October 20, 2025 • 29 mins
Do you know a boy who's taken a bite out of life? I suppose that description qualifies guest performer Eugene Hutz, a man of fire and energy whose work with Gogol Bordello has delighted audiences the world over. Eugene brings a jolt to the side two opener of Of Fungi And Foe in the form of guitar strumming (the only guitar on the record!) and unintelligible wailing mixed with what might be Ukranian phrases. Put some pep in your step with this track, and do something fun/wacky/thrilling.
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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 1 (00:21):
Hello, Primate, you found Primus Tracks. Congratulations. I mean that
from the bottom of my heart. By finding Primates Tracks,
you have guaranteed for you and your descendants prosperity, wealth,
long life. If your descendants do not attain those traits,
go ahead and sue me. I'll have been dead for
(00:42):
one hundred years. My name is Josh. I am a
co host of Primus Tracts might be the worst and
trow ever, and he is actually acting as my attorney
in these matters of false guarantees of wealth and prosperity.
It's Frankie Bearstein.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Hello, Josh.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Hello, thank you for being my raoul duke in this situation. Well, Frankie,
welcome back to Privus Tracks. Today we are talking about
Bite out of Life. It starts side two of your
of Fungi and Foe release from two thousand and nine.
Here we are on side too, Frankie. Wow, and I
hope you will sharpened.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
We have flipped the record over.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
We flipped the record over and as it was queuing up,
we sharpened our teeth so we could take a big
bite out of this track.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Brilliant.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Before we talk about bite out of life, as we
sometimes do, there's a miscellaneous debris.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
This goes way back and it's I think it's a
very interesting discovery. A new listener, Rof Banner, just stumbled
upon the podcast and he's going through the episodes. He
messaged us to let us know that American life doesn't faith.
So we've been taken for two decades.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
First of all, people listen to this podcast. Yes, okay, parents, sure,
what do you mean it doesn't fade? Are you saying
on the record it doesn't fade?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Exactly? He told me that, And I verify this. If
you play the song very loudly and you crank, I mean,
if you put your ear as close to the speaker
as you can, you actually hear the final notes being played.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Oh okay, Yes, I probably did that when I was
a teenager because I had a big volume knob on
my stereo. I would crank the volume knob at the
inverse of the fade out so I could try to
maintain a constant volume as the track faded out, so
(02:50):
I could hear it the way I wanted to, which
was at full volume. And so I definitely made it
to the end of American Life by cranking that knob
all the way. I must have done that with American
Life because I did it with a lot of tracks. Okay,
so it doesn't fade all the way out. We hear
the ending on the record.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
There's an ending. Yeah, thank you, R Banner.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah, thank you for reaching out about a track we
talked about four and a half years ago. I appreciate
that very much.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Much appreciateth.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
It's good to know people are combing through all. Appreciate
it absolutely. A couple other things we ought to discuss.
Our pal John Hoffman is up for a Modern Drummer
Award Frankie for Best rog Drummer twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Competing with some world class hippies. Right.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Hoffer, being one of the more humble people you'll ever meet,
was more than complimentary of the field. Danny Carey, Mike Portnoy,
a couple other names I can't remember. He'll gladly tell
you that one of them deserves it over him. But yes,
if you want to stuff the ballot box, all you
have to do is go to Modern Drummer dot com.
(03:58):
Fither twenty twenty twenty twenty five Reader's poll castor vote,
have fun. A couple other things on Hoffer. Frankie, and
I've said this before, really thankful that he is so
active on social media. As we know, Lesson Larry have
Instagram accounts and they post sporadically, but Hoffer's on it.
(04:21):
He's been intensively practicing his double kick, and I know
that just feeds into for you, Frankie nut butter mania
for New Year's Eve, Binger's crossed time. That's right, That's
the first one that came to mind for me was ooh,
I want to hear that. So he's been woodshedding a lot,
(04:42):
and he just posted just minutes before we began recording,
an autographed photo of pro football legend Drew Brees that
was inscribed Primus Sucks that he received from Brad Sands.
How cool is that?
Speaker 3 (05:01):
It is absolutely awesome?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
You bet. I'm sure that's the first time Drew Brees
ever heard of primus, but he Sanzio was nice enough
to to do that because Drew Brees played most of
his football career in the state of Louisiana and Hoffer
one of his bigger fans. So all right, cool to
see that for hoff hoff for doing a lot these days.
(05:25):
Now it's time for tracks seven of Fungi and Foe.
