The Butthole Surfers clown around at a San Antonio kid’s park. Who’d have guessed this band would go on to have a massive hit with “Pepper?” Credit: Pat Blashill
San Antonio-originated psychedelic freak-rock band the Butthole Surfers this summer will release the shelved 1998 album After the Astronaut, originally expected to be the followup to the group’s surprise smash Electric Larryland.
The Buttholes were riding high after their 1996 MTV Hit “Pepper,” which explored a quieter, more radio-friendly kind of chaos. After the newfound success, they intended to return to their experimental roots with After the Astronaut. Although the album was fully finished, Capitol Records canceled its release.
The band later jumped to Disney-affiliated label Hollywood and re-recorded the tracks for a 2001 LP titled Weird Revolution. Among its many — erm — quirks, the release featured a track with a chorus written by Kid Rock (“Shame of Life”).
“Hollywood Records bought the album but wanted to make changes to it, which was an uncomfortable experience for us,” guitarist Paul Leary told Stereogum. Leary met singer Gibby Haynes at Trinity University, and the band operated out of San Antonio for its formative years before relocating to Austin.
Weird Revolution came out to mixed reviews.
“The thin music seems to emanate from a TV you can’t turn off,” Pitchfork wrote at the time. “Each song putters on a weak beat that jangles and blips as if they dumped the ambient sounds of a Midway arcade over some Black Grape outtakes.”
Fans greeted the record with similar ambivalence, and the Butthole Surfers haven’t released a studio album since.
Now, the band is releasing the tracks from After the Astronaut as originally intended. The album will drop June 26 on Sunset Boulevard Records.
“After the Astronaut was a fun project,” Drummer King Coffey told Stereogum. “We were using all the digital toys at our disposal at the time, and it felt much like the creation of Locust Abortion (1987). We were playing with new toys, creating things that amused us with the crayons we had, and we weren’t worried about radio airplay. It felt like we were going back to our experimental roots while still navigating the major label ecosystem.”
To promote the new album, the Butthole Surfers released a music video for single “Jet Fighter,” a psychedelic clip-art fever dream directed by award-winning underground Texas filmmaker Jeffrey Garcia.
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