March 31, 2025 • 61 mins
The great Luke Bemand returns to Primus Tracks to tackle One Better, the "bicep" of the Of Whales and Woe record. Luke shows us how Les flexes all over this track, and it's not limited to bass, as Les provides drums and guitar in addition to his usual bass and vocals. Luke also brings some commentary from Mike Dillon, who stars on the track.This is a Frankie favorite, so get ready for some fanboy business. Plus, Cold War stories? Sign me up!
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Transcript
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.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hello, Primates, you found Primus Tracks. Congratulations. You can find
us on the wide world of the interweb if you want.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
My name is.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Josh, I host Primus Tracks. I co host it with
a young man seated on the thirty ninth floor of
Primus Tracks Towers. They keep adding stories. He stays on
the thirty ninth. He says the air there is the purest.
It's Frankie Berestein. Hey Josh, Hi Frankie, how are you
on this fine day?
Speaker 4 (00:47):
What is your favor about this track?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You're very excited about one Better Beta. Oh, I'm sorry,
I've been saying it wrong all these years. One Beta?
Who betta to bring us some knowledge about out this
track called one Beta. It's it's the man who always
has one Beta, no matter how much you have. He's
the bass player of a special He's also in a
(01:11):
couple acts, Frankie. One of them is called Drunken Doja Monkey,
which is fascinating, and another one is simply called the Mites. Wow,
and I would love to welcome him back to the
podcast for I think the thirty third time.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
It's Luke beemand Luke.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
Hello, boys, what an honor thirty third times a charm
let's do it.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
So glad to have you back and to talk about.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
The bicep of the records.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
We're talking about the bicep today. Do you now, as
as a man who has made many records at this
point in your life, Luke, you must know about album Anatomy.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
Yeah, but you know, that's the first time I've heard
of a track being referred to as the bicep, and
I am with it, and I agree wholeheartedly about this track.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
It's showy, just like a bicep. It's it's showy, and
unlike a bicep, which doesn't actually do much, this song
does a lot.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
So where as Frankie would say, it's quite.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Thick, yes, goodness, thickness abounds here with one better.
Speaker 6 (02:14):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, it's great to have you here for this. Actually,
if you don't mind, if you'll indulge us. What's your
overall relationship with the Whales and Woe record?
Speaker 5 (02:25):
Yeah, I remember purchasing this record when it came out
in two thousand and six. I was a senior in
high school and we were actually on a senior field
trip in New York City, and I like snuck away
from the class to go to the Virgin megastore and
buy a.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Copy of the record Virsion Megastore.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
Yeah, yeah, right in Times Square. It was amazing. Wow, yeah,
great record store. Yeah did you have you never been
to one?
Speaker 7 (02:50):
I have been to a Virgin megastore, but I visited
one in Canada.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
I never got a chance to visit one in the US.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
Yeah. Oh man. It was my face favorite place in
the world that had this giant like magic wand cover
to it. It was a magical place as a youth,
for sure. So yeah, I got out there and I
got the record, and I got back to the bus
in time, and I was able to listen to it
on my walkman, my sony Walkman. Yes, so I'll always
remember that. Yeah, I mean, this album is a wacky one,
(03:22):
you know. I think the tracks that I enjoyed the
most when the record came out are still kind of
in rotation now, or at least they were being played
on the Frog Brigade tour, like Phantom Patriot and LUs
Stings and one Better And yeah, I love this record.
It's got some really cool, great basslines. I love Skaic's playing.
I love Mike Knees playing. And I actually was texting
(03:45):
with Mike a little bit before the pod tonight about
this track, so I can share with you guys a
little anecdote from Mike D later. Okay, I guess you're right,
should I just share it with you now that I
don't know what the well, I tell you what.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
We don't have any Mike D anecdotes. So you got
us one better on that?
Speaker 5 (04:05):
Okay, nice one. So I was texting with him. He's
doing the Bastard Jazz gig tomorrow, that's right, Yeah, with
the Colonel Yeah, out in uh where's Knoxville. So I
was just texting with him, and you know, I told
him I was going on the podcast when we were
talking about One Better, and I just asked him, Hey,
do you have any you know, stories or anecdotes about
(04:26):
recording that one? And he said, uh, I'll do I
guess Mike Deve boys he goes man. I had a
blast on that record less and I did rumble at
the diesel when I was out there hanging with him.
I played drums on that track he did. We did
bass and drums on the spot and then he did
some funky guitar on it.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
Bro, we went out on his boat and I watched him.
Heave his line out in the salty waves. That's that's Mike's.
And then he just said one better marimba party we
just took off.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
That sounded like a cross between Miked and Tom Wains.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
I know, well, you know, he kind of has a
little bit of like like a Louisiana Tom Waits twang
to his voice.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
No, that's a pretty good mic.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
I like that, Luke, it's not bad, but you know, yeah,
and I just you know, he said that. I asked him,
you know, I had that track come up about pretty organically,
you know, like a lot of his solo stuff does.
And he had said, he, well, he's been texting me
from two different numbers. Sorry, I just landed in Knoxville.
I had a different number.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Oh weird.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
So he said Less had already done that one and
just laden marimb on top of it. He said, Less
had most of them done already. He played drums and
all the parts, and me and Scaric just over over
dubbed parts.
Speaker 7 (05:38):
Yeah, that sounds that sounds like uh the U. The
usual approach for the Wilson wool record.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Yeah, like less recording them himself at Rancho and then
bringing in those guys. But Mike did drums on Rumble
of the Diesel, which I did not know, which is
pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, and Rumble is one you've played with him live?
Speaker 5 (05:57):
Correct, We've kind of like teased that for Rory and
I used to play that, but I don't know if
we've done it with fucking a. But I actually suggested
it to Mike and he heart reacted it. So I'm
gonna go ahead and say.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yes, we're gonna do it in the parlance of our
times that say yes, that's an affirmative yes, outstanding. Well,
thank you for sharing that, as well as the fact
that apparently, oh, Mike D's got a burner wherever he goes.
That's pretty cool, right, What this is like NOO's middle number.
Speaker 7 (06:27):
I want to share this with you guys to kick
off of the track. So back when I first thought
the record, that was around two thousand and eight, I
believe I immediately fell completely in love with this song.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
I was just blown away by the.
Speaker 7 (06:47):
Baseline, by the intricacy of the whole composition. I thought
the lyrics were hilarious. I mean, I just love the track,
and one of the first thoughts that came to my
mind was, I wonder someone has tried to cover this song.
So in the perative days of YouTube, I typed let's
(07:08):
clippole one better based cover, and I came across a
video from a guy who I think I've referenced on
the podcast before, Zodiac Iron Fist. So in the early
days of YouTube, this guy was a pioneer of bass
covers primus and less Claypool based covers. He was a very,
(07:29):
very talented musician. He sadly passed away several years ago,
but his videos are still up at his legacy and
they are very, very fascinating and fun to watch. He
did tackle one Better, so I remember that. First of all,
I was flabbergasted by his cover, but then I read
(07:50):
his description, and I guess that his description provided more
insight to me in terms of how complex the song
actually is. So in the description, he said, first off,
let me begin by saying I have no business putting
this video up because I am far from learning the
tune perfectly. Let's fill the tune with numerous little tidbits
(08:10):
and feels that I am too mentally challenged to remember,
so during these parts, I just made up whatever felt
good for me. Of course, by the way, I uploaded
this tune based on a request. I'm not sure I
would have had the courage to release the tune otherwise.
And then in the comments, someone said, my band actually
requested that I learned one Better for a show, and
(08:33):
so the kuren Fist responded, I wouldn't inflict one Better
on my worst enemy. So this gave me some insight
on how difficult this song is to play live. By
the way, there's also a video on YouTube from a
guy that attempted to cover the Bonararu two thousand and
eight live version, and in his description he also mentions
(08:54):
that a lot of stuff he's just making up as
he goes along because it's practically impossible to figure out
what the list is doing during the track. So what
do you think, look about these comments regarding one Better?
Speaker 5 (09:07):
Yeah, I mean, that's he's got a point. It is
definitely a difficult one. It's a tongue twister of a bassline.
I love that Bonru two thousand and eight version. I
figured we'd be talking about that. I was listening to
that and kind of watching it for reference. It's a
it's like a longer phrase of a bassline. It's not
just like a short four bar phrase. It's more of
(09:28):
like a you know, like an eight bar phrase, I guess,
depending on how you're counting it. But it's a longer part,
and he's doing the classic or typical less Claypool variations
and subtle fills, and it's always slightly different, and sometimes
he's pushing it and sometimes he's you know, things are
slightly different. So you know, right before I did the podcast,
I recorded a video of me playing it that I'm
going to try and release in conjunction with the episode,
(09:49):
and I was like, this is pretty hard to play
exactly what he's playing in time with him because of
the nature of all the variations and stuff. Yeah, it's
a it's definitely a tricky one. The special covered it once,
and I think it was like the year it came out,
like two thousand and six or two thousand and seven,
so we were, you know, John was probably a freshman
in college. I was a senior where he was a
(10:09):
junior in high school. And I just remember we played
this like outdoor event and it took us a while
to come out. We probably just like smoking weed in
the van or something, and like we go out and
we played it and it like wasn't great, but we
decided to start the show like that because we're all
super into the song. I just remember John's dad. His
comment was, Yeah, it took you guys a while to
come out, and when you did, you weren't exactly the
Rolling Stones. So yeah, I wouldn't recommend bands come out
(10:35):
and start with like a shitty version of one Better
You will let your fathers down. Yeah, it's a tricky
one for sure, but it's been really fun to like
dive back into the last few days of play.
Speaker 7 (10:44):
It's not awesome, and he's very tricky because it never
downs to steal right.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
It's yeah.
Speaker 7 (10:52):
Excitedly was full of twists and turns. He just under
to the entire song.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
Right, and it's a lot of like the less Claypool
techniques all in one. There you slapping, he's popping or
thumping and plucking as he would say. There's that little
major third chord he's strums, it's percussive. It's very busy.
So yeah, this is this is in the more advanced
Claypoolian basslines.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I'd say for sure, with that beautiful carl in your hands,
I can't.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Wait to hear it.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Let's give a little bit of vital statistics on this one.
One Better is track two from of Wales and Woe
checks in at five minutes and fifty nine seconds at
least on my CD rip. Fade it out for another second, man,
get the flat six minutes so irritating. On the track
we have bass, vocals, guitar and drums by Less Claypool,
(11:43):
Mike Dylan on marimba, Scarrick on tenor sacks. Got a
live history on this one.
Speaker 7 (11:48):
One Better was premiered at the Fillmore in San Francisco
on December thirtieth, two thousand and five with the Fancy Band.
It's of course he was jem out, but the song
is essentially there, So I would not classify this as
a skeletal version in the sense that, for example, with
(12:08):
oyster Head, we had these prototypes right before the record
came out. In this case, we're talking about the end
of two thousand and five, but One Better was fully formed,
so this was the staple. It was the v show
stopper of the Fancy Band throughout two thousand and six,
two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight. Then it
(12:29):
was also performed by the Fungi Band. Of course, different
band configuration, same song. It was played a few times
a handful of times by none other than Do Other Twang.
The torch was then passed on to Lesclipo's Bastard Jazz.
Then it was resurrected in twenty twenty three by the
(12:51):
Frog Brigade. And this is very peculiar because some performances
had saxophone, some others didn't. The latest performance to date
was a tease on New Year's Eve three at the
Great American Music Hall.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
So that was because Skarek wasn't on the first half
of that.
Speaker 7 (13:11):
But but but sometimes there were there were guests, saxophone players.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
That's true. My homie Greg Sanderson chot yeah, that's right,
cool cool, Yeah, Greg is the man.
