BUTTHOLE SURFERS *finally* release the mythical “AFTER THE ASTRONAUT”

Never before released, the mythical, shelved album comes at a pivotal time for the band. Coupled with a complementary and equally-celebrated music documentary The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt, Butthole Surfers are enjoying a renewed rearview-mirror focus. Originally planned as the follow-up to their unexpected mainstream breakthrough Electric Larryland which spawned a chart-topping single “Pepper,” After the Astronaut didn’t make it past the advance-cassette-to-sent-journalists phase before being pulled off the release schedule for not being more like that hit.

“We were pretty stoked to make another album after the success of our previous album and ‘Pepper’,” recalls guitarist Paul Leary. “Capitol Records was stoked to get that next record… until our relationship soured.” After some legal wrangling, Butthole Surfers were released from the major label’s roster and their contract was sold. “Hollywood Records bought the album but wanted to make changes to it which was an uncomfortable experience for us,” he notes (the reconfigured and reworked album was eventually released as Weird Revolution in 2001). “Now we have the right to release the original recording the way we intended it to be with its original title, After The Astronaut.”

With three singles released, “Jet Fighter,” “Imbuya,” and “Intelligent Guy” (which put the band back on radio charts at #3 on the SubModern format), After the Astronaut is being showered with new accolades. NPR affiliate KXT says, “The 12-track effort sounds as arresting and ferocious as it must have in the late 1990s — songs like ‘Jet Fighter,’ ‘Venus’ and ‘Imbuya’ throb with a bristling creative anarchy.” Far Out Magazine hails, “Wielding hip-hop shuffle, sampling psych and teeming electronic gurgle, After the Astronaut points to where the Butthole Surfers could have artistically headed, while also serving as a fitting close to their chaotic waver between the punk underground and pop mainstream.” SoundSphere adds, “Built around Paul Leary’s jagged guitar work, King Coffey’s mechanical drum programming and Gibby Haynes’ surreal stream-of-consciousness lyricism, [After the Astronaut] feels as unhinged and unpredictable as ever.”

Butthole Surfers (hi-res)

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). After the Astronaut is finally out now June 26, 2026 via Sunset Blvd. and features with original art by Paul Leary and Gibby Haynes.