This is Primus.
They have been dropping consistently skewed anti-pop since 1998. The lineup has been relatively stable, with just a few rotating drummers throughout the years. To say the band has an ‘eclectic’ sound is an understatement. Mostly due to the dynamic charisma of frontman bassist and vocalist, Les Claypool. He doesn’t so much as sing, as pitch the listener tales of demented debauchery like a snake oil salesman at a side-show carnival. And he doesn’t so much play bass, as he much as he slaps, bounces, and can-noodles an aggressive funky low end unlike any other. Props to the snake-y frolics and moshable guitar antics of Larry ‘Ler’ LaLond backed by the snappy quick percussion of Tim ‘Herb’ Alexander… but this is a Claypool inspired madness.
No other band sounds like Primus, and no other band even tries to because they are that fucking clever. True story.
2017 will see the release of their ninth full length album, as always cryptically named, “The Desaturating Seven” with the classic lineup.
Frontman Les Claypool got his inspiration from a bizarre 1978 book “The Rainbow Goblins”, which Claypool’s wife introduced him to many years ago.
“I remember being incredibly impressed with the artwork and the storyline and the content and the message, and I thought, ‘Wow, this would make a great piece of music,’” Claypool recently told Rolling Stone. “As I’m getting older, I’m realizing I need to start knocking some of these things off my list. So we did the Willy Wonka soundtrack a couple years back, and this was a project I wanted to do.”
Claypool adds, “I would look at the artwork and read the lyrics, and it’s very difficult to sing about goblins and rainbows and not have it come off being a little cornball. So I was tiptoeing the line of not necessarily being literal, but referring to elements of the story and using it more as a metaphor, when I could.”
An audio single entitled, ‘The Seven’ has been leaked for consumption.
Primus is still WAY Primus, and that is one of the few musical certainties this cruel world has to offer.
Presenting a Primus primer of prime Primus pieces…