Speaker 7 (13:22):
So the song has always been stretched out live. It's
it's a gam vehicle, and it's also it's also a
gateway for two different songs. It could depending on less smooth,
it could either be live or it can be Tommy
(13:42):
the Kats, and we're going to sample both things tonight. Now,
as I just mentioned, it has been performed by several bands,
but to honor of Wilson Wall, we're just going to
sample fancy versions tonight. What I what I also want
to point out is that Josh mentioned the track Faiths
(14:02):
on the record, but when it was performed live, they
came up with this incredible conclusion to the song, which
is basically a showcase for what a monster drummer Paula
Baldi can be. We're going to We're going to sample
several outrus tonight because you've got to listen to how
(14:23):
they wrap up one better.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
It's just mind blowing.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Interesting that they don't just you know, fade out on stage. Thanks,
thanks for laughing at that sort of guys. Here, you're
you're on fire today. There's no mystery why this is
the true opening track of the record after Back Off Turkey.
It's high energy, it's upbeat, got really great licks. Unless
(14:49):
is leading off as he calls it, and as Frankie
is referenced with the bicep showing off a little bit
to to get the record kicked off the right way. Now,
Frankie mentioned that less would work in Tommy the Cat
in some of these live renditions of note. In these
drum audition videos that are going up weekly on YouTube
(15:11):
at this time, the as Primus Auditions drummers, one thing
less is repeatedly said is that Tommy the Kat wears
out his hand and so I'm wondering if one better
is in that ballpark, and Luke, you of anybody would know.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
Yeah, it's been interesting to hear him comment on that,
you know. I like since some like subreddits people are like, oh, man, like,
you know, maybe he's getting arthritis, and maybe it's just like, well,
the dude is like in his sixties and he's like,
you know, his basslines are not exactly easy to play.
I mean that Tommy the Cat is difficult for most
bass players to play, so you know, and he's playing
(15:47):
them like with different drummers constantly, which is difficult.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
You know.
Speaker 5 (15:52):
I think that it's hard to say which is more difficult.
It's kind of subjective. Tommy the Kat is probably a
bit more physically demanding than this. It is kind of
just the hardest one, you know. That's why Soya has
the Tommy Test. But side note, the craziest thing about
these videos to me is that he puts glue on
his fingers before.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, take so have you ever seen the super glue
trick before?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
I had heard of it, but I had no idea
Less did it. It's very interesting.
Speaker 7 (16:17):
Now that you mentioned the drum of videos. It's interesting
that in the preaching episode, Less said that you have
to respect the songs. The primus songs live at least
the classics, right, they need to be performed as people
have come to know and love them. So when it
comes to Tommy the Cat, yes, the Breach has a
(16:40):
bass solo which is always going to be different, and
it has room for improvisation. But otherwise, Tommy the Cat
is a song with a specific structure, whereas One Better
is free form. Less can do whatever he wants with
that song live, So I would guess it's a lot.
It's difficult to play, but I guess it's less demanding
(17:01):
that Tommy the Cat in the sense that with Tommy
he knows that people want to hear a specific version
of the song, and with One Better, I mean, let's
can do whatever he wants on stage with the main
reef right.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Yeah, yeah, it definitely changes. Like in that two thousand
and eight Bonner version, he does change the baseline it's
a little bit different. It doesn't have that like diminished
pop that the album version has, which is interesting because
he plays it like that every time. So yeah, I
think that there's less people that are like, hey man,
you didn't do that off to pop on, whereas like
(17:35):
Tommy the Cat, they'd be like, dude, what you know? Yeah,
oh yeah, I think you're honest something that it's a
little bit more free.
Speaker 7 (17:41):
Form and think another interesting thing about One Better is
that it's really complex and really busy, but the song
briefs during the chorus. I find that very cular. There
are portions where it's just trumps and vocals, and it
does give the tracks some space to brief because it's
so compelling.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Yeah, there's a lot of like cal in a response
in that, and it's cool on the record because it's scaric,
but on some of those fancy band versions it's sam
bass on the cello. Yes, so yeah, totally. Yeah, I'd
like that chorus a lot. It gives us them space
to do different fills and variations of things.
Speaker 7 (18:17):
So if we had to break down One Better into
structure and we use the live versions as a reference,
I say we will have the main riff opening the
song first verse, first chorus, a little bit of jamming,
second verse, second chorus, then usually scary with break down
(18:40):
the song after the second chorus, indicating that the jamming
was about to begin. Then it's fully free formed, right.
It could be bass solo. It could be a cello solo,
a saxophone solo, a guitar solo. There was space with
marimba solo. There was a space for all kinds of things.
And after some jamming could be live, could be Tommy
(19:01):
the Cat and then final final chorus, well, not the
full chorus per sip, but the hook. You get the
hook a few more times and then you get the
amazing wrap up which we're going to hear later. So
that would be one better in terms of structure.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Now I gotta throw this to you, Luke. Would you
rather listen to One Better or listen to Frankie narrate
One Better?
Speaker 5 (19:28):
Honestly, I don't like if there could be like a
DVD commentary for the whole album, yeah, I would do it.
I would do it like in like if I could
get like headphones watching a show.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, yes, that is the next step in this evolution.
Is Frankie doing commentary for specific live shows. Chorus guys,
and you you sink it, and and you go yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm here for it.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Listen as the envelope filter goes into overdrive.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah, he te's up scarec perfectly.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
I'm just giving this to you. Frankie. Gosh, you're good.
Speaker 5 (20:10):
It's a great concept. Yeah, DVD commentary over tracks. Love
this idea that's untapped potentially.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Well, you got that beautiful Carl Thompson in your hand, Luke,
and if you don't mind showing the good people watching
on video over a Patriot flash primus tracks.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Uh, and of course all the wonderful people listening. Uh,
what are what are we hearing?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Because this is a really as Frankie has suggested, and
as you've mentioned, it's a it's a tough one. It's
a it's a little more complicated than usual. It doesn't
necessarily get lost in the mix, but there's a lot
of interesting stuff going on on the record, so hearing
in an isolation would be helpful.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
Yeah. Well, first off, to introduce this bass to the
Patreon viewers, but also anyone just listening. If you're listening,
I'll describe it intricately to you, not really, but this
is I don't own. This basis is on loan from
my friend Joe Cruz at MBJ Guitars. He works closely
with Carl and this was one of the first Carl
(21:12):
Thompson basses that he built, so he calls it his
ct ish base. So it's very thin bodied and it's
a short scale technically, which a lot of Carl Thompson
basses are very long, like thirty six inch scale. This
is only a thirty two inch so it's a lot lighter.
It's easier for somebody that's a little bit smaller like
me to play. And yeah, this bass is I've been
(21:33):
having a blast with that. I've been borrowing it for
a couple months while Joe is busy in his shop
with lots of other projects for MBJ and Carl, but
also building me a new one. So yeah, I was
excited to come on the pod and actually play like
a claypool line on the Carl Thompson. Okay, I guess
I should play it then.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Now you can just keep caressing it.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
That's fine, slowly rubbing around scroll here. Oh yeah, anyone
in listening when I pause, That's what I'm doing. Yeah,
I'll just play like the main line, because you know,
it's like the album version starts out there's there's like
four bars out front of just kind of like a
little improv kind of funk riff. But I'll probably fuck
(22:13):
that up, so I'll try and just do the main riff. Okay,
So it's basically this and that's hands with at least
(22:36):
minimal mistakes.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Your hands don't stop moving.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Yeah, it's very right hand percussive back and forth. Yeah, Wow, the.
Speaker 7 (22:45):
Lock go on.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
You were't kidding, he's he's it's a kitchen sink.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Bass riff for for the catalog.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
It's all the things, you know. So I mean it's
you know, it starts with just like a diminished triad,
which is a lot of prime is, but it goes
to the four and then you know, like if you
look up bass tabs or videos or things like that,
they'll kind of tell you that it's like but I
think it's a little bit easier and it's more like
(23:15):
Claypoolian to do this kind of slap pop. So it's
like you could do you know what, and it's just
like a little bit more bounce here. And it's also
just like that economy of motion that I've talked about
probably ad nauseum at this point on the podcast. Sure,
it's easier than slapping three notes in a row with
(23:36):
three downstrokes of your thumb to hammer pluck thumb, you know.
And then he's got this little like this great little
just major third triad sticks out and it always kind
of like resets or starts over with that big slide.
(23:57):
So yeah, that's basically what's going on. And then that
live version in eight and a lot of the times
he just kind of just is like which I kind
of like that too. It's it's a little bit more
just like, I don't know, persistent upfront, but I'm partial
to the album version.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Oh sure.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
Yeah, it's just a fun bouncy slap riff.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Is it. It's pretty heavy strumming in the in the chorus,
pre course and chorus.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
I think it's kind of like, you know, I was
trying to watch how he was doing it on that
On the the Bonnary one, it's kind of like he
plays it up at the twelve thret I think he's
more just kind of sleds like.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Okay, and then all the.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
I think he's just kind of doing like this a
down slap motion. Okay, it's kind of hard to hear
because he gets like fuller there, Like you can really
hear Mike on the marimbas and the sacks like it's
all doubling up. It's just like a little three note
chromatic descending line. But I was kind of shocked to
see that he's playing it up on the twelve threat too.
It's interesting he does doesn't play a lot of bass
signs like up here and like on the twelve threat
(25:04):
slapping and popping, and it's challenging because it's kind of
tough to slap and pop where the strings are a
little bit like tighter this far up like most funk
bass would be like you know, you would do it
like around the seventh threat or you're popping a G string,
but less has to just make it a little bit
more difficult, I think for everyone to imitate with this.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
One, I mean, you gotta do it just a little
bit different to throw people off the scent, right.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
Yeah, which like when I probably was playing it that
way until the first time I saw him do it
with Fancy Banner whoever, and I was like, oh, interesting,
he's playing it up with the twelve threat.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
So, so he's doing some really cool stuff throughout uh,
and then I at the near the end, Uh, when
Mike takes his solo on the record, Yeah, is he
if I recall, he's he kind of just is he
just sitting on a note essentially and letting Mike go nuts.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
Yeah. I mean I've kind of been going back and
forth doing some live version and stuff. I think he's
just kind of Yeah, he does like that little bass
and then he likes just riffing like off Mike. But
I talking to Mike, it seems like he recorded all
the bass parts and Mike just overdubed, So who knows.
Maybe the solo they recorded together, maybe Less was just
kind of thumping and playing along to his drum track,
and Mike knows how to play with Less so well
(26:16):
that he doesn't need to be in the same room
playing with him. But I do enjoy the live versions
where he's like improvising, interacting with people, and I thought
of you, Frankie in the bona Roo version where he
turns on the envelope filter in the jam and then
it does go pretty hard, but it's cool. I like
that he plays it clean for like the first two choruses,
and then when he hits that, it gives it that
(26:37):
nice wet boost.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Of course, of course Frankie loves that one.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yes, there's no doubt. Yeah, I would imagine on the
studio recording, of course, it's difficult to play interactively when
you lay down the drum track and then you gotta
lay down the base on top of it. So it's
probably hard to predict to yourself, and so he plays
it pretty straight on the record, and I think those
(27:05):
live performances clearly provide that opportunity. You know, as many
tunes do over the years.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
It's a jam vehicle, baby have you?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
This might be the jammiest or the vehicleist vehicle East
jammy thing. Now he does something unique here, and he
does this throughout much of the record, where he laid
lays down the drums and the bass and some guitar
and so he's the entire rhythm section. Have you ever
done something like that yourself? Just no, even just messing around.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
At talented, I can't do that shit. Johnny, our guitarist,
can do that. He's made demos where he's play guitar,
bass and sometimes he'll put like a drum track over it,
but he can play drums as well. I can't do
that shit, Like I tried to do that when I
would try and like record on like a little eight
track and stuff. But my drum is pretty like rudimentary.
