new addition in more than a decade, the slightly older troubadour Agent Nazi 1. For three years solid they recorded pretty much nonstop, and though just one studio effort has thus far emerged (mostly because, as XT confesses, they became overwhelmed and paralyzed by this mountain of tape), they have continued working steadily ever since. A few stray tracks have emerged here and there, and it’s believed that a 2020 release date is likely for their next full length magnum opus.
“We’re about 50% finished with the next record,” XT jokes, “then again, that’s exactly where we were ten years ago.”
Be sure to track their progress in all these key places:
Goofy Guys Pandora station
Goofy Guys Apple Music page
They have also been frequent contributors to our compilation album series, donating for example their latest single, Retro Avocado, to our 2019 disc, Chill Before Serving.