November 24, 2025 • 38 mins
We end our Of Fungi And Foe review with Ol' Rosco, who may be one of the more abhorrent characters in the Claypool lyrical universe, perhaps for being all too real. This is the final "fungi" track in the sense that it was initially written for the Mushroom Men video game; Les later added vocal and percussion tracks for the OFAF record. Frankie provides a loving sendoff to this record, which he holds in high regard. Get your skin care routine ready.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Josh Freaky with a couple of dump shits. Hello Primates,
(00:20):
you found Primus Tracks. Congratulations. So there are many places
to find Primus tracks, including this here podcast, but you
can also get more Primus tracks at Instagram or threads
or Facebook simply search for Primus Tracks. You can also
go to Patreon dot com ford slash Primus Tracks for
more ramblings from myself. I am Josh, one of the
(00:43):
hosts of Primus Tracks, and he is on the thirty
ninth floor of Primus Tracks Towers. He's Frankie Beristein. Hey Josh,
welcome back, Frankie. We are discussing the final track of
a fung Guy and Foe. This is it no more
from Guy, No more Foe after this day?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Is it as long or longer than George Martin?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
I believe this is the longest track on the record
at five because it's in fifty eight seconds.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Okay, because I was meant to say that if it's
longer than George Martin, it somehow feels shorter.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Given how we measure time. It's the longest track on
the record. So Roscoe exceeds George Martin in conventional standards
of time. By eight seconds, but in how you fuel
this track, it's much shorter. Yes, interesting, I suppose we
should talk about that space.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I have a special farewell to Fungi and fo when
we finished discussing Roscoe.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Okay, okay, so I'm prepared for your special bittersweet farewell
to a record you hold in high regard. Yes, and
a record I just listened to over the course of
twelve weeks for the first time in sixteen years.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Now, I have some things I want to highlight about
all ross Co.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Please, It's interesting how the song just barges in. Have
you noticed that?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yes, it just starts and the vocals are right there
and we're yeah, it just starts.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It's like you walked into the song happening. It's not
like the song began playing. It's like you you walked
into it, just right on time. For Less to begin
the first verse. I find I always found that peculiar.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
That's a rarity throughout Less's music. I agree with you there,
there's usually some kind of introduction or some kind of
fade in with sound or instrumentation that starts the track
and then we get to the verse.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
There's a lot of traditional song structure throughout the Primus
and Less Claypool catalog, but this one we're dropped right in.
And I guess given that this is about, you know,
a guy who's hanging at the bar getting slashed, then
driving off, it is like you walk into the bar
and this narrator goes, hey, you've seen Roscoe. Yeah, and
and you're and then immediately you're back into the Roscoe
(03:07):
drama or situation just walking through the door of the bar.
That is that is something that is different about Yes, yeah,
for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I also want to highlight that there's a parallel between
all Roscoe and one of my favorite songs on the
Purple Onion record, Buzzards of Green Hill. Can you tell
what it is?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Oh? Of course. So there's a guy in Buzzard's Green
Hill whose name I don't John Donovan, thank you. And
he's been he's been driving drunk on the back roads,
that's right.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
And and and he he causes the death of a
mother and and a child, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And Roscoe knows exactly the same on this album, except
that the woman was pregnant, that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, So we're treading familiar lyrical territory here for certain
like just thematically, but also even with some of those
details that it mirrors another song. Wow, Yeah, so I
knew that it was familiar territory, like an habitual drunk
driver is not outside the realm of Claypoolian lyrics. I
(04:24):
think it's tailor made for yes, a Claypool commentary. But
he's he's been there before, so that's that's of interest.
So we may have to compare those two sets of
lyrics a little more closely. We should, We should give
the basics on Roscoe as well. So this one is
track twelve on the record, the final track, of course,
(04:44):
it is five minutes and fifty eight seconds, making it
the longest track on the record. From a standpoint of time,
we have less Claypool or clay Tool on string, bass, vocals,
atmospherics and percussion and I'm not I'm not sure who's
on and I don't even know if it's marimba. I
think it's marimba. I'm not sure who's on it. There's
(05:06):
no credit to that, so it might be an oversight
that Mike d did those that performance and was uncredited.
It might be less Claypool. And we also have Sam
Bass on cello, Now this track is, as we mentioned
last time, a fung guy track. This is from mushroom
Men the spot Wars soundtrack. Although this one's interesting, Frankie,
(05:30):
because this was not fully complete when it was submitted
to the mushroom Men in terms of what we hear
on of fungi and foe. This is the instrumental on
the Mushroomn's soundtrack is much more spare. It does not
include the scats singing part, it doesn't have that big
(05:50):
percussion to it, it doesn't have the cello. It's very
much stripped down. So we get to see how less
Gussie is it up for the record, which is really
interesting because I think mushroom Men and Amanitas are much
more complete sounds vocals for mushroom Men and for fungi
(06:10):
and folk. So this one was like a work in
progress or he just knew he wanted to do something
more with it in the studio for the album, so
we might as well hear a bit of it in
mushroom Men form as you can hear not everything's there and.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Obviously no vocals, those atmospherics are there.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
You can find the Spore War soundtrack and all the
Claypool contributions to that on YouTube, which is where I
just source that. So let's compare that with our track
on of Fungi and Foe. Frankie, I am going to
forward st right to my favorite part of the track.
As you state, Frankie, we are introduced to the song
(07:19):
right away, and so we get what we get in
the first thirty seconds. We get the gist and it
moves along with that with that same structure. But then
we get a really interesting part in between verses here. Yes,
(08:03):
when I listened to this initially years and years ago,
that was my favorite part of the album and it
still is.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
It rips.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
It's so heavy. So as you can hear between mushroom
men and Fungi and Foe, that percussion was added, that
booming percussion, the cello and obviously those vocals, and if
you listen really closely in your right channel, you can
hear a very low register Claypool voice like way down there,
(08:33):
and I'm sure it was treated doing the won didn't
dirty bon didn't dity like way down there. It's great. Now,
that is an earworm. I even you know, I listened
to that record, I put it away, never came back
to it. But that stuck with me, and so even
for weeks after listening to that record, initially that was
(08:55):
in my head. It's really fun just to get down there.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
And boom, didn't dirty bone, getting dirty bone, Getting dirty
bone great fun.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I'm a big Something that I have noticed about the
lyrics is that I don't know whether they were half
improvised in front of a microphone or less had them
fully written down before the recording, but it's really uh,
it's really great how he sometimes stumbles on some of
(09:28):
the words or it's like it's that are I mean
that are even some lyrics where for a moment it's
like he's grasping for words, And I think that's really
cool because it makes the song sound like a very organic,
very authentic narration. It's like he's singing ass the story
(09:50):
is coming to his mind. I don't know whether it
was intentional or he was actually improvising a little, but
the lyrics have that kind of train of bought nature
to them.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
That makes sense, I think, in concert with the vocal delivery,
which is pretty loose. Uh. I agree, because it's not
it's not locked into that simple uh rhythm underneath he's
it's like free verse. It's it's untethered from the rhythm,
so now he has to fit it in because he
wants it to you know, he wants to hit his
(10:25):
mark to move to that chorus. But uh, he he
has plenty of space to play.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Let's hear that.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
That's nice and he told me.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
So.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Is that one of the elements you're talking about with
the set He's said he's gonna do that part exactly. Yeah. Yeah,
I think that repetition is really interesting because it does
make it sound looser and that the narrator is telling
us the story, you know, like the narrator just came
out of the bathroom and it is telling us this
(11:16):
while we're sitting at the bar. Speaking of that. I
love the second half of this verse. There's another stuff. Now,
usually you would give somebody coffee to drink to sober
them up in this situation, but he dumped the hot
(11:40):
coffee in Roscoe's lap, so we know what he thinks.