(27:57):
But I like lessons drumming. It's fun. It always just
like fits the parts, you know it. It's fun to
just kind of hear him like jam with himself, you know.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Uh, he plays a pretty drive and beat here, and
it's it's pretty ballsy.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I like, yeah, the drum lick.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
And he pretty much sticks to it throughout the entirety
and yeah, and that's fine, and it's not a simplistic line.
So it's uh, it keeps it holds my interest over
just under six minutes and has you know, just keeps
that pulse going. And so I think that's really where
the drums are really.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Like flexing the bicep there.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
Yeah, And I think it's deliberately straight because with such
like an intricate bass part. And the lyrics are great
and he's like telling a good story and like Frank
he was saying, like it's funny, Like the lyrics are
funny and like fun to listen to so I think
that's kind of deliberate. He doesn't want your ears to get,
you know, stretched into many directions. But then when you
watch the live versions with Paulo, like he really funks
(28:54):
it up and he has some great playing on it.
Speaker 7 (28:57):
Yea, yes, the I mean it's yeah, it's it's on
Tim Alexander and Jay Len's level totally.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
It really is. And I was even thinking, like, dam
this is like some Jay Ski type beats that he's playing.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Yes, yes, well, as Less always says when he plays drums,
he's imitating Jay Lane, and I think he does that
very well throughout this record for sure, in this track
in particular, I do want to point out too, Less's
guitar playing is pretty cool on this. On this track
and throughout the record, he he makes some really cool
(29:30):
atonal noises that don't necessarily fit into the.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Beat and and just weave around it.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
I wonder where he got that idea.
Speaker 5 (29:39):
No guitars, he's ever played it before, You have.
Speaker 7 (29:42):
Done that, and it's a it's in terms of the guitar.
It's also a song that has given the guitar players
a chance to come up with very unique things. Because
merv has staffed the song. Bran Keejo has also had
a shot at the song with Duel with the Twank
And I mean, what a challenging song to tackle with
(30:03):
that project, because it's like guitar player. She was on
the spot night after night. Even Chan Lenon has tackled
one Better. And the thing about Sean is that when
they performed One Better with the Froudbrigade in twenty twenty three,
they also teased another number. But I'm not sure what
it is called, but it's one of those old school
(30:23):
funk numbers.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
Ah huh.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (30:27):
I did see them play it with the Frogs with
Sean a couple of times. Yeah, I would love to
hear another version of that.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I think if you give that tune to MERVH, you're
gonna get something great.
Speaker 5 (30:38):
Oh yeah, he's killer on that botty version.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Oh my god, Oh no, it's it's a stone cold classic.
It's on it's on the les Claypool Mount Rushmore of
Live Shows, which is LSD.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
Yeah, it's so good. It's such a great sh and
it's all Yeah. If anyone hasn't checked it out, it's
good quality on YouTube. It's totally worth checking out.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Oh jeez, go get it for sure.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, yeah, this man, this tune is this is the
one Frankie fell in love with. I would say this
one really caught my ear right off the bat, and
it's once again got a really catchy chorus. And this
is the thing that we've come back to, I think
over the years years doing this podcast is although Primus
and Claypool are out in left field for the normies
(31:22):
and it's really hard for a lot of people to grasp,
there's a lot of catchy shit in this in these tunes,
and this is a great example, just with that chromatic I'm.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Gonna get you one better yep, just.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
And then the response just you wait and see and
that kind of thing. It's really it's catchy and it's
not you know, this is certainly not less.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
It is weirdest. I think it is probably less.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
It is probably almost poppyist and catchiest here.
Speaker 5 (31:50):
Vocally I agree, but bass playing, it's maybe one of
the weirder bass parts. I would say, in what way,
just in the way that it's constantly kind of changing,
and it's got that weird little like it starts with
like a diminished slat part and then there's a major
chord and then it's like percussive, and it's just kind
of like if you didn't if you weren't familiar with
Less Caple's bass playing, and you heard that bassline, you'd
(32:11):
probably be like, what the hell is that? You know,
I think you would. Anybody would be impressed by the technicality,
but the musicality of it is pretty weird. But it's
you know, I think even for Less I got it.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
I got it.
Speaker 7 (32:23):
The song that was teased during one some performances of
One Better during the last four Brigade tour is ah,
the name is Bootsy Baby.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Oh of course, yeah, old Bootsy.
Speaker 5 (32:33):
Is it like a funk ad alex On.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
I believe it's Bootsy callings Bootsy Collins.
Speaker 5 (32:39):
Yeah, because he's on some of those records.
Speaker 7 (32:41):
Oh yeah, he played with Delight and many other groups,
and he was there.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
He was there when they inaccurated the list official.
Speaker 5 (32:49):
Day, Oh in Cincinnati.
Speaker 8 (32:51):
That's right.
Speaker 7 (32:52):
Those of you who navigated YouTube has primitive Days may
have come across what was intended to be passed off
as a music video.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
For One Better.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
I wanted to ask you about this, Frankie. Sorry to interrupt,
because it's still on YouTube. And it's a it's like
an edited version of the track. It's only about four
minutes long.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
Yeah, oh wow, it is not official.
Speaker 7 (33:15):
Okay, somebody just i mean, very cleverly and h in
a in a very interesting way. They synchronized One Better
with Concert for a Carrot Pie. That's the name of
the animation. Okay, but it's it's not official. But whomever
came up with idea, he was spot on for some reason.
(33:35):
The animation just fits the song really well.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yes, and it's it's kind of that freaky quasi medieval
looking animation that yeah.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
He will.
Speaker 7 (33:48):
Actually, I think One Better would fit one of those
old school Russian animations that were just so so left
field and so out.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
There, like Worker and Parasite exactly.
Speaker 5 (34:01):
This is worse to me, fellas.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
It's a good old time and just as annoyingly it's
three minutes and fifty nine seconds.
Speaker 5 (34:10):
Huh interesting, So what they just like a band They
started making it and then just abandon it.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
It's an edited version of the track, so whoever cut
it up cut two minutes out of the studio track,
but it's a fairly seamless edit, and then they put
it on top of this cartoon. It's still yeah, it
was posted to YouTube eighteen years ago.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Now now I'm now I'm eager to synchronize one better
way they rush on cartoon.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Are are there any parts of the studio version you
guys want me to sample? Really, we haven't really sampled
it yet.
Speaker 7 (34:47):
We don't have to of course, meaning base solo please.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
And there's mikey oh Man.
Speaker 5 (35:16):
That's a good shout, Frankie that is a great bass solo.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Can you tell us about this bass solo, Luke?
Speaker 5 (35:22):
Yeah, Like, you know what it reminds me. It reminds
me kind of like the Tommy the Cat solo on
suck on this a little bit. You know when he
just goes into like just a muted like thumping and
plucking part almost sounds like Hamburger training. You know, it's
just all percussive, there's no notes, and then he goes
into that little like major lick at the end. You know,
it's I love when he does that. It reminds me
(35:44):
of like the suck on this solo. It's just kind
of like in and out of keys. Sometimes it's diminished,
sometimes it's major, but he like kind of signifies like okay,
I'm done. The solo's over. Now, I'm not gonna attempt
my basis on my lap now, I'm not gonna attempt
to play that solo. I don't fucking know how.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
I'm I'm glad he worked that into the Red.
Speaker 5 (36:01):
Yeah, me too. It's great, it's good. I love that
little maid. No, and then just writingtve Mikey going hard
on the eighth notes there, like it's it's it's great.
That's a that's a really fun, a little pass off
solo section.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
You gotta have a bass solo in the bicep.
Speaker 5 (36:18):
Yeah, it's a good one. It's cool. It's a little
it's a power, it's a powerful little punch there from
the bicep.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
What a fun tune. Uh, this is certainly one.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Every once in a while, there will be a track
that I've somewhat forgotten, uh, in the in the sense
that I, you know, I just haven't listened to it
in years and don't remember how it goes.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
This one immediately remembered how it went.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
As soon as I knew we were talking about this one,
went oh, yeah, I don't need to listen to this
song very much.
Speaker 5 (36:43):
Yeah, when you had hit me up about how about this?
I like, just was I put on of Wales and well,
I hadn't heard it a while, and I can't say
I remembered back off Turkey that well, fair, no offense
stall you back off Turkey enthusiasts. But as soon as
one better starts you just like, oh yeah, it just
gets the engine revin. It's it's a great kickoff.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Oh you know it.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Let's talk about these lyrics. We've talked about the music
a lot, and it is time to put on our
time machine. It's gonna make some stupid joke about the
Cold War. Never mind, come on, man, that's good.
Speaker 5 (37:18):
We can make Cold War riffs.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Not too soon, Okay, I'll tee that up again. Okay,
we've talked about the music for quite some time. We
should talk about the lyrics. And to do so, Luke,
we're all going to get into our fallout bunkers and
we're going to unlock the Soviet codes so that we
can stymy them and stop them from taking over the world.
Speaker 5 (37:43):
Great Cold War puns. They landed, that's.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Mine, Hey, all right, they landed.
Speaker 5 (37:50):
All right.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
What I really like about these lyrics is much like
the base lick that you described and modeled for us Luke,
these lyrics are a bit off the beaten path for
Claypool as well. It's not his standard, so he's a
little more off kilter with the delivery of the lyrics,
not much of a rhyme scheme at all.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
When he's telling his stories.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
There's some repetition, of course, and then it gets sing
songy in the chorus with the repetition I'm gonna get
you one better, and then the response of things like
I'm the baddest one around, I got the biggest balls
in town. But he tells a couple of stories here,
and the title one Better certainly shares with us what
these stories are about. But what I really appreciate is
(38:37):
he goes straight to consumerism and politics, which are fertile
grounds for him, and he tells these two little vignettes
of individuals who just have to one up the other
guy and just get one better on him or one
up them. What I like about both of them through
those stands is is the repetition of like Ike reeled
(38:59):
has head back. I love that visual, and you know
that's a mighty fine satellite, which obviously Eisenhower didn't say.
He was saying we're all gonna fucking die. But they.
I think what Less does really well here is in
telling these stories. He just he just lays it out there,
and it's it's pretty We can fairly easily infer you
(39:22):
know what he's getting at, Luke, You're probably familiar with
this idiom Frankie, do you know the idiom keeping up
with the Joneses.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Yes, okay, trying to Yeah, just trying to one up
your neighbor or your friends or whomever, constantly.
Speaker 7 (39:37):
Right right, and they got a new car, you want
to get a better one.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Right rooted, and it's usually rooted in some kind of
sense of envy of a neighbor. Actually, I looked this
up a long time ago, and it actually stems from
an early twentieth century newspaper cartoon.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Called Keeping Up with the Joneses.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
And there's the joke, is this guy's why is always
looking over at the Joneses and saying, oh, they've got
these really nice things. You got to get a better
job so we can afford them.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
And so.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
As as wonderfully misogynistic as that is, it just kind
of speaks to that idea of consumerism and envying one's neighbor,
so on and so forth.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
So that's really we're seeing.
Speaker 7 (40:22):
Once again, it's really amazing how Liz can create such great,
such compelling and memorable character studies in such a compact
and brief way.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Yeah, just through the story of a guy with a
new car and Russian satellite going into.
Speaker 4 (40:39):
Space, and yet it's so evocative and so well written.
Speaker 9 (40:44):
Absolutely, there's actually right now, there's a really idiotic threat
on Reddit, which I just remember because we're discussing these lyrics.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
You've probably seen it.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Josh, Oh, I go to read it every time you
tell me there's something stupid there By the way, Luke
Frankie's fating is just to rail against what's happening in
the Primus subreddit.
