"I have a very difficult time describing my music."
—Les Claypool, Primus
Influences:
Influenced:
Primus is a cult favourite band from El Sobrante, California.
Primus were formed in 1984 by bassist and vocalist Les Claypool, who has always remained the driving force behind the band. The first incarnation of the band included Todd Huth on guitar and Jay Lane (the most notable of a large number in the chair) on drums, and recorded absolutely bugger all. note The second incarnation was more successful, containing guitarist Larry "Ler" LaLonde and drummer Tim "Herb" Alexander. Alexander left in 1996, dissatisfied with the direction the band was taking, and was replaced with Bryan "Brain" Mantia, who played on The Brown Album and Antipop.
The band went on hiatus in 2000, but then reunited in 2003 with the classic Claypool/LaLonde/Alexander lineup, recording a few new songs for the EP Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People. However, in 2010, Alexander left the band once again and was replaced by Jay Lane, his return to the fold seeing the release of 2011's Green Naugahyde. note Alexander came back in 2013 though for an all new album, Primus & the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble a re-imaging of the soundtrack of the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. This line-up continues with 2017's album The Desaturating Seven, inspired by the children's book The Rainbow Goblins, written by Italian author Ul de Rico.
Primus' music is incredibly hard to describe, to the point that it is the only band to have its own ID3 tag in Winampnote . Les Claypool jokingly suggested calling the band "psychedelic polka", and is very adamant that Primus is not a Funk Metal band, saying that he is the only member of the group who was influenced by Funk. Primus's main influences include The Residents, Frank Zappa and Rush. Additionally, their initial fans came from the Bay Area Thrash scene due to opening gigs for Testament and Exodus, among others, and Larry LaLonde was previously in seminal Thrash Metal bands Possessed and Blind Illusion, the latter of which also included Claypool.
The dominant songwriter and Most Valuable Player is Les Claypool, he of the incredible bass talent and silly voice. For this reason, Primus subvert the general alignment of Heavy Metal and Rock bands, having the bass as the lead instrument and the guitar on the backseat. Larry himself generally complements Les' riffs with distorted noise and going on atonal tangents, but can bash out a heavy metal riff in lockstep if it's required. Alexander and Mantia generally both play incredibly complicated drum patterns that anchor the songs, acting as the Mitch Mitchell or Keith Moon of the band.
You probably know them as the band who made the South Park Theme Song, while lead singer Les Claypool is known for doing the theme (And the "IT'S ALIIIIVE" scream) from Robot Chicken.
Les Claypool holds the distinction of being the only bassist to ever audition for Metallica and be turned down because he was too good, according to James Hetfield. note His style also didn't match the band, as he jokingly asked the others after his audition to "jam on some Isley Brothers tunes".
Primus landed in a bizarre, one-sided feud with Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum in 1995, due to their absurdist single "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver". Les went to great lengths to point out that the song is not, emphasis not, about Winona Ryder - the spelling and pronunciation are different, not to mention the fact that the lyrics make no sense. Ryder didn't mind, but her boyfriend Pirner did, and even renamed one of his songs "Les Claypool's a Big Fucking Asshole" in concert. The correct title should have been "Dave Pirner Doesn't Know What the Hell He's Talking About".
Band members:
- Les Claypool - bass, vocals (1984-2000, 2003-present)
- Larry "Ler" LaLonde - guitar, backing vocals, synthesizer (1989-2000, 2003-present)
- Tim "Herb" Alexander - drums (1989-1996, 2003-2010, 2013-Present)
- Bryan "Brain" Mantia - drums (1996-2000)
- Jay Lane - drums, backing vocals (1988-1989, 2010-2013)
- Todd Huth - guitar (1984-1989)
- Vince "Perm" Parker – drums (1984)
- Peter Libby – drums (1984–1987)
- Robbie Bean – drums (1987–1988)
- Tim "Curveball" Wright – drums (1988)
Albums:
- 1989 - Suck on This (live album)
- 1990 - Frizzle Fry
- 1991 - Sailing the Seas of Cheese (first album released on a major label, breakout success)
- 1992 - Miscellaneous Debris EP (cover album)
- 1993 - Pork Soda (their highest charting album, thanks to the single "My Name is Mud")
- 1995 - Tales from the Punchbowl
- 1997 - Brown Album
- 1998 - Rhinoplasty EP (another cover album)
- 1999 - Antipop
- 2003 - Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People EP
- 2006 - They Can't All Be Zingers (Greatest Hits Album)
- 2010 - June 2010 Rehearsal EP (free EP featuring rehearsed versions of existing tracks)
- 2011 - Green Naugahyde
- 2014 - Primus & The Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble (Their tribute to the Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory soundtrack)
- 2017 - The Desaturating Seven
- 2022 - Conspiranoid EP
Not to be confused with the God/Ancestor/Homeworld of the Transformers, who has the same name.
