The Butthole Surfers are about to go back into the studio to record their ninth album. The Austin-based band has not released anything since 2001's Weird Revolution.

According to the Austin Chronicle, the news was off-handedly broken by engineer-producer Stuart Sullivan at a recent meeting of the city's music commission. He mentioned that he was about to go into the studio with them. Guitarist Paul Leary subsequently confirmed their plans and Sullivan's involvement, although Leary didn't provide any other details regarding the new work.

In the past few years, Leary and Butthole Surfers bassist Jeff Pinkus have worked with the Melvins, contributing to 2014's Hold It In. Pinkus also played on one track of their Basses Loaded record in 2016.

Despite the 16-year gap between albums, the band has never broken up. But Leary's reluctance to go on the road may be a reason why they've kept a low profile of late. “I just don’t want to play live anymore,” Leary told the A.V. Club in 2016. “It’s not fun, I don’t like touring. That hour on stage is a whole lot of fun, but the other 23 hours off stage just f---ing suck.”

However, they ended a three-year hiatus towards the end of last year when they played the Day for Night Festival in Houston. They were expected to perform at the Safe as Milk Festival in Wales this past April -- the only date on their calendar for this year -- but it was cancelled due to low ticket sales.

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