Speaker 5 (41:09):
Oh man, I don't think. I don't know if I've
seen you in there. Frankie're gonna have to keep my.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
Don't I don't post. I just read.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Yeah, he reads and then messages me says, look at this.
Speaker 7 (41:20):
Let's cliple will say some bias like Rick took the
bric a bractic his pal Mac and spackle the cat
and then spit out a bassline that could kill God.
But he's so stupid because that's I mean, come on,
that's like someone that that has only heard two Primus songs, right.
Speaker 5 (41:36):
I mean, I like the spin out of bassline that
could kill God. That's pretty good.
Speaker 7 (41:41):
But let's let's don't get the credit if he serves
as a songwriter, because his lyrics can actually be quite
quite complex. And even if they're not complex, even if
the story is really straightforward as in One Bitter, they
are still very well written.
Speaker 5 (41:57):
Yeah, they're simple and effective, especially in this song, and
it's like, you can't forget the guy wrote a novel.
You know, he is a writer.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
What he does very well in a lot of his tunes,
as he does here in One Better, is he picks
a structure and then he uses the some moving parts
within it to tell one story. And then he uses
the same structure and moves around some parts and tells
another story. And then he gets his point across. And
he does it fairly efficiently in this one too. And
so the these lyrics have always resonated with me, especially
(42:28):
with the historical reference to Khrushchev and Eisenhower and the
spot neek satellite launch. Once you start getting into cold
war politics, I'm awake.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
Let's go like.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
That, that's what I need to have a podcast about.
Speaker 5 (42:43):
Yeah, good, there isn't already one.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
No, I can't imagine anybody's ever done a podcast about
something so esoteric. Yeah, I'm a big fan of these lyrics.
I love the story they tell, and they are pretty
funny because just just the idea that Eisenhower, who of
course presented as a gentleman and a very honorable man,
would say something like I've got the biggest balls and
down now, I would believe.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
That Harry S.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Truman would say something like that, or Richard Nixon would
say something like that.
Speaker 5 (43:11):
I can't think of a single other president who would
ever say something like that.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
That beautiful music can only mean one thing. It's time
for Primates takes. If you want your opinion about the
song up for discussion, read right here on the podcast.
All you have to do is go to Patreon dot
com forts last Primus tracks, and the universal constant over
there is that we will read your takes about the
track right here. Frankie, We're starting off with Brooks Delight.
(43:43):
He's gonna break it down right now. That's right, we
are the gates.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
He's set in the tone.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Brooks Delight says, who doesn't love this one? Definitely a
Claypool top five for me, both musically and lyrically. The
studio version is great, but the fancy band live versions
are my favorite.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Boom We're out of Jobs.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Anthony del prete Go Bills says, I even like the
little scratchy.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
Guitar in the background on this tracks.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
I've always wanted Dylan's vibes to be a little clearer
in the mix on this recording.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
But the song kicks.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Is this the bicep of the record.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
I forget yes.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
And our pal Kevin says, you know it's a banger
when it gets you thinking about Less's balls. Edwin Allen
richards the fourth our Landed Gentry says easily one of
my favorite Clydepoole tracks of all time. Also a great
track to show a newbie or someone who isn't familiar
with Less's work. The funk vibes of this song are
(44:47):
just too good. Eric and Australia are Resident Curmudgeon says
this is an all time Claypool banger for me. Absolutely
ripping bassline and such a clever character premise.
Speaker 3 (44:59):
There be Claypool gold.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
In them Hills great nice and our other Palell in Australia,
Simon Altman Frankie invokes great jam vehicle that can go
on forever, and we have one more primates take that
I would like to share from John Shreeve, who says
a triumphant, high energy return from C two B three.
(45:22):
Mike d and Scaric bring this to a new level
basically organized bastard jazz, but without Stanton Moore thinking of
Eisenhower explaining that he'd upstaged someone because of his nuts
has always cracked me up.
Speaker 4 (45:35):
Each each review got better, Yeah, those are good.
Speaker 5 (45:39):
Those are good.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
Would you say each one got one better than the last?
Speaker 4 (45:44):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (45:44):
Very nice, very I like the take that this is
a good like introductory track for something that's not as
familiar with Clay Bowl. I think it definitely is, like really,
I mean yeah, I think it's catchy and you showed
to somebody and they're like, h.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
I would think so if I was gonna pick a
even off this record itself, if I was going to
choose a track to introduce somebody to, I'd probably pick.
Speaker 5 (46:05):
One better or back off Turkey.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
I think, uh, yeah.
Speaker 7 (46:11):
It's better to expose people to some of the harshest,
most lift field material, and if they survive it, then
I think their game for listening to the rest of
the catalog.
Speaker 5 (46:24):
Wow, that's hardcore.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
Yeah wow. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
So if we were, if we truly were back in
the Cold War, Frankie would be the one advocating to
launch the nukes and to sort the bodies out later.
Speaker 4 (46:36):
Yes. Wow.
Speaker 7 (46:39):
So I'm like, you've you've never heard Primus before. All right,
here's a fifteen minute drum solo followed by a song
called Spaghetti Western.
Speaker 5 (46:50):
I mean, I'd be sold though, if that that was
like a if that was like a TORNI fromage Spaghetti
I'm in, I'm in, I'm in there. I just show
people Deon's a jig. Just because of the new hillbilly
uprising and because of billy strings in the bluegrass world.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Oh that's that is smart. That is how you bring
in a new audience.
Speaker 5 (47:11):
That's that's how I'm getting Primus back into the jam
band scene.
Speaker 2 (47:15):
Y'all like billy strings. Check this shit out, Dion's motherfucker.
They're like, Wow, these guys kick ass.
Speaker 5 (47:26):
I could stomp to this. Live cuts from vehicle.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
Live cuts from the Jam Vehicle, Live cuts from what's
going on here. It's Frankie's favorite part of the show.
It's live cuts time. Frankie.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
You send a lot of cuts of one beta.
Speaker 4 (47:44):
I did, and we're gonna sample all of them.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
And we're not gonna sample all of them because there's
no scrub bar on the World Cafe.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
Uh performance, However, you have.
Speaker 4 (47:54):
To you have to stream World Cafe, please, Frankie.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
There's no scrub bar. And it's like twenty minutes.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
I I can't.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
I don't know what to tell you. I can't get
to the timecode.
Speaker 3 (48:03):
Frankie. Come on. We had this talk last week.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
Our first live cut July fifteen, two thousand and six,
in New York, New York, at the Nokia Theater.
Speaker 5 (48:12):
I was there?
Speaker 2 (48:13):
Were you at the show?
Speaker 5 (48:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (48:15):
Is this right after you bought the record?
Speaker 5 (48:17):
I guess so shortly after? But I didn't miss any
of those Nokia Theater shows. And it changed. That place
is constantly changing its venue name. It was the PlayStation Theater.
I don't know what it was, the Best Buy Theater.
I don't even know what it is now.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
Fuck, let's check out the breakdown at one better Nokia Theater.
Speaker 8 (48:37):
Luke was there?
Speaker 6 (49:01):
Oh yeah, that sounded nice.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
I also noticed that Frankie picked an envelope filter delight
absolutely of course.
Speaker 5 (49:19):
I like when he just drops him to It's just
such like a funky thing. It also makes me realize
I think I actually played that chorus wrong before. I
think lest is just going and I think maybe like
another instrument is like oh okay, so so because some
basement out there is make he fuck that up? I
think he does. Go gotcha, so okay, corrected myself.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Yeah, I'll delete all the angry emails okay that I
receive in like the twenty minute gap, you know, between
you modeling it and then correcting yourself.
Speaker 5 (49:55):
Yes, thank you.
Speaker 2 (49:56):
Let's move forward to the bridge of the tunis Frankie
calls it.
Speaker 3 (50:33):
He's talking some nice high hat work, by the way,
Yeah very Jason.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
Oh, there's that Tommy t's.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (50:57):
And then let's go to the outro, because Frankie has
been building up the outro to the live renditions of
One Better All Night.
Speaker 5 (51:04):
Just sounds so good on that tom Oh yeah, just
listen to this. Yeah, it's trade to your ships. That
(51:40):
is killer. That is killer. They let go off like that.
Speaker 3 (51:43):
Dang uh.
Speaker 2 (51:45):
I really love that outro the way that they ended live,
that sounds amazing, beautiful and.
Speaker 4 (51:54):
For for a drummer.
Speaker 7 (51:55):
I mean, when you know you you got to wrap
up a song like that? Is it something that makes
you feel nervous or is it something that you look
forward to? I mean, I wouldn't know, but to me,
it just sounds so compelling that I wouldn't even know
where to start if somebody wanted to replicate that.
Speaker 2 (52:15):
I think most drummers go time to shine and just
let it rip.
Speaker 5 (52:20):
And I feel like Paulo doesn't do that too often either.
You know, he doesn't like really going.
Speaker 7 (52:25):
She no, because yeah, Paula serves the songs and she
knows how to restraint himself. So when less let him lose,
that's the kind of thing that he can do.
Speaker 5 (52:35):
Yeah. Yeah, he is a pocket drummer, so yeah, hearing
him take the spotlight at school.
Speaker 8 (52:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:41):
Our next live cut is from two nights later, July seventeen,
two thousand and six, in Boston, Go Socks at the Roxy?
Speaker 5 (52:50):
Oh nice?
Speaker 3 (52:51):
Were you at this one too, Luke?
Speaker 5 (52:53):
Uh No, No, I never saw them at the Roxy.
I saw him at the Pavilion quite a few times
and elsewhere, but never the rock rip alright, I think
it's just a different venue.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
Now, well, let's hear what the roxy sounded like.
Speaker 3 (53:06):
I have to wow. This is a.
Speaker 2 (53:08):
Fourteen minute cut by the smokes wo Let's hear what
Frankie terms the bridge again, it's pretty rare. I think
(54:07):
I've said this before, but there are just certain cuts
in this I think is qualifying. I just want less
to record a funk record, straight funk, Like, get a
whole bunch of funk legends and Jaysky on drums, why
not and then just do a straight funk album.
Speaker 5 (54:24):
Yeah, he's definitely getting into that, like p funk mode.
Yeah with that, you know, it's like that we want
the funk basine. You know, he's like really laying into it.
Speaker 3 (54:34):
And these live cuts it's cool, it's ripping.
Speaker 2 (54:37):
You might hear a familiar tune coming up in this
part of the track. There's a person in the crowd
(55:13):
who really enjoys this rendition a glide Like one person
is screaming their full head off love it. Yeah, that
base sounds great.
Speaker 5 (55:30):
Something like that.
Speaker 2 (55:33):
For those of you listening, that wasn't the live recording.
That was Luke Beemonah.
Speaker 3 (55:39):
That's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (55:41):
It's for our last stop on the One Better Express.
Speaker 3 (55:46):
We are going back to the Everglades. March six, two
thousand and eight.
Speaker 2 (55:51):
Is this the infamous Envelope Filter show, Frankie.
Speaker 4 (55:55):
It is the Envelope Filter Delight Show.
Speaker 3 (55:57):
We get to hear some wonderful base.
Speaker 2 (56:38):
And of course Mike can just pick up double it
whenever he wants. It's pretty cool, but taking it to
a different place there. We haven't heard that yet.
Speaker 5 (56:51):
Yeah, it's cool. He like, you know, like they based
a lot of these jams around the One Better being
based around like an E seven cool word, so like
a dominant seventh chord, which is a popular like funk chord,
like a oh sure on Hog's Day chord, and he's
really like leaning into like with the it almost has
more like a minor sound to it and the verses
(57:13):
and the chorus, but they're really leaning into that like
seven chord funk with the improv, which gives the song
kind of a different feel.
Speaker 3 (57:19):
I feel like that was definitely different. That was a
lot of fun.