Tropes employed by Primus:
- Alliterative Name: Larry "Ler" LaLonde.
- Alternative Metal: The Trope Codifier
- Ate His Gun: The fate of the man in "Coattails of a Dead Man."
- Author Avatar: Les Claypool is a fly fisherman, and Primus has a series of songs called "The Fisherman Chronicles."
- Ballad of X: "Ballad of Bodacious" on Antipop, a song about one of the most feared rodeo bulls in the history of the sport.
- Batter Up!: "My Name Is Mud"We had our words, a common spat; So I kissed him upside the cranium with an aluminum baseball bat..
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Arguably their schtick - they're probably the weirdest, least serious band in the universe... but every member, particularly Les are musicians that are so skilled that they basically redefine their respective instruments.
- Book Ends: "Hello Wonkites" and "Farewell Wonkites", the respective opening and closing tracks from ''Primus and the Chocolate Factory" both feature a slurred, ethereal guitar cover of "Pure Imagination"'s melody, with a deep, sharp bass pedal note in the background. The biggest difference, however, comes in the below Last Note Nightmare example.
- Butt-Monkey: Basically Herb's job in their music videos. "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver" sees him triply humilated: he's the only one who can't shoot a bottle off a fence (even at point-blank), he has an utterly garbage hand when they play poker (Les and Ler both have five aces), and at the end Ler shoots his hat off.
- The Cameo: Tom Waits plays the titular character in "Tommy the Cat", and Claypool's grandfather plays the live-action Tommy in the music video.
- Catchphrase: The sentence "Primus Sucks", a reference to Les Claypool introducing the band saying "We are Primus and we suck" in early concerts, and meaning something along the lines of "Primus rocks" seems to have become this for the fans, even though its use is kind of controversial.
- Charlie and the Chocolate Parody: Primus & the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble is an Cover Album filled entirely with songs from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
- Circus of Fear: The music video for "Mr. Krinkle
" has this going on in the background while Les (in a pig mask and dark green fat tuxedo) is playing an upright double bass in the foreground. However, it's kind of downplayed in a sense that the background circus parade isn't really "evil", just really weird. - Companion Cube: "Mary the Ice Cube"
- The Cover Changes the Meaning: Willy Wonka's "Candyman" becomes a threatening LSD trip through... something...
- Cover Version:
- "Hello Skinny", "Constantinople" and "Sinister Exaggerator" by The Residents, "The Thing That Should Not Be" by Metallica, "Behind My Camel" by The Police, "Making Plans for Nigel" and "Scissor Man" by XTC, "Intruder" and "The Family and the Fishing Net" by Peter Gabriel, "Tippi-Toes" by The Meters, "Have a Cigar" by Pink Floyd, "Silly Putty" by Stanley Clarke, "Amos Moses" by Jerry Reed.
- The band played the intro of "Master of Puppets" live, and the intro from "YYZ" by Rush at the beginning of "John the Fisherman" on Suck on This and "To Defy the Laws of Tradition" on Frizzle Fry.
- Their cover of "N.I.B." by Black Sabbath has Ozzy Osbourne himself on lead vocals. Perhaps because of this, its their biggest rock radio hit, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart.
- Curse Cut Short: "The Air Is Getting Slippery" has the word "fuck" replaced by "Forgive me if I hesitate", until the very last line. And even then, in the studio version, "fuck" is snuffed out by a Sound-Effect Bleep of a smashed bottle.
- Darker and Edgier: Pork Soda - the music is somewhat heavier than on Frizzle Fry and Sailing the Seas of Cheese, and it also features "Bob", one of the band's few entirely serious songs.