It's entitled Bite Out of Life. It checks in it
four minutes and thirty four seconds credits hors follows Frankie Less,
Claypool or clay Toool, Nasty Tool. Okay, so you're nasty,
because that's if you're nasty. Basin percussion. I think Lapland
(05:46):
might have dropped in for some percussion as well. Eugene
Huts of Google Bordello fame on guitar and vocals. Paolo
baldis very distinctive guitar and vocals, Yes from Eugene. So
this one is quite a bit different from everything offered
on side one open side two with an unexpected dose
(06:11):
of adrenaline, a bit of a bang, and a lot
of noise. What do you have on this one, Frankie?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
It definitely stands out from the rest of the record,
And I can't quite tell if it's because of the
the guests on the song or if it's because it's
so upbeat, whereas other tracks are very atmospheric and meandering,
(06:42):
and this one, I mean, it's it's very straight up right,
it's very upbeat. So it's in stark. It's certainly in
stark contrast with side one of the record. I think
it's a very interesting way to open side B.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yes, and it's completely unexpected. Now well, I have had
a dim memory of this track from two thousand and nine,
but coming back to it, I do I did remember
that it was more upbeat and louder. But even in
two thousand and nine, when I first listened to the
record for the only time, I suppose, I do recall
(07:19):
being startled by the guitar, for one, because this is
the only appearance of a guitar on the record, and
that it was double time and loud and racus I
was pleasantly surprised by that on that initial listen all
those years ago, but there were some things that detracted
from it, as as it was for me in two
(07:41):
thousand and nine. We should note too, that this is
the start of zero live tracks correct for the rest
of the.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Record, Yes, starting onward from this track till the end.
None of the songs were ever performed live, and in
the case of this one, in the case of Bites,
the obvious absence of Eugene I think would leave a
considerable hole in the song. So I can see why.
(08:08):
I can see why it was never performed live.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
I I yes, I would not envy the person tasked
with emulating Eugene's vocal delivery, energy, and overall presence, because
that is what he brings in spades. I should say
about Eugene actually that I knew of him before this
(08:31):
collaboration with Claypool. I had seen I had read the
novel Everything Is Illuminated in the early aughts, and then
I had seen the film adaptation in two thousand and five,
which I had forgotten was written and directed by Leve
Schreiverer of all People, and Eugene is one of the
leads in that film, and he's hilarious. He's great, and
(08:53):
so to this day I still remember his distinctive voice,
you know, saying like this is seeing eye, bitch, Sammy
Davis Jr. It's really good stuff, great novel, innovative novel,
well done film. And that's where I first saw Eugene
(09:15):
and heard his voice. And then I also checked out
the soundtrack CD and there's a handful of Gogle Bordello
tracks on that and that's where I first picked up
on that band and very much enjoyed the instrumentation, energy,
and overall presentation of Gogol Bordetta very yank ye indeed,
(09:36):
very unique and especially to and I'm going to use
air quotes Western listeners such as myself that didn't know
much about Eastern European music, culture, instrumentation, that sort of thing,
and it was it was part of my musical exploration
at the time, and I started going in that direction
(09:58):
with some Eastern European music and influenced music, and then
into the excuse me, into the Caucuses and then meandering
down into the Middle East. I was really getting into
music from that part of the world because it made sense.
I think a lot of people might listen to music
from other parts of the world, are influenced by music
(10:20):
that's not familiar to them and be turned off or
just not be able to find maybe the rhythm, the
pattern or the one. But it certainly spoke to me.
So I was a go Gol Bordella fan pretty early on.
And then of course they're they're all of a sudden,
they're touring and opening for Primus and doing stuff with
(10:42):
less Claypool. Yeah, so that was pretty fun to see.
Where where did you come in on the Eugene huts train.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
With this song. I had never heard Go Gol Bordella before.
I was completely unaware of these musical acts until it
was brought forward by Liz.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Do you have info on guest appearances by Eugene I
with lesson Primis. I remember obviously this studio track Go
Gol opened for Primus in twenty ten. Correct, Yes, okay.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
I recall, yeah, I recall a video. Let me pull
that up. I've seen. There's quite an extensive it's a
very long performance of one particular song, but let me
figure out what it was.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
So Go Go opens for Primus in twenty ten, I
do know. Also, I also recall Less Kirk Hammett, Eugene
and a bunch of other guys jamming on some Tom
Waits tunes some time in the past, although I don't
remember when and where. Maybe you can remind us.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
So, yeah, in Columbus, Ohio. Looks like Primus and Gogel
Bordello performed being in Japan.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Oh cool?
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I think were they also prison the Red Rocks?
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yes, the Red Rock Show. That one was live streamed,
and I remember that because Dead Kenny g'es I think
opened and ripped it and then Go Go Bardello came
on and I assumed it'd be about a forty five
minute set, and they played for like an hour and
a half.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
And the Cold Ground with gogle Bardello, which is also
a Tom Waits number.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
So those two guys definitely bonded over Tom Waits, Yes, Yeah,
And Eugene has a really fascinating background in terms of music.
I was just reading the Wikipedia article on the guy
and sounded like he as a kid was making instruments
out of all kinds of spare parts, doing a lot
of DIY projects so that he could make noise make music.
(12:45):
You know, when you listen to gogle Bardella, there's certainly
traditional musicality to it, but he brings such innovative energy
and ideas that you can hear that shining through that
he thinks differently and it certainly shows and that kind
of reminds me his his di Y background. There's a
(13:06):
there's a guitarist named Undau Maktar and he's uh, he
built his own guitar just out of parts and taught
himself to play, and he plays really innovative stuff and
he's fascinating. He's he's come to prominence in the last
few years. Here, I'm lumping those guys together in my
head just for their innovative takes on on music. Eugene's
(13:30):
an interesting guy. I was delighted to see his name
in the credits. Have you still been down with Gogel
to this day?
