SAILING THE SEAS OF CHEESE

PRIMUS is one of those bands able both to amuse me and annoy me at the same time. Let's start with the things that annoy me: the vocals. The vocal delivery, the overall attitude and the southern accent. Those annoying recited verses, ugh. There's a hint or two of THE RESIDENTS in both vocals and melodies, but the RESIDENTS' vocals are not annoying to me for some reason.

As far as the music goes, this is (more or less) furious funky rock wrapped in some avant/metal package. You can replace the word metal with the word grunge or perhaps punk, however, it's quite noisy. And that's the description of the music: it suits indie / alter tag very well, in fact, it would fit nicely with any of the AmRep artists: MELVINS, HELMET, KILLDOZER or perhaps THE JESUS LIZARD: dry drums, crispy, compressed guitars and guttural, grinding bass. Vocals in your face. With the emphasis on bass, of course. I don't think Mr. Claypool's ultra-fast technique is outstanding, but his ability to make different timbres certainly is. As I said in the title, this one is absolutely 90's. This record made me realize nineties weren't that revolutionary after all; from today, 2008 perspective, it was a logical continuation of the 80's, in any musical subgenre, from electronic dance music to PRIMUS (hm...PIXIES anyone?).

So, where's prog rock in that picture?

Oh, who cares? If you really want: I already mentioned THE RESIDENTS. There's hint or two of ZAPPA or CAPTAIN BEEFHEART, but more in my overall impression than something I could pin down. A few compound time-signatures and tempo changes, but executed more in grungy than prog way of playing (let's add an extra bar!). Guitar is somewhat fripp-esque, sometimes punkish, often nervous, always angular.

Regardless of prog or non-prog tag, this one is worth checking although it might require some time to digest.

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