- Double Entendre: Subverted for "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver" - the title explicitly sounds like a double entendre, but when put in context, the lyrics make so little sense that it might as well not be.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: "Sgt. Baker".
- Driven to Suicide:
- "Bob", where Les sings about his friend who "hung himself in the doorway of the apartment where he lived."
- The male protagonist of "Coattails of a Dead Man". Some fans believe that the song was written about Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love.
- Drugs Are Bad: "Lacquer Head"
- Ensemble Dark Horse: An in-universe example serves as the title subject of "Lee Van Cleef". One part of Claypool reminiscing about his youth is how he and his friends watched a lot of Western movies. Everyone "really loved watching Clint", but he preferred the less well-known contributions from the song's title character.
- Epic Rocking: "To Defy the Laws of Tradition", "Frizzle Fry", "Harold of the Rocks", "Fish On (Fisherman Chronicles, Chapter II)", "Hamburger Train", "Professor Nutbutter's House of Treats", "Southbound Pachyderm", "Over the Electric Grapevine", "Eclectic Electric," "Conspiranoia."
- Evil Laugh: The infamously-creepy tunnel scene in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is covered in an even more nightmarish fashion by Primus in the form of "Semi-Wondrous Boat Ride", with an Evil Laugh replacing Wonka's maniacal scream after the poem.
- Fake-Out Opening: "To Defy The Laws Of Tradition" functions as this for both Frizzle Fry and the They Can't All Be Zingers compilation. It starts with the same cymbal riff of "YYZ" that opens Primus' debut album, Suck On This, before suddenly Letting the Air out of the Band and beginning the real track.
- First-Person Smartass/Private Eye Monologue: parodied in "Tommy the Cat", where it's performed by Tom Waits.
- Funk Metal: Often categorized as this, but disputed by Les Claypool, who said that he was the only member of the band influenced by Funk and that he didn't think Primus was particularly funky.
- Genre-Busting: They're the only band with their own ID3 tag in Winamp. Les Claypool jokingly referred to their sound as "Psychedelic Polka". This is what you get when you take a bassist who was into Jazz Fusion, Progressive Rock, and Funk who also loved The Residents, a guitarist who played in Thrash Metal bands but was also obsessed with Frank Zappa, and a Jazz drummer (Jay Lane) who was later replaced by another jazz drummer who was also heavily into African folk (Tim Alexander).
- Referenced in "Mr. Krinkle":
"Hey ho Mr. Krinkle have you heard the brand new sound
It's a cross between Jimi Hendrix, Bocephus, Cher and James Brown
It's called "Heavy Hometown" New Wave, cold-filtered, low-calorie dry" - Hidden Depths: In the sea of supposedly wacky, off-kilter novelty songs you'll find topics like war ("Too Many Puppies", "Sgt. Baker"), suicide ("Bob"), student abuse / mental illness ("Mrs. Blaileen"), the environment ("Southbound Pachyderm"), murder ("My Name Is Mud"), substance abuse ("Laquer Head", "Jilly's on Smack"), and immigrants trying to make it in America only to end up destitute ("American Life").
- "Ding Dang" by spin-off band Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade is about hateful slurs and how they negatively affect people.
- Hidden Track: Antipop is their only album to have one - A new studio version of "The Heckler", which previously could only be heard live on Suck On This, was hidden after "Coattails Of A Dead Man".
- Iconic Item:
- Les wears goggles or sunglasses a lot. And hats. Lots and lots of hats.
- Once he started his solo career, he developed a thing for masks.
- Being Les, obviously all of his basses are incredibly odd, and iconic, the most famous ones being his Carl Thompson four-string, his favorite bass, as well as the mind-bogglingly bizarre "Rainbow Bass" - a six string, fretless (!) bass made from a rainbow of exotic wood types, his bizarre one-string "whamola", and more recently, his Pachyderm basses, which look kind of like a Dr. Seuss nightmare.
- Indecipherable Lyrics: "Pork Soda" (the title track of said album) consists of this is ranting form. The CD's liner notes omit the lyrics to this song, and barring the A Cappella chorus they are completely unintelligible - if one looks them up on any lyrics site, only the first few lines of each verse is written down, and even then they make no sense.
