SOUNDTRACK: PRIMUS-Green Naugahyde (2011).
After the EP and tour, the reunited Primus (with Jay Lane still on drums) made Green Naugahyde. And the album sounds fantastic. They veer away from the longer jammier songs and get back down to business–it’s also notable that Ler contributed music to a number of songs. I reviewed it a while back when it came out and I’m pretty much all in agreement with what I said then. I was a little critical of a few things which I find less annoying now. I still admit to not loving Les’ deeper singing voice, but it seems here to stay.
Some thoughts from the original post edited with new feelings added
As they have done before, this album opens with a brief instrumental “Prelude to a Crawl” which sort of sets the tone for “Hennepin Crawler.” As soon as “Hennepin” opens you know that this is classic Primus–bass loaded and crazy rhythms. But it’s also apparent that Les is bringing some of the weird effects he’s been playing with in his various other bands to Primus–the bass is wonderfully distorted with crazy effects. I love that he’s also playing harmonics on the bass. It’s really hard to tell what is the guitar and what is the bass on this song.
Having said that, there’s some great musical ideas here. I love the riff of “Last Salmon Man” (again, the lyrics are hard to decipher) and the way it changes from verse to bridge. “Eternal Consumption Engine” is a great title. It’s the first song where Les’ old vocals come back, and it’s nice to hear him. It’s funny and frenetic.
“Tragedy’s A’ Comin’” is classic Primus, a funky rubber bass line, and group vocals. I think what I really like about it is the openness of the music–so that you can really hear the fun things that original drummer Jay Lane is doing. There’s a live break in the middle of the song which is unusual and seems mostly to be for a bass solo.
When I recently wrote my thoughts on “Eyes of the Squirrel” they were exactly the same. It is probably my least favorite song which is a real shame because the opening bass riffs are INSANELY wonderful! I don’t know how anyone can play that fast. I really like the way the song opens. But it just seems to drag. “Jilly’s on Smack” I like less this time around, although it does have an earworm quality to it.
So after two meh songs, the rest of the disc is great. “Lee Van Cleef” is a fun stomper about missing Lee. “Moron TV” is infectiously catchy (especially the dang a dang a dang a dang dang part) and the lyrics are wonderful. The spoken word/jam section is also really fun.
“Hoinfodaman” is awesome and listening to Les pitch for fake products is hilarious. It also features what may be a first for Primus: guitars in the lead melody line. I especially love the crazy (and I think rather funny) guitar line that works as the bridge, it’s one of my favorite Primus songs. As is “Extinction Burst” which ends the album on a major high note. The harmonics from the bass jump into the really heavy main riff. And Ler’s bizarrely fiddly guitar section is great–easily comparable to any of Les’ fiddly nonsense. And on top of that, the outro is just great.
I have to agree with my earlier assessment: this makes for one of Primus’ best releases overall.
[READ: January 29, 2015] “Breadman”
I haven’t read a lot of J. Robert Lennon, but everything that I’ve read I have enjoyed. And I would like to read more from him. This story was fantastic, both in the plot and the way it was written.
It starts more or less in the middle with the narrator saying that “Of course he’d seen them, his customers.” He proceeds to describe exactly the kind of people you’d imagine would line up in front of an artisanal bake shop. He says he wouldn’t have gone there in a million billion years, but “My wife sent me.”
And of course he was late. Which means he was there ten minutes before the store opened, but if you got there less than 30 minutes ahead of opening time you were pretty much guaranteed to miss out on the special focaccia. (The fact that the store is inside another store front is a wonderful detail).
While waiting on line for bread, he made a joke about Soviet Russia which didn’t go over well. Clearly the Breadman was far too good for jokes like that.
When the Breadman arrives in his van, he waves and the line shouts and seems to ooh at him.
When the store opened the narrator forgot that he was supposed to put his name on the sign in list. When he finally went over there he saw that he needed the account number. Of course his wife had told him and of course he said hie wouldn’t forget, but of course he did. She texted him the number, “Could a five-digit number read as hostile? Yes it could.”
The Breadman talks to all of his customers, effusively and with much knowledge about them. This of course means the narrator has to wait and wait. And the more he waits the more he hates the Breadman–like that the crisscrosses on the top of the loaf are undoubtedly his initials.
The problem came when another man walked in while the narrator was signing his name on the sheet. The narrator tells the man that he needs to sign in, but when the newcomer doesn’t get out of line, the narrator willingly stands behind the new man because he knows that he has written his name down. Of course, when the new man gets to the head of the line, he is welcomed and not accused of cutting. Indeed, when they see the man they call him “Spokefather” and embrace him like the prodigal son. They speak yo him as if in code, which gets the narrator more and more annoyed.
And of course Spokefather wants the last two foccacia. When the narrator speaks up to say that he was in front of Spokefather, Breadman tells him that this is the Spokefather. The narrator gets mad, but the Breadman asks, “Aren’t you Kathy’s?” Breadman says that Kathy will understand that these loaves are going to the Spokefather.
Obviously this won’t end well.
I love that near the end of the story, it appears that he is telling this story to someone: He says, “Of course I can still eat bread. I’m not a child.”
It’s time to find more J. Robert Lennon books.
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