Our narrator thinks of Roscoe not a fan and wants
to do him harm. That's gonna hurt. By the way,
the only on tap is something I've always connected to
in this in this tune because Olympia beer is divine.
It's my favorite dive beer. It's wonderful. It's out of
(12:03):
Washington State. It was of course bought up I don't know,
thirty forty years ago and it's changed hands upons of time,
a bunch of times, excuse me, but only beer. Still
one of my favorites. So as far as the as
far as the story goes, Frankie, there are a lot
of lyrics. This is definitely lyric heavy, and I appreciate
(12:25):
that it is because the foundation of this tune, as
we heard from the Mushroom Men sample, is fairly spare.
Works great for a video game or music musical accompaniment
while somebody's playing a video game. A straight transfer to
a studio record would not have as been excuse me,
(12:46):
would not have been as effective. So yes, this gussying
up with the boom and then the additional cello and
instrumentation and then just filling it with the story is
a fantastic idea.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Would you would you mind sampling the cello because it's
one of my favorite parts of the song.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
You got a time code for me? Because I didn't
write one down for that I do not have one.
Oh wait, I take that back. I've got excuse me.
I do have like my favorite part of the cello here,
Jewish cello time. That's my favorite cello part. At any rate,
(13:32):
I'll move back a bit so we can hear more.
(14:08):
I love how that ascension ends that section sounds great.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
That's two tracks in a row where you have already
great songs, but then the cello just elevated them even further.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Yeah, and I think Sam Bess had tons of space
for that too, sonically, but also time wise, because the
tracks are so spare underneath. Now pretty little song is
a little bit busier in terms of sounds ping ponging
around and screaming in the background and the envelope filter.
But Sam, you know, found the space there, and in
this track, he's got all the space in the world.
(14:45):
So he's doing some really cool stuff with it. And
it does remind me that this track without it would
be less compelling, exactly. Yeah, And so that and then
of course my favorite part with the scat singing and
the big drums, pretty great stuff. So this for me,
and I've said this before, ranking the tracks on the
(15:08):
album we don't normally do, but this is certainly one
of my top top tracks on the record. This one
is a straightforward lyrically We've talked about a bit. This
is a straightforward story about a habitual drunk driver. And
obviously Les Claypool is not glorifying drunk driving. He's vilifying it,
and he does very well to paint Rosco as the
(15:30):
criminal that he is. Now, you know somebody who makes
a bad decision one time and drives while buzzed, Okay, like,
learn from your mistake, dude, You know you shouldn't have
done in the first place, but you can learn from that, right.
This guy Roscoe, he's an actual criminal, and he's an
egotistical one because he habitually drives drunk. He won't give
(15:53):
up his keys, he tells people to mind their business,
and he's sideswiping stuff and people and he's uh, you know,
getting fined, but he's not going to jail because I
guess he thinks he can get away with it maybe.
And he's incorporated, which is in the lyric, which tells
me he's a local businessman of some clout I suppose,
so that he is shielded in some way from damages
(16:17):
for his drunk driving. So he's he's like the worst
kind of criminal, but the one that thinks they're untouchable.
And I would venture to say that Roscoe might be
this shittiest person that Les Kleipel has ever written about,
because in a lot of these lyrical stories, there are
(16:37):
desperate people who are making bad decisions. Yeah, there's people
that have like fallen too drugs and you know, an
unsustainable form of life or lifestyle. Excuse me that, you
know you can have some sympathy and empathy for some
of these characters. Roscoe just fucking sucks, just a er.
(16:58):
He is a jerk. I there's no redeeming quality about
this guy. So that is what I think sets this
apart lyrically as well, and with the commentary. You know,
I poured the coffee in his lap. Some say it
serves him right. The selfish son's a bitch. So he's
like the narrator's pulling no punches either, like telling us
(17:19):
this dude sucks ass, we hate this guy.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
I think that I think that the Ross Cooey's bottom
left on the record.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Oh as far as the cover image, yes, uh that yeah,
that that mousey looking guy with the with the big
nose and wacky facial hair. I mean, it almost looks
like a mugshot. Yeah, so I'll buy it. By the
(17:47):
other The other one I wanted to point out was
driving his daughter home from dancing school. So once again
I think he's a guy of means because he can
send his daughter to dancing school. The lyrics genius crew
up the lyrics. It's not right. I'll just go with this.
Caught him red nose slurn. He blew a point oh nine.
His wife had to come and get him, paid a
(18:09):
two hundred dollars fine. So a couple of things there.
On the breathalyzer most states anymore, point zero eight BAC
on the breathalyzer means you are drunk in the legal definition,
and so point oh nine means he's over the limit,
and he only pays a two hundred dollars fine for that,
as opposed to now you know, nowadays, states are taking
(18:33):
drunk driving much more seriously, and a two hundred dollars
fine sounds like a remnant of the past when drunk
driving was a low priority of fence. Actually, Frankie reminded
me of this Bill Hicks bit. If you'll indulge me
and let me play this classic piece from old Bill
about driving drunks to ten years ago.
Speaker 6 (18:55):
You remember ten years ago, the attitude you got pulled over,
you were drinking, cockings up your car, so and you've
been drinking. Oh yeah, it'sorry to bother you. I hope
I didn't bring your buzz down any didn't know y'all
were partying.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Didn't mean to startle you. Alrighty, sure, I'll dance. That's
a call back to something when I didn't play a.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
Little more easy going right ten years ago?
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yeah it was.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
Now, if you get pulled over and you've been drinking,
that's the end of the fucking chase.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
There could be.