- In Name Only: Despite appearing on Frizzle Fry, "You Can't Kill Michael Malloy" is a keyboard instrumental not written or performed by Primus - it's an edited version of a song of the same name by The Spent Poets. Spent Poets member Adam Gates did the artwork for the album and is credited for the song.
- Last Note Nightmare: "Farewell Wonkites" off Primus and the Chocolate Factory is primarily stuff one has already heard before from the album's opening track, "Hello Wonkites". However, the final minute of the track is nothing but Les Claypool shakily singing "Pure Imagination" as if having an emotional breakdown, while Larry imitates a passing emergency siren on his guitar. Also counts as a Last Track Nightmare, as it's the last thing you hear on the album.
- "Hail Santa", the unsettling instrumental epilogue that closes Pork Soda after a reprise of the opening track.
- Last of His Kind: "Last Salmon Man" on Green Naugahyde tells the sad story of Jimmy MacDonagal, a third generation fisherman who still continues to trawl Bodega Bay commercially for salmon long after the other fleets have left, due to a deathbed promise he made to his dad. It also doesn't help that after "Three closed seasons and a banknote on his shoulder/Now Jimmy's hidin' from the law."
- Lead Bassist: Les Claypool arguably hits all four types: A) He is very good, B) he is the lead singer, C) He's been in Primus since Day One and is the most well-known member, and D) The bass, not the guitar, is central to the sound of Primus.
- Let's Meet the Meat: One possible interpretation of "Shake Hands With Beef", the other being masturbation. Les says it was the catchphrase of a vegetarian friend of theirs who'd occasionally eat meat.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: Happens at the start of Frizzle Fry with "To Defy The Laws Of Tradition", which opens with the same cymbal opening of the "YYZ" quotation that opens Suck On This, before suddenly dropping out and starting the real track.
- Long-Runner Line-up: As you can see up there, it is sort of a Revolving Door Band where only Les never left, but the Les-Ler-Herb line-up always lasts at least 7 years in each stint together.
- Loudness War: Brown Album was one of the first albums to prominently feature clipping drums.
- Lower-Class Lout: As per Les, both the protagonist of "My Name Is Mud" and his victim are meth-addled trashy losers who were hanging out and got into a fight that ended with the protagonist killing his friend in a drugged-out rage.
- Lyrical Cold Open: "Mr. Knowitall", "Mrs. Blaileen"
- Medium Blending:
- There's a fondness to blend live action with stop-motion animation in Primus videos, such as "Jerry Was A Race Car Driver" and "Southbound Pachyderm".
- Or more traditional animation in "John The Fisherman" and "Tommy the Cat".
- Mood Whiplash: Their cover of "Golden Ticket" starts off slow and sombre, before suddenly kicking into a "Welcome To This World"-esque triple-time shuffle.
- Similarly, much like the scene in the film it is based on, the ending of "Semi-Wondrous Boat Ride".
- Motor Mouth: Les on "Is It Luck?", and Tom Waits on "Tommy the Cat", and he still has no idea how he managed to sing that fast.
- Mundane Made Awesome: From "Nature Boy":"I pull the blinds, fill out my income tax form, pen in hand, I write so legiblyyyyy..."
- Murder Ballad: "My Name Is Mud"."The breath on that fat bastard could bring any man to tears
We had our words, a common spat
So I kissed him upside the cranium with an aluminum baseball bat" - No Celebrities Were Harmed: "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver" is NOT about Winona Ryder, as Winona's then-boyfriend Dave Pirner mistakenly believed. It led Dave to announce at a Soul Asylum concert, "This next song's called 'Les Claypool's A Big Fucking Asshole'."
- Noodle Implements: In "Here Come The Bastards", we're never sure as to why Les Claypool is so fearful of their arrival. His only basis is some second-hand rumours that may or may not involve, "something about a hammerhead shark, nosehairs and flatus".
- Our Product Sucks: Their tagline.
- Place Worse Than Death: "I've been to hell... I spell it D-M-V", from "DMV".
- Progressive Rock: Primus's music is often categorized as this, but a more accurate description would probably be the subgenre Post-Progressive, as aside from their main influences of Progressive Rock artists like Zappa, Rush and King Crimson, Primus has also shown in their Cover Songs a love of Jazz Fusion,note New Wave Music and Post-Punknote and Progressive Country,note demonstrating a wide range of Art Rock influences on their sound.
