Primus

[imJonWain]

Yes/no? explain

I wouldn't call myself a fan still but it was the first "big" show I went to in the 8th grade, and at the time I was obsessed. My dad (amazingly) and his friend took me into the city to see them lol. Still one of the best shows I've ever seen.

Came up because I heard them on the radio and found myself getting into it, probably out of nostalgia lol.

[John]

Yes.

The video for Jerry Was A Racecar Driver was Promethean in its influence on musicians and music fans. Remember the huge circle pogo pit? It was all so heavy but without metal cliche. By then I had already heard a few tracks from Frizzle Fry and Suck On This, and Seas Of Cheese had me completely sprung. I had just started playing bass, and after learning all the Minor Threat and COC songs I knew, I was ready for something much more challenging. I never had a fretless 6-string but I wasn't trying to learn all the Les lines as much as take inspiration to break the rules in my own way. I lost steam after Pork Soda, and while I can dig The Brown Album in doses now, I hate the production; it's like fingernails scraping a heavy paper bag, hard to explain but uncomfortable. I like Brain when he plays with Buckethead, but not with Primus. Every future release contained less and less of what I liked in the first place: heavy sound, nasty technique. I think the weed got to him, I dunno. But I'm glad they got to keep doing what they wanted to do and I hope Tim Alexander is able to sustain himself post-Primus. They'll find another drummer and keep going I'm sure.

Frizzle Fry, Suck On This, Sailing the Seas of Cheese, and Pork Soda are all essential for me. Tim is one of my favorite drummers, Ler took the sound and the role of guitar to awesome new places, and Les inspired a big chunk of my life as I have made my best friends through my bass playing.

Primus sucks!

[coupleonapkins]

After never really giving it a chance, I've warmed up to The Brown Album, despite my Tim "Herb" Alexander bias (actually the only reason I never gave it a chance, also I think I'd moved on to less slap-happy type things). But the unimpeachable run of the first three/four LPS are still great, and I listen/think about Pork Soda a lot lately, maybe due to nostalgia (which is it's own sort of punishment, and I think I've developed a gag reflex at this point) but maybe moreso they are just great 'choons. I dunno if Les really had much else to say after all that, and I don't know if he really needed to ever try (I won't ever listen to that LP he did with Sean Lennon, because why?), but I appreciate his efforts to keep the flame alive, somehow.

Pretty sure most of us here were all in 8th grade when & where, too, so I blame those grooves etching themselves into the brain of youth HARD. Toothpaste n' tube 'n all :::chompgif:::

Also, I can't imagine another band trying to do what Primus have done & not being laffed off the planet, somehow (looking at ewe, Black MIDI). Once inna lifethymme thing, like Tom Cruise (sorry) or Bo Diddley (RIP Bo Diddley).

[D.o.S.]

Primus sucks, as they say. Frizzle Fry is probably my favourite?

[Blackened Soul]

Even though I think the first time I heard them was in the second bill and Ted movie.. think my real introduction was my sister sent me a cassette tape and tshirt of pork soda for my 15th birthday (my sister is fucking cool btw ) it took a few listens but I really liked them after that.. not a fan or the non-herb stuff as much.. really to me punchbowl was the end of the good era. Like dos fizzle fry is my favorite, and back in 97 my parents booked a session at different fur where it was recorded and my dad asked the engineer about them spilling the bong into the mixing board that was in the liner notes.. he gave my dad a sour look and said “yes, they did… the whole thing..”

[hbombgraphics]

I love Primus!!! I grew up on primus though.

I think if you accept primus for what it is it's very cool music.

Saw them live this summer, super weird venu, but it was an amazing show.

They leaned into the jammy trippy aspects of their music for most of the night which really worked, but then would absolutely thrash for a few minutes.
Did a cover of holy diver with Puddles singing that was flipping insane.

[the_bright_undead]

Always been a band I’ve struggled with in that there are certain songs I love, but full albums I’ve had a harder time appreciating. But definitely an early influence that opened musical doors.