Speaker 6 (19:26):
Bank robberies going on around you, kidnappings, terrorist activities, fuck it,
every cop car in the county pulls up to watch
you audition for your freedom.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
So Bill ends. Bill continues on that strand, But it's
just to me, the connection is he's highlighting the difference
as to how drunk driving was perceived decades ago to
how it's enforced or otherwise viewed now, which is as
a high profile crime. So there, I think that's really
(20:02):
shrouded in the lyrics. But I'm still pulling it from
that from the lyrics and just that association with the
Bill Hicks bit that it reminded me of.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Lastly, I just wanted to highlight that the marimba also
enhances the song.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah, and that's on the original track, that's on the
video game. I wish I knew who to credit that to.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Very nunciative, very how can I describe it? It kind
of compliments lyrics really well. It provides very nice melody, yes.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
And it provides a counterpoint to what the bass is doing,
so there's some little elements of harmony. If you're listening closely,
you can hear it as those two contrast one another.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
It's great.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
I really like and maybe it's just comparing it to
the rest of the record. I really like this track
for the music, musical elements, and and the lyrics are
really straightforward. And here's a here's a shitty guy who
is ruining other people's lives and doesn't care what a
dick I mean, he you know, crashes head on into
(21:10):
another car, the pt Cruiser thing. A good friend of
mine willingly bought a PTE Cruiser in the last year
and likes driving it around, so I endlessly mock him
for that. Because they're notoriously unreliable. It's already been in
the shop a bunch of times, a bunch of times
for him. So so I give him, I give him
(21:31):
grief every time he pulls up in the cruiser. So
but yeah, it's a really tragic story. Like he kills
you know, he's drunk driving. He's driving. I'll say it again,
he's driving drunk. He he kills a family essentially, and
doesn't give a shit. He's worried about being sued. That's it, right,
(21:53):
And then he has his son drive him around so
he can continue to get plastered. And we have the
repetition of life's great and denial. So we we know
where we know about Roscoe, and we know where the
narrator stands, so really unsavory character. I like, I hate him,
(22:17):
I hate his guts. So I think the I think
the visceral reaction I'm having to the lyrics too, is
part of the reason why it's probably my favorite track
on the record. So, uh, we've talked about it enough
and I just need to I'm gonna step back and
cool off. Frankie.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
So would you would you say that you that some
of the joy that you elicit out of Roscoe comes
from hate listening.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Uh, hate listening in terms of, uh the character within it. Yes,
not hate listening to the song itself.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
So I it's because I just found out yesterday. I
discovered that that's actually a thing. There's i'll be called
hate watching.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yes, Yes, watching something you absolutely despise, mostly to shit
on it and point out all of its inconsistencies and
lousy production, so on and so forth. Absolutely, I don't
participate in that, but I am familiar with the concepts.
(23:24):
So there is hate listening as well. I did some
hate listening to things like the Backstreet Boys and n
Sync back in the day, just so I could mocket.
Absolutely plenty of hate listening going on. Back then, I
had the time and the energy for it. These days
not so much in either account. So we've talked about
Roscoe enough. Let's hear from our prime matrons. If you
(23:52):
would like to be involved in the discussion of the
track that we're talking about, all you have to do
is go to Patreon dot com, fort Slash Primus tracks
at Universal Constant Over there is bridmates takes. I post
the thread, you post your thoughts and I read them
right here. For example, Frankie, our pal Brooks delight, Brooks
(24:12):
breaks a. Bill says, I've always felt that this track
could have been way more interesting with the fuller band.
It just feels too empty to me. Interesting perspective, Brooks,
as as we just we just catalogued how Less gussied
it up for this record to make it a bit
more full not fulling for Brooks.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
What would you add to this track, Frankie, to enhance
it further?
Speaker 2 (24:39):
That's a good question. It would be interesting to hear
what Paul Abaldi would have done if he had been
invited to this track.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Okay, yeah, more extensive percussion from Paulo. I want to
hear Tom Waits on mellotron again. I want to hear
him on this I think that would just add that
layer of ATMOSPHERICX like it does for Coattails of a
Dead Man. I would love to hear something like that.
Eric in Australia once again our resident curmudgeon who brightened
(25:12):
up for a fung guy and foe. So once again
we'll be returning to regular Eric programming soon, says this
one overstays it's unwelcome. Oh, Eric, damn. He goes on
to say, damn, damn, Gina. Not a bad song musically,
but whereas Buzzards of Greenhill has a similar theme, in
(25:34):
this one, Less really throws down his message hard. So
there's that Buzzards of Greenhill connection again, flaky with the
drunk driver sort ofing around being naughty and our pal
John Shreeve sums up Roscoe as follows. If nothing else,
this is a weird send off. Chocolate Factory coming next
makes perfect sense. I can't wait for the tater shaped
(25:56):
moon falling from the sky. We didn't really talk about
the aspect of this being the final track. I do
want to get to that. I'm not sure what John's
getting at with Chocolate Factory coming next, because, as you know,
Frankie in twenty ten actually actually Primus reformed with Jay
Laine and toured and then.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
Recorded Green Nugga Hide.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
I guess I guess a thematically or at least sonically,
because of all the cello and the sparse instrumentation and
the space. Yeah, I guess you can kind of see
a chocolate factory making sense after this song.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Okay, yeah, this is the direction fungi and faux.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Points, because I mean, the Charlot Factory is the fung
Guy Ensemble.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Right, so this points to what is to come with
Chocolate Factory Factory the fung Guy Ensemble. Great point. All right,
I'm buying. I'm buying what John has to say there
because it's is. It certainly is a Fungui type record,
The Chocolate Factory is. And if you want to hear
more about it, we did a three episode run on
(27:06):
that entire record and tour. Wow, it was great. Soya
was all over it.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
We just covered on the PT Facebook this week with
the cruiser. Yeah, with the Chocolate Drunkard discussion. One of
our readers shared a really fabulous moment. Let me bring
that up real quick.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
While you're doing that, I am now envisioning the jam
vehicle that we always talk about as a PT cruiser.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Makes perfect sense. It makes sense.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah, I would not be embarrassed to write in that. One.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Our listener, Sean Lyons, shared this really cool photograph of
his bribe posting next to an ompalumpa on the Chocolate
Factory kit, and I of course inquired for some some
background information. He said that he got married that day
(28:05):
in New Orleans and primus just so happened to be
in town during that tour, so they reached out and
Soaya in full amp lumpa regalia post for the photograph
with his bride. And I don't know about you, but
I think this very well might be the most original
and cool waiting picture I have ever seen.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
That one would rank up there with the best for sure.