- Protest Song: "Too Many Puppies" is a humorous attack on the military. A verse mentioning "too many puppies in foreign lands" and another about "maintaining our oil fields" making it seem like it's against the Gulf War, but the album appeared in February 1990 and the war only started in August.
- Record Producer: DIY produced the majority of their records; co-produced Frizzle Fry with Matt "Exxon" Winegar and Antipop variously with Tom Morello, Stewart Copeland, Tom Waits, Matt Stone, and Fred Durst. Suck on This was produced by Matt Winegar and Bob Cock.
- Rhyming with Itself: Lampshade in "Mr. Knowitall":"They call me Mr. Knowitall/I am so eloquent/"Perfection" is my middle name/And... whatever rhymes with eloquent"
- Rock Trio: Every lineup of the band consists of only three members, though they've also done shows with DJ Disk and Buckethead.
- Rule of Funny: They live on this, sliding all the way along the Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness.
- Sadist Teacher: "Mrs. Blaileen".
- Sampling:
- Clips of The Young Ones variously saying "Bastard!" in "Los Bastardos"
- The The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 sample of Chop Top saying "Dog will hunt!" in "Jerry Was A Race Car Driver".
- "Where you goin', city boy?!" from Deliverance is used in "My Name Is Mud".
- Self-Deprecation: Their motto/slogan is "Primus sucks." When fans first began to recognize the band on the street, Les' stock response to "you guys rule!" was "no, we really suck", and it mutated on from there. Occasionally fans who aren't in on the joke get offended when someone else says this.
- Sellout : "HOINFODAMAN" from Green Naugahyde.
- Shout-Out:
- The beginning of "To Defy the Laws of Tradition" includes a bit from their previous live album Suck on This, with Alexander playing the intro of Rush's "YYZ" to great audience approval.
- The music video for "Tommy the Cat" looks like The Ren & Stimpy Show. One of the song's melodies sounds like the theme to Fritz the Cat.
- "Mr. Krinkle" is asked "Have you heard the brand new sound? It's equal parts Jimi Hendrix, Bocephus, Cher and James Brown."
- "Lee Van Cleef" is a tribute to the western actor of the same name.
- Sailing The Seas Of Cheese ends with a The Young Ones-quote-laden reprise of "Here Come The Bastards" called "Los Bastardos", as a reference to a similar reprisal track from the Genesis album A Trick of the Tail.
- Step Up to the Microphone: Ler sings lead on "I Want It Now" from "Primus and the Chocolate Factory."
- The Stoner: Les Claypool ain't subtle about where a lot of his... inspiration comes from.
- Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: "The Air is Getting Slippery" does this with setting up a Precision F-Strike, before instantly subverting it into the pre-chorus, "Forgive me if I hesitate". At least until the ending.
- Surreal Music Video: which ones aren't?
- Okay, there's one exception: "DMV", which is mostly a Performance Video interspersed with behind-the-scenes moments and a little stock footage having to do with the lyrics.
- Take That!:
- "Coattails of a Dead Man" has never been really explained by the band, but it's frequently interpreted as being anti-Courtney Love.
- "Year Of The Parrot" is allegedly a veiled swipe at Tori Amos and Adam Duritz, as the lyrics mention 1994 and unnamed artists ripping off Kate Bush and Van Morrison (which the previous two respectively sounded like).
- Sailing the Seas of Cheese was Primus' first major label album, released at a time when hair metal was still dominant on the charts (the album came out six months before Nevermind). Les Claypool was worried about the band making an impression amongst such "cheesy" music, and the title of the album was born.
- They Call Me Mister Know-It-All
- Thrash Metal: Have always had elements of this in their heavier songs, particularly on Frizzle Fry. This could probably be owed to Larry LaLonde's time in Possessed and the time that he and Claypool both spent in Blind Illusion.
- Town with a Dark Secret: "Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers".
- Uncommon Time: "Eleven" is, appropriately enough, primarily played in 11/8. note
- As is "Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread", though accented differently.
- "Here Come The Bastards" is in 5/4.
- War Is Hell: "Too Many Puppies", which talks primarily about New Meat sent to the Middle East to fight a War for Fun and Profit.
- Word Salad Lyrics: Many songs. For example, have you tried making heads or tails of "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver"?
