September 1, 2025 • 36 mins
As we chug along in the Claypool chronology, it's time to address 2009's Of Fungi and Foe, the second album to be credited simply to Les Claypool. Frankie has it on regular rotation; Josh listened to it once upon release, wasn't interested, and shelved it. WILL THIS SOW DIVISION IN PRIMUS TRACKS TOWERS? No, but it will provide a study in contrasts as the album unfolds.
In this week's overview we provide the contemporary context for the release with notes about the album, tour, and promotional aspects. Most of the music for this record had already been composed for two disparate projects: a video game about mushrooms (fungi) and a movie about a killer wild boar (foe), so we'll examine how that affects our reception.
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In this week's overview we provide the contemporary context for the release with notes about the album, tour, and promotional aspects. Most of the music for this record had already been composed for two disparate projects: a video game about mushrooms (fungi) and a movie about a killer wild boar (foe), so we'll examine how that affects our reception.
Get involved
Burn your money
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Josh freaky.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
What a couple of dump shits.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Hello Primates. You found Primus Tracks. Congratulations or many places
to find Primus Tracks, but the podcast is probably the
best one, unless you like reading text. If that is
the case, you should go to Primus Tracks on Instagram,
possibly threads, Facebook if you're nasty, and there's an email
address called Primustrackspot at gmail dot com. I am Josh,
(00:42):
one of the hosts of Primus Tracks. That Riotus laughter
you heard is the voice of the other host of
Primus Tracks from the thirty ninth floor of Primus Tracks
Towers in Mexico City. It's Frankie.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Hey, Josh, Frankie.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
We have made it to the wonderful dulcet tones of
a Fungi and foe.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
It is amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I took a step back recently and realized we've been
doing this for five and a half years, roughly the
sheer amount of music we have covered to this point
all the Primus discography, some other albums that lay scattered
throughout the chronology, but we are approaching the landing strip,
I suppose for even the less Claypool discography separate from Primus.
(01:27):
Are you nervous.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
No, okay, good.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
You are not suffering any kind of quandary about where
to go afterwards. Thank you for living in the moment
and bringing me perspective. I'm back.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
There will always be something to this cuss.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
That is the point of view that I will take
is bottomless well, and it gets darker the further we descend.
So we are today we are giving an overview to
the two thousand and nine Less Claypool record of Fungi
and Foe, and subsequent episodes will tackle one track at
a time before we get into the nuts and bolts,
(02:06):
nitty gritty minute details. Frankie, I have to preface by
saying I have next to no relationship with this record.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I listened to it once upon release in two thousand
and nine. It did not resonate with me. I put
it away. I haven't listened to it since I have.
I haven't listened to the tracks to preview them for
our episodes yet. I'm going to be just taking them
one at a time as we do our episodes. I
suppose the silver lining is they will feel like new songs.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So we could say that the last time you heard
fung Guy material was when some of those songs were
performed by the frug Brigade in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Three, maybe Eminitas, I don't even remember which two they
played in twenty three Amanitas and then and I did
see the Fun Guy banned in two thousand and nine,
so I saw some of the tunes that are on
this record, but go you right well, and I think
I've spoken of that before. They they played a couple
Primus numbers and it just wasn't the same, and I
(03:07):
was resigned to the idea that this is, this is
what we have, this I should I should appreciate what
we have. And and then Primus came back the next
year and the excitement level was off the charts. I
do know a couple of these tunes by name, like
Red State Girl. I remember that one because I remember
(03:28):
the live performance of it. But going on the track list,
there are many I couldn't hummet to you right now.
So this will be this will be an interesting exercise
for me. I was just at a point in two
thousand and nine where I was looking for more edgy music,
or maybe more aggressive than what was presented on Fungui
and and I was in that mode at that time.
(03:51):
Stretching my tendrils out, trying to grab onto as many
new things as I could. So it was more of
a period of exploration for me, and even a new
Less Claypoole record didn't hold me. I guess what I'm
getting at is it's not necessarily the record's fault. I
don't know. I haven't listened to it in sixteen years,
so and of course my perspective now in twenty twenty
(04:13):
five is going to be vastly different than it was
sixteen years ago. So I'm really interested to see where
it takes me. How about you, Frankie, When did you
first hear this record when it came out? Okay? And
it has it stayed in rotation for you?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
It has because I really like the production, the lyrics,
and I think it's it's not something exclusive to this record,
but it's something that happens to me with the entire
less Claypool and Primis discography. But yearly I'll discover that
one lone song I never paid attention to before, and
(04:52):
then it will start living in my mind rent free.
In this case, I've developed somewhat of an obsession with
Prime By twenty nine, I just love the bassline on
that song and the lyrics as well, mind you, prior
to this year. It's a song that just came and
went for me. When I played the album, I didn't
(05:13):
mind mind it much. So I do enjoy the record
a lot. I think is very cohesive from the perspective
of the of the theme and the production. And just
like we've discussed this previously with albums like Riddles or
Wales and Woe, Fungi is an album that sounds unlike
(05:34):
anything else out there. I don't think there's any record
that you'll find anywhere that sounds exactly like this one.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah, it certainly is different from my recollection, limited as
it is, but it certainly is unique to this Claypool catalog,
and I would say to the wider world of music
as well, although that's it could be a stretch to
say that, because I certainly have not heard every record
(06:04):
that's ever been put out. But there's there's certainly a
lot of creeptastic music out there that this might be
able to be lumped in with. Let's look at some
of our album information, Frankie. First of all, the title
of Fungi and Foe follows the pattern from of Wales
and woe and Fungi and Foe is not a random occurrence,
(06:26):
he didn't. He chose the alliteration for a particular reason.
One it rolls off the tongue of fungi and foe,
and two, Fungi and Foe reference specific projects that Less
had worked on that informed this release, of course, Fungi
being mushroom Men, the Spore Wars, the video game released
on Nintendo Wii. That's how old this record is. Frankie,
(06:48):
the Nintendo Wii, and the movie pig Hunt, in which
Less plays a deranged preacher. I've never seen pig Hunt, so.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
I've never been able to watch it either or listen
to those instrumentals that he composed for it.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yes, it's hard to find the instrumentals. I believe you
can hear snippets of them, of course in the film,
but I don't know that there are isolated tracks of them, no.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
As I've never seen them available anywhere.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, I don't think they appear on the DVD, which recently,
I would say, as of a couple months ago, was
sitting there for five dollars in change, and I didn't
wear it. It was on Oh okay, Yeah, and I
just thought I should buy this and then I didn't.
So maybe that does speak to how I feel about
(07:45):
this record, or felt about it at the time too.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
A shout out to my friend Cam for hooking me
up several years ago with the sport Wars soundtrack, so
I was able to listen to that score thanks to him.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Oh there is there a physical release of that, No, but.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
He had the tracks. He shared them with me, and
you can easily find them on YouTube now. Yes, floaded
them a well back.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah, there's a playlist from fifteen years ago that has
the entire soundtrack, including the four or five tracks that
Less was a part of, readily available on YouTube. And
they're they're very interesting artifacts, I suppose because you can
see the direct line to the material on Fungi and Foe.