Shout out to Sean Lyons. By the way, some people
know him as Sleepy Hell, especially by fans. Yeah, he's
He's an interesting dude. We got to get him on
the podcast. I think we talked about that before.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Wow. Yeah, legends all over the place dropping comments on
this post.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Sleepy Holl's all over it. I wanted to go back
to something that John brought up in his take, which
was this is a weird sendoff, and I wanted to
ask you, Frankie. We have a rich tradition of highly engaging,
towering final tracks or penultimate tracks, especially on a Primus record,
(29:08):
where there's some kind of outro track, but the last
legitimate song on a record is usually one of the bigger,
more powerful ones. I'm thinking Fish on Grapevine Cosmic Highway.
So do you think that Roscoe stands up with those
as being an appropriate closing track for a Claypool Primus record.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
No, and I'll tell you why, because these are two
completely different worlds. With the Primus, yes, you get a
very theatrical sendoff on the records, But with Liss, I
think by this point we are accustomed to the final
song on the album being something very off center, you know,
(29:56):
something very a typical of what you would associate with
a climax or a conclusion. So, HARKing back to riddles
are about tonight, the album ends with a very weird instrumental. Yeah.
The last song on the previous record on Wilson Wall
(30:19):
was also this bizarre instrumental experiment. So I think with
his solo records or adjacent records to Primus Let's it's
not concerned about the final song being kind of a
farewell or ascend of I guess what he aims at
with the final song is just leaving you wondering what happened.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
I can see that with Carolina rig and Off White Guilt,
for sure, Cosmic Highway might.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Be trying to unsettle you.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah. I don't know if Cosmic Highway would qualify because
that does have that epic quality.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Is an epic Yeah, that would be the exception, but it's.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Certainly is different. It's not something that you typically get
from him. So yeah, he's I think leaving us wondering
what happened is a great way to describe it for
these closers in the in the solo world. All right,
I can I can buy it. Yeah, this track really
stands up for me. This is probably my top track
(31:21):
on the record, and really, yes, after after listening to
all twelve tracks again, this is it. This is the
one for me for sure. There you go. I don't
have a top five or anything. I know you had
made a rough list for yourself, but this is my
top track on the record. Errol might be number two.
(31:43):
I don't. I don't. I don't know where I would
go from there. So that's that's where I'm falling on
that that standard. But we should wrap up the record.
We're on the last track. For me, of course, it
was my It was my first list in a long time,
as I've said numerous times, and I didn't come back
(32:04):
to it for a for many many years. Don't know
if I'll come back to it again anytime soon, but
I did.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
How much did you how much did you enjoy it?
Speaker 1 (32:13):
It? Well? So it was rewarding to come back to
it because it was almost like new music. That's what
was really helpful for me, and I have a new
appreciation for it. I feel I'm certainly not dismissing it
out of hand as I did when I was younger
and more impatient. I think that there are redeeming qualities
to it. I think it's and I think a hardcore
(32:34):
fan definitely needs to listen to it as I did,
because you get some of the musical narrative that carries
forward after two thousand and nine. As our pal John
Shreeve says, this certainly informs Chocolate Factory. So there's elements
to it that carry the narrative, the musical narrative that is.
(32:55):
And I, you know, I don't know if it I
don't know if it rises in the ranks as far
as albums go, but it's there, and I've heard it
again and I've really listened to it closely, so I've
I've done my due diligence, Frankie. And it wasn't like
(33:17):
I was singing a pretty little song while being tortured.
The entire time I listened to it was It wasn't
that experience it was fine. I'm I'm here, I'm smiling,
I'm happy. But I wanted to hear your thoughts on
this record, especially as we close it out, because it
is hot that you hold in highest team.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
I have a special sendoff for these records. Are you
ready for it?
Speaker 1 (33:38):
I'm sitting up straight, I'm ready.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Here we go. You know, people say they love Primus.
They might wear the T shirts, they'll pretend to like
Cherry what's a race car driver? And they will not
when you bring up Freezel Fry. But the thing about
Primus is that people don't get Less Clayble. They don't
listen to Less Claypool records. I've been listening a lot
(34:02):
to Less Claypool lately, his two thousand and nine solo
album of Fungi and Foe. It's fascinating, absolutely fascinating. Christy,
take off your growth. There's something about it that is
on setting yet meticulously precise. It's not just music, it's performance.
Are dressed in the skin of avant gard The bass
work is sharp, elastic, clean. Each slap and pop sounds
(34:25):
like surgical incisions, cutting through the flesh of conventional rhythm. Sabrina,
remove your dress Claypool is not content to play bass.
He inhabits the instrument. He rings something primal out of it,
something that sounds more like language than music. Tracks like
Red State Girl, What would Sir George Martin do? They
are not just songs, they are studies. He's deconstructing Americana
(34:47):
and rebuilding it into something bizarre, funk out growth of sound.
It is grotesque, but in a way that is expansive.
It's modernly grotesque. You don't know what to look. You
don't want to look away, even though parts of you
feel like you should. Sabrina, why don't you dance a little?
The production is dry, almost clinical. Each note has a
(35:08):
space to breathe or to suffocate, depending on how you listen.
It's not lush, like sailing the seas of Cheese. It's
stripped down, like a body that has been peeled open
for examination. There is no attempt to seduce the listener.
Clippole is not interested in whether you like it. He's
more interested in whether you understand it, which, of course
(35:28):
most people don't. Christy, get down on your knees. That's
what I admire about this record. It's completely detached, but
in a deliberate way. There is irony, but it's kind
of a sardonic green behind every baseline. It's as if
he's mocking both the art scene and the audience simultaneously. Sometimes,
when I'm listening to Mushroom Men, the track he wrote
(35:49):
for a video game, all of the things that he describes,
I can picture them perfectly in my mind. Spores dripping
in the dark, the surreal little creatures moving through the
kay and rot. It is organic, It is perfect, like
the world if you strip away the illusion of order. Sabrina,
don't you stare eat a Fungaian Foe is not music
(36:10):
for everyone. It's music for people who see through the gloss,
who understand that beneath the surface, beneath the smiles and
the soups, there is something twitching, pulsing alive. Hey, Paul,
how was that?
Speaker 1 (36:27):
That was great? Absolutely, that's excellent commentary. I think the
Prosong Records needs to hire you to write their copy.
That was that was pretty great? Now that's a sendoff
to a record, so we know how lovingly you treat
(36:47):
this record when you hear it. Mine was so pedestrian
in comparison, which was I'm okay with it now yours
much more informed descriptive. So I guess that's it for
a Fung Guy and Foe. I believe, first of all,
Fung Guy and Foe, you've both been tracked. Next time, Frankie,
(37:13):
I think it's due A to Twang time. Oh yes,
So we get to work our way through the Do
A Twang record one way or another. We will have
some inter album interviews coming up before do A to Twang,
but that's what to look for next. Looking forward to these,
(37:33):
we've got a bunch of great stuff in the can.
