PRIMUS — Frizzle Fry (review)

Album · 1990 · Funk Metal

4.5/5 · 2015-07-20
siLLy puPPy

PRIMUS is one of the many eccentric bands to come from San Francisco, only no flower children here. A product of the demented imagination of founder Les Claypool, PRIMUS managed right from the start to forge their own musical style that kinda fits in here and there in the different genres, but when it really comes down to it, doesn’t fit anywhere! They are certainly alternative funk metal but they are equally quirky in how they are experimental and progressive at the same time without really taking you into the seas of inaccessibility.

FIZZLE FRY is their very first studio album after their first round of quirkiness of releasing their live “Suck On This” as their debut, which included a whole bunch of tracks that would end up on their studio albums. Together with Jane’s Addiction, PRIMUS introduced the world to the wonderful world of alternative metal that would usher in the 90s and dethrone the glam scene and replace it with grunge, groove and nu metal and indie rock.

FIZZLE FRY has a lot of sizzling hot smoking alternative guitar riffs accompanied by Claypool’s unique signature bass style and hardcore drumming action. While PRIMUS is primarily considered to be Claypool’s baby, it should also be noted that after the debut guitarist Todd Huth left the band to focus more on his family, Larry LaLonde (previously from the death metal band Possessed) joined the party and never went away. He has been just as a consistent ingredient in the band’s sound as Claypool’s on their studio albums anyways.

PRIMUS has experienced the same problem as Spinal Tap in that their weakest link has been retaining a permanent drummer as since their inception in 1984 as a band has gone through seven drummers who have mostly gone but some came back only to go again. On this one we get Tim Alexander who performs the duties quite exemplarily. As far as i know none have spontaneously self-combusted in bizarre gardening accidents though.

I personally think FRIZZLE FRY is my favorite PRIMUS album. While it fully displays the idiosyncrasies of Claypool, it doesn’t feel like he has the upper hand quite yet. The songs are all diverse and the energy is high. There seems to be more guitar action and less bass dominance. In short, the songs are balanced and quite creative. The goofiness is peeking around the corner but there is a more serious approach on album number one.

God forbid, there are even rip roaring guitar solos as on the title track and “Spaghetti Western.” The album simply delivers a satisfying smorgasbord of juicy ideas. There were two singles from this one: “John The Fisherman” and “Too Many Puppies,” the latter of which expressed a very punk attitude and anti-war sentiment where the puppies represent the victimized soldiers in the rotisserie of wars that destroy far too many young lives before their time.

Les Claypool and posse perfectly meld all their influences together well in this PRIMUS debut. They range from The Residents to Rush with a heavy dose of Zappa-esque humor and some sort of alternative country feel as well. Claypool himself has stated that their music is a kind of psychedelic polka but i’m not really feeling that myself. This is alternative funk metal run amok and i have to admit that even though it took a while for PRIMUS’ sound to grow on me, i have to say that once it incubated a while, it sprouted new brain sucking properties in me and now i have succumbed to its quirky charm. FRIZZLE FRY has qualities that can appeal to thrash metal lovers, funk extremists, alternative junkies and those who just like eccentric high energy music that drifts in different directions but never quite goes to the same pastures where the other herds of musical cows are grazing. It is semi-comedic, sort of bizarre but never takes you so far away into someone else’s dreamland that you can’t get the gist of it. Oh, and that bass!