The Butthole Surfers have a new single and video out for “Intelligent Guy,” the third taste of ‘After The Astronaut’, their long-shelved album originally recorded in 1998 as the follow-up to ‘Electric Larryland’ and held back by the label until now, arriving June 26 via Sunset Blvd. The track puts Paul Leary’s searing guitar against King Coffey’s syncopated drum programming while Gibby Haynes delivers the kind of surreal yet oddly poetic lyrics that have made the band one of the most genuinely singular acts in rock history. The accompanying video, directed by Ron English, delivers aliens, cellular-dividing fetuses, grotesque landscapes, muscular babies, and dinosaurs ridden by clowns playing guitar. English, whose own origin story with the band involves Daniel Johnston bursting into a house at 4am demanding acid on their behalf, brings exactly the right energy to the project. “We are not and never were in the business of being intelligent,” Leary laughs about the song’s title, which tells you everything you need to know about what kind of record this is going to be.


