OneMetal.com music REVIEW:
Primus – Green Naugahyde

That’s enough nay-sayers. I certainly didn’t expect to see Les Claypool resurrecting Primus from such a long hiatus, especially considering the time he has spent furthering his ambitiously sounding solo projects. The brief stint at getting Primus back in the swing of things earlier last decade hit a musical wall; they just weren’t the same energised band as they were in the 1990s and Claypool would be the first to admit it. “I have always said that I would only do Primus as long as it was fun. And it wasn’t fun anymore,” says Claypool. “In fact, it stopped being fun in 1996, when drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander left the band.” This awkward moment in the band led to what many fans argue is one of their better albums and ironically one that Claypool isn’t particularly fond of, 1997s The Brown Album, and after that the polarising Antipop, a record that embraced a more metallic side with a host of guest producers and musicians. Maybe the band looked at themselves and thought they shouldn’t be on the big metal tours of Ozzfest and Family Values.

Green Naughayde is Primus’ first studio album for 11 years and reunites drummer Jay Lane with the quirky bassist and long time collaborator and guitarist Larry Lalonde.

In typical self-deprecating humour, Claypool described the sound of the new album early on by saying:

“For those of you that enjoyed the new song, “Last Salmon Man”, that we played New Year’s, you’ll love the record because every song basically sounds exactly the same as that one. In fact, we just kept recording the same song over and over and I would just change a few of the lyrics around. I hear that’s the way Pink Floyd used to do it and those guys are no slouches.”

In a sense that isn’t too far off the mark. Green Naugahyde travels along in the various criss-cross directions of Lane-era Primus as well as the distinct but simple sounds and production of side-project Sausage. Tracks such as “Eyes Of The Squirrel” even have a Pink Floyd feel to them, with loops, atmospherics and ethereal textures. Above the plodding bass lines (reminiscent of The Brown Album‘s “Fisticuffs”, and Tales From a Punch Bowl‘s “Da Anza Jig”) are Lalonde’s upstrokes and volume-swelled layers. Yet for some of this album it is often engulfed by the dominant nature of Claypool’s wobbling and wet bass, coerced by an old Korg multi-fx unit that even he doesn’t recall – equipment somehow “ends up in his possession” rather than him being a FX fetishist.

Green Naugahyde is the reflection of past experiences coupled with a social critique of the present. As Claypool has said recently, “Jilly’s On Smack” couldn’t have been written earlier as they hadn’t lost a friend to heroin, whilst “Eternal Consumption Engine” focuses on the everlasting materialism within society – “Everything nowadays is made in China” sparks Claypool through his bullet mic’. All this of course is delivered with Primus‘ unique and bizarre demeanour and lyrical content. What I did notice from seeing them live at Brixton in July was that the newer material begged to be loosely extended, improvised and redefined, yet their “hits” of yesterday only truly worked in the context of an album. If anything, this album makes me what to see them again.

Primus’ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Primus/105657322802566
Prawn Song Records: http://www.prawnsong.com/

Bottom Line

Primus have returned after a long hiatus but it doesn't reflect on the time it has taken to record this album -- Guns N Roses they are not. This sounds almost instantaneous as the band continue to perform "fancy music for semi-fancy folks."