Upcoming Album AFTER THE ASTRONAUT
Out June 26, 2026 via Sunset Blvd.
“If you listen to early Nirvana stuff, that kind of chaos came from [Kurt Cobain]’s love of the Butthole Surfers.” – Dave Grohl, Nirvana/Foo Fighters
“Butthole Surfers created this sonic visual world that you went into and it was completely absorbing. I remember being hypnotized and lost in it.”- Flea, Red Hot Chili Peppers
“There is a kind of before and after when you wander into a Butthole Surfers show. That is a changing point in your life. It’s like holy f***.” – Richard Linklater, director
MAY 19, 2026 [New York, NY] — “We are not and never were in the business of being intelligent,” laughs guitarist Paul Leary of psychedelic post-punk sonic terrorists BUTTHOLE SURFERS about their ironically named single “INTELLIGENT GUY” from their upcoming album AFTER THE ASTRONAUT, which comes out on June 26, 2026viaSunset Blvd. The third single released from the album that was originally recorded back in 1998 as the follow-up to their 1996 mainstream breakthrough album Electric Larryland but shelved by the label… until now, “Intelligent Guy” pits Leary’s searing guitar against King Coffey’s syncopated drum programming while Gibby Haynes delivers his trademark surreal yet oddly poetic lyrics (Now I’m not the world’s most incredible man / I never can quite seem to understand / If it weren’t for all the people I’d be all alone).
The follow-up to previous singles “Jet Fighter” and “Imbuya,”“Intelligent Guy” is accompanied by a fever dream of a video, filled with aliens, cellular-dividing fetuses, grotesque landscapes, muscular babies, and dinosaurs being ridden by clowns playing guitar.
VIDEO DIRECTOR, RON ENGLISH:
The first time I ever heard the name Butthole Surfers was when Daniel Johnston burst into our co-op house at four in the morning shouting, “Wake up! Wake up! Everybody wake up! The Butthole Surfers need acid!”
So when eight women from the house decided to go see this band called The Butthole Surfers, I agreed to tag along. I even let the girls doll me up in makeup, a bouffant hairdo, and a nice dress because, somehow, it seemed appropriate for the occasion. We had no idea what we were walking into. We only knew people were saying insane things about this band and we wanted to make sure we looked worthy of the experience.
The chaos of the show was already spilling into the parking lot. The doorman seemed too overwhelmed to notice I was smuggling a gallon of wine under my dress.
From the first note, the band was electrifying. At first, they seemed like a typical Texas punk band, but that illusion quickly dissolved into a surrealist tent-revival sideshow. The band tore through pro-wrestling power chords while the shamanic lead singer summoned lyrics out of the smoky ether of the club. The music was nicely illustrated with a backdrop of flickering autopsy films, completing the hallucination. I need to remember to thank Daniel Johnston.
Many years later, I was tapped to do a video. Fuck yes!
Emerging from the 1980s hardcore scene, Butthole Surfers was formed by Haynes and Leary while in college in San Antonio, Texas. Bonding over a shared distaste for mainstream music, Butthole Surfers traipsed through the music industry, always in the fringes. Championed by Dead Kennedys, Nirvana, and Orbital and compatriots of Scratch Acid, Flipper and Big Black, they remained a fixture in the music scene’s counterculture. In a moment of mainstream acceptance (they scored a #1 Modern Rock Hit with “Pepper”), the band always embraced the obtuse and the obstinate. Though the band has never quite broken up, their legacy still inspires other acts, including Gwar, Flaming Lips, Jane’s Addiction, White Zombie, Monster Magnet, Primus and dozens more.
Butthole Surfers on After The Astronaut is Gibby Haynes (vocals, synths), Paul Leary (lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboards), and King Coffey (drum machines). After the Astronaut was produced by Paul Leary, engineered by Stuart Sullivan (Meat Puppets, Sublime) at Arlyn Recording Studio, mixed by Paul Leary at Preacher Mon Studio, and mastered by Howie Weinberg (Herbie Hancock, Beastie Boys, Nirvana). It will be released on June 26, 2026 via Sunset Blvd. with original art by Paul Leary and Gibby Haynes.
“INTELLIGENT GUY”
I’m not the world’s most intelligent guy
Sometimes I just sit, and wonder why
It takes a lot of money and a telephone
Rock me baby, rock me baby, all night long
[Chorus]
Bake us and we will not burn
Kill us and we will return
Shake us and we will not shock
Shock us and we’ll fucking rock
I’m not the world’s most incredible man
But I just can’t seem to understand
If it weren’t for all the people I’d be all alone
Rock me baby, rock me baby, all night long
[Chorus]
They were doing what I was doing while lightning hit the street
A bar of soap, a pint of scope was all they’d had to eat
Looky there, some macaroni, it happened to his hair
He had a shirt, but it was hurt, and sadness filled the air
Now I’m not the world’s most incredible man
I never can quite seem to understand
If it weren’t for all the people I’d be all alone
Rock me baby, rock me baby, all night long
It takes a lot of money, then you teach them how to talk
Come on pretty baby, rock rock rock!
Yeah
AFTER THE ASTRONAUT
Track Listing Side A
01 – Weird Revolution
02 – Intelligent Guy
03 – Jet Fighter
04 – Mexico
05 – Imbuya
06 – Venus
Side B
07 – The Last Astronaut
08 – Yentel
09 – Junkie Jenny in Gaytown
10- They Came In
11- I Don’t Have a Problem
12 – Turkey and Dressing
Music Matters Magazine 