I don't want to spoil it, but there's good stuff coming. Frankie, Primemates,
Prime Matrons, people of Earth. Thank you all for listening,
Thank you for your support, Thanks for navigating a Fung
Guy and Foe with us. We'll be back with more
greatness later days. Will macee ne in denial?
Speaker 6 (38:01):
How m hmm
It's Josh Freaky with a couple of dump shits. Hello Primates,
(00:20):
you found Primus Tracks. Congratulations. So there are many places
to find Primus tracks, including this here podcast, but you
can also get more Primus tracks at Instagram or threads
or Facebook simply search for Primus Tracks. You can also
go to Patreon dot com ford slash Primus Tracks for
more ramblings from myself. I am Josh, one of the
(00:43):
hosts of Primus Tracks, and he is on the thirty
ninth floor of Primus Tracks Towers. He's Frankie Beristein. Hey Josh,
welcome back, Frankie. We are discussing the final track of
a fung Guy and Foe. This is it no more
from Guy, No more Foe after this day?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Is it as long or longer than George Martin?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
I believe this is the longest track on the record
at five because it's in fifty eight seconds.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Okay, because I was meant to say that if it's
longer than George Martin, it somehow feels shorter.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Given how we measure time. It's the longest track on
the record. So Roscoe exceeds George Martin in conventional standards
of time. By eight seconds, but in how you fuel
this track, it's much shorter. Yes, interesting, I suppose we
should talk about that space.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I have a special farewell to Fungi and fo when
we finished discussing Roscoe.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Okay, okay, so I'm prepared for your special bittersweet farewell
to a record you hold in high regard. Yes, and
a record I just listened to over the course of
twelve weeks for the first time in sixteen years.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Now, I have some things I want to highlight about
all ross Co.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Please, It's interesting how the song just barges in. Have
you noticed that?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yes, it just starts and the vocals are right there
and we're yeah, it just starts.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It's like you walked into the song happening. It's not
like the song began playing. It's like you you walked
into it, just right on time. For Less to begin
the first verse. I find I always found that peculiar.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
That's a rarity throughout Less's music. I agree with you there,
there's usually some kind of introduction or some kind of
fade in with sound or instrumentation that starts the track
and then we get to the verse.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
There's a lot of traditional song structure throughout the Primus
and Less Claypool catalog, but this one we're dropped right in.
And I guess given that this is about, you know,
a guy who's hanging at the bar getting slashed, then
driving off, it is like you walk into the bar
and this narrator goes, hey, you've seen Roscoe. Yeah, and
and you're and then immediately you're back into the Roscoe
(03:07):
drama or situation just walking through the door of the bar.
That is that is something that is different about Yes, yeah,
for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I also want to highlight that there's a parallel between
all Roscoe and one of my favorite songs on the
Purple Onion record, Buzzards of Green Hill. Can you tell
what it is?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Oh? Of course. So there's a guy in Buzzard's Green
Hill whose name I don't John Donovan, thank you. And
he's been he's been driving drunk on the back roads,
that's right.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
And and and he he causes the death of a
mother and and a child, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And Roscoe knows exactly the same on this album, except
that the woman was pregnant, that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, So we're treading familiar lyrical territory here for certain
like just thematically, but also even with some of those
details that it mirrors another song. Wow, Yeah, so I
knew that it was familiar territory, like an habitual drunk
driver is not outside the realm of Claypoolian lyrics. I
(04:24):
think it's tailor made for yes, a Claypool commentary. But
he's he's been there before, so that's that's of interest.
So we may have to compare those two sets of
lyrics a little more closely. We should, We should give
the basics on Roscoe as well. So this one is
track twelve on the record, the final track, of course,
(04:44):
it is five minutes and fifty eight seconds, making it
the longest track on the record. From a standpoint of time,
we have less Claypool or clay Tool on string, bass, vocals,
atmospherics and percussion and I'm not I'm not sure who's
on and I don't even know if it's marimba. I
think it's marimba. I'm not sure who's on it. There's
(05:06):
no credit to that, so it might be an oversight
that Mike d did those that performance and was uncredited.
It might be less Claypool. And we also have Sam
Bass on cello, Now this track is, as we mentioned
last time, a fung guy track. This is from mushroom
Men the spot Wars soundtrack. Although this one's interesting, Frankie,
(05:30):
because this was not fully complete when it was submitted
to the mushroom Men in terms of what we hear
on of fungi and foe. This is the instrumental on
the Mushroomn's soundtrack is much more spare. It does not
include the scats singing part, it doesn't have that big
(05:50):
percussion to it, it doesn't have the cello. It's very
much stripped down. So we get to see how less
Gussie is it up for the record, which is really
interesting because I think mushroom Men and Amanitas are much
more complete sounds vocals for mushroom Men and for fungi
(06:10):
and folk. So this one was like a work in
progress or he just knew he wanted to do something
more with it in the studio for the album, so
we might as well hear a bit of it in
mushroom Men form as you can hear not everything's there and.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Obviously no vocals, those atmospherics are there.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
You can find the Spore War soundtrack and all the
Claypool contributions to that on YouTube, which is where I
just source that. So let's compare that with our track
on of Fungi and Foe. Frankie, I am going to
forward st right to my favorite part of the track.
As you state, Frankie, we are introduced to the song
(07:19):
right away, and so we get what we get in
the first thirty seconds. We get the gist and it
moves along with that with that same structure. But then
we get a really interesting part in between verses here. Yes,
(08:03):
when I listened to this initially years and years ago,
that was my favorite part of the album and it
still is.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
It rips.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
It's so heavy. So as you can hear between mushroom
men and Fungi and Foe, that percussion was added, that
booming percussion, the cello and obviously those vocals, and if
you listen really closely in your right channel, you can
hear a very low register Claypool voice like way down there,
(08:33):
and I'm sure it was treated doing the won didn't
dirty bon didn't dity like way down there. It's great. Now,
that is an earworm. I even you know, I listened
to that record, I put it away, never came back
to it. But that stuck with me, and so even
for weeks after listening to that record, initially that was
(08:55):
in my head. It's really fun just to get down there.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
And boom, didn't dirty bone, getting dirty bone, Getting dirty
bone great fun.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I'm a big Something that I have noticed about the
lyrics is that I don't know whether they were half
improvised in front of a microphone or less had them
fully written down before the recording, but it's really uh,
it's really great how he sometimes stumbles on some of
(09:28):
the words or it's like it's that are I mean
that are even some lyrics where for a moment it's
like he's grasping for words, And I think that's really
cool because it makes the song sound like a very organic,
very authentic narration. It's like he's singing ass the story
(09:50):
is coming to his mind. I don't know whether it
was intentional or he was actually improvising a little, but
the lyrics have that kind of train of bought nature
to them.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
That makes sense, I think, in concert with the vocal delivery,
which is pretty loose. Uh. I agree, because it's not
it's not locked into that simple uh rhythm underneath he's
it's like free verse. It's it's untethered from the rhythm,
so now he has to fit it in because he
wants it to you know, he wants to hit his
(10:25):
mark to move to that chorus. But uh, he he
has plenty of space to play.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Let's hear that.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
That's nice and he told me.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
So.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Is that one of the elements you're talking about with
the set He's said he's gonna do that part exactly. Yeah. Yeah,
I think that repetition is really interesting because it does
make it sound looser and that the narrator is telling
us the story, you know, like the narrator just came
out of the bathroom and it is telling us this
(11:16):
while we're sitting at the bar. Speaking of that. I
love the second half of this verse. There's another stuff. Now,
usually you would give somebody coffee to drink to sober
them up in this situation, but he dumped the hot
(11:40):
coffee in Roscoe's lap, so we know what he thinks.