(08:35):
So we'll be sampling those when they're appropriate to the track,
and I'll put the link to them in the show
notes as well. So of Fungi and Foe, released March seventeen,
two thousand and nine, on pron Song Records. Formats included
a CD, a vinyl pressing, and an MP three download.
The vinyl was pretty hard to find and remains so
(08:59):
until the reissue as part of the adverse Yaw Box
in twenty twenty four. We have twelve tracks totally forty
nine minutes and thirty eight seconds, and as we mentioned,
the record is made from two distinct musical contributions, one
to the Mushroom Men video game, the other to the
Pig Hunt film.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Unlike Wilson Woe, there were no bonus tracks here.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Okay, so upon release you just got what was on
the record and nothing What what just saw is what
you got.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
I believe Frankie, you own that original vinyl from two
thousand and nine. Correct.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I owned the original vinyl and I got it signed
and dedicated by Mike Dillon a few years back.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Very nice.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So it takes pride in my collection for sure.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Excellent. That is a rare bird, and resale prices for
the original pressing of the vinyl were far north of
one hundred dollars for a long time.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, I think the Adversey Box saturated the market and
destroyed essentially destroyed the market for some of those original
pressings that were hyperinflated. I haven't seen too many of
those recently.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I wanted to highlight that the front cover artwork which
is really fantastic, was created by Travis Louis, who also
did several posters for Liz Clapol and Primus, and of
course the front cover artwork for the fancy DBD yes.
And now that we mentioned Travis, I just realized that
(10:40):
we have not seen his art grace a show poster
in a very long time.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
He had a couple in twenty ten eleven, I believe,
and after that, Yeah, since then I have not seen.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
The last one. The last one I remember is one
he did I think for the twenty eight Mastodon tour.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Lost track of Travis Lewis. But his style is quite
distinct with these chimera portraits, I suppose, animal human hybrid
portraits that look like some kind of Deguero type type photograph.
They are quite compelling in their presentation. So he certainly
(11:22):
has a distinct style and I do appreciate it, and
it does seem like that visual fits very well with
what's happening on the record.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yes. Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
We should also mention that there is a written statement
from Lesclaypool on the backside of the album release that
reads as follows. Sometime back I was commissioned to write
soundtrack music for two projects that promised to have quite
a bit of very intense and unique imagery. One was
for an interactive game about a meteor that hits Earth
and brings intelligence to the mushrooms within the crash proximity,
(11:53):
and the other was about a three thousand pound wild
boar that terrorizes the marijuana fields of northern California. Obviously,
the makers of the subsequent Mushroom Men game and Pighunt
film were very aware of my tastes and perspectives. Because
the music oozed from me in such a natural way
that I believe it came as much from my pores
as it did my mind. This music became the foundation
(12:15):
of the songs that filled this collection with a few
added tidbits and a bit of gypsy sauce I inflict
upon you of Fungi and foe, nicely written and straightened
to the point. As far as his inspiration, I do
wonder about the phrase the music oozed from me in
(12:35):
such a natural way, because that you hear about music
flowing from people. Instead, this stuff oozed, so hopefully it
wasn't from a gaping, festering wound. And I understand what
he meant by uzed it just came. It just came out,
just naturally, came out from his mind, I suppose, as
(12:57):
well as his pores.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
The photograph of Liz playing bass yea while he's wearing
the cloakwork orange mask that is exclusive to the adverse
Job pressing that is not present in the original one.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
I was curious about that because I do not own
a physical copy of A Fungi and Foe the original
vinyl nor the CD.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Actually, oh well, if you if you open up the digipak,
there's a really cool photograph of Liz with the monkey
mask playing the wamola.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
A very good. I guess I'm gonna have to get
the CD for that.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Just for that, you do get unique cartwork for each one.
But yeah, the two vinyl pressings are are different.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Ah, very good. Let's run down some of these credits
for the album. We of course have less Clay that's
gonna go there on your adverse y repress. We have
joked about some of the typos. This might be the
most egregious. Less Clay tool is credited for bass, guitar, string, bass,
(14:16):
bass banjo, dobro, bass, wamola, penny whistle, Uber, Dogs of Doom,
and vocals. We'll talk about the uber Dogs of Doom
at a later date, I imagine. I think I might
remember the track that's related to But old Lapland Miklovic
is back Frankie on some percussion. Oh thought he retired
after the Electric Apricot fiasco, but Lapland decided to grace
(14:42):
Rentro Relaxo and help out less clay Tool as he
created this record. Our old pal Mike Dylon is back
on tabla viaberaphone and marimba, sam bass on cello, and
he of course is a cornerstone of the Fungi band. Yeah,
(15:03):
and our Pallabaldi drops in for drums on one track.
Because this album is so percussion heavy, there's only one
track with an actual drum kit. We also hear from
Eugene Huts of Gogol, Bordello and Cage. Claypool shows up
on one track playing the slide whistle pretty sweet gig,
(15:26):
and Brian Bain provides an additional lyric and vocal for
the track pretty Little Song. I had to look up
Brian Bain. Turns out he also features in the film
Pig Hunt, so that would maybe that would be the connection.
I read a bit further on him. He's an interesting guy.
He's multifaceted, multi talented and has a lot of pursuits
(15:51):
that are of interest to me. So I'm gonna I'm
gonna try to pursue more of his work. Find out
more about but Brian Bain album was produced and engineered
by Less Claypool, recorded at Rancho Relaxo. Bite Out of
Life is the only co written track that's Claypool and Huts.
Your studio assistant this time was Derek D Duck Walls.
(16:15):
The record was mastered once again by Stephen Marcuson from
Marcuson Mastering. As you mentioned, Travis Lewis did the cover
paintings on the original release. Zoltron did the layout for
the reissue. That was Agent Ogden, and Leon Lajoy was
your project supervisor.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Fantastic.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Wow, a lot of familiar names still on this record,
and I would say I would imagine there's fewer contributions
in total. Now I think there are more names, but
I think there were fewer contributions in total from people
not named Less Claytool on this record than Wales and
(16:56):
Woe because many of these appearances are only one or
two tracks.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah, this is very much a less Claypool record, possibly
more so than Wales and Will.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
And he really backed this one up. He toured quite
extensively with this record throughout two thousand and nine. In
twenty ten, he promoted the album, of course, all across
the USA, but he also dropped by Europe, Australia and
for the first and last time since Israel.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
That's right. It was this tour with this band, which
he played at Israel.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
It was a very extensive tour.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, I remember being startled by the idea that he
was playing Israel in the sense that it's so far
out of the way geographically as to play that one
gig in Israel and then dip out and go home.