Speaker 5 (57:23):
But yeah, like they're leaning more into like the major
key vibe. Yeah, the dominant seven. If I may music nerd.
Speaker 2 (57:29):
Out, you may and it looks like Frankie really wants
us to hear glide again, so why not Everglades Style Baby.
Speaker 3 (58:00):
Sounds pretty good to me. Good one.
Speaker 2 (58:07):
Anytime he throws in a glide, I'm pretty happy because
it's so funky.
Speaker 5 (58:10):
Yeah, I'm playing Glide with the band this weekend.
Speaker 3 (58:13):
Actually, so oh nice.
Speaker 5 (58:15):
I just love banger.
Speaker 2 (58:23):
That's one you can pretty well dig into. I imagine
it probably feels really good.
Speaker 5 (58:27):
Oh yeah, it's so fun. It's like the first time
I heard it, I didn't know what it was. I
think it was like Colonel Claypold's a Bernie Brain show.
Oh teased it, and then I heard it, and like
years later I found out what the song was. Yeah,
it's a great baseline.
Speaker 2 (58:39):
Nice uh, and we're gonna wrap it up with the
outro here.
Speaker 5 (58:44):
I love it. Yeah, he's just like a chromatic and
(59:22):
then the last up the minor scope.
Speaker 2 (59:25):
Yeah, great, end sounded good and and I know that
was an audience recording, but that bass at the end,
with that strumming sound, it's so blown out.
Speaker 3 (59:34):
It was great.
Speaker 5 (59:35):
Love that yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a cool road
where what venue is that? It's just like in the
swamps of the Everglades, not even like at a venue,
just like on a like a steamboat.
Speaker 2 (59:49):
Yeah, Everglades National Park, Langorado Music Festival. So yeah, Frankie
keeps taking us back to the Everglades. I've got malaria
like five times. I guess I could say this one better.
Try to make it two better because you've been tracked
(01:00:11):
next time, Frankie.
Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
It burns sometimes it itches and burns.
Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
We'll just leave it at that.
Speaker 2 (01:00:19):
Luke Beman, thank you so much for joining us today
to talk one better.
Speaker 3 (01:00:23):
It was a pleasure.
Speaker 5 (01:00:24):
Thank you fellas always a blast.
Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
Thanks for having you bet Man, and you are at
Luke Beaman Base on Instagram of course a special music.
You're all over the place, man, I don't I don't
know how you keep up with your numerous social media accounts. Yes,
this is all about the Grimstones, right, go get those Grimstones,
Prime Matrons, prime Maates, People of Earth.
Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
Frankie, Luke, thank you all so much.
Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
Later days, I don't undoing anyone back anything, any
It's Josh Freaky with a couple of dump shits.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hello, Primates, you found Primus Tracks. Congratulations. You can find
us on the wide world of the interweb if you want.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
My name is.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Josh, I host Primus Tracks. I co host it with
a young man seated on the thirty ninth floor of
Primus Tracks Towers. They keep adding stories. He stays on
the thirty ninth. He says the air there is the purest.
It's Frankie Berestein. Hey Josh, Hi Frankie, how are you
on this fine day?
Speaker 4 (00:47):
What is your favor about this track?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You're very excited about one Better Beta. Oh, I'm sorry,
I've been saying it wrong all these years. One Beta?
Who betta to bring us some knowledge about out this
track called one Beta. It's it's the man who always
has one Beta, no matter how much you have. He's
the bass player of a special He's also in a
(01:11):
couple acts, Frankie. One of them is called Drunken Doja Monkey,
which is fascinating, and another one is simply called the Mites. Wow,
and I would love to welcome him back to the
podcast for I think the thirty third time.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
It's Luke beemand Luke.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
Hello, boys, what an honor thirty third times a charm
let's do it.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
So glad to have you back and to talk about.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
The bicep of the records.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
We're talking about the bicep today. Do you now, as
as a man who has made many records at this
point in your life, Luke, you must know about album Anatomy.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
Yeah, but you know, that's the first time I've heard
of a track being referred to as the bicep, and
I am with it, and I agree wholeheartedly about this track.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
It's showy, just like a bicep. It's it's showy, and
unlike a bicep, which doesn't actually do much, this song
does a lot.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
So where as Frankie would say, it's quite.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Thick, yes, goodness, thickness abounds here with one better.
Speaker 6 (02:14):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, it's great to have you here for this. Actually,
if you don't mind, if you'll indulge us. What's your
overall relationship with the Whales and Woe record?
Speaker 5 (02:25):
Yeah, I remember purchasing this record when it came out
in two thousand and six. I was a senior in
high school and we were actually on a senior field
trip in New York City, and I like snuck away
from the class to go to the Virgin megastore and
buy a.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Copy of the record Virsion Megastore.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
Yeah, yeah, right in Times Square. It was amazing. Wow, yeah,
great record store. Yeah did you have you never been
to one?
Speaker 7 (02:50):
I have been to a Virgin megastore, but I visited
one in Canada.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
I never got a chance to visit one in the US.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
Yeah. Oh man. It was my face favorite place in
the world that had this giant like magic wand cover
to it. It was a magical place as a youth,
for sure. So yeah, I got out there and I
got the record, and I got back to the bus
in time, and I was able to listen to it
on my walkman, my sony Walkman. Yes, so I'll always
remember that. Yeah, I mean, this album is a wacky one,
(03:22):
you know. I think the tracks that I enjoyed the
most when the record came out are still kind of
in rotation now, or at least they were being played
on the Frog Brigade tour, like Phantom Patriot and LUs
Stings and one Better And yeah, I love this record.
It's got some really cool, great basslines. I love Skaic's playing.
I love Mike Knees playing. And I actually was texting
(03:45):
with Mike a little bit before the pod tonight about
this track, so I can share with you guys a
little anecdote from Mike D later. Okay, I guess you're right,
should I just share it with you now that I
don't know what the well, I tell you what.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
We don't have any Mike D anecdotes. So you got
us one better on that?
Speaker 5 (04:05):
Okay, nice one. So I was texting with him. He's
doing the Bastard Jazz gig tomorrow, that's right, Yeah, with
the Colonel Yeah, out in uh where's Knoxville. So I
was just texting with him, and you know, I told
him I was going on the podcast when we were
talking about One Better, and I just asked him, Hey,
do you have any you know, stories or anecdotes about
(04:26):
recording that one? And he said, uh, I'll do I
guess Mike Deve boys he goes man. I had a
blast on that record less and I did rumble at
the diesel when I was out there hanging with him.
I played drums on that track he did. We did
bass and drums on the spot and then he did
some funky guitar on it.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
Bro, we went out on his boat and I watched him.
Heave his line out in the salty waves. That's that's Mike's.
And then he just said one better marimba party we
just took off.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
That sounded like a cross between Miked and Tom Wains.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
I know, well, you know, he kind of has a
little bit of like like a Louisiana Tom Waits twang
to his voice.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
No, that's a pretty good mic.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
I like that, Luke, it's not bad, but you know, yeah,
and I just you know, he said that. I asked him,
you know, I had that track come up about pretty organically,
you know, like a lot of his solo stuff does.
And he had said, he, well, he's been texting me
from two different numbers. Sorry, I just landed in Knoxville.
I had a different number.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Oh weird.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
So he said Less had already done that one and
just laden marimb on top of it. He said, Less
had most of them done already. He played drums and
all the parts, and me and Scaric just over over
dubbed parts.
Speaker 7 (05:38):
Yeah, that sounds that sounds like uh the U. The
usual approach for the Wilson wool record.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Yeah, like less recording them himself at Rancho and then
bringing in those guys. But Mike did drums on Rumble
of the Diesel, which I did not know, which is
pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, and Rumble is one you've played with him live?
Speaker 5 (05:57):
Correct, We've kind of like teased that for Rory and
I used to play that, but I don't know if
we've done it with fucking a. But I actually suggested
it to Mike and he heart reacted it. So I'm
gonna go ahead and say.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yes, we're gonna do it in the parlance of our
times that say yes, that's an affirmative yes, outstanding. Well,
thank you for sharing that, as well as the fact
that apparently, oh, Mike D's got a burner wherever he goes.
That's pretty cool, right, What this is like NOO's middle number.
Speaker 7 (06:27):
I want to share this with you guys to kick
off of the track. So back when I first thought
the record, that was around two thousand and eight, I
believe I immediately fell completely in love with this song.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
I was just blown away by the.
Speaker 7 (06:47):
Baseline, by the intricacy of the whole composition. I thought
the lyrics were hilarious. I mean, I just love the track,
and one of the first thoughts that came to my
mind was, I wonder someone has tried to cover this song.
So in the perative days of YouTube, I typed let's
(07:08):
clippole one better based cover, and I came across a
video from a guy who I think I've referenced on
the podcast before, Zodiac Iron Fist. So in the early
days of YouTube, this guy was a pioneer of bass
covers primus and less Claypool based covers. He was a very,
(07:29):
very talented musician. He sadly passed away several years ago,
but his videos are still up at his legacy and
they are very, very fascinating and fun to watch. He
did tackle one Better, so I remember that. First of all,
I was flabbergasted by his cover, but then I read
(07:50):
his description, and I guess that his description provided more
insight to me in terms of how complex the song
actually is. So in the description, he said, first off,
let me begin by saying I have no business putting
this video up because I am far from learning the
tune perfectly. Let's fill the tune with numerous little tidbits
(08:10):
and feels that I am too mentally challenged to remember,
so during these parts, I just made up whatever felt
good for me. Of course, by the way, I uploaded
this tune based on a request. I'm not sure I
would have had the courage to release the tune otherwise.
And then in the comments, someone said, my band actually
requested that I learned one Better for a show, and
(08:33):
so the kuren Fist responded, I wouldn't inflict one Better
on my worst enemy. So this gave me some insight
on how difficult this song is to play live. By
the way, there's also a video on YouTube from a
guy that attempted to cover the Bonararu two thousand and
eight live version, and in his description he also mentions
(08:54):
that a lot of stuff he's just making up as
he goes along because it's practically impossible to figure out
what the list is doing during the track. So what
do you think, look about these comments regarding one Better?
Speaker 5 (09:07):
Yeah, I mean, that's he's got a point. It is
definitely a difficult one. It's a tongue twister of a bassline.
I love that Bonru two thousand and eight version. I
figured we'd be talking about that. I was listening to
that and kind of watching it for reference. It's a
it's like a longer phrase of a bassline. It's not
just like a short four bar phrase. It's more of
(09:28):
like a you know, like an eight bar phrase, I guess,
depending on how you're counting it. But it's a longer part,
and he's doing the classic or typical less Claypool variations
and subtle fills, and it's always slightly different, and sometimes
he's pushing it and sometimes he's you know, things are
slightly different. So you know, right before I did the podcast,
I recorded a video of me playing it that I'm
going to try and release in conjunction with the episode,
(09:49):
and I was like, this is pretty hard to play
exactly what he's playing in time with him because of
the nature of all the variations and stuff. Yeah, it's
a it's definitely a tricky one. The special covered it once,
and I think it was like the year it came out,
like two thousand and six or two thousand and seven,
so we were, you know, John was probably a freshman
in college. I was a senior where he was a
(10:09):
junior in high school. And I just remember we played
this like outdoor event and it took us a while
to come out. We probably just like smoking weed in
the van or something, and like we go out and
we played it and it like wasn't great, but we
decided to start the show like that because we're all
super into the song. I just remember John's dad. His
comment was, Yeah, it took you guys a while to
come out, and when you did, you weren't exactly the
Rolling Stones. So yeah, I wouldn't recommend bands come out
(10:35):
and start with like a shitty version of one Better
You will let your fathers down. Yeah, it's a tricky
one for sure, but it's been really fun to like
dive back into the last few days of play.
