In 1996, the Butthole Surfers hit the big time. For years, they'd been known as the biggest freaks on the American underground rock circuit, and this was during a time when the American underground rock circuit was not exactly light on freaks. (The Replacements were reportedly scared of them.) After their long rampage, the Buttholes signed a major label deal and scored a freak radio hit with "Pepper," an extremely atypical song from that band. "Pepper" topped the Billboard Modern Rock chart, and their album Electric Larryland went gold. You'd think that the Buttholes would've had license to do whatever they wanted after that. You'd be wrong.
The Butthole Surfers intended to follow Electric Larryland with a 1998 album called After The Astronaut. The album was fully finished, with artwork and everything, and the band even sent advances out to the press, but Capitol Records canceled its release. The band got a new deal with the Disney-affiliated label Hollywood, and the re-recorded their After The Astronaut songs for a 2001 album that came out under the title Weird Revolution. It fucking sucks. Lead single "The Shame Of Life" had a hook that Kid Rock wrote for the band. It was a mess. They haven't released another album since.
The Butthole Surfers are on a bit of a cultural upswing now. They're the subject of a new documentary called The Hole Truth And Nothing Butt, and they gave their first performance in eight years at a film festival where it screened. They also got a needledrop on one of the last Stranger Things episodes. Now, they're announcing plans to finally release After The Astronaut as it was originally intended.
In a press release, guitarist Paul Leary says, "Hollywood Records bought the album but wanted to make changes to it, which was an uncomfortable experience for us." Drummer King Coffey clams that original vision for the LP was different:
After the Astronaut was a fun project. 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.
Along with the album announcement, the Butthole Surfers have shared the eye-bleeding Jeffrey Garcia-directed video for "Jet Fighter," a psychedelic trip-hop single that sounded pretty different in its Weird Revolution form. Check it out below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Weird Revolution"
02 "Intelligent Guy"
03 "Jet Fighter"
04 "Mexico"
05 "Imbuya"
06 "Venus"
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"
After The Astronaut is out 6/26 on Sunset Blvd.