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Not really. My only exposure would be this particular song,
and that's where I wanted to highlight that lyrically. Bite
out of Life is a very interesting number because we
get the chorus over and over. I mean, they really
(14:00):
really hammer it down.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Their jaws must have heard from taking so many bites, right.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
But there are just I mean, if you look at
the lyrics on paper, there are just two verses.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Yeah, yeah and I And whatever Eugene saying isn't printed.
So I heard something about a farmer. I can't. I've
never really tried to figure it out.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, it's heavily ad lift and sounds. I mean, it
sounds to me like stream of consciousness lyrics, which he
probably just improvised when he walked up to the microphone
in the studio. Yeah, it's I mean, it's so chaotic
(14:40):
and so so random that I don't think anything of
it was planned beforehand.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah, I think there's something to that because of that energy.
It was probably felt early spontaneous, just to go in
and do something high energy and nutty and do it
all in one take.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Some of it might as well just be giverish.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
I guess, oh yeah, right, it's hard to tell what
it might be. But yeah, the of course the repetition
of a new Boy took a bite out of life,
and that's pretty much the takeaway because as you said,
it's repeated ad nauseum, and of course that matches the
energy of the tune. Right, I'm just gonna we get some.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Really, we get some really great music on this number.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
That's true. I do you know. I remember thinking initially
in two thousand and nine, what a jumbled mess this is,
But I gave it a more honest listen this time around,
and there's there's certainly organization to it.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
And it does it does have very distinctive sections. And yes,
we're I mean the samples that we're going to highlight
to the showcase that even though the lyrics are quite repetitive,
the music is not. Actually, they rarely repeat patterns on
this song. The breakdowns are all unique.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yes, they've got there's certainly a refrain in there, but
it's it's not all a right, it's not all that
the same thing over and over again, exactly which on
the on side A of this record there's a lot
of that, And of course we said there's a lot
of that on the Brown album. So is it a
bad thing, No, especially if you execute it right. So
(16:23):
so this one is certainly different in that regard to
it has distinctive shifts, whereas some of those slower paced
numbers kind of just roll along. Even if there is
a shift, it's subtle, almost as to not be noticeable
to some degree. Let's hear Frankie's favorite parts of Bite
out of Life. I'm gonna take it to forty seconds here,
(16:48):
all right, Frankie. In the first minute we hear this,
See I forgot about the envelope delight.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Uh so that part really typifies the up beat energy
of this track. That's one of those little interstitial moments
that they get away from the main and go into that. Uh,
go into that, I suppose, covey, and then come back
out onto the main road. And then as I paused
at Eugene was about to do something crazy. I love
(17:50):
the bass tone on this even with the envelope filter. Frankie,
this is one of those moments where I'm down, and
I think it's because this number is just so loud
to any way that it doesn't overtake anything else. Yes, yeah,
unless he's doing some some fun finger wiggling there, I suppose.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
And so it's it's moving, and it's you know, I
gotta say, I I welcome Paulo playing on that drum
kit because it feels a bit more complete now he's
not sitting there playing you know, a high hat kicking
snare like he's playing four on the floor. He's doing
something different, but it's certainly also different from what we've
(18:35):
already heard to this point on the record. So we're
going places, and then about halfway through the tune we
hear another of Frankie's favorite parts. Yeah yeah, So in
(19:09):
that moment of the tune, the bottom drops out and
we get that got cock cock, which I love. And
Eugene's yelling something and even if it's nonsense, which it
may not be. He could be yelling something in Ukrainian.
But if he's yelling nonsense, he's so committed to it
that I believe in what he's saying, yes, it's so
(19:33):
great his That's that's one thing I love about his
vocal deliveries. He's a thousand percent committed no matter what.
And then they take off into something else after that
it's it's quite frenetic too. And then we got that
almost distorted envelope filter piece there with the bass getting
(19:55):
overloaded almost it sounded great.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
I love it for the reasons you can imagine.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
It's a two word phrase, first letter E, last letter
E of the first word. I wish we were playing
charades right now. I'd win every time. And then about
three minutes twenty five seconds, Frankie wants us to hear this.
(20:41):
So once again, whatever Eugene's saying, I'm buying it, and
the works. It works great with the baseline, yes, for sure,
it actually does come together pretty well, and it has
more to it than I remembered from years and years ago.
And I think that's what I appreciates about this track
is the variety and letting Eugene just wail like he's saying.
(21:06):
I know he's saying some things here, but in other
parts it's just unintelligible wailing and it works. One thing
I noted about this is that Less is actually still
staying in the pocket and we have a steady drum beat,
so Less isn't going out of control and crazy Less
(21:29):
is just laying it down straight so Eugene can be himself,
which is all over the place. And I think that's great.
I think it's a great match or pairing for this
track for sure. As if we didn't get enough from
this tune, there's a payoff at the.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
End, prete grade, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
We got a call down at the end, love it.
I really I'm a fan of this track now. I
certainly wasn't at the time, and that could be argued
I wasn't a fan of any of the tracks at
the time, but now as we re examine these, this
is one that certainly stands out, simply for the energy.
(22:27):
I don't know if any Google Bordello fans had expectations
of this track when they heard Eugene was collaborating with
Les Claypool, But it's a fun one.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
It's another song that steps away from the fungui lore
of the video game.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Oh yes, absolutely, there's no mushroom connection, there's no wild
boar connection.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
There's just a boy.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
It's a wild man connection, and that wild man is
Eugene Huts. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if actually Less
was out looking for wild bores and just saw Eugene
running around naked in the woods and said, hey, man,
want to come record a song? And that was that.
Uh yeah. And as you say, with the lyrics, there's
(23:11):
not much talk about it. It's just grab life by
the horns and go crazy, you know, Yeah, enjoy it
before it's over, yeah, you basically, and if you start
feeling down, go have some fun, go do something. Yeah,
And I like that it's vague enough. Just go take
a bite out of life. He's not saying ghost sky diving.
He's not saying, you know, hold up python, He's saying,
(23:33):
just go do something fun. There's no definition because it's
different for everybody. My bite out of life, Frankie is
going to be different than yours. Although we can both
agree that cookies, pastries, and milkshakes are divine. Indeed, there's
our common.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Ground and Mountain mic as well.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
This guy loves Mountain Mike's pizza. Yes, So listeners, if
you if you know that Frankie is visiting your fair city,
and there's a Mountain Mike's Pizza. Chances are he will
be there eighteen hours in any given day, just pounding
Mountain Mike's Pizza. Did I tell you there's one right
around the corner from where I work?
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Yeah? You said you go there once a month?
Speaker 1 (24:17):
I usually do.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
And what do you have?
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Whatever? My boss buys?
Speaker 3 (24:24):
Oh? Really? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:25):
I don't even pay for it. It just lands in
front of me. It's a wonderful thing, fantastic living the
good life here. We've talked about it at enough, Frankie,
it's time for Primeates takes. If you want your take
(24:47):
about the track of for discussion right right here on
the podcast, all you have to do is go to
patreon dot com Forward Slash Primus tracks many tears of
support over there. The universal constant is indeed Roy Made's Takes. Today, Frankie,
we have a take on Bite Out of Life from
Edwin Alan Richard's fourth Our Landing Gentry. He says, right
(25:10):
before this album came out, my two biggest musical obsessions
were Gogol, Bordello and Anything Less Claypool. I was beyond
excited when I heard there was going to be a collaboration.
When I finally heard the track, I was so hugely disappointed.
It felt loose, sloppy, and largely improvised for a studio track.
I was so let down. I think I was just
(25:32):
hoping for some of that epic bordello instrumentation and instead
got sloppy acoustic strumming and Eugene's nonsensical wailing. Funny enough,
upon revisiting the track nowadays, I really like it. Wow,
he's redeemed himself. I shouldn't say that, I should say
the track has been redeemed in the eyes of Edwin,
(25:53):
Thank goodness. I would say I suppose he and I
had a similar experience disappointment latter day acceptance. Frankie R.
Pal Brooks has weighed in. Brooks breaks a bill get
ready to lose your job. Brooks says, it's nice to
hear some guitar on this record. I'm a big go
(26:15):
Gol bordello fan, so this one was a hit with
me immediately, and that's how we lost our jobs. John
Shreeve says Bite is primal and screams of pure unbridled masculinity,
just much like Ryan Rashawn Specifically, I like that he's
(26:36):
shouting out fellow prime matrons. Yeah, for unbridled masculinity and
and Primate Stakes is rounded out by our pal Eric
in Australia, who says Bite is a ripping song that
probably wouldn't be much, but the insane gypsy vocal cameo
makes it fire. Eric continues his streak of positive reviews
(27:03):
here and general satisfaction with a fung guy and foe.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
It looks like someone's gonna have a favorite new record.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
I don't know why that was so funny. Well that's
it for Primate Takes. Thank you all so much for
your support and your wise words.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Just before we wrap up, I mean, how could we
omit something so recent. When you asked about collaborations, we
mentioned the live performances they had, but we also need
to highlight that Eugene and Liz worked together once again
(27:45):
for The Man with the Iron Balls.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
That's right. We neglected to mention that one, and that's
their most recent collaboration. We'll definitely talk about that tune
in great detail at a later date because there are
so many people involved in that track. Yeah, I believe
it started with less in Eugene and then went out
(28:08):
from there into the Claypool network that is definitely a
collaboration of note and we'll certainly come back to it.
So Eugene's still in the orbit of less in Primus,
so anything can happen. I actually had lost track of
Gogle Bardello, Frankie and It. They've been churning out albums
(28:29):
over the years and they're still out there touring. So
Eugene's gainfully employed, doing very well. I'm happy for the guy. Well,
I guess I can say this bite out of life.
Chew with your mouth closed. You've been tracked. Next time,
Frankie a song about a dog.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Or a musical instrument. Find out that's the next episode
of Primus Tracks.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
A nice nice that'll do it, Primates, Primatrons people over,
thank you all so much for listening to this here podcast.
Tell a Friend, telegrandparent later Days with a mace
It's Josh freaky.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
What a couple of dump shits.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Hello, Primate, you found Primus Tracks. Congratulations. I mean that
from the bottom of my heart. By finding Primates Tracks,
you have guaranteed for you and your descendants prosperity, wealth,
long life. If your descendants do not attain those traits,
go ahead and sue me. I'll have been dead for
(00:42):
one hundred years. My name is Josh. I am a
co host of Primus Tracts might be the worst and
trow ever, and he is actually acting as my attorney
in these matters of false guarantees of wealth and prosperity.
It's Frankie Bearstein.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Hello, Josh.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Hello, thank you for being my raoul duke in this situation. Well, Frankie,
welcome back to Privus Tracks. Today we are talking about
Bite out of Life. It starts side two of your
of Fungi and Foe release from two thousand and nine.
Here we are on side too, Frankie. Wow, and I
hope you will sharpened.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
We have flipped the record over.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
We flipped the record over and as it was queuing up,
we sharpened our teeth so we could take a big
bite out of this track.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Brilliant.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Before we talk about bite out of life, as we
sometimes do, there's a miscellaneous debris.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
This goes way back and it's I think it's a
very interesting discovery. A new listener, Rof Banner, just stumbled
upon the podcast and he's going through the episodes. He
messaged us to let us know that American life doesn't faith.
So we've been taken for two decades.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
First of all, people listen to this podcast. Yes, okay, parents, sure,
what do you mean it doesn't fade? Are you saying
on the record it doesn't fade?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Exactly? He told me that, And I verify this. If
you play the song very loudly and you crank, I mean,
if you put your ear as close to the speaker
as you can, you actually hear the final notes being played.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Oh okay, Yes, I probably did that when I was
a teenager because I had a big volume knob on
my stereo. I would crank the volume knob at the
inverse of the fade out so I could try to
maintain a constant volume as the track faded out, so
(02:50):
I could hear it the way I wanted to, which
was at full volume. And so I definitely made it
to the end of American Life by cranking that knob
all the way. I must have done that with American
Life because I did it with a lot of tracks. Okay,
so it doesn't fade all the way out. We hear
the ending on the record.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
There's an ending. Yeah, thank you, R Banner.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah, thank you for reaching out about a track we
talked about four and a half years ago. I appreciate
that very much.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Much appreciateth.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
It's good to know people are combing through all. Appreciate
it absolutely. A couple other things we ought to discuss.
Our pal John Hoffman is up for a Modern Drummer
Award Frankie for Best rog Drummer twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Competing with some world class hippies. Right.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Hoffer, being one of the more humble people you'll ever meet,
was more than complimentary of the field. Danny Carey, Mike Portnoy,
a couple other names I can't remember. He'll gladly tell
you that one of them deserves it over him. But yes,
if you want to stuff the ballot box, all you
have to do is go to Modern Drummer dot com.
(03:58):
Fither twenty twenty twenty twenty five Reader's poll castor vote,
have fun. A couple other things on Hoffer. Frankie, and
I've said this before, really thankful that he is so
active on social media. As we know, Lesson Larry have
Instagram accounts and they post sporadically, but Hoffer's on it.
(04:21):
He's been intensively practicing his double kick, and I know
that just feeds into for you, Frankie nut butter mania
for New Year's Eve, Binger's crossed time. That's right, That's
the first one that came to mind for me was ooh,
I want to hear that. So he's been woodshedding a lot,
(04:42):
and he just posted just minutes before we began recording,
an autographed photo of pro football legend Drew Brees that
was inscribed Primus Sucks that he received from Brad Sands.
How cool is that?
Speaker 3 (05:01):
It is absolutely awesome?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
You bet. I'm sure that's the first time Drew Brees
ever heard of primus, but he Sanzio was nice enough
to to do that because Drew Brees played most of
his football career in the state of Louisiana and Hoffer
one of his bigger fans. So all right, cool to
see that for hoff hoff for doing a lot these days.
(05:25):
Now it's time for tracks seven of Fungi and Foe.
It's entitled Bite Out of Life. It checks in it
four minutes and thirty four seconds credits hors follows Frankie Less,
Claypool or clay Toool, Nasty Tool. Okay, so you're nasty,
because that's if you're nasty. Basin percussion. I think Lapland
(05:46):
might have dropped in for some percussion as well. Eugene
Huts of Google Bordello fame on guitar and vocals. Paolo
baldis very distinctive guitar and vocals, Yes from Eugene. So
this one is quite a bit different from everything offered
on side one open side two with an unexpected dose
(06:11):
of adrenaline, a bit of a bang, and a lot
of noise. What do you have on this one, Frankie?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
It definitely stands out from the rest of the record,
And I can't quite tell if it's because of the
the guests on the song or if it's because it's
so upbeat, whereas other tracks are very atmospheric and meandering,
(06:42):
and this one, I mean, it's it's very straight up right,
it's very upbeat. So it's in stark. It's certainly in
stark contrast with side one of the record. I think
it's a very interesting way to open side B.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yes, and it's completely unexpected. Now well, I have had
a dim memory of this track from two thousand and nine,
but coming back to it, I do I did remember
that it was more upbeat and louder. But even in
two thousand and nine, when I first listened to the
record for the only time, I suppose, I do recall
(07:19):
being startled by the guitar, for one, because this is
the only appearance of a guitar on the record, and
that it was double time and loud and racus I
was pleasantly surprised by that on that initial listen all
those years ago, but there were some things that detracted
from it, as as it was for me in two
(07:41):
thousand and nine. We should note too, that this is
the start of zero live tracks correct for the rest
of the.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Record, Yes, starting onward from this track till the end.
None of the songs were ever performed live, and in
the case of this one, in the case of Bites,
the obvious absence of Eugene I think would leave a
considerable hole in the song. So I can see why.
(08:08):
I can see why it was never performed live.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
I I yes, I would not envy the person tasked
with emulating Eugene's vocal delivery, energy, and overall presence, because
that is what he brings in spades. I should say
about Eugene actually that I knew of him before this
(08:31):
collaboration with Claypool. I had seen I had read the
novel Everything Is Illuminated in the early aughts, and then
I had seen the film adaptation in two thousand and five,
which I had forgotten was written and directed by Leve
Schreiverer of all People, and Eugene is one of the
leads in that film, and he's hilarious. He's great, and
(08:53):
so to this day I still remember his distinctive voice,
you know, saying like this is seeing eye, bitch, Sammy
Davis Jr. It's really good stuff, great novel, innovative novel,
well done film. And that's where I first saw Eugene
(09:15):
and heard his voice. And then I also checked out
the soundtrack CD and there's a handful of Gogle Bordello
tracks on that and that's where I first picked up
on that band and very much enjoyed the instrumentation, energy,
and overall presentation of Gogol Bordetta very yank ye indeed,
(09:36):
very unique and especially to and I'm going to use
air quotes Western listeners such as myself that didn't know
much about Eastern European music, culture, instrumentation, that sort of thing,
and it was it was part of my musical exploration
at the time, and I started going in that direction
(09:58):
with some Eastern European music and influenced music, and then
into the excuse me, into the Caucuses and then meandering
down into the Middle East. I was really getting into
music from that part of the world because it made sense.
I think a lot of people might listen to music
from other parts of the world, are influenced by music
(10:20):
that's not familiar to them and be turned off or
just not be able to find maybe the rhythm, the
pattern or the one. But it certainly spoke to me.
So I was a go Gol Bordella fan pretty early on.
And then of course they're they're all of a sudden,
they're touring and opening for Primus and doing stuff with
(10:42):
less Claypool. Yeah, so that was pretty fun to see.
Where where did you come in on the Eugene huts train.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
With this song. I had never heard Go Gol Bordella before.
I was completely unaware of these musical acts until it
was brought forward by Liz.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Do you have info on guest appearances by Eugene I
with lesson Primis. I remember obviously this studio track Go
Gol opened for Primus in twenty ten. Correct, Yes, okay.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
I recall, yeah, I recall a video. Let me pull
that up. I've seen. There's quite an extensive it's a
very long performance of one particular song, but let me
figure out what it was.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
So Go Go opens for Primus in twenty ten, I
do know. Also, I also recall Less Kirk Hammett, Eugene
and a bunch of other guys jamming on some Tom
Waits tunes some time in the past, although I don't
remember when and where. Maybe you can remind us.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
So, yeah, in Columbus, Ohio. Looks like Primus and Gogel
Bordello performed being in Japan.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Oh cool?
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I think were they also prison the Red Rocks?
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yes, the Red Rock Show. That one was live streamed,
and I remember that because Dead Kenny g'es I think
opened and ripped it and then Go Go Bardello came
on and I assumed it'd be about a forty five
minute set, and they played for like an hour and
a half.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
And the Cold Ground with gogle Bardello, which is also
a Tom Waits number.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
So those two guys definitely bonded over Tom Waits, Yes, Yeah,
And Eugene has a really fascinating background in terms of music.
I was just reading the Wikipedia article on the guy
and sounded like he as a kid was making instruments
out of all kinds of spare parts, doing a lot
of DIY projects so that he could make noise make music.
(12:45):
You know, when you listen to gogle Bardella, there's certainly
traditional musicality to it, but he brings such innovative energy
and ideas that you can hear that shining through that
he thinks differently and it certainly shows and that kind
of reminds me his his di Y background. There's a
(13:06):
there's a guitarist named Undau Maktar and he's uh, he
built his own guitar just out of parts and taught
himself to play, and he plays really innovative stuff and
he's fascinating. He's he's come to prominence in the last
few years. Here, I'm lumping those guys together in my
head just for their innovative takes on on music. Eugene's
(13:30):
an interesting guy. I was delighted to see his name
in the credits. Have you still been down with Gogel
to this day?
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Not really. My only exposure would be this particular song,
and that's where I wanted to highlight that lyrically. Bite
out of Life is a very interesting number because we
get the chorus over and over. I mean, they really
(14:00):
really hammer it down.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Their jaws must have heard from taking so many bites, right.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
But there are just I mean, if you look at
the lyrics on paper, there are just two verses.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Yeah, yeah and I And whatever Eugene saying isn't printed.
So I heard something about a farmer. I can't. I've
never really tried to figure it out.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, it's heavily ad lift and sounds. I mean, it
sounds to me like stream of consciousness lyrics, which he
probably just improvised when he walked up to the microphone
in the studio. Yeah, it's I mean, it's so chaotic
(14:40):
and so so random that I don't think anything of
it was planned beforehand.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah, I think there's something to that because of that energy.
It was probably felt early spontaneous, just to go in
and do something high energy and nutty and do it
all in one take.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Some of it might as well just be giverish.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
I guess, oh yeah, right, it's hard to tell what
it might be. But yeah, the of course the repetition
of a new Boy took a bite out of life,
and that's pretty much the takeaway because as you said,
it's repeated ad nauseum, and of course that matches the
energy of the tune. Right, I'm just gonna we get some.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Really, we get some really great music on this number.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
That's true. I do you know. I remember thinking initially
in two thousand and nine, what a jumbled mess this is,
But I gave it a more honest listen this time around,
and there's there's certainly organization to it.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
And it does it does have very distinctive sections. And yes,
we're I mean the samples that we're going to highlight
to the showcase that even though the lyrics are quite repetitive,
the music is not. Actually, they rarely repeat patterns on
this song. The breakdowns are all unique.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yes, they've got there's certainly a refrain in there, but
it's it's not all a right, it's not all that
the same thing over and over again, exactly which on
the on side A of this record there's a lot
of that, And of course we said there's a lot
of that on the Brown album. So is it a
bad thing, No, especially if you execute it right. So
(16:23):
so this one is certainly different in that regard to
it has distinctive shifts, whereas some of those slower paced
numbers kind of just roll along. Even if there is
a shift, it's subtle, almost as to not be noticeable
to some degree. Let's hear Frankie's favorite parts of Bite
out of Life. I'm gonna take it to forty seconds here,
(16:48):
all right, Frankie. In the first minute we hear this,
See I forgot about the envelope delight.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Uh so that part really typifies the up beat energy
of this track. That's one of those little interstitial moments
that they get away from the main and go into that. Uh,
go into that, I suppose, covey, and then come back
out onto the main road. And then as I paused
at Eugene was about to do something crazy. I love
(17:50):
the bass tone on this even with the envelope filter. Frankie,
this is one of those moments where I'm down, and
I think it's because this number is just so loud
to any way that it doesn't overtake anything else. Yes, yeah,
unless he's doing some some fun finger wiggling there, I suppose.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
And so it's it's moving, and it's you know, I
gotta say, I I welcome Paulo playing on that drum
kit because it feels a bit more complete now he's
not sitting there playing you know, a high hat kicking
snare like he's playing four on the floor. He's doing
something different, but it's certainly also different from what we've
(18:35):
already heard to this point on the record. So we're
going places, and then about halfway through the tune we
hear another of Frankie's favorite parts. Yeah yeah, So in
(19:09):
that moment of the tune, the bottom drops out and
we get that got cock cock, which I love. And
Eugene's yelling something and even if it's nonsense, which it
may not be. He could be yelling something in Ukrainian.
But if he's yelling nonsense, he's so committed to it
that I believe in what he's saying, yes, it's so
(19:33):
great his That's that's one thing I love about his
vocal deliveries. He's a thousand percent committed no matter what.
And then they take off into something else after that
it's it's quite frenetic too. And then we got that
almost distorted envelope filter piece there with the bass getting
(19:55):
overloaded almost it sounded great.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
I love it for the reasons you can imagine.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
It's a two word phrase, first letter E, last letter
E of the first word. I wish we were playing
charades right now. I'd win every time. And then about
three minutes twenty five seconds, Frankie wants us to hear this.
(20:41):
So once again, whatever Eugene's saying, I'm buying it, and
the works. It works great with the baseline, yes, for sure,
it actually does come together pretty well, and it has
more to it than I remembered from years and years ago.
And I think that's what I appreciates about this track
is the variety and letting Eugene just wail like he's saying.
(21:06):
I know he's saying some things here, but in other
parts it's just unintelligible wailing and it works. One thing
I noted about this is that Less is actually still
staying in the pocket and we have a steady drum beat,
so Less isn't going out of control and crazy Less
(21:29):
is just laying it down straight so Eugene can be himself,
which is all over the place. And I think that's great.
I think it's a great match or pairing for this
track for sure. As if we didn't get enough from
this tune, there's a payoff at the.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
End, prete grade, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
We got a call down at the end, love it.
I really I'm a fan of this track now. I
certainly wasn't at the time, and that could be argued
I wasn't a fan of any of the tracks at
the time, but now as we re examine these, this
is one that certainly stands out, simply for the energy.