Speaker 7 (10:44):
It's not awesome, and he's very tricky because it never
downs to steal right.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
It's yeah.
Speaker 7 (10:52):
Excitedly was full of twists and turns. He just under
to the entire song.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
Right, and it's a lot of like the less Claypool
techniques all in one. There you slapping, he's popping or
thumping and plucking as he would say. There's that little
major third chord he's strums, it's percussive. It's very busy.
So yeah, this is this is in the more advanced
Claypoolian basslines.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I'd say for sure, with that beautiful carl in your hands,
I can't.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Wait to hear it.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Let's give a little bit of vital statistics on this one.
One Better is track two from of Wales and Woe
checks in at five minutes and fifty nine seconds at
least on my CD rip. Fade it out for another second, man,
get the flat six minutes so irritating. On the track
we have bass, vocals, guitar and drums by Less Claypool,
(11:43):
Mike Dylan on marimba, Scarrick on tenor sacks. Got a
live history on this one.
Speaker 7 (11:48):
One Better was premiered at the Fillmore in San Francisco
on December thirtieth, two thousand and five with the Fancy Band.
It's of course he was jem out, but the song
is essentially there, So I would not classify this as
a skeletal version in the sense that, for example, with
(12:08):
oyster Head, we had these prototypes right before the record
came out. In this case, we're talking about the end
of two thousand and five, but One Better was fully formed,
so this was the staple. It was the v show
stopper of the Fancy Band throughout two thousand and six,
two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight. Then it
(12:29):
was also performed by the Fungi Band. Of course, different
band configuration, same song. It was played a few times
a handful of times by none other than Do Other Twang.
The torch was then passed on to Lesclipo's Bastard Jazz.
Then it was resurrected in twenty twenty three by the
(12:51):
Frog Brigade. And this is very peculiar because some performances
had saxophone, some others didn't. The latest performance to date
was a tease on New Year's Eve three at the
Great American Music Hall.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
So that was because Skarek wasn't on the first half
of that.
Speaker 7 (13:11):
But but but sometimes there were there were guests, saxophone players.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
That's true. My homie Greg Sanderson chot yeah, that's right,
cool cool, Yeah, Greg is the man.
Speaker 7 (13:22):
So the song has always been stretched out live. It's
it's a gam vehicle, and it's also it's also a
gateway for two different songs. It could depending on less smooth,
it could either be live or it can be Tommy
(13:42):
the Kats, and we're going to sample both things tonight. Now,
as I just mentioned, it has been performed by several bands,
but to honor of Wilson Wall, we're just going to
sample fancy versions tonight. What I what I also want
to point out is that Josh mentioned the track Faiths
(14:02):
on the record, but when it was performed live, they
came up with this incredible conclusion to the song, which
is basically a showcase for what a monster drummer Paula
Baldi can be. We're going to We're going to sample
several outrus tonight because you've got to listen to how
(14:23):
they wrap up one better.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
It's just mind blowing.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Interesting that they don't just you know, fade out on stage. Thanks,
thanks for laughing at that sort of guys. Here, you're
you're on fire today. There's no mystery why this is
the true opening track of the record after Back Off Turkey.
It's high energy, it's upbeat, got really great licks. Unless
(14:49):
is leading off as he calls it, and as Frankie
is referenced with the bicep showing off a little bit
to to get the record kicked off the right way. Now,
Frankie mentioned that less would work in Tommy the Cat
in some of these live renditions of note. In these
drum audition videos that are going up weekly on YouTube
(15:11):
at this time, the as Primus Auditions drummers, one thing
less is repeatedly said is that Tommy the Kat wears
out his hand and so I'm wondering if one better
is in that ballpark, and Luke, you of anybody would know.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
Yeah, it's been interesting to hear him comment on that,
you know. I like since some like subreddits people are like, oh, man, like,
you know, maybe he's getting arthritis, and maybe it's just like, well,
the dude is like in his sixties and he's like,
you know, his basslines are not exactly easy to play.
I mean that Tommy the Cat is difficult for most
bass players to play, so you know, and he's playing
(15:47):
them like with different drummers constantly, which is difficult.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
You know.
Speaker 5 (15:52):
I think that it's hard to say which is more difficult.
It's kind of subjective. Tommy the Kat is probably a
bit more physically demanding than this. It is kind of
just the hardest one, you know. That's why Soya has
the Tommy Test. But side note, the craziest thing about
these videos to me is that he puts glue on
his fingers before.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, take so have you ever seen the super glue
trick before?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
I had heard of it, but I had no idea
Less did it. It's very interesting.
Speaker 7 (16:17):
Now that you mentioned the drum of videos. It's interesting
that in the preaching episode, Less said that you have
to respect the songs. The primus songs live at least
the classics, right, they need to be performed as people
have come to know and love them. So when it
comes to Tommy the Cat, yes, the Breach has a
(16:40):
bass solo which is always going to be different, and
it has room for improvisation. But otherwise, Tommy the Cat
is a song with a specific structure, whereas One Better
is free form. Less can do whatever he wants with
that song live, So I would guess it's a lot.
It's difficult to play, but I guess it's less demanding
(17:01):
that Tommy the Cat in the sense that with Tommy
he knows that people want to hear a specific version
of the song, and with One Better, I mean, let's
can do whatever he wants on stage with the main
reef right.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Yeah, yeah, it definitely changes. Like in that two thousand
and eight Bonner version, he does change the baseline it's
a little bit different. It doesn't have that like diminished
pop that the album version has, which is interesting because
he plays it like that every time. So yeah, I
think that there's less people that are like, hey man,
you didn't do that off to pop on, whereas like
(17:35):
Tommy the Cat, they'd be like, dude, what you know? Yeah,
oh yeah, I think you're honest something that it's a
little bit more free.
Speaker 7 (17:41):
Form and think another interesting thing about One Better is
that it's really complex and really busy, but the song
briefs during the chorus. I find that very cular. There
are portions where it's just trumps and vocals, and it
does give the tracks some space to brief because it's
so compelling.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Yeah, there's a lot of like cal in a response
in that, and it's cool on the record because it's scaric,
but on some of those fancy band versions it's sam
bass on the cello. Yes, so yeah, totally. Yeah, I'd
like that chorus a lot. It gives us them space
to do different fills and variations of things.
Speaker 7 (18:17):
So if we had to break down One Better into
structure and we use the live versions as a reference,
I say we will have the main riff opening the
song first verse, first chorus, a little bit of jamming,
second verse, second chorus, then usually scary with break down
(18:40):
the song after the second chorus, indicating that the jamming
was about to begin. Then it's fully free formed, right.
It could be bass solo. It could be a cello solo,
a saxophone solo, a guitar solo. There was space with
marimba solo. There was a space for all kinds of things.
And after some jamming could be live, could be Tommy
(19:01):
the Cat and then final final chorus, well, not the
full chorus per sip, but the hook. You get the
hook a few more times and then you get the
amazing wrap up which we're going to hear later. So
that would be one better in terms of structure.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Now I gotta throw this to you, Luke. Would you
rather listen to One Better or listen to Frankie narrate
One Better?
Speaker 5 (19:28):
Honestly, I don't like if there could be like a
DVD commentary for the whole album, yeah, I would do it.
I would do it like in like if I could
get like headphones watching a show.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, yes, that is the next step in this evolution.
Is Frankie doing commentary for specific live shows. Chorus guys,
and you you sink it, and and you go yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm here for it.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Listen as the envelope filter goes into overdrive.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah, he te's up scarec perfectly.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
I'm just giving this to you. Frankie. Gosh, you're good.
Speaker 5 (20:10):
It's a great concept. Yeah, DVD commentary over tracks. Love
this idea that's untapped potentially.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Well, you got that beautiful Carl Thompson in your hand, Luke,
and if you don't mind showing the good people watching
on video over a Patriot flash primus tracks.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Uh, and of course all the wonderful people listening. Uh,
what are what are we hearing?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Because this is a really as Frankie has suggested, and
as you've mentioned, it's a it's a tough one. It's
a it's a little more complicated than usual. It doesn't
necessarily get lost in the mix, but there's a lot
of interesting stuff going on on the record, so hearing
in an isolation would be helpful.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
Yeah. Well, first off, to introduce this bass to the
Patreon viewers, but also anyone just listening. If you're listening,
I'll describe it intricately to you, not really, but this
is I don't own. This basis is on loan from
my friend Joe Cruz at MBJ Guitars. He works closely
with Carl and this was one of the first Carl
(21:12):
Thompson basses that he built, so he calls it his
ct ish base. So it's very thin bodied and it's
a short scale technically, which a lot of Carl Thompson
basses are very long, like thirty six inch scale. This
is only a thirty two inch so it's a lot lighter.
It's easier for somebody that's a little bit smaller like
me to play. And yeah, this bass is I've been
(21:33):
having a blast with that. I've been borrowing it for
a couple months while Joe is busy in his shop
with lots of other projects for MBJ and Carl, but
also building me a new one. So yeah, I was
excited to come on the pod and actually play like
a claypool line on the Carl Thompson. Okay, I guess
I should play it then.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Now you can just keep caressing it.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
That's fine, slowly rubbing around scroll here. Oh yeah, anyone
in listening when I pause, That's what I'm doing. Yeah,
I'll just play like the main line, because you know,
it's like the album version starts out there's there's like
four bars out front of just kind of like a
little improv kind of funk riff. But I'll probably fuck
(22:13):
that up, so I'll try and just do the main riff. Okay,
So it's basically this and that's hands with at least
(22:36):
minimal mistakes.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Your hands don't stop moving.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Yeah, it's very right hand percussive back and forth. Yeah, Wow, the.
Speaker 7 (22:45):
Lock go on.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
You were't kidding, he's he's it's a kitchen sink.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Bass riff for for the catalog.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
It's all the things, you know. So I mean it's
you know, it starts with just like a diminished triad,
which is a lot of prime is, but it goes
to the four and then you know, like if you
look up bass tabs or videos or things like that,
they'll kind of tell you that it's like but I
think it's a little bit easier and it's more like
(23:15):
Claypoolian to do this kind of slap pop. So it's
like you could do you know what, and it's just
like a little bit more bounce here. And it's also
just like that economy of motion that I've talked about
probably ad nauseum at this point on the podcast. Sure,
it's easier than slapping three notes in a row with
(23:36):
three downstrokes of your thumb to hammer pluck thumb, you know.
And then he's got this little like this great little
just major third triad sticks out and it always kind
of like resets or starts over with that big slide.
(23:57):
So yeah, that's basically what's going on. And then that
live version in eight and a lot of the times
he just kind of just is like which I kind
of like that too. It's it's a little bit more
just like, I don't know, persistent upfront, but I'm partial
to the album version.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Oh sure.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
Yeah, it's just a fun bouncy slap riff.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Is it. It's pretty heavy strumming in the in the chorus,
pre course and chorus.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
I think it's kind of like, you know, I was
trying to watch how he was doing it on that
On the the Bonnary one, it's kind of like he
plays it up at the twelve thret I think he's
more just kind of sleds like.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Okay, and then all the.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
I think he's just kind of doing like this a
down slap motion. Okay, it's kind of hard to hear
because he gets like fuller there, Like you can really
hear Mike on the marimbas and the sacks like it's
all doubling up. It's just like a little three note
chromatic descending line. But I was kind of shocked to
see that he's playing it up on the twelve threat too.