Our narrator thinks of Roscoe not a fan and wants
to do him harm. That's gonna hurt. By the way,
the only on tap is something I've always connected to
in this in this tune because Olympia beer is divine.
It's my favorite dive beer. It's wonderful. It's out of
(12:03):
Washington State. It was of course bought up I don't know,
thirty forty years ago and it's changed hands upons of time,
a bunch of times, excuse me, but only beer. Still
one of my favorites. So as far as the as
far as the story goes, Frankie, there are a lot
of lyrics. This is definitely lyric heavy, and I appreciate
(12:25):
that it is because the foundation of this tune, as
we heard from the Mushroom Men sample, is fairly spare.
Works great for a video game or music musical accompaniment
while somebody's playing a video game. A straight transfer to
a studio record would not have as been excuse me,
(12:46):
would not have been as effective. So yes, this gussying
up with the boom and then the additional cello and
instrumentation and then just filling it with the story is
a fantastic idea.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Would you would you mind sampling the cello because it's
one of my favorite parts of the song.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
You got a time code for me? Because I didn't
write one down for that I do not have one.
Oh wait, I take that back. I've got excuse me.
I do have like my favorite part of the cello here,
Jewish cello time. That's my favorite cello part. At any rate,
(13:32):
I'll move back a bit so we can hear more.
(14:08):
I love how that ascension ends that section sounds great.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
That's two tracks in a row where you have already
great songs, but then the cello just elevated them even further.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Yeah, and I think Sam Bess had tons of space
for that too, sonically, but also time wise, because the
tracks are so spare underneath. Now pretty little song is
a little bit busier in terms of sounds ping ponging
around and screaming in the background and the envelope filter.
But Sam, you know, found the space there, and in
this track, he's got all the space in the world.
(14:45):
So he's doing some really cool stuff with it. And
it does remind me that this track without it would
be less compelling, exactly. Yeah, And so that and then
of course my favorite part with the scat singing and
the big drums, pretty great stuff. So this for me,
and I've said this before, ranking the tracks on the
(15:08):
album we don't normally do, but this is certainly one
of my top top tracks on the record. This one
is a straightforward lyrically We've talked about a bit. This
is a straightforward story about a habitual drunk driver. And
obviously Les Claypool is not glorifying drunk driving. He's vilifying it,
and he does very well to paint Rosco as the
(15:30):
criminal that he is. Now, you know somebody who makes
a bad decision one time and drives while buzzed, Okay, like,
learn from your mistake, dude, You know you shouldn't have
done in the first place, but you can learn from that, right.
This guy Roscoe, he's an actual criminal, and he's an
egotistical one because he habitually drives drunk. He won't give
(15:53):
up his keys, he tells people to mind their business,
and he's sideswiping stuff and people and he's uh, you know,
getting fined, but he's not going to jail because I
guess he thinks he can get away with it maybe.
And he's incorporated, which is in the lyric, which tells
me he's a local businessman of some clout I suppose,
so that he is shielded in some way from damages
(16:17):
for his drunk driving. So he's he's like the worst
kind of criminal, but the one that thinks they're untouchable.
And I would venture to say that Roscoe might be
this shittiest person that Les Kleipel has ever written about,
because in a lot of these lyrical stories, there are
(16:37):
desperate people who are making bad decisions. Yeah, there's people
that have like fallen too drugs and you know, an
unsustainable form of life or lifestyle. Excuse me that, you
know you can have some sympathy and empathy for some
of these characters. Roscoe just fucking sucks, just a er.
(16:58):
He is a jerk. I there's no redeeming quality about
this guy. So that is what I think sets this
apart lyrically as well, and with the commentary. You know,
I poured the coffee in his lap. Some say it
serves him right. The selfish son's a bitch. So he's
like the narrator's pulling no punches either, like telling us
(17:19):
this dude sucks ass, we hate this guy.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
I think that I think that the Ross Cooey's bottom
left on the record.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Oh as far as the cover image, yes, uh that yeah,
that that mousey looking guy with the with the big
nose and wacky facial hair. I mean, it almost looks
like a mugshot. Yeah, so I'll buy it. By the
(17:47):
other The other one I wanted to point out was
driving his daughter home from dancing school. So once again
I think he's a guy of means because he can
send his daughter to dancing school. The lyrics genius crew
up the lyrics. It's not right. I'll just go with this.
Caught him red nose slurn. He blew a point oh nine.
His wife had to come and get him, paid a
(18:09):
two hundred dollars fine. So a couple of things there.
On the breathalyzer most states anymore, point zero eight BAC
on the breathalyzer means you are drunk in the legal definition,
and so point oh nine means he's over the limit,
and he only pays a two hundred dollars fine for that,
as opposed to now you know, nowadays, states are taking
(18:33):
drunk driving much more seriously, and a two hundred dollars
fine sounds like a remnant of the past when drunk
driving was a low priority of fence. Actually, Frankie reminded
me of this Bill Hicks bit. If you'll indulge me
and let me play this classic piece from old Bill
about driving drunks to ten years ago.
Speaker 6 (18:55):
You remember ten years ago, the attitude you got pulled over,
you were drinking, cockings up your car, so and you've
been drinking. Oh yeah, it'sorry to bother you. I hope
I didn't bring your buzz down any didn't know y'all
were partying.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Didn't mean to startle you. Alrighty, sure, I'll dance. That's
a call back to something when I didn't play a.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
Little more easy going right ten years ago?
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yeah it was.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
Now, if you get pulled over and you've been drinking,
that's the end of the fucking chase.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
There could be.
