SOUNDTRACK: PRIMUS AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY with THE FUNGI ENSEMBLE (2014).
A
nd after all of that, we catch up to present day Primus. And this time Tim Alexander is back with them again! I was supposed to see Primus at a small theater when they toured for the chocolate Factory. And because of a planning snafu I didn’t get to go. I had wanted to see the show live before hearing the album. Sigh.
I was thinking about Les Claypool and covers. He does a lot of them. Even though he is clearly a creative tour de force, he also likes to revisit stuff. His live albums are full of covers, and the Duo de Twang mostly revisited songs he had already done, not to mention how he has re-recorded almost all the songs from Primus’ debut at one point or another.
So it comes as no surprise to me that they would cover the entire Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory soundtrack.
The thing to know right off the bat is that Les Claypool is a rather dark and disturbed individual. And that means that this cover recording is really much more dark and nightmarish than the original (which is quite sweet). Now true, Wonka is a really dark and creepy figure, and maybe that’s what Les was playing off when he constructed this carnivalesque, dark funhouse mirror version of soundtrack.
And your tolerance for that (and your love of the original) will say whether or not you enjoy this.
This is not fun goofy Primus, this is dark Primus of the “My Name is Mud” and Mushroom Men variety.
“Hello Wonkites” opens this disc with dark and slow bass strings and a slow and menacing melody. “Candy Man” one of the sweetest songs ever is turned incredibly dark with hypnotic vibes and weird bowed bass sounds. The way they speed up parts of the song are really disturbing and his vocals are creepy as anything. This tells you all you need to know about this recording.
“Cheer up, Charlie” is a little bit sweeter as it opens with cellos. But Les’ vocal is weird and a little, yes, disturbing, Although I don’t really like the original very much so this one works better for me. “Golden Ticket” is also quite sinister with the mad carnival sounds and the stomping bass. “Lermaninoff” is a cool 5 second reprise of the Rachmaninoff lock in the movie.
“Pure Imagination” is probably the least creepy of all the songs, although it is still dark and ominous. It features a lot of percussion, and I read somewhere that Tim doesn’t really play drums on this record, he just hits all kinds of crap that’s around him. There’s a long instrumental section that is pretty cool.
There are four versions of the Oompa Loompa song, just like in the movie. Each one is about a minute and a half long. They’re each quite similar and faithful to the original’s creepy vibe. They might do better to be spaced out more, but it’s still fun. The “Semi Wondrous Boat Ride” is actually not nearly as creepy as the original. “Wonkamobile” is just over a minute long and it is just Les being Les.
“I Want It Now” features lead vocals by Ler! I don’t know that we’ve ever heard him sing anywhere before. He doesn’t have a great voice (or he’s trying to be bratty, it’s hard to tell), but it’s such a welcome change to have someone else singing on the disc.
My favorite track is “Goodbye Wonkites” which has a very cool Pink Floyd feel. The instrumentation is the same as “Hello” but the guitars have this great echo, and the chords that Ler is playing (yes normal chords) sound very much like Pink Floyd to me. It’s a cool instrumental.
Even though I don’t love this soundtrack, I’d still like to see the stage show that they create for it, which I imagine is just insane.
And that brings an end to the Primus land–a month’s worth of Les and the boys.
That there’s a bad egg.
[READ: January 29, 2015] “Apple Cake”
This story is about a woman who has just entered hospice care. And yet surprisingly it is not all that sad.
Jeanne was the youngest sister. Her to older sisters Sylvia and Helen are very different but both were quite upset that it was their baby sister who would die first (even though none of them was actually young).
Since she was in hospice, the family was gathered around pretty much all the time. The sisters were there constantly and her sons and nieces and nephews all took time off to pay their last respects. But Jeanne lingered–despite doctors saying that she had only a day or two left, she continued to seem rather strong and coherent.
And really this story turns out to be more about the fighting between the healthy sisters–and their children. Will they defer to Jeanne’s wishes–like when she asks for a bagel even though she hasn’t eaten solid foods in weeks? And, most importantly, will they honor Jeanne’s wishes about her death–she wants no funeral, no ceremony, not even a burial. Or will they follow tradition and have a rabbi preside over her.
And so this fight comes down to Helen and Sylvia. Even though Jeanne has made her intentions clear to her sons, Helen and Sylvia have always been at odds and will continue to be so: “There was simply the great divide between them: Helen told the truth, while Sylvia tried to paper over everything.” Helen is insistent that Jeanne see a rabbi and have a proper burial. But Sylvia and everyone else finds it disrespectful.
And in her grief, Helen begins baking. After all, she was the baker of the family–Sylvia hadn’t baked in years because her husband was diabetic. She made apple cake (which was pretty good), almond cookies (which were less so) and a pecan bar which was, well, left uneaten. And so the food starts piling up, because Helen never threw anything away.
Then one day Sylvia brought in an apple cake, warm and fragrant. Even Jeanne remarked on how good it smelled. Which gets Helen indignant.
“It’s my recipe,” Helen said, “I gave that recipe to Sylvia twenty years ago.”
“Yes I remember,” Jeanne said, “she bakes a very good apple cake.”
“I bake the same one! I brought you apple cake last week.”
“I know, but I like hers better,” Jeanne said.
Eventually Helen convinced the rabbi to see Jeanne. The rabbi is friendly and accepts that Jeanne is an atheist–Jeanne was looking for a fight but he was very kind. And she even concedes that she could be buried in her plot.
When Jeane eventually dies, they agree to a simple ceremony. Helen tries to make it more religious–saying that Jeanne agreed to it–but she is unable to hijack the ceremony. Sylvia is off course pot off by Helen’s behavior and gets rather sulky.
At the gathering afterward, they agreed it would be catered and no one would bring baked goods. But as the day dragged on, there suddenly came the smell of fresh-baked apple cake. The nuclear option had been pulled.
I really enjoyed this story and the inner workings of passive aggressive family troubles. And the way that Jeanne seemed to supervise the whole thing.
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SOUNDTRACK: COLD BLUE MOUNTAIN-“White North” (Tiny Desk Contest Runner-Up 2015).
Last week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked. And I want to draw extra attention to a couple of them.
I Just Read About That... 