So that was that. Yeah, that was very interesting. Didn't
He wasn't most of this Fungui tour with Madis Yahu,
(18:03):
or much of it at any rate.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Madis yeah, who provided support for some of the dates,
but not all of them, okay. And I do recall
that he occasionally joined lis Or. I don't recall if
it was Errol. You can't tell Errol anything or another.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Song, Okay, Yeah, I don't recall when I saw them
in two thousand and nine. If there was an opener
at all, I don't have to plumb the depths of
my memory. It may have been an evening with If.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
You think you know what Madis Yahu looks like, but
you look up any current photo or video of him,
you'll be quite startled.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Oh no, is he clean cut now? Mad Men style?
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Is he really? Because I do remember seeing photos of
him from the time period two thousand and nine to
ten or so, and he certainly looked the part of
the music he was playing.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Okay, now he's got white care now and completely shaven.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Wearing double breasted suits and talking about stock options. Big
turn for him. So yeah, this marked the second release
in a row labeled simply Less Claypool, and it certainly
showed that he was on this bent making music that
(19:26):
was his, you know, bringing people in to phil space
and fill parts that he wanted or imagined would be there.
But this is very much him. I want to read
from a couple of interviews he did around the time
to give you some better context. Yes, I've got an
article called Less Claypool Keeping it Simple from Creative Loafing
(19:46):
out of Charlotte, North Carolina in May two thousand and
nine an article by Jeff Hahn. Claypool's quote is saying,
it's been Less Claypool as a solo artist for a
while now. A lot of that came from my old
agent who just got tired of me having all these
and decided he would just book me as Less Claypool
and I could show up with whoever I wanted. For
a while, the different monikers were the different band members.
(20:07):
This way, I don't get shit if a member of
the Frobrigade can't make it. And his old agent at
that point is Dave Lefquitz, I believe is who he's
referencing there. So left Quitz made a shrewd business decision
to just book him as Less Claypool and then he
could bring on stage whoever he wanted, no worries about Frobrigade,
fancy band, you name it. He also goes on to say,
(20:29):
this is just going to be a good old traveling
around in a shiny box with a bunch of sweaty
men tour. This is my favorite band. Is his combination
of the primal element that I really like rhythmically, and
there's an eclectic abstract element. It's a little darker than
the stuff I've done since Primus. I'm digging it. It
still has the warped circus vibe, but I'm enjoying the instrumentation.
(20:51):
Now here's an interesting note from that same interview Frankie
about the genesis of the songs and how he integrated
them to the record. He said, it was a normal
writing flow for the album. The inspiration in the beginning
was based on what I was seeing on the screen,
or the storyline or artwork from I'm filling in now,
from Mushroom Men or Pig Hunt. Of course, he continues,
(21:14):
so the jump off point was different than usual. I
knew that as I was writing the material I would
use it for something else down the road. They wanted
thirty seconds here and ten seconds there, but I gave
them five minutes here and five minutes there. Once I
get started, I wanted to resolve. I don't want to
just write a little blip. So that tells me a
lot of the tunes that he provided to these two
(21:35):
outlets were fully formed and I think largely replicated for
the record, and he put lyrics to them and maybe
brought in somebody for additional tracking. We'll have to compare them.
Now you've heard the Mushroom Men soundtrack? Are they largely
verbatim to the record right now?
Speaker 2 (21:56):
I don't recall because I haven't heard that's cool or
in several years, but because it's also quite extensive.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
We'll make some comparisons as we go track that track.
How about that?
Speaker 2 (22:08):
We'll have to go back one by one.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Fine, You're off the hook for now.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
It will be exciting.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
In another interview from May two thousand and nine, This
is the Beaufort Gazette in South Carolina by Tim donnelly,
Less says Fung Guy is a little moodier. It gets
different shades of dark and light. It kind of reminds
me of a cross between some old Peter Gabriel and
Captain Beefheart. I just like the vibe of it. Very
(22:37):
interesting comparison. What's your reaction to that?
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Fung Guy is quite out there in terms of the mainstream.
In terms of Peter Gabriel, I think Peter Gabriel is
much tamer than anything you can find on Fong Guy
and Fall. But I think Captain beef Party is way
out there than Fung Guy.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
The beef Heart invocation got my attention of course, because
I'm a big beef Heart fan, I would say there
is some latter day beef Heart perhaps, but I'm going
off of memory of these tunes. That's where I would go.
The latter day. His final three albums in Spots were
(23:22):
really punchy and high energy, but there were some plotters
that certainly had this kind of ooziness I suppose, you know.
I certainly wouldn't say there's any trout Mess replica to
look for on Fung Guy, but some of that latter
day when he slowed it down and just got kind
(23:42):
of weird, even something like I'm going to googlerize your baby,
that you could hear bits and pieces of that maybe
in something like Fung Guy Boy, I got fired up
to talk about beef Heart. That's my next podcast, Frankie,
let's go taking it as a whole of Fung Guy
and Foe once again. Really really excited actually to hear
(24:03):
these songs, many of these songs again for the first
time in sixteen years. I do have some memories of
some of them. I just I just wonder how it's
going to resonate with me at this point, because it
certainly didn't at the time. Now have you said it
has replay value for you? Every once in a while
a track grabs you, so this time around, the last
(24:24):
time around, it was prime by twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yes, I love that song I have.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
I don't even know how it goes. I couldn't tell you,
which actually puts me in good company because regularly at
VIP sessions, when fans ask, hey, when are you guys
going to play this song, less says, I don't remember
how to play that, so he does not it goes either,
So I think I'm in a good place here.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
You know.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
The other thing I recall is it did get a
lukewarm reception in the fan base. And when I say
the fan base, I mean the bull board. And when
I talk about the bull board, of course, I'm talking
about hardcore fans with no lives who bitch and moan
on the internet all day. So it's definitely a skewed sample.
But this album I don't think was well loved by
(25:11):
that group of people. And the reviews I read, because
I was still in the habit of reading reviews of
Primus and Claypool releases just to see what critics had
to say, because most of them were mainstream critics, and
I wanted to see how confounded they were this one.
They weren't as complementary of this one as they were
(25:32):
of Wales.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
And it's not as successible as Wales or the circle
outside the hardcore. Yeah, it would certainly not appeal the same.
I think you have to be a certified Claypool aficionado
in order to fully enjoy this record. It's not something
(25:56):
I would recommend to someone that has never heard Less before.
Kind of a very Yeah, it's a very niche piece
of work. Something that I wanted to highlight that just
came to my mind is that when I listen to
to this record, I do get the impression that it's
really obvious which tracks Less worked from off of the
(26:20):
score that he had composed. Yeah, they do have that
mushroom theme. But for the other songs, whether they were
just instrumentals and he added lyrics to them or he
created them from scratch, I get impression that with this
record he was digging for topics to write songs about,
(26:44):
and that's why we ended up with a song about
his dog there.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
And yeah, I'm not going to impugne anybody for writing
a song about their dog, because dogs are great, and
I have three of them. But at the same time,
when you write a song about your dog, I also
have another thought, which is you're just looking around for
stuff to write about at this point.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
That's the impression I have as well.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
But once again, dogs are great. So even if the
impetus was I need something to write about, I'm not
gonna get on anybody's case for it. So would you
compare this then? So you state that this is a
really niche album. So this is for the hardcore fans.
So first of all, because it didn't resonate with me,
I'm not a true fan, right, so we can we
(27:36):
can establish that right now. Okay, good, I'm not a
true Claypool fan. Good, we've we've we've put that to rest.
Didn't Bowie make a noise rock album or something? Didn't
Didn't he make an album that was extremely out there
that alienated a lot of his fans too.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Maybe you're thinking about Mental Machine Music by Lou Wreath.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Which is just guitar feed Oh you know, well the
entire thing. Yes, I certainly know metal machine music and
that that's an interesting comparison because metal machine music is
something you would listen to on a dare, but.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Which with Boe with Bowie, I think you might be
referring to the Tin Machine records, which, yeah, they were
very very heavy on the guitars, very loud.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
On the drums as well. Some of the songs were
quite abrasive, and Bowie took a stance where he said,
I'm not the front man, I'm just another band member.
Sometimes he was in the background. Sometimes he would let
the drummer sing, sometimes he would let the bass player
singer song. And yeah, that did irritate quite a few fans.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Ah, okay, So Bowie was performing as a member of
Tin Machine and hiding behind that name. As I look
at the name of the band and the album, whereas
a Fungui and Foe says less Claypool and big letters
right on the top. So he's owning it, right. It's interesting.
(29:09):
That's interesting to me that Bowie would would say, no,
this is this is the band, this isn't me, even
though he's part of the band and making this music.
But people followed him to it because he had such
a huge following, and so maybe it's not an apt comparison,
but it's it's an interesting one to consider, and you
would know better than I on that front, but it
(29:30):
is I would say you are probably steering us in
the right direction. That FUNGI might be not necessarily the
most challenging record listening wise that Claypool ever put out,
but it might be one of the least accessible in
terms of perhaps memorable hooks, and in a lot of ways.
(29:53):
I think he defied expectation with how he made this record,
and maybe that's what through a lot of LI listeners
back in two thousand and nine, that they just weren't
prepared for this in a way, and I think I
fell victim to that myself and maybe judged it too
harshly at the time.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
At the same time, I think the record does put
itself out there right off the gate. I mean, you
listen to Mushroom Men, and it pretty much sets the
tone for what you're getting throughout the rest of the offerings.
I think if you find a positive quality in that track,
(30:30):
if you find something to enjoy in that one, then
I think it's very likely you'll have a good time
with the rest of the record. But if you're immediately
put off by the production or by the style of
the vocals or instrumentation, then yeah, it doesn't it will
(30:51):
not go uphell for you after Mushroom.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Men, you know, looking at the track listing and and
some live set lists from this tour, it's it's not
like he made this record and then hit it away.
He toured on it for a long time and played
a whole bunch of songs off it night after night
after night, so he owned it for sure. Yeah, but he.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Also left out several of them. He got closer with
Wales to performing the full album live, then with fun Guy,
there were several songs that he did not approach at
all during the tour.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
So looking at the track listing, the first four Mushroom Men, Amanita's,
Red State, and Boonville Stomp, I think those were regulars.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Those Yeah, those were staples for sure.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
And then for the rest of the record where some
of these ignored completely.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
So what's next?
Speaker 3 (31:45):
George Martin and Can That.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Was played a bit? Yeah, okay, Can til Errol was
also played several times.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Now, Bite out of Life? Did they ever attack that one?
Speaker 2 (31:56):
That was not performed live at all?
Speaker 3 (31:58):
I guess Eugene Huts wasn't there, So yeah, you're justified. Uh,
he's he's one of a kind. Kazoo Prime.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
By twenty nine, Kazu and Prime were never performed live.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Oh wow? Okay. How about a pretty little song that.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Was never performed live?
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Okay? You know, I have a vague memory of did
they ever do Old Rosco? That might have been my
favorite on the record.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
That was never don live?
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Oh my gosh. Okay. So after those first four tunes,
it gets pretty sparse as far as.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
What was included in live show.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Wow, all right then, and I had forgotten there was
even a title track. The penultimate track is called a
Fungi and Foe. It's a minute fifty two seconds. No
recollection to that. So I have my work cut out
for me over the next twelve episodes. Frankie, I'm going
to be wowed, I think by by the idea of
(32:54):
more or less new music to me. Yeah, all right,
it's it's like I got a new record without doing anything.
This is great, no regrets. All right. So we've got
twelve of these tracks to dig into. We'll probably talk
about we'll definitely have live cuts along the way. So
we're going to hear some of the samples of those
(33:15):
first four tracks and hopefully samples of some of these
other ones that were played a time or two.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Interestingly, interestingly enough, the tour was heavier on primus material
than Wales and Woa.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Oh interesting yeah, because they played Southbound and Fisticuffs for me, Yes, so.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
And quite and those were quite regularly on the set list.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Well as as we've discussed before, and and Soya has
told us he likes to drop hints in the live
sets as to what might be coming, and so to
insert those into the Fungi sets fairly regularly must have
been a sign at the time, as you know, especially
(34:03):
as that tour war on and they played those primus numbers,
that that something may have been a foot uh. And
of course it eventually did come to fruition. So I
do wonder if that he already knew at that point
and was just warming those up. Interesting. Well, A fung
Guy and Foe, we're gonna We're gonna track you you.
(34:25):
I'll say that again, A fung Guy and Foe you
will be tracked. Frankie, if you were to recommend two
tracks from this record that best represented it but also
might grab the ears of the listener, what too would
you select?
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Oh? Wow, yeah, so Prime I think is a very
acquired taste. So if I if I were to recommend
two accessible tracks for people to appreciate and enjoy this record,
Amanita's definitely because I think the hook is fantastic and
the baseline is very catchy. And then for the second offering,
(35:09):
Torn Between Red State, which I think has also kind
of a radio appealout presenting the rest of the tracks,
either that one or Boom Bill, and not necessarily because
they're my favorites, but because I think they're more accessible
than the rest of the offerings on the record.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Amanitas Red State Girls.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Yeah, but Amanitas at the front for sure. I think
that's one of the best songs on the album.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
So if like me, you've heard this record once or
perhaps zero times, go find Amanitas and Red State Girl
give yourself a preview of what's to come. That's all
I've got, Frankie parting thoughts for our wonderful primates.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Frankie, I'm truly looking forward to hearing what Josh has
to say on first impression basis.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
For many of these songs, I find it exciting when
Josh is not that familiar with the material, because then
his opinion he is very honest and very interesting.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Well as we know, it's just a matter of opinion
at all times. Yeah, it's very rare that this happens.
Fungi and fi, I know, is the big gap. The
rest are just tiny little pinholes. So let's see what's
to come. Primates, pri Matrons, people of Earth, thank you
all so much for listening. We're delving into my unknown
(36:38):
of fungi in Foe later days.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Will A Mace
It's Josh freaky.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
What a couple of dump shits.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Hello Primates. You found Primus Tracks. Congratulations or many places
to find Primus Tracks, but the podcast is probably the
best one, unless you like reading text. If that is
the case, you should go to Primus Tracks on Instagram,
possibly threads, Facebook if you're nasty, and there's an email
address called Primustrackspot at gmail dot com. I am Josh,
(00:42):
one of the hosts of Primus Tracks. That Riotus laughter
you heard is the voice of the other host of
Primus Tracks from the thirty ninth floor of Primus Tracks
Towers in Mexico City. It's Frankie.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Hey, Josh, Frankie.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
We have made it to the wonderful dulcet tones of
a Fungi and foe.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
It is amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I took a step back recently and realized we've been
doing this for five and a half years, roughly the
sheer amount of music we have covered to this point
all the Primus discography, some other albums that lay scattered
throughout the chronology, but we are approaching the landing strip,
I suppose for even the less Claypool discography separate from Primus.
(01:27):
Are you nervous.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
No, okay, good.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
You are not suffering any kind of quandary about where
to go afterwards. Thank you for living in the moment
and bringing me perspective. I'm back.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
There will always be something to this cuss.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
That is the point of view that I will take
is bottomless well, and it gets darker the further we descend.
So we are today we are giving an overview to
the two thousand and nine Less Claypool record of Fungi
and Foe, and subsequent episodes will tackle one track at
a time before we get into the nuts and bolts,
(02:06):
nitty gritty minute details. Frankie, I have to preface by
saying I have next to no relationship with this record.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I listened to it once upon release in two thousand
and nine. It did not resonate with me. I put
it away. I haven't listened to it since I have.
I haven't listened to the tracks to preview them for
our episodes yet. I'm going to be just taking them
one at a time as we do our episodes. I
suppose the silver lining is they will feel like new songs.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So we could say that the last time you heard
fung Guy material was when some of those songs were
performed by the frug Brigade in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Three, maybe Eminitas, I don't even remember which two they
played in twenty three Amanitas and then and I did
see the Fun Guy banned in two thousand and nine,
so I saw some of the tunes that are on
this record, but go you right well, and I think
I've spoken of that before. They they played a couple
Primus numbers and it just wasn't the same, and I
(03:07):
was resigned to the idea that this is, this is
what we have, this I should I should appreciate what
we have. And and then Primus came back the next
year and the excitement level was off the charts. I
do know a couple of these tunes by name, like
Red State Girl. I remember that one because I remember
(03:28):
the live performance of it. But going on the track list,
there are many I couldn't hummet to you right now.
So this will be this will be an interesting exercise
for me. I was just at a point in two
thousand and nine where I was looking for more edgy music,
or maybe more aggressive than what was presented on Fungui
and and I was in that mode at that time.
(03:51):
Stretching my tendrils out, trying to grab onto as many
new things as I could. So it was more of
a period of exploration for me, and even a new
Less Claypoole record didn't hold me. I guess what I'm
getting at is it's not necessarily the record's fault. I
don't know. I haven't listened to it in sixteen years,
so and of course my perspective now in twenty twenty
(04:13):
five is going to be vastly different than it was
sixteen years ago. So I'm really interested to see where
it takes me. How about you, Frankie, When did you
first hear this record when it came out? Okay? And
it has it stayed in rotation for you?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
It has because I really like the production, the lyrics,
and I think it's it's not something exclusive to this record,
but it's something that happens to me with the entire
less Claypool and Primis discography. But yearly I'll discover that
one lone song I never paid attention to before, and
(04:52):
then it will start living in my mind rent free.
In this case, I've developed somewhat of an obsession with
Prime By twenty nine, I just love the bassline on
that song and the lyrics as well, mind you, prior
to this year. It's a song that just came and
went for me. When I played the album, I didn't
(05:13):
mind mind it much. So I do enjoy the record
a lot. I think is very cohesive from the perspective
of the of the theme and the production. And just
like we've discussed this previously with albums like Riddles or
Wales and Woe, Fungi is an album that sounds unlike
(05:34):
anything else out there. I don't think there's any record
that you'll find anywhere that sounds exactly like this one.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah, it certainly is different from my recollection, limited as
it is, but it certainly is unique to this Claypool catalog,
and I would say to the wider world of music
as well, although that's it could be a stretch to
say that, because I certainly have not heard every record
(06:04):
that's ever been put out. But there's there's certainly a
lot of creeptastic music out there that this might be
able to be lumped in with. Let's look at some
of our album information, Frankie. First of all, the title
of Fungi and Foe follows the pattern from of Wales
and woe and Fungi and Foe is not a random occurrence,
(06:26):
he didn't. He chose the alliteration for a particular reason.
One it rolls off the tongue of fungi and foe,
and two, Fungi and Foe reference specific projects that Less
had worked on that informed this release, of course, Fungi
being mushroom Men, the Spore Wars, the video game released
on Nintendo Wii. That's how old this record is. Frankie,
(06:48):
the Nintendo Wii, and the movie pig Hunt, in which
Less plays a deranged preacher. I've never seen pig Hunt, so.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
I've never been able to watch it either or listen
to those instrumentals that he composed for it.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yes, it's hard to find the instrumentals. I believe you
can hear snippets of them, of course in the film,
but I don't know that there are isolated tracks of them, no.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
As I've never seen them available anywhere.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, I don't think they appear on the DVD, which recently,
I would say, as of a couple months ago, was
sitting there for five dollars in change, and I didn't
wear it. It was on Oh okay, Yeah, and I
just thought I should buy this and then I didn't.
So maybe that does speak to how I feel about
(07:45):
this record, or felt about it at the time too.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
A shout out to my friend Cam for hooking me
up several years ago with the sport Wars soundtrack, so
I was able to listen to that score thanks to him.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Oh there is there a physical release of that, No, but.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
He had the tracks. He shared them with me, and
you can easily find them on YouTube now. Yes, floaded
them a well back.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah, there's a playlist from fifteen years ago that has
the entire soundtrack, including the four or five tracks that
Less was a part of, readily available on YouTube. And
they're they're very interesting artifacts, I suppose because you can
see the direct line to the material on Fungi and Foe.
(08:35):
So we'll be sampling those when they're appropriate to the track,
and I'll put the link to them in the show
notes as well. So of Fungi and Foe, released March seventeen,
two thousand and nine, on pron Song Records. Formats included
a CD, a vinyl pressing, and an MP three download.
The vinyl was pretty hard to find and remains so
(08:59):
until the reissue as part of the adverse Yaw Box
in twenty twenty four. We have twelve tracks totally forty
nine minutes and thirty eight seconds, and as we mentioned,
the record is made from two distinct musical contributions, one
to the Mushroom Men video game, the other to the
Pig Hunt film.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Unlike Wilson Woe, there were no bonus tracks here.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Okay, so upon release you just got what was on
the record and nothing What what just saw is what
you got.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
I believe Frankie, you own that original vinyl from two
thousand and nine. Correct.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I owned the original vinyl and I got it signed
and dedicated by Mike Dillon a few years back.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Very nice.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So it takes pride in my collection for sure.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Excellent. That is a rare bird, and resale prices for
the original pressing of the vinyl were far north of
one hundred dollars for a long time.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, I think the Adversey Box saturated the market and
destroyed essentially destroyed the market for some of those original
pressings that were hyperinflated. I haven't seen too many of
those recently.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I wanted to highlight that the front cover artwork which
is really fantastic, was created by Travis Louis, who also
did several posters for Liz Clapol and Primus, and of
course the front cover artwork for the fancy DBD yes.
And now that we mentioned Travis, I just realized that
(10:40):
we have not seen his art grace a show poster
in a very long time.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
He had a couple in twenty ten eleven, I believe,
and after that, Yeah, since then I have not seen.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
The last one. The last one I remember is one
he did I think for the twenty eight Mastodon tour.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Lost track of Travis Lewis. But his style is quite
distinct with these chimera portraits, I suppose, animal human hybrid
portraits that look like some kind of Deguero type type photograph.
They are quite compelling in their presentation. So he certainly
(11:22):
has a distinct style and I do appreciate it, and
it does seem like that visual fits very well with
what's happening on the record.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yes. Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
We should also mention that there is a written statement
from Lesclaypool on the backside of the album release that
reads as follows. Sometime back I was commissioned to write
soundtrack music for two projects that promised to have quite
a bit of very intense and unique imagery. One was
for an interactive game about a meteor that hits Earth
and brings intelligence to the mushrooms within the crash proximity,
(11:53):
and the other was about a three thousand pound wild
boar that terrorizes the marijuana fields of northern California. Obviously,
the makers of the subsequent Mushroom Men game and Pighunt
film were very aware of my tastes and perspectives. Because
the music oozed from me in such a natural way
that I believe it came as much from my pores
as it did my mind. This music became the foundation
(12:15):
of the songs that filled this collection with a few
added tidbits and a bit of gypsy sauce I inflict
upon you of Fungi and foe, nicely written and straightened
to the point. As far as his inspiration, I do
wonder about the phrase the music oozed from me in
(12:35):
such a natural way, because that you hear about music
flowing from people. Instead, this stuff oozed, so hopefully it
wasn't from a gaping, festering wound. And I understand what
he meant by uzed it just came. It just came out,
just naturally, came out from his mind, I suppose, as
(12:57):
well as his pores.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
The photograph of Liz playing bass yea while he's wearing
the cloakwork orange mask that is exclusive to the adverse
Job pressing that is not present in the original one.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
I was curious about that because I do not own
a physical copy of A Fungi and Foe the original
vinyl nor the CD.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Actually, oh well, if you if you open up the digipak,
there's a really cool photograph of Liz with the monkey
mask playing the wamola.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
A very good. I guess I'm gonna have to get
the CD for that.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Just for that, you do get unique cartwork for each one.
But yeah, the two vinyl pressings are are different.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Ah, very good. Let's run down some of these credits
for the album. We of course have less Clay that's
gonna go there on your adverse y repress. We have
joked about some of the typos. This might be the
most egregious. Less Clay tool is credited for bass, guitar, string, bass,
(14:16):
bass banjo, dobro, bass, wamola, penny whistle, Uber, Dogs of Doom,
and vocals. We'll talk about the uber Dogs of Doom
at a later date, I imagine. I think I might
remember the track that's related to But old Lapland Miklovic
is back Frankie on some percussion. Oh thought he retired
after the Electric Apricot fiasco, but Lapland decided to grace
(14:42):
Rentro Relaxo and help out less clay Tool as he
created this record. Our old pal Mike Dylon is back
on tabla viaberaphone and marimba, sam bass on cello, and
he of course is a cornerstone of the Fungi band. Yeah,
(15:03):
and our Pallabaldi drops in for drums on one track.
Because this album is so percussion heavy, there's only one
track with an actual drum kit. We also hear from
Eugene Huts of Gogol, Bordello and Cage. Claypool shows up
on one track playing the slide whistle pretty sweet gig,
(15:26):
and Brian Bain provides an additional lyric and vocal for
the track pretty Little Song. I had to look up
Brian Bain. Turns out he also features in the film
Pig Hunt, so that would maybe that would be the connection.
I read a bit further on him. He's an interesting guy.
He's multifaceted, multi talented and has a lot of pursuits
(15:51):
that are of interest to me. So I'm gonna I'm
gonna try to pursue more of his work. Find out
more about but Brian Bain album was produced and engineered
by Less Claypool, recorded at Rancho Relaxo. Bite Out of
Life is the only co written track that's Claypool and Huts.
Your studio assistant this time was Derek D Duck Walls.
(16:15):
The record was mastered once again by Stephen Marcuson from
Marcuson Mastering. As you mentioned, Travis Lewis did the cover
paintings on the original release. Zoltron did the layout for
the reissue. That was Agent Ogden, and Leon Lajoy was
your project supervisor.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Fantastic.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Wow, a lot of familiar names still on this record,
and I would say I would imagine there's fewer contributions
in total. Now I think there are more names, but
I think there were fewer contributions in total from people
not named Less Claytool on this record than Wales and
(16:56):
Woe because many of these appearances are only one or
two tracks.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah, this is very much a less Claypool record, possibly
more so than Wales and Will.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
And he really backed this one up. He toured quite
extensively with this record throughout two thousand and nine. In
twenty ten, he promoted the album, of course, all across
the USA, but he also dropped by Europe, Australia and
for the first and last time since Israel.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
That's right. It was this tour with this band, which
he played at Israel.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
It was a very extensive tour.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, I remember being startled by the idea that he
was playing Israel in the sense that it's so far
out of the way geographically as to play that one
gig in Israel and then dip out and go home.
So that was that. Yeah, that was very interesting. Didn't
He wasn't most of this Fungui tour with Madis Yahu,
(18:03):
or much of it at any rate.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Madis yeah, who provided support for some of the dates,
but not all of them, okay. And I do recall
that he occasionally joined lis Or. I don't recall if
it was Errol. You can't tell Errol anything or another.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Song, Okay, Yeah, I don't recall when I saw them
in two thousand and nine. If there was an opener
at all, I don't have to plumb the depths of
my memory. It may have been an evening with If.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
You think you know what Madis Yahu looks like, but
you look up any current photo or video of him,
you'll be quite startled.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Oh no, is he clean cut now? Mad Men style?
