Primus

views updated May 17 2018

Primus

Rock band

For the Record

Cartoons and Fusion

Suck on This

Signed With Major Label

Selected discography

Sources

The Northern California avant-rock trio Primus provides a shining example for bands who want to succeed on their own terms. Fusing the skittering rhythmic attack of progressive-metal bands like Rush, the groove of funk and hippie rock, and the eccentricity of such experimental artists as Frank Zappa, the Residents, and Captain Beefheart, Primus has followed its own musical calling to large-scale industry success. Fronted by bassist-vocalist Les Claypool, who can produce thousands of bizarre tones on his instrument and almost as many cartoonish characters with his voice, Primus has journeyed from the underground to the headlining spot at the 1993 Lollapalooza music festival, arguably the nations most important alternative rock tour. Joe Gore of Guitar Player cited guitarist Larry Ler LaLondes description of the groups sound as progressive freak-out music; Gore also noted what he called the Primus paradox: if your music is really uncommercial, you can sell a ton of records.

Like LaLonde, Claypool grew up in the northern California town of El Sobrante. I was raised in the land of

For the Record

Members include Tim Herb Alexander (born c. 1965; joined group 1988), drums; Les Claypool (born c. 1964), bass; and Larry Ler LaLonde (born c. 1969; joined group 1989), guitar. Former members include Todd Huth (left group 1989), guitar; and Jay Lane (left group 1988), drums.

Band formed in El Sobrante, CA, 1984; released first album, Suck on This, on self-administered label Prawn Song, 1989; signed with Caroline Records and released Frizzle Fry, 1990; signed with Interscope Records and released Sailing the Seas of Cheese, 1991; appeared in film Bill and Teds Bogus Journey, 1991; headlined Lollapalooza festival, 1993.

Awards: Gold albums for Sailing the Seas of Cheese and Pork Soda, both 1993.

Addresses: Record company Interscope Records, 10900 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 1230, Los Angeles, CA 90024.

Budweiser, he quipped to Rolling Stones Michael Azerrad. Having been raised in a working-class familyhis father and grandfather both worked as mechanicshelped form Claypools worldview but also sharpened his resolve to escape his hometowns oppressive normalcy. I would have blasted out one way or another, he insisted. His mother told Azerrad that Les was a bouncing boy. He used to like to jump in his jumpy chair. I think thats where he got the strength in his legs. I never saw anybody who could jump as well as he did in that jumpy chair.

Cartoons and Fusion

Claypools mother also remembered that her son liked to watch TV a lot. I think thats where he got a lot of ideas. Hed sit there on his little tiny plastic motorcycle that he had and watch cartoons. Les acquired his first bass at age 13; I pulled weeds to pay for it, he told Guitar Player. He recalled to Rolling Stone that he sat in front of the television and noodled after first hearing hard-rock guitarist Ted Nugent.

In the ensuing years, his eclecticism alienated most of the single-minded rock players around him. On the one hand, Claypool worshipped the bassist and leader of RushIf it wasnt for Geddy Lee, he has declared, I probably wouldnt be playing bassbut also adored funk pioneer Larry Graham, the bottom end of the psychedelic soul-rock band Sly and the Family Stone.

He was equally enamored of jazz and fusion masters like Stanley Clarke. Claypool found a kindred spirit in LaLonde, who joined his art-metal project Blind Illusion. LaLondewho learned much of his technique at the feet of guitar guru Joe Satrianialso played in a satanic metal band called the Possessed as a teenager.

Claypool further honed his chops in biker bars as bassist for an R & B cover troupe called the Tommy Crank Band. It was four sets a night, up to five nights a weekthats how I learned discipline and how to actually groove, he explained to Guitar Players Gore. After that, in 1984, he assembled the first version of Primusinitially called Primatewith guitarist Todd Huth and a drum machine. The group gathered a following over the next few years, and Claypools do-it-yourself ethic extended to buying a printing press and making T-shirts for his and his friends bands. Drummer Tim Herb Alexander finally stuck, replacing Jay Lane, but the day after Claypool asked Alexander to join the group, Huth quit.

Suck on This

For a moment, Claypool thought his claim to fame would be as the bassist for the up-and-coming (and later superstar) metal group Metallica. Original bassist Cliff Burton had been killed in a bus accident, and as a childhood friend of guitarist Kirk Hammett, Claypool got a chance to audition for the spot; but his affinity for R & B acts like the Isley Brothers scared the headbangers off. Eventually, he recruited LaLonde to take Huths place in a revamped Primus. The group was two-thirds new, but LaLonde undertook the arduous task of learning all of Huths parts and then participating in a live recording that became the first Primus album, Suck on This. Released in 1989 on the groups own Prawn Song label, it was financed with $3,000 borrowed from Claypools father. The three of us had a chemistry that sounded like Primus, the bassist recalled in Rolling Stone, but it was different than before. I was nervous as hell the first show we did, but our original fans accepted us.

Long before LaLonde and Alexander joined the band, Claypool explained to Rolling Stone, the groups fans had begun chanting You Suck as an honorific at their shows. People would follow us around telling us how cool we were, and wed be like Nah, we suck. It evolved, and then it became good marketing. Wed go down the street, and someone will yell, You suck, and Ill say Oh, thank you very much, which freaks out whoevers with you. Soon Primus Sucks appeared on T-shirts and became a de rigeur slogan on the Bay Area music scene. The groups soundwhich caught the attention of critics during the ascent of metal/funk hybrids like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No Morebegan to be categorized as funk-rock, though Alexander despised funk and Claypool has always protested that real funk doesnt sound anything like his band.