It's interesting he does doesn't play a lot of bass
signs like up here and like on the twelve threat
(25:04):
slapping and popping, and it's challenging because it's kind of
tough to slap and pop where the strings are a
little bit like tighter this far up like most funk
bass would be like you know, you would do it
like around the seventh threat or you're popping a G string,
but less has to just make it a little bit
more difficult, I think for everyone to imitate with this.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
One, I mean, you gotta do it just a little
bit different to throw people off the scent, right.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
Yeah, which like when I probably was playing it that
way until the first time I saw him do it
with Fancy Banner whoever, and I was like, oh, interesting,
he's playing it up with the twelve threat.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
So, so he's doing some really cool stuff throughout uh,
and then I at the near the end, Uh, when
Mike takes his solo on the record, Yeah, is he
if I recall, he's he kind of just is he
just sitting on a note essentially and letting Mike go nuts.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
Yeah. I mean I've kind of been going back and
forth doing some live version and stuff. I think he's
just kind of Yeah, he does like that little bass
and then he likes just riffing like off Mike. But
I talking to Mike, it seems like he recorded all
the bass parts and Mike just overdubed, So who knows.
Maybe the solo they recorded together, maybe Less was just
kind of thumping and playing along to his drum track,
and Mike knows how to play with Less so well
(26:16):
that he doesn't need to be in the same room
playing with him. But I do enjoy the live versions
where he's like improvising, interacting with people, and I thought
of you, Frankie in the bona Roo version where he
turns on the envelope filter in the jam and then
it does go pretty hard, but it's cool. I like
that he plays it clean for like the first two choruses,
and then when he hits that, it gives it that
(26:37):
nice wet boost.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Of course, of course Frankie loves that one.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yes, there's no doubt. Yeah, I would imagine on the
studio recording, of course, it's difficult to play interactively when
you lay down the drum track and then you gotta
lay down the base on top of it. So it's
probably hard to predict to yourself, and so he plays
it pretty straight on the record, and I think those
(27:05):
live performances clearly provide that opportunity. You know, as many
tunes do over the years.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
It's a jam vehicle, baby have you?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
This might be the jammiest or the vehicleist vehicle East
jammy thing. Now he does something unique here, and he
does this throughout much of the record, where he laid
lays down the drums and the bass and some guitar
and so he's the entire rhythm section. Have you ever
done something like that yourself? Just no, even just messing around.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
At talented, I can't do that shit. Johnny, our guitarist,
can do that. He's made demos where he's play guitar,
bass and sometimes he'll put like a drum track over it,
but he can play drums as well. I can't do
that shit, Like I tried to do that when I
would try and like record on like a little eight
track and stuff. But my drum is pretty like rudimentary.
(27:57):
But I like lessons drumming. It's fun. It always just
like fits the parts, you know it. It's fun to
just kind of hear him like jam with himself, you know.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Uh, he plays a pretty drive and beat here, and
it's it's pretty ballsy.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I like, yeah, the drum lick.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
And he pretty much sticks to it throughout the entirety
and yeah, and that's fine, and it's not a simplistic line.
So it's uh, it keeps it holds my interest over
just under six minutes and has you know, just keeps
that pulse going. And so I think that's really where
the drums are really.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Like flexing the bicep there.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
Yeah, And I think it's deliberately straight because with such
like an intricate bass part. And the lyrics are great
and he's like telling a good story and like Frank
he was saying, like it's funny, Like the lyrics are
funny and like fun to listen to so I think
that's kind of deliberate. He doesn't want your ears to get,
you know, stretched into many directions. But then when you
watch the live versions with Paulo, like he really funks
(28:54):
it up and he has some great playing on it.
Speaker 7 (28:57):
Yea, yes, the I mean it's yeah, it's it's on
Tim Alexander and Jay Len's level totally.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
It really is. And I was even thinking, like, dam
this is like some Jay Ski type beats that he's playing.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Yes, yes, well, as Less always says when he plays drums,
he's imitating Jay Lane, and I think he does that
very well throughout this record for sure, in this track
in particular, I do want to point out too, Less's
guitar playing is pretty cool on this. On this track
and throughout the record, he he makes some really cool
(29:30):
atonal noises that don't necessarily fit into the.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Beat and and just weave around it.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
I wonder where he got that idea.
Speaker 5 (29:39):
No guitars, he's ever played it before, You have.
Speaker 7 (29:42):
Done that, and it's a it's in terms of the guitar.
It's also a song that has given the guitar players
a chance to come up with very unique things. Because
merv has staffed the song. Bran Keejo has also had
a shot at the song with Duel with the Twank
And I mean, what a challenging song to tackle with
(30:03):
that project, because it's like guitar player. She was on
the spot night after night. Even Chan Lenon has tackled
one Better. And the thing about Sean is that when
they performed One Better with the Froudbrigade in twenty twenty three,
they also teased another number. But I'm not sure what
it is called, but it's one of those old school
(30:23):
funk numbers.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
Ah huh.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (30:27):
I did see them play it with the Frogs with
Sean a couple of times. Yeah, I would love to
hear another version of that.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I think if you give that tune to MERVH, you're
gonna get something great.
Speaker 5 (30:38):
Oh yeah, he's killer on that botty version.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Oh my god, Oh no, it's it's a stone cold classic.
It's on it's on the les Claypool Mount Rushmore of
Live Shows, which is LSD.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
Yeah, it's so good. It's such a great sh and
it's all Yeah. If anyone hasn't checked it out, it's
good quality on YouTube. It's totally worth checking out.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Oh jeez, go get it for sure.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, yeah, this man, this tune is this is the
one Frankie fell in love with. I would say this
one really caught my ear right off the bat, and
it's once again got a really catchy chorus. And this
is the thing that we've come back to, I think
over the years years doing this podcast is although Primus
and Claypool are out in left field for the normies
(31:22):
and it's really hard for a lot of people to grasp,
there's a lot of catchy shit in this in these tunes,
and this is a great example, just with that chromatic I'm.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Gonna get you one better yep, just.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
And then the response just you wait and see and
that kind of thing. It's really it's catchy and it's
not you know, this is certainly not less.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
It is weirdest. I think it is probably less.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
It is probably almost poppyist and catchiest here.
Speaker 5 (31:50):
Vocally I agree, but bass playing, it's maybe one of
the weirder bass parts. I would say, in what way,
just in the way that it's constantly kind of changing,
and it's got that weird little like it starts with
like a diminished slat part and then there's a major
chord and then it's like percussive, and it's just kind
of like if you didn't if you weren't familiar with
Less Caple's bass playing, and you heard that bassline, you'd
(32:11):
probably be like, what the hell is that? You know,
I think you would. Anybody would be impressed by the technicality,
but the musicality of it is pretty weird. But it's
you know, I think even for Less I got it.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
I got it.
Speaker 7 (32:23):
The song that was teased during one some performances of
One Better during the last four Brigade tour is ah,
the name is Bootsy Baby.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Oh of course, yeah, old Bootsy.
Speaker 5 (32:33):
Is it like a funk ad alex On.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
I believe it's Bootsy callings Bootsy Collins.
Speaker 5 (32:39):
Yeah, because he's on some of those records.
Speaker 7 (32:41):
Oh yeah, he played with Delight and many other groups,
and he was there.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
He was there when they inaccurated the list official.
Speaker 5 (32:49):
Day, Oh in Cincinnati.
Speaker 8 (32:51):
That's right.
Speaker 7 (32:52):
Those of you who navigated YouTube has primitive Days may
have come across what was intended to be passed off
as a music video.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
For One Better.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
I wanted to ask you about this, Frankie. Sorry to interrupt,
because it's still on YouTube. And it's a it's like
an edited version of the track. It's only about four
minutes long.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
Yeah, oh wow, it is not official.
Speaker 7 (33:15):
Okay, somebody just i mean, very cleverly and h in
a in a very interesting way. They synchronized One Better
with Concert for a Carrot Pie. That's the name of
the animation. Okay, but it's it's not official. But whomever
came up with idea, he was spot on for some reason.
(33:35):
The animation just fits the song really well.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yes, and it's it's kind of that freaky quasi medieval
looking animation that yeah.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
He will.
Speaker 7 (33:48):
Actually, I think One Better would fit one of those
old school Russian animations that were just so so left
field and so out.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
There, like Worker and Parasite exactly.
Speaker 5 (34:01):
This is worse to me, fellas.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
It's a good old time and just as annoyingly it's
three minutes and fifty nine seconds.
Speaker 5 (34:10):
Huh interesting, So what they just like a band They
started making it and then just abandon it.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
It's an edited version of the track, so whoever cut
it up cut two minutes out of the studio track,
but it's a fairly seamless edit, and then they put
it on top of this cartoon. It's still yeah, it
was posted to YouTube eighteen years ago.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Now now I'm now I'm eager to synchronize one better
way they rush on cartoon.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Are are there any parts of the studio version you
guys want me to sample? Really, we haven't really sampled
it yet.
Speaker 7 (34:47):
We don't have to of course, meaning base solo please.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
And there's mikey oh Man.
Speaker 5 (35:16):
That's a good shout, Frankie that is a great bass solo.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Can you tell us about this bass solo, Luke?
Speaker 5 (35:22):
Yeah, Like, you know what it reminds me. It reminds
me kind of like the Tommy the Cat solo on
suck on this a little bit. You know when he
just goes into like just a muted like thumping and
plucking part almost sounds like Hamburger training. You know, it's
just all percussive, there's no notes, and then he goes
into that little like major lick at the end. You know,
it's I love when he does that. It reminds me
(35:44):
of like the suck on this solo. It's just kind
of like in and out of keys. Sometimes it's diminished,
sometimes it's major, but he like kind of signifies like okay,
I'm done. The solo's over. Now, I'm not gonna attempt
my basis on my lap now, I'm not gonna attempt
to play that solo. I don't fucking know how.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
I'm I'm glad he worked that into the Red.
Speaker 5 (36:01):
Yeah, me too. It's great, it's good. I love that
little maid. No, and then just writingtve Mikey going hard
on the eighth notes there, like it's it's it's great.
That's a that's a really fun, a little pass off
solo section.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
You gotta have a bass solo in the bicep.
Speaker 5 (36:18):
Yeah, it's a good one. It's cool. It's a little
it's a power, it's a powerful little punch there from
the bicep.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
What a fun tune. Uh, this is certainly one.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Every once in a while, there will be a track
that I've somewhat forgotten, uh, in the in the sense
that I, you know, I just haven't listened to it
in years and don't remember how it goes.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
This one immediately remembered how it went.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
As soon as I knew we were talking about this one,
went oh, yeah, I don't need to listen to this
song very much.
Speaker 5 (36:43):
Yeah, when you had hit me up about how about this?
I like, just was I put on of Wales and well,
I hadn't heard it a while, and I can't say
I remembered back off Turkey that well, fair, no offense
stall you back off Turkey enthusiasts. But as soon as
one better starts you just like, oh yeah, it just
gets the engine revin. It's it's a great kickoff.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Oh you know it.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Let's talk about these lyrics. We've talked about the music
a lot, and it is time to put on our
time machine. It's gonna make some stupid joke about the
Cold War. Never mind, come on, man, that's good.
Speaker 5 (37:18):
We can make Cold War riffs.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Not too soon, Okay, I'll tee that up again. Okay,
we've talked about the music for quite some time. We
should talk about the lyrics. And to do so, Luke,
we're all going to get into our fallout bunkers and
we're going to unlock the Soviet codes so that we
can stymy them and stop them from taking over the world.
Speaker 5 (37:43):
Great Cold War puns. They landed, that's.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Mine, Hey, all right, they landed.