(22:27):
I don't know if any Google Bordello fans had expectations
of this track when they heard Eugene was collaborating with
Les Claypool, But it's a fun one.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
It's another song that steps away from the fungui lore
of the video game.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Oh yes, absolutely, there's no mushroom connection, there's no wild
boar connection.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
There's just a boy.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
It's a wild man connection, and that wild man is
Eugene Huts. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if actually Less
was out looking for wild bores and just saw Eugene
running around naked in the woods and said, hey, man,
want to come record a song? And that was that.
Uh yeah. And as you say, with the lyrics, there's
(23:11):
not much talk about it. It's just grab life by
the horns and go crazy, you know, Yeah, enjoy it
before it's over, yeah, you basically, and if you start
feeling down, go have some fun, go do something. Yeah,
And I like that it's vague enough. Just go take
a bite out of life. He's not saying ghost sky diving.
He's not saying, you know, hold up python, He's saying,
(23:33):
just go do something fun. There's no definition because it's
different for everybody. My bite out of life, Frankie is
going to be different than yours. Although we can both
agree that cookies, pastries, and milkshakes are divine. Indeed, there's
our common.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Ground and Mountain mic as well.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
This guy loves Mountain Mike's pizza. Yes, So listeners, if
you if you know that Frankie is visiting your fair city,
and there's a Mountain Mike's Pizza. Chances are he will
be there eighteen hours in any given day, just pounding
Mountain Mike's Pizza. Did I tell you there's one right
around the corner from where I work?
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Yeah? You said you go there once a month?
Speaker 1 (24:17):
I usually do.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
And what do you have?
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Whatever? My boss buys?
Speaker 3 (24:24):
Oh? Really? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:25):
I don't even pay for it. It just lands in
front of me. It's a wonderful thing, fantastic living the
good life here. We've talked about it at enough, Frankie,
it's time for Primeates takes. If you want your take
(24:47):
about the track of for discussion right right here on
the podcast, all you have to do is go to
patreon dot com Forward Slash Primus tracks many tears of
support over there. The universal constant is indeed Roy Made's Takes. Today, Frankie,
we have a take on Bite Out of Life from
Edwin Alan Richard's fourth Our Landing Gentry. He says, right
(25:10):
before this album came out, my two biggest musical obsessions
were Gogol, Bordello and Anything Less Claypool. I was beyond
excited when I heard there was going to be a collaboration.
When I finally heard the track, I was so hugely disappointed.
It felt loose, sloppy, and largely improvised for a studio track.
I was so let down. I think I was just
(25:32):
hoping for some of that epic bordello instrumentation and instead
got sloppy acoustic strumming and Eugene's nonsensical wailing. Funny enough,
upon revisiting the track nowadays, I really like it. Wow,
he's redeemed himself. I shouldn't say that, I should say
the track has been redeemed in the eyes of Edwin,
(25:53):
Thank goodness. I would say I suppose he and I
had a similar experience disappointment latter day acceptance. Frankie R.
Pal Brooks has weighed in. Brooks breaks a bill get
ready to lose your job. Brooks says, it's nice to
hear some guitar on this record. I'm a big go
(26:15):
Gol bordello fan, so this one was a hit with
me immediately, and that's how we lost our jobs. John
Shreeve says Bite is primal and screams of pure unbridled masculinity,
just much like Ryan Rashawn Specifically, I like that he's
(26:36):
shouting out fellow prime matrons. Yeah, for unbridled masculinity and
and Primate Stakes is rounded out by our pal Eric
in Australia, who says Bite is a ripping song that
probably wouldn't be much, but the insane gypsy vocal cameo
makes it fire. Eric continues his streak of positive reviews
(27:03):
here and general satisfaction with a fung guy and foe.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
It looks like someone's gonna have a favorite new record.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
I don't know why that was so funny. Well that's
it for Primate Takes. Thank you all so much for
your support and your wise words.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Just before we wrap up, I mean, how could we
omit something so recent. When you asked about collaborations, we
mentioned the live performances they had, but we also need
to highlight that Eugene and Liz worked together once again
(27:45):
for The Man with the Iron Balls.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
That's right. We neglected to mention that one, and that's
their most recent collaboration. We'll definitely talk about that tune
in great detail at a later date because there are
so many people involved in that track. Yeah, I believe
it started with less in Eugene and then went out
(28:08):
from there into the Claypool network that is definitely a
collaboration of note and we'll certainly come back to it.
So Eugene's still in the orbit of less in Primus,
so anything can happen. I actually had lost track of
Gogle Bardello, Frankie and It. They've been churning out albums
(28:29):
over the years and they're still out there touring. So
Eugene's gainfully employed, doing very well. I'm happy for the guy. Well,
I guess I can say this bite out of life.
Chew with your mouth closed. You've been tracked. Next time,
Frankie a song about a dog.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Or a musical instrument. Find out that's the next episode
of Primus Tracks.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
A nice nice that'll do it, Primates, Primatrons people over,
thank you all so much for listening to this here podcast.
Tell a Friend, telegrandparent later Days with a mace
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