Revisiting the Butthole Surfers - Paul Leary

Send us Fan MailThis week on the podcast Paul Leary, guitarist for the Butthole Surfers stops by the show to discuss the release of After the Astronaut (Out Today), revisiting the archives, the documentary and more. *****In 1998, when BUTTHOLE SURFERS followed up their 1996 mainstream breakthrough Electric Larryland with their next record entitled AFTER THE ASTRONAUT, the major label they were signed to at the time pulled it from their release schedule at the last minute. Their reasoning? They wanted a more “commercial” record. Had that label known Butthole Surfers’ oeuvre better, they probably shouldn’t have expected another “Pepper” (their #1 Billboard Modern Rock from 1996). Instead, After the Astronaut was shelved… until now when Sunset Blvd. releases that mythic and much-discussed follow-up on June 26, 2026. “We were pretty stoked to make another album after the success of our previous album and its single ‘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.”Reacting to the grunge/altrock sludge that was populating the airwaves, Leary, drummer King Coffey and vocalist Gibby Haynes pulled away from the style that was surfacing and, instead, submerged their creativity deeper into electronics, industrial beats, acid grooves, and other synthesized sci-fi sounds. “After the Astronaut was a fun project," says Coffey. "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."  Kicking off with Haynes’ spoken word intro where he announces “I stand as a messenger of strangeness this evening in order to impress upon or at least to instruct the honorable musicians as to the methods and motives of the truly bizarre reality,” “Weird Revolution launches into a trippy and psychedelic cacophony of distorted guitar and beat-heavy rhythms that sets the tone for the record. The syncopated vocals of “Intelligent Guy” veers into proto-industrial synth grunge territory, grimy and dirty with a pulsating, mechanized beat. First single “Jet Fighter” finds the band in a surf-punk mood, exploring lo-fi dadaist psych rock filtered through a thrift store PA system, which originated, as Leary remembers, “when I purchased a 12-string electric guitar and wanted to play it.” It’s the unnatural progression of the anti-mainstream pop song that fit perfectly in the oddball late ‘90s aesthetic. An anti-war protest song that, while originally written decades ago, echoes a sentiment that can be applied today, Gibby sings about Mikey who enlisted in the military and “He got into the cockpit and rose up in the sky / Set his sights on Beirut and he let his missiles fly / Boom, Boom!”The textural and moodily cinematic “I Don’t Have A Problem” is an exercise in layering, with distorted voices weaving in and out of textured fuzz, guitar feedback, and other subterranean and unnerving sounds, which unsurprisingly is Leary’s favorite song on the album. “King showed up to the studio one day with a device that could listen in on other people’s cell phone conversations,” Leary laughs. “We set it up to record and turned it on.  Right out of the gate this guy is talking about girls with ‘knives and daggers.’ We turned it into the song ‘I Don’t Have a Problem’.” 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.*****If you would like to contact the show [email protected] us on Social MediaYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriberInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedomSupport the podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.NeedomSupport the show