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Is he really? Because I do remember seeing photos of
him from the time period two thousand and nine to
ten or so, and he certainly looked the part of
the music he was playing.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Okay, now he's got white care now and completely shaven.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Wearing double breasted suits and talking about stock options. Big
turn for him. So yeah, this marked the second release
in a row labeled simply Less Claypool, and it certainly
showed that he was on this bent making music that
(19:26):
was his, you know, bringing people in to phil space
and fill parts that he wanted or imagined would be there.
But this is very much him. I want to read
from a couple of interviews he did around the time
to give you some better context. Yes, I've got an
article called Less Claypool Keeping it Simple from Creative Loafing
(19:46):
out of Charlotte, North Carolina in May two thousand and
nine an article by Jeff Hahn. Claypool's quote is saying,
it's been Less Claypool as a solo artist for a
while now. A lot of that came from my old
agent who just got tired of me having all these
and decided he would just book me as Less Claypool
and I could show up with whoever I wanted. For
a while, the different monikers were the different band members.
(20:07):
This way, I don't get shit if a member of
the Frobrigade can't make it. And his old agent at
that point is Dave Lefquitz, I believe is who he's
referencing there. So left Quitz made a shrewd business decision
to just book him as Less Claypool and then he
could bring on stage whoever he wanted, no worries about Frobrigade,
fancy band, you name it. He also goes on to say,
(20:29):
this is just going to be a good old traveling
around in a shiny box with a bunch of sweaty
men tour. This is my favorite band. Is his combination
of the primal element that I really like rhythmically, and
there's an eclectic abstract element. It's a little darker than
the stuff I've done since Primus. I'm digging it. It
still has the warped circus vibe, but I'm enjoying the instrumentation.
(20:51):
Now here's an interesting note from that same interview Frankie
about the genesis of the songs and how he integrated
them to the record. He said, it was a normal
writing flow for the album. The inspiration in the beginning
was based on what I was seeing on the screen,
or the storyline or artwork from I'm filling in now,
from Mushroom Men or Pig Hunt. Of course, he continues,
(21:14):
so the jump off point was different than usual. I
knew that as I was writing the material I would
use it for something else down the road. They wanted
thirty seconds here and ten seconds there, but I gave
them five minutes here and five minutes there. Once I
get started, I wanted to resolve. I don't want to
just write a little blip. So that tells me a
lot of the tunes that he provided to these two
(21:35):
outlets were fully formed and I think largely replicated for
the record, and he put lyrics to them and maybe
brought in somebody for additional tracking. We'll have to compare them.
Now you've heard the Mushroom Men soundtrack? Are they largely
verbatim to the record right now?
Speaker 2 (21:56):
I don't recall because I haven't heard that's cool or
in several years, but because it's also quite extensive.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
We'll make some comparisons as we go track that track.
How about that?
Speaker 2 (22:08):
We'll have to go back one by one.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Fine, You're off the hook for now.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
It will be exciting.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
In another interview from May two thousand and nine, This
is the Beaufort Gazette in South Carolina by Tim donnelly,
Less says Fung Guy is a little moodier. It gets
different shades of dark and light. It kind of reminds
me of a cross between some old Peter Gabriel and
Captain Beefheart. I just like the vibe of it. Very
(22:37):
interesting comparison. What's your reaction to that?
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Fung Guy is quite out there in terms of the mainstream.
In terms of Peter Gabriel, I think Peter Gabriel is
much tamer than anything you can find on Fong Guy
and Fall. But I think Captain beef Party is way
out there than Fung Guy.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
The beef Heart invocation got my attention of course, because
I'm a big beef Heart fan, I would say there
is some latter day beef Heart perhaps, but I'm going
off of memory of these tunes. That's where I would go.
The latter day. His final three albums in Spots were
(23:22):
really punchy and high energy, but there were some plotters
that certainly had this kind of ooziness I suppose, you know.
I certainly wouldn't say there's any trout Mess replica to
look for on Fung Guy, but some of that latter
day when he slowed it down and just got kind
(23:42):
of weird, even something like I'm going to googlerize your baby,
that you could hear bits and pieces of that maybe
in something like Fung Guy Boy, I got fired up
to talk about beef Heart. That's my next podcast, Frankie,
let's go taking it as a whole of Fung Guy
and Foe once again. Really really excited actually to hear
(24:03):
these songs, many of these songs again for the first
time in sixteen years. I do have some memories of
some of them. I just I just wonder how it's
going to resonate with me at this point, because it
certainly didn't at the time. Now have you said it
has replay value for you? Every once in a while
a track grabs you, so this time around, the last
(24:24):
time around, it was prime by twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yes, I love that song I have.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
I don't even know how it goes. I couldn't tell you,
which actually puts me in good company because regularly at
VIP sessions, when fans ask, hey, when are you guys
going to play this song, less says, I don't remember
how to play that, so he does not it goes either,
So I think I'm in a good place here.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
You know.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
The other thing I recall is it did get a
lukewarm reception in the fan base. And when I say
the fan base, I mean the bull board. And when
I talk about the bull board, of course, I'm talking
about hardcore fans with no lives who bitch and moan
on the internet all day. So it's definitely a skewed sample.
But this album I don't think was well loved by
(25:11):
that group of people. And the reviews I read, because
I was still in the habit of reading reviews of
Primus and Claypool releases just to see what critics had
to say, because most of them were mainstream critics, and
I wanted to see how confounded they were this one.
They weren't as complementary of this one as they were
(25:32):
of Wales.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
And it's not as successible as Wales or the circle
outside the hardcore. Yeah, it would certainly not appeal the same.
I think you have to be a certified Claypool aficionado
in order to fully enjoy this record. It's not something
(25:56):
I would recommend to someone that has never heard Less before.
Kind of a very Yeah, it's a very niche piece
of work. Something that I wanted to highlight that just
came to my mind is that when I listen to
to this record, I do get the impression that it's
really obvious which tracks Less worked from off of the
(26:20):
score that he had composed. Yeah, they do have that
mushroom theme. But for the other songs, whether they were
just instrumentals and he added lyrics to them or he
created them from scratch, I get impression that with this
record he was digging for topics to write songs about,
(26:44):
and that's why we ended up with a song about
his dog there.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
And yeah, I'm not going to impugne anybody for writing
a song about their dog, because dogs are great, and
I have three of them. But at the same time,
when you write a song about your dog, I also
have another thought, which is you're just looking around for
stuff to write about at this point.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
That's the impression I have as well.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
But once again, dogs are great. So even if the
impetus was I need something to write about, I'm not
gonna get on anybody's case for it. So would you
compare this then? So you state that this is a
really niche album. So this is for the hardcore fans.