Speaker 5 (37:50):
All right.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
What I really like about these lyrics is much like
the base lick that you described and modeled for us Luke,
these lyrics are a bit off the beaten path for
Claypool as well. It's not his standard, so he's a
little more off kilter with the delivery of the lyrics,
not much of a rhyme scheme at all.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
When he's telling his stories.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
There's some repetition, of course, and then it gets sing
songy in the chorus with the repetition I'm gonna get
you one better, and then the response of things like
I'm the baddest one around, I got the biggest balls
in town. But he tells a couple of stories here,
and the title one Better certainly shares with us what
these stories are about. But what I really appreciate is
(38:37):
he goes straight to consumerism and politics, which are fertile
grounds for him, and he tells these two little vignettes
of individuals who just have to one up the other
guy and just get one better on him or one
up them. What I like about both of them through
those stands is is the repetition of like Ike reeled
(38:59):
has head back. I love that visual, and you know
that's a mighty fine satellite, which obviously Eisenhower didn't say.
He was saying we're all gonna fucking die. But they.
I think what Less does really well here is in
telling these stories. He just he just lays it out there,
and it's it's pretty We can fairly easily infer you
(39:22):
know what he's getting at, Luke, You're probably familiar with
this idiom Frankie, do you know the idiom keeping up
with the Joneses.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Yes, okay, trying to Yeah, just trying to one up
your neighbor or your friends or whomever, constantly.
Speaker 7 (39:37):
Right right, and they got a new car, you want
to get a better one.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Right rooted, and it's usually rooted in some kind of
sense of envy of a neighbor. Actually, I looked this
up a long time ago, and it actually stems from
an early twentieth century newspaper cartoon.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Called Keeping Up with the Joneses.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
And there's the joke, is this guy's why is always
looking over at the Joneses and saying, oh, they've got
these really nice things. You got to get a better
job so we can afford them.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
And so.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
As as wonderfully misogynistic as that is, it just kind
of speaks to that idea of consumerism and envying one's neighbor,
so on and so forth.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
So that's really we're seeing.
Speaker 7 (40:22):
Once again, it's really amazing how Liz can create such great,
such compelling and memorable character studies in such a compact
and brief way.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Yeah, just through the story of a guy with a
new car and Russian satellite going into.
Speaker 4 (40:39):
Space, and yet it's so evocative and so well written.
Speaker 9 (40:44):
Absolutely, there's actually right now, there's a really idiotic threat
on Reddit, which I just remember because we're discussing these lyrics.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
You've probably seen it.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Josh, Oh, I go to read it every time you
tell me there's something stupid there By the way, Luke
Frankie's fating is just to rail against what's happening in
the Primus subreddit.
Speaker 5 (41:09):
Oh man, I don't think. I don't know if I've
seen you in there. Frankie're gonna have to keep my.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
Don't I don't post. I just read.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Yeah, he reads and then messages me says, look at this.
Speaker 7 (41:20):
Let's cliple will say some bias like Rick took the
bric a bractic his pal Mac and spackle the cat
and then spit out a bassline that could kill God.
But he's so stupid because that's I mean, come on,
that's like someone that that has only heard two Primus songs, right.
Speaker 5 (41:36):
I mean, I like the spin out of bassline that
could kill God. That's pretty good.
Speaker 7 (41:41):
But let's let's don't get the credit if he serves
as a songwriter, because his lyrics can actually be quite
quite complex. And even if they're not complex, even if
the story is really straightforward as in One Bitter, they
are still very well written.
Speaker 5 (41:57):
Yeah, they're simple and effective, especially in this song, and
it's like, you can't forget the guy wrote a novel.
You know, he is a writer.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
What he does very well in a lot of his tunes,
as he does here in One Better, is he picks
a structure and then he uses the some moving parts
within it to tell one story. And then he uses
the same structure and moves around some parts and tells
another story. And then he gets his point across. And
he does it fairly efficiently in this one too. And
so the these lyrics have always resonated with me, especially
(42:28):
with the historical reference to Khrushchev and Eisenhower and the
spot neek satellite launch. Once you start getting into cold
war politics, I'm awake.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
Let's go like.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
That, that's what I need to have a podcast about.
Speaker 5 (42:43):
Yeah, good, there isn't already one.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
No, I can't imagine anybody's ever done a podcast about
something so esoteric. Yeah, I'm a big fan of these lyrics.
I love the story they tell, and they are pretty
funny because just just the idea that Eisenhower, who of
course presented as a gentleman and a very honorable man,
would say something like I've got the biggest balls and
down now, I would believe.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
That Harry S.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Truman would say something like that, or Richard Nixon would
say something like that.
Speaker 5 (43:11):
I can't think of a single other president who would
ever say something like that.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
That beautiful music can only mean one thing. It's time
for Primates takes. If you want your opinion about the
song up for discussion, read right here on the podcast.
All you have to do is go to Patreon dot
com forts last Primus tracks, and the universal constant over
there is that we will read your takes about the
track right here. Frankie, We're starting off with Brooks Delight.
(43:43):
He's gonna break it down right now. That's right, we
are the gates.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
He's set in the tone.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Brooks Delight says, who doesn't love this one? Definitely a
Claypool top five for me, both musically and lyrically. The
studio version is great, but the fancy band live versions
are my favorite.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Boom We're out of Jobs.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Anthony del prete Go Bills says, I even like the
little scratchy.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
Guitar in the background on this tracks.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
I've always wanted Dylan's vibes to be a little clearer
in the mix on this recording.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
But the song kicks.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Is this the bicep of the record.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
I forget yes.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
And our pal Kevin says, you know it's a banger
when it gets you thinking about Less's balls. Edwin Allen
richards the fourth our Landed Gentry says easily one of
my favorite Clydepoole tracks of all time. Also a great
track to show a newbie or someone who isn't familiar
with Less's work. The funk vibes of this song are
(44:47):
just too good. Eric and Australia are Resident Curmudgeon says
this is an all time Claypool banger for me. Absolutely
ripping bassline and such a clever character premise.
Speaker 3 (44:59):
There be Claypool gold.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
In them Hills great nice and our other Palell in Australia,
Simon Altman Frankie invokes great jam vehicle that can go
on forever, and we have one more primates take that
I would like to share from John Shreeve, who says
a triumphant, high energy return from C two B three.
(45:22):
Mike d and Scaric bring this to a new level
basically organized bastard jazz, but without Stanton Moore thinking of
Eisenhower explaining that he'd upstaged someone because of his nuts
has always cracked me up.
Speaker 4 (45:35):
Each each review got better, Yeah, those are good.
Speaker 5 (45:39):
Those are good.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
Would you say each one got one better than the last?
Speaker 4 (45:44):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (45:44):
Very nice, very I like the take that this is
a good like introductory track for something that's not as
familiar with Clay Bowl. I think it definitely is, like really,
I mean yeah, I think it's catchy and you showed
to somebody and they're like, h.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
I would think so if I was gonna pick a
even off this record itself, if I was going to
choose a track to introduce somebody to, I'd probably pick.
Speaker 5 (46:05):
One better or back off Turkey.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
I think, uh, yeah.
Speaker 7 (46:11):
It's better to expose people to some of the harshest,
most lift field material, and if they survive it, then
I think their game for listening to the rest of
the catalog.
Speaker 5 (46:24):
Wow, that's hardcore.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
Yeah wow. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
So if we were, if we truly were back in
the Cold War, Frankie would be the one advocating to
launch the nukes and to sort the bodies out later.
Speaker 4 (46:36):
Yes. Wow.
Speaker 7 (46:39):
So I'm like, you've you've never heard Primus before. All right,
here's a fifteen minute drum solo followed by a song
called Spaghetti Western.
Speaker 5 (46:50):
I mean, I'd be sold though, if that that was
like a if that was like a TORNI fromage Spaghetti
I'm in, I'm in, I'm in there. I just show
people Deon's a jig. Just because of the new hillbilly
uprising and because of billy strings in the bluegrass world.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Oh that's that is smart. That is how you bring
in a new audience.
Speaker 5 (47:11):
That's that's how I'm getting Primus back into the jam
band scene.
Speaker 2 (47:15):
Y'all like billy strings. Check this shit out, Dion's motherfucker.
They're like, Wow, these guys kick ass.
Speaker 5 (47:26):
I could stomp to this. Live cuts from vehicle.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
Live cuts from the Jam Vehicle, Live cuts from what's
going on here. It's Frankie's favorite part of the show.
It's live cuts time. Frankie.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
You send a lot of cuts of one beta.
Speaker 4 (47:44):
I did, and we're gonna sample all of them.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
And we're not gonna sample all of them because there's
no scrub bar on the World Cafe.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
Uh performance, However, you have.
Speaker 4 (47:54):
To you have to stream World Cafe, please, Frankie.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
There's no scrub bar. And it's like twenty minutes.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
I I can't.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
I don't know what to tell you. I can't get
to the timecode.
Speaker 3 (48:03):
Frankie. Come on. We had this talk last week.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
Our first live cut July fifteen, two thousand and six,
in New York, New York, at the Nokia Theater.
Speaker 5 (48:12):
I was there?
Speaker 2 (48:13):
Were you at the show?
Speaker 5 (48:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (48:15):
Is this right after you bought the record?
Speaker 5 (48:17):
I guess so shortly after? But I didn't miss any
of those Nokia Theater shows. And it changed. That place
is constantly changing its venue name. It was the PlayStation Theater.
I don't know what it was, the Best Buy Theater.
I don't even know what it is now.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
Fuck, let's check out the breakdown at one better Nokia Theater.
Speaker 8 (48:37):
Luke was there?
Speaker 6 (49:01):
Oh yeah, that sounded nice.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
I also noticed that Frankie picked an envelope filter delight
absolutely of course.
Speaker 5 (49:19):
I like when he just drops him to It's just
such like a funky thing. It also makes me realize
I think I actually played that chorus wrong before. I
think lest is just going and I think maybe like
another instrument is like oh okay, so so because some
basement out there is make he fuck that up? I
think he does. Go gotcha, so okay, corrected myself.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Yeah, I'll delete all the angry emails okay that I
receive in like the twenty minute gap, you know, between
you modeling it and then correcting yourself.
Speaker 5 (49:55):
Yes, thank you.
Speaker 2 (49:56):
Let's move forward to the bridge of the tunis Frankie
calls it.
Speaker 3 (50:33):
He's talking some nice high hat work, by the way,
Yeah very Jason.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
Oh, there's that Tommy t's.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (50:57):
And then let's go to the outro, because Frankie has
been building up the outro to the live renditions of
One Better All Night.
Speaker 5 (51:04):
Just sounds so good on that tom Oh yeah, just
listen to this. Yeah, it's trade to your ships. That
(51:40):
is killer. That is killer. They let go off like that.
Speaker 3 (51:43):
Dang uh.
Speaker 2 (51:45):
I really love that outro the way that they ended live,
that sounds amazing, beautiful and.
Speaker 4 (51:54):
For for a drummer.
Speaker 7 (51:55):
I mean, when you know you you got to wrap
up a song like that? Is it something that makes
you feel nervous or is it something that you look
forward to? I mean, I wouldn't know, but to me,
it just sounds so compelling that I wouldn't even know
where to start if somebody wanted to replicate that.
Speaker 2 (52:15):
I think most drummers go time to shine and just
let it rip.
Speaker 5 (52:20):
And I feel like Paulo doesn't do that too often either.
You know, he doesn't like really going.
Speaker 7 (52:25):
She no, because yeah, Paula serves the songs and she
knows how to restraint himself. So when less let him lose,
that's the kind of thing that he can do.
Speaker 5 (52:35):
Yeah. Yeah, he is a pocket drummer, so yeah, hearing
him take the spotlight at school.
Speaker 8 (52:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:41):
Our next live cut is from two nights later, July seventeen,
two thousand and six, in Boston, Go Socks at the Roxy?
Speaker 5 (52:50):
Oh nice?
Speaker 3 (52:51):
Were you at this one too, Luke?
Speaker 5 (52:53):
Uh No, No, I never saw them at the Roxy.
I saw him at the Pavilion quite a few times
and elsewhere, but never the rock rip alