I loved these guys up to and including The Brown Album (my favorite album to date). I fell off during the Antipop era, and have been pretty underwhelmed by the occasional tracks I've heard since then. I did find the record with Sean Lennon to be pretty fun and bonkers, but it's sort of a tough listen...

With their new one out today (The Desaturating Seven), I thought it might be fun to revisit them. I'll try to spin some Primus regularly over the next few weeks. For now, I'd go:

The Brown Album
Pork Soda
Tales From the Punchbowl
Sailing the Seas of Cheese
Miscellaneous Debris
Frizzle Fry
Suck On This

And then I did like Oysterhead and Flying Frog Brigade, too.

I took a cursory spin through the new one, and it sounds like a mix of the acoustic stuff from Brown Album, and the leaner, tweakier stuff from Frizzle Fry. My initial reaction is that I'm intrigued, but not blown away. Based on what I've read, I should probably spend some time with Green Naugahyde before diving into this one.

i haven't listened to the new one yet, but Green Naugahyde was a pretty solid album though and you should definitely check it out. You might also like Claypool's 2 solo albums, Of Whales and Woe and Of Fungi and Foe. I really enjoyed those.

I didn't like the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory album, whatever it was called.

Dang! I forgot those even existed. There's like another entire discography's worth of material for me to wade through...

Primus sucks!

Yeah I fucking love them. New album is pretty good too.

I've seen them twice now, once in 2010 with that Jay dude drumming and once in 2014 with the OG lineup. I might go see them in November in Akron.

Les Claypool and the Holy Mackerel

The Sausage record was good too, that one was the people in Primus before Ler and Tim Alexander playing with Les.

I like 80% of the new album a LOT.

Yep, that's a good one too. But I struggle with the production on some of the older stuff; everything pre-STSOC is tough for me to listen to now.

Brown was always my favorite but I might pick Firzzle Fry over it today.

Somebody just upped an Oysterhead DVD on Zomb

Today I finally realized what a great song The Ol Diamondback Sturgeon really is. It almost sounds like a John Prine song covered by Primus.

Going back through their discography, I'm struck by how early they shared their love for children's music and old timey show tunes. The Willy Wonka record initially struck me as an odd detour, but now I'm listening to The Air Is Getting Slippery, Eternal Consumption Engine, Glass Sandwich, and I can draw a line from those songs to the Wonka record pretty easily.

I love Les. I love his work with the band Oysterhead.

Green Naugahyde is a real mixed bag for me. They are going for more groove-oriented stuff on this record, with less of the heavy bombast of their earlier stuff. Hennepin Crawler is maybe the most generic Primus song I've ever heard; it's like their own version of Amongst the Waves. Eternal Consumption Engine is a weird retread of Space Farm, and Tragedy's a Comin' is a weird retread of Golden Boy. But other songs, like Eyes of the Squirrel and Jilly's on Smack feel like new territory for them. Moron TV sounds like a Sublime song. Extinction Burst is really fun.

Mostly I just think the production on this album is atrocious, but i wish every Primus album sounded like The Brown Album.

Listened to these guys a lot in my early twenties. Big fan of Frizzle Fry.

What are your favorite Frizzle Fry tracks? That and Suck On This got a lot of play in my early teens, but I mostly forgot about them once Pork Soda came out.

too many pup pup pup pup pup pup puppies

Oh yeah that's a classic one. Primus was sort of like the 90s version of Zappa; it felt like one big in-joke for their fans.

heh I knew this song was cool over a decade ago. ur slouchin'.

Guys, Green Naugahyde is really good. Jay Lane's approach to drumming may be vastly different to Herb's but it works so well here. It's more spacious and minimalistic save for the hi-hat abuse.

Also a heavy use of octaver by Les here. On songs like "Hennepin Crawler", "Eyes of the Squirrel" and "Extinction Burst" he nails a tone similar to Thundercat's with a little more grit and low end. Sounds immense.