“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 26th, 2026 via Sunset 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.
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 26th, 2026 via Sunset Blvd. with original art by Paul Leary and Gibby Haynes.