Speaker 6 (19:26):
Bank robberies going on around you, kidnappings, terrorist activities, fuck it,
every cop car in the county pulls up to watch
you audition for your freedom.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
So Bill ends. Bill continues on that strand, But it's
just to me, the connection is he's highlighting the difference
as to how drunk driving was perceived decades ago to
how it's enforced or otherwise viewed now, which is as
a high profile crime. So there, I think that's really
(20:02):
shrouded in the lyrics. But I'm still pulling it from
that from the lyrics and just that association with the
Bill Hicks bit that it reminded me of.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Lastly, I just wanted to highlight that the marimba also
enhances the song.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah, and that's on the original track, that's on the
video game. I wish I knew who to credit that to.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Very nunciative, very how can I describe it? It kind
of compliments lyrics really well. It provides very nice melody, yes.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
And it provides a counterpoint to what the bass is doing,
so there's some little elements of harmony. If you're listening closely,
you can hear it as those two contrast one another.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
It's great.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
I really like and maybe it's just comparing it to
the rest of the record. I really like this track
for the music, musical elements, and and the lyrics are
really straightforward. And here's a here's a shitty guy who
is ruining other people's lives and doesn't care what a
dick I mean, he you know, crashes head on into
(21:10):
another car, the pt Cruiser thing. A good friend of
mine willingly bought a PTE Cruiser in the last year
and likes driving it around, so I endlessly mock him
for that. Because they're notoriously unreliable. It's already been in
the shop a bunch of times, a bunch of times
for him. So so I give him, I give him
(21:31):
grief every time he pulls up in the cruiser. So
but yeah, it's a really tragic story. Like he kills
you know, he's drunk driving. He's driving. I'll say it again,
he's driving drunk. He he kills a family essentially, and
doesn't give a shit. He's worried about being sued. That's it, right,
(21:53):
And then he has his son drive him around so
he can continue to get plastered. And we have the
repetition of life's great and denial. So we we know
where we know about Roscoe, and we know where the
narrator stands, so really unsavory character. I like, I hate him,
(22:17):
I hate his guts. So I think the I think
the visceral reaction I'm having to the lyrics too, is
part of the reason why it's probably my favorite track
on the record. So, uh, we've talked about it enough
and I just need to I'm gonna step back and
cool off. Frankie.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
So would you would you say that you that some
of the joy that you elicit out of Roscoe comes
from hate listening.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Uh, hate listening in terms of, uh the character within it. Yes,
not hate listening to the song itself.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
So I it's because I just found out yesterday. I
discovered that that's actually a thing. There's i'll be called
hate watching.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yes, Yes, watching something you absolutely despise, mostly to shit
on it and point out all of its inconsistencies and
lousy production, so on and so forth. Absolutely, I don't
participate in that, but I am familiar with the concepts.
(23:24):
So there is hate listening as well. I did some
hate listening to things like the Backstreet Boys and n
Sync back in the day, just so I could mocket.
Absolutely plenty of hate listening going on. Back then, I
had the time and the energy for it. These days
not so much in either account. So we've talked about
Roscoe enough. Let's hear from our prime matrons. If you
(23:52):
would like to be involved in the discussion of the
track that we're talking about, all you have to do
is go to Patreon dot com, fort Slash Primus tracks
at Universal Constant Over there is bridmates takes. I post
the thread, you post your thoughts and I read them
right here. For example, Frankie, our pal Brooks delight, Brooks
(24:12):
breaks a. Bill says, I've always felt that this track
could have been way more interesting with the fuller band.
It just feels too empty to me. Interesting perspective, Brooks,
as as we just we just catalogued how Less gussied
it up for this record to make it a bit
more full not fulling for Brooks.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
What would you add to this track, Frankie, to enhance
it further?
Speaker 2 (24:39):
That's a good question. It would be interesting to hear
what Paul Abaldi would have done if he had been
invited to this track.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Okay, yeah, more extensive percussion from Paulo. I want to
hear Tom Waits on mellotron again. I want to hear
him on this I think that would just add that
layer of ATMOSPHERICX like it does for Coattails of a
Dead Man. I would love to hear something like that.
Eric in Australia once again our resident curmudgeon who brightened
(25:12):
up for a fung guy and foe. So once again
we'll be returning to regular Eric programming soon, says this
one overstays it's unwelcome. Oh, Eric, damn. He goes on
to say, damn, damn, Gina. Not a bad song musically,
but whereas Buzzards of Greenhill has a similar theme, in
(25:34):
this one, Less really throws down his message hard. So
there's that Buzzards of Greenhill connection again, flaky with the
drunk driver sort ofing around being naughty and our pal
John Shreeve sums up Roscoe as follows. If nothing else,
this is a weird send off. Chocolate Factory coming next
makes perfect sense. I can't wait for the tater shaped
(25:56):
moon falling from the sky. We didn't really talk about
the aspect of this being the final track. I do
want to get to that. I'm not sure what John's
getting at with Chocolate Factory coming next, because, as you know,
Frankie in twenty ten actually actually Primus reformed with Jay
Laine and toured and then.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
Recorded Green Nugga Hide.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
I guess I guess a thematically or at least sonically,
because of all the cello and the sparse instrumentation and
the space. Yeah, I guess you can kind of see
a chocolate factory making sense after this song.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Okay, yeah, this is the direction fungi and faux.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Points, because I mean, the Charlot Factory is the fung
Guy Ensemble.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Right, so this points to what is to come with
Chocolate Factory Factory the fung Guy Ensemble. Great point. All right,
I'm buying. I'm buying what John has to say there
because it's is. It certainly is a Fungui type record,
The Chocolate Factory is. And if you want to hear
more about it, we did a three episode run on
(27:06):
that entire record and tour. Wow, it was great. Soya
was all over it.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
We just covered on the PT Facebook this week with
the cruiser. Yeah, with the Chocolate Drunkard discussion. One of
our readers shared a really fabulous moment. Let me bring
that up real quick.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
While you're doing that, I am now envisioning the jam
vehicle that we always talk about as a PT cruiser.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Makes perfect sense. It makes sense.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah, I would not be embarrassed to write in that. One.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Our listener, Sean Lyons, shared this really cool photograph of
his bribe posting next to an ompalumpa on the Chocolate
Factory kit, and I of course inquired for some some
background information. He said that he got married that day
(28:05):
in New Orleans and primus just so happened to be
in town during that tour, so they reached out and
Soaya in full amp lumpa regalia post for the photograph
with his bride. And I don't know about you, but
I think this very well might be the most original
and cool waiting picture I have ever seen.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
That one would rank up there with the best for sure.
Shout out to Sean Lyons. By the way, some people
know him as Sleepy Hell, especially by fans. Yeah, he's
He's an interesting dude. We got to get him on
the podcast. I think we talked about that before.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Wow. Yeah, legends all over the place dropping comments on
this post.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Sleepy Holl's all over it. I wanted to go back
to something that John brought up in his take, which
was this is a weird sendoff, and I wanted to
ask you, Frankie. We have a rich tradition of highly engaging,
towering final tracks or penultimate tracks, especially on a Primus record,
(29:08):
where there's some kind of outro track, but the last
legitimate song on a record is usually one of the bigger,
more powerful ones. I'm thinking Fish on Grapevine Cosmic Highway.
So do you think that Roscoe stands up with those
as being an appropriate closing track for a Claypool Primus record.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
No, and I'll tell you why, because these are two
completely different worlds. With the Primus, yes, you get a
very theatrical sendoff on the records, But with Liss, I
think by this point we are accustomed to the final
song on the album being something very off center, you know,
(29:56):
something very a typical of what you would associate with
a climax or a conclusion. So, HARKing back to riddles
are about tonight, the album ends with a very weird instrumental. Yeah.
The last song on the previous record on Wilson Wall
(30:19):
was also this bizarre instrumental experiment. So I think with
his solo records or adjacent records to Primus Let's it's
not concerned about the final song being kind of a
farewell or ascend of I guess what he aims at
with the final song is just leaving you wondering what happened.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
I can see that with Carolina rig and Off White Guilt,
for sure, Cosmic Highway might.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Be trying to unsettle you.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah. I don't know if Cosmic Highway would qualify because
that does have that epic quality.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Is an epic Yeah, that would be the exception, but it's.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Certainly is different. It's not something that you typically get
from him. So yeah, he's I think leaving us wondering
what happened is a great way to describe it for
these closers in the in the solo world. All right,
I can I can buy it. Yeah, this track really
stands up for me. This is probably my top track
(31:21):
on the record, and really, yes, after after listening to
all twelve tracks again, this is it. This is the
one for me for sure. There you go. I don't
have a top five or anything. I know you had
made a rough list for yourself, but this is my
top track on the record. Errol might be number two.
(31:43):
I don't. I don't. I don't know where I would
go from there. So that's that's where I'm falling on
that that standard. But we should wrap up the record.
We're on the last track. For me, of course, it
was my It was my first list in a long time,
as I've said numerous times, and I didn't come back
(32:04):
to it for a for many many years. Don't know
if I'll come back to it again anytime soon, but
I did.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
How much did you how much did you enjoy it?
Speaker 1 (32:13):
It? Well? So it was rewarding to come back to
it because it was almost like new music. That's what
was really helpful for me, and I have a new
appreciation for it. I feel I'm certainly not dismissing it
out of hand as I did when I was younger
and more impatient. I think that there are redeeming qualities
to it. I think it's and I think a hardcore
(32:34):
fan definitely needs to listen to it as I did,
because you get some of the musical narrative that carries
forward after two thousand and nine. As our pal John
Shreeve says, this certainly informs Chocolate Factory. So there's elements
to it that carry the narrative, the musical narrative that is.
(32:55):
And I, you know, I don't know if it I
don't know if it rises in the ranks as far
as albums go, but it's there, and I've heard it
again and I've really listened to it closely, so I've
I've done my due diligence, Frankie. And it wasn't like
(33:17):
I was singing a pretty little song while being tortured.
The entire time I listened to it was It wasn't
that experience it was fine. I'm I'm here, I'm smiling,
I'm happy. But I wanted to hear your thoughts on
this record, especially as we close it out, because it
is hot that you hold in highest team.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
I have a special sendoff for these records. Are you
ready for it?
Speaker 1 (33:38):
I'm sitting up straight, I'm ready.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Here we go. You know, people say they love Primus.
They might wear the T shirts, they'll pretend to like
Cherry what's a race car driver? And they will not
when you bring up Freezel Fry. But the thing about
Primus is that people don't get Less Clayble. They don't
listen to Less Claypool records. I've been listening a lot
(34:02):
to Less Claypool lately, his two thousand and nine solo
album of Fungi and Foe. It's fascinating, absolutely fascinating. Christy,
take off your growth. There's something about it that is
on setting yet meticulously precise. It's not just music, it's performance.
Are dressed in the skin of avant gard The bass
work is sharp, elastic, clean. Each slap and pop sounds
(34:25):
like surgical incisions, cutting through the flesh of conventional rhythm. Sabrina,
remove your dress Claypool is not content to play bass.
He inhabits the instrument. He rings something primal out of it,
something that sounds more like language than music. Tracks like
Red State Girl, What would Sir George Martin do? They
are not just songs, they are studies. He's deconstructing Americana
(34:47):
and rebuilding it into something bizarre, funk out growth of sound.
It is grotesque, but in a way that is expansive.
It's modernly grotesque. You don't know what to look. You
don't want to look away, even though parts of you
feel like you should. Sabrina, why don't you dance a little?
The production is dry, almost clinical. Each note has a
(35:08):
space to breathe or to suffocate, depending on how you listen.
It's not lush, like sailing the seas of Cheese. It's
stripped down, like a body that has been peeled open
for examination. There is no attempt to seduce the listener.
Clippole is not interested in whether you like it. He's
more interested in whether you understand it, which, of course
(35:28):
most people don't. Christy, get down on your knees. That's
what I admire about this record. It's completely detached, but
in a deliberate way. There is irony, but it's kind
of a sardonic green behind every baseline. It's as if
he's mocking both the art scene and the audience simultaneously. Sometimes,
when I'm listening to Mushroom Men, the track he wrote
(35:49):
for a video game, all of the things that he describes,
I can picture them perfectly in my mind. Spores dripping
in the dark, the surreal little creatures moving through the
kay and rot. It is organic, It is perfect, like
the world if you strip away the illusion of order. Sabrina,
don't you stare eat a Fungaian Foe is not music
(36:10):
for everyone. It's music for people who see through the gloss,
who understand that beneath the surface, beneath the smiles and
the soups, there is something twitching, pulsing alive. Hey, Paul,
how was that?
Speaker 1 (36:27):
That was great? Absolutely, that's excellent commentary. I think the
Prosong Records needs to hire you to write their copy.
That was that was pretty great? Now that's a sendoff
to a record, so we know how lovingly you treat
(36:47):
this record when you hear it. Mine was so pedestrian
in comparison, which was I'm okay with it now yours
much more informed descriptive. So I guess that's it for
a Fung Guy and Foe. I believe, first of all,
Fung Guy and Foe, you've both been tracked. Next time, Frankie,
(37:13):
I think it's due A to Twang time. Oh yes,
So we get to work our way through the Do
A Twang record one way or another. We will have
some inter album interviews coming up before do A to Twang,
but that's what to look for next. Looking forward to these,
(37:33):
we've got a bunch of great stuff in the can.
I don't want to spoil it, but there's good stuff coming. Frankie, Primemates,
Prime Matrons, people of Earth. Thank you all for listening,
Thank you for your support, Thanks for navigating a Fung
Guy and Foe with us. We'll be back with more
greatness later days. Will macee ne in denial?
Speaker 6 (38:01):
How m hmm
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