So first of all, because it didn't resonate with me,
I'm not a true fan, right, so we can we
(27:36):
can establish that right now. Okay, good, I'm not a
true Claypool fan. Good, we've we've we've put that to rest.
Didn't Bowie make a noise rock album or something? Didn't
Didn't he make an album that was extremely out there
that alienated a lot of his fans too.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Maybe you're thinking about Mental Machine Music by Lou Wreath.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Which is just guitar feed Oh you know, well the
entire thing. Yes, I certainly know metal machine music and
that that's an interesting comparison because metal machine music is
something you would listen to on a dare, but.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Which with Boe with Bowie, I think you might be
referring to the Tin Machine records, which, yeah, they were
very very heavy on the guitars, very loud.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
On the drums as well. Some of the songs were
quite abrasive, and Bowie took a stance where he said,
I'm not the front man, I'm just another band member.
Sometimes he was in the background. Sometimes he would let
the drummer sing, sometimes he would let the bass player
singer song. And yeah, that did irritate quite a few fans.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Ah, okay, So Bowie was performing as a member of
Tin Machine and hiding behind that name. As I look
at the name of the band and the album, whereas
a Fungui and Foe says less Claypool and big letters
right on the top. So he's owning it, right. It's interesting.
(29:09):
That's interesting to me that Bowie would would say, no,
this is this is the band, this isn't me, even
though he's part of the band and making this music.
But people followed him to it because he had such
a huge following, and so maybe it's not an apt comparison,
but it's it's an interesting one to consider, and you
would know better than I on that front, but it
(29:30):
is I would say you are probably steering us in
the right direction. That FUNGI might be not necessarily the
most challenging record listening wise that Claypool ever put out,
but it might be one of the least accessible in
terms of perhaps memorable hooks, and in a lot of ways.
(29:53):
I think he defied expectation with how he made this record,
and maybe that's what through a lot of LI listeners
back in two thousand and nine, that they just weren't
prepared for this in a way, and I think I
fell victim to that myself and maybe judged it too
harshly at the time.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
At the same time, I think the record does put
itself out there right off the gate. I mean, you
listen to Mushroom Men, and it pretty much sets the
tone for what you're getting throughout the rest of the offerings.
I think if you find a positive quality in that track,
(30:30):
if you find something to enjoy in that one, then
I think it's very likely you'll have a good time
with the rest of the record. But if you're immediately
put off by the production or by the style of
the vocals or instrumentation, then yeah, it doesn't it will
(30:51):
not go uphell for you after Mushroom.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Men, you know, looking at the track listing and and
some live set lists from this tour, it's it's not
like he made this record and then hit it away.
He toured on it for a long time and played
a whole bunch of songs off it night after night
after night, so he owned it for sure. Yeah, but he.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Also left out several of them. He got closer with
Wales to performing the full album live, then with fun Guy,
there were several songs that he did not approach at
all during the tour.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
So looking at the track listing, the first four Mushroom Men, Amanita's,
Red State, and Boonville Stomp, I think those were regulars.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Those Yeah, those were staples for sure.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
And then for the rest of the record where some
of these ignored completely.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
So what's next?
Speaker 3 (31:45):
George Martin and Can That.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Was played a bit? Yeah, okay, Can til Errol was
also played several times.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Now, Bite out of Life? Did they ever attack that one?
Speaker 2 (31:56):
That was not performed live at all?
Speaker 3 (31:58):
I guess Eugene Huts wasn't there, So yeah, you're justified. Uh,
he's he's one of a kind. Kazoo Prime.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
By twenty nine, Kazu and Prime were never performed live.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Oh wow? Okay. How about a pretty little song that.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Was never performed live?
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Okay? You know, I have a vague memory of did
they ever do Old Rosco? That might have been my
favorite on the record.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
That was never don live?
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Oh my gosh. Okay. So after those first four tunes,
it gets pretty sparse as far as.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
What was included in live show.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Wow, all right then, and I had forgotten there was
even a title track. The penultimate track is called a
Fungi and Foe. It's a minute fifty two seconds. No
recollection to that. So I have my work cut out
for me over the next twelve episodes. Frankie, I'm going
to be wowed, I think by by the idea of
(32:54):
more or less new music to me. Yeah, all right,
it's it's like I got a new record without doing anything.
This is great, no regrets. All right. So we've got
twelve of these tracks to dig into. We'll probably talk
about we'll definitely have live cuts along the way. So
we're going to hear some of the samples of those
(33:15):
first four tracks and hopefully samples of some of these
other ones that were played a time or two.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Interestingly, interestingly enough, the tour was heavier on primus material
than Wales and Woa.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Oh interesting yeah, because they played Southbound and Fisticuffs for me, Yes, so.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
And quite and those were quite regularly on the set list.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Well as as we've discussed before, and and Soya has
told us he likes to drop hints in the live
sets as to what might be coming, and so to
insert those into the Fungi sets fairly regularly must have
been a sign at the time, as you know, especially
(34:03):
as that tour war on and they played those primus numbers,
that that something may have been a foot uh. And
of course it eventually did come to fruition. So I
do wonder if that he already knew at that point
and was just warming those up. Interesting. Well, A fung
Guy and Foe, we're gonna We're gonna track you you.
(34:25):
I'll say that again, A fung Guy and Foe you
will be tracked. Frankie, if you were to recommend two
tracks from this record that best represented it but also
might grab the ears of the listener, what too would
you select?
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Oh? Wow, yeah, so Prime I think is a very
acquired taste. So if I if I were to recommend
two accessible tracks for people to appreciate and enjoy this record,
Amanita's definitely because I think the hook is fantastic and
the baseline is very catchy. And then for the second offering,
(35:09):
Torn Between Red State, which I think has also kind
of a radio appealout presenting the rest of the tracks,
either that one or Boom Bill, and not necessarily because
they're my favorites, but because I think they're more accessible
than the rest of the offerings on the record.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Amanitas Red State Girls.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Yeah, but Amanitas at the front for sure. I think
that's one of the best songs on the album.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
So if like me, you've heard this record once or
perhaps zero times, go find Amanitas and Red State Girl
give yourself a preview of what's to come. That's all
I've got, Frankie parting thoughts for our wonderful primates.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Frankie, I'm truly looking forward to hearing what Josh has
to say on first impression basis.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
For many of these songs, I find it exciting when
Josh is not that familiar with the material, because then
his opinion he is very honest and very interesting.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Well as we know, it's just a matter of opinion
at all times. Yeah, it's very rare that this happens.
Fungi and fi, I know, is the big gap. The
rest are just tiny little pinholes. So let's see what's
to come. Primates, pri Matrons, people of Earth, thank you
all so much for listening. We're delving into my unknown
(36:38):
of fungi in Foe later days.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Will A Mace
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