My intro to Primus was the bassist in my high school band who showed up one weekend with My Name is Mud figured out, wanting us to cover it (he was an amazing player). I never had any idea about how to fit in to that song on guitar. It was really freeing at the time to just make insane noises and I’ve loved it ever since.

Yes.

[D.o.S.]

Also Southbound Pachyderm is decidedly the jam

[Desert Rat 007]

Larry "Ler" LaLonde rules! Have been a big fan since the early days, and have seen Les in various bands over the years (Flying Frog Brigade, Lennon Claypool Delirium, etc..) The best though was seeing Primus live in 3D with my wife and two of our best friends - everyone in the audience wore 3D glasses for an insanely cool 3D stage show.

[01010111]

My introduction to Primus was in the first band I was in. I hadn't heard them before, and the drummer insisted that we watch his dvd collection of their music videos. Sailing the seas of cheese and tales from the punchbowl were all I ever really listened to. I should go check out the rest of their stuff

[Gone Fission]

https://thehardtimes.net/culture/sure-i ... heir-life/

[Seance]

My full introduction to Primus was in the fall of 1990 when the two guys that I had just months before been in a band with started their own band.

In high school these two dudes (one of whom I considered and still consider to be a very close friend) were mostly into Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Beatles.

Gearing up for the high school talent show we practiced the living shit out of this tight, brief, instrumental medley that combined "The Ocean Song" by Led Zeppelin into "In the Flesh" by Pink Floyd before going into "I Dig a Pony" by the Beatles. We got it sounding pretty good.

The very week before the talent show the drummer broke his arm. While the drummer still had his arm in a cast I went away to college. Was it a band hiatus? Apparently not.

Next thing I know the drummer switched to playing bass (which is what I played) so that he could do vocals and be a frontman and they got a new drummer (who was really great because the now-bassist/former-drummer would only accept a drummer that was better than he was) and they recorded a cassette tape on the now-bassist's Tascam 4-track and they recording four or five songs that were all heavily sounding almost exactly like Primus Jr.

Basically as soon as I went away to college my friend (the guitarist) started going to Primus shows (this was in the Bay Area).




My take on Primus is that some music feels really fresh when it first arrives because it comes along in a certain context at a certain time. Sometimes such things have longevity because they evolve. Other times the "fresh" thing is so effective in the moment that it gets overused, becomes a cliché, and then induces a high "cringe factor" when revisited.

There was a lot of funkpunk, thumb-thwacking bassists in the 1980s and 1990s in California. Not just RHCP and Mr. Bungle. At that time there was a group of urban and suburban teenagers who discovered Parliament, Funkadelic, P-Funk, etc. and it felt fresh and exciting when they tried to incorporate that influence into punkish tropes.

Does that age well? Contexts change. Yesterday's clichés are todays funny "intentionally ugly Christmas sweater." In fact thrift stores used to help recycle fashion ideas in a semi-organic way. Around 1984 to '85 I found a bunch of psychedelic polyester shirts at local thrift stores. The same conduit (thrift stores) was also responsible for the early '90s trend of young women wearing slips or "babydoll" dresses (sometimes as a dress, sometimes with jeans underneath).

All mileage varies. Contexts change. I can't listen to RHCP or Pink Floyd. I haven't listened to Primus in decades. But I did severely damage my hearing at a Primus concert in SF.

[imJonWain]

Did you ever see Buck Naked And The Bare Bottom Boys? I have some friends a few years older than me that lived in 1990s SF and talked about them lol.

[Seance]

Did you ever see Buck Naked And The Bare Bottom Boys? I have some friends a few years older than me that lived in 1990s SF and talked about them lol.

No. But I did see Pansy Division a few times.

And The Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. And Mr. Bungle.

But the two bands I probably saw the most in the '80s and '90s would have to be Schlong and The Grateful Dead.

[John]

https://thehardtimes.net/culture/sure-i ... heir-life/

Hey if she didn't know Primus already then the relationship was doomed from the start