In any event, Claypoos busy, percussive bass lines crisscrossed Alexanders tight beats and allowed LaLondewhose guitar idols are sainted rock experimentalists Frank Zappa and Jerry Garciato explore, rather than merely hold down, the groups songs. Claypools lyrics tend to be loopy character studies, often sung in voices that critics have frequently compared to cartoon voice-over wizard Mel Blanc. Claypool told Musician that he tended at first to write statement songs, but ultimately, he revealed, [I] found thats not me, to preach social ideas as music. Im putting down observations, and sometimes it may just be crap.

Signed With Major Label

Following the cult success of Suck on This, the band signed with noted independent label Caroline Records, which reissued their debut and released the follow-up, 1990s Frizzle Fry, produced by Primuss 19-year-old friend Matt Winegar. The Northern California thrashfunk trio recaptures the anarchic spontaneity of their debut (the high-energy, low-budget Suck on This ), opined Guitar Player, but with tighter performances and better production. The review praised the visceral punch of LaLondes angular lines and noted that Claypool hammers out dense but groovy lines that flesh out the bony trio texture. The band toured exhaustively in support of the album and soon landed a deal with a major label, Interscope, a joint venture with Atlantic Records.

In 1991 Claypool and company released Sailing the Seas of Cheese, a further refinement of their sound. In many ways the more metallic, undulating Frizzle Fry is a better document of the ugliness and energy that is Primus, reflected Musicians Matt Resnicoff, though Cheeses pristine presentation captures its own space in a world where saying something sucks is like a love tap. Guitar Player marveled at the groups eclecticism: These avant-headbangers combine speed metal energy, funkoid groove, and art-rock quirkiness (imagine Metallica, Rush, and the Chili Peppers liquified in a blender). Cheese included the rampaging and irresistible single Tommy the Cat, which featured a cameo vocal by gravelly voiced singer-songwriter Tom Waits and was selected for the soundtrack to the film Bill and Teds Bogus Journey, in which Primus briefly appeared. Cheese went gold in April of 1993.

Also in 1993in some sense the bands breakthrough yearPrimus received widespread public attention when they were named headliner of the Lollapalooza rock festival. This assignment helped their new album, Pork Soda, debut at Number Seven on the Billboard pop chart, a previously unheard-of feat for such an unconventional band. In a feature on Lollapalooza, Entertainment Weekly insisted, Theres no resisting the frenetic danceability of the trios P-Funk meets Captain Beefheart set, adding, If this band could write a melodyor, God forbid, a power balladit would rule the entire planet.

Entertainment Weekly called Pork Soda a musical hiccupa gnarly, funkadelic mix of metal and art rock highlighted by Claypools slaphappy bass lines and carnival-barker voice. Rolling Stone deemed the album a weird, whimsical grab bag. Pork Soda featured the romps My Name Is Mud and Mr. Krinkle, both of which spawned grotesque, surrealistic videos. Of Primuss Lollapalooza offering, Entertainment Today claimed, They put on a superior show that was remarkably tight and demonstrated they were the right choice for the closing band.

Primus recorded Pork Soda at minimal cost by bringing digital recording equipment into their rehearsal space rather than renting studio time. The quality we got on this record has a lot to do with the sheer quantity of things we could afford to record, Claypool explained to Guitar Players Gore. Had we gone into an expensive studio and tried to do what we did, this album would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. We wouldnt have done nearly so many abstract things. This home studioknown as From the Cornhas afforded Primus the opportunity to record other projects, such as a collaboration among Claypool, Metallica guitarist Hammett, and Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin, as well as records by former Primus guitarist Huths band Porch and Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy guitarist Charlie Hunters side band. Primus hoped to release some of these recordings on the revamped Prawn Song. In other artistic explorations, Claypool collaborated with Lance Montoya on the whimsical clay sculpture that graces the cover of Pork Soda.

With major label support, Primus has emerged as one of the most musically daring acts in rock, yet its bizarre cross-fertilizations flourish in a garden of relative independence. Its the best of both worlds, and Claypool knows it: staying involved in all aspects of his bands work gives you confidence, he insisted to Guitar Player, and thats the most important thing to have in any aspect of the music business.

Selected discography

Suck on This, Prawn Song, 1989, reissued, Caroline, 1990.

Frizzle Fry, Caroline, 1990.

Sailing the Seas of Cheese (includes Tommy the Cat), Interscope, 1991.

(Contributors) Tommy the Cat, Bill and Teds Bogus Journey (soundtrack), Warner Bros., 1991.

Pork Soda (includes My Name Is Mud and Mr. Krinkle), Interscope, 1993.

Sources

BAM, June 18, 1993.

Billboard, April 10, 1993.

Entertainment Today, August 13, 1993.

Entertainment Weekly, June 18, 1993; July 18, 1993.

Guitar Player, September 1990; June 1991; August 1991; June 1993.

Musician, November 1991; July 1993.

Oakland Press (Oakland Co., Ml), October 17, 1993.

RIP, August 1993.

Rolling Stone, June 13, 1991; October 31, 1991; June 10, 1993; September 2, 1993.

Spin, October 1993.

Additional information for this profile was obtained from Interscope Records press materials, 1993.

Simon Glickman

Primus

views updated May 14 2018

Primus. The presiding bishop in the Scottish Episcopal Church. He is elected by the bishops in Scotland to preside over the synod, but does not have the powers of a metropolitan.

primus

views updated Jun 08 2018

primus presiding bishop in the Scottish Episcopal Church. XIX. — L. prīmus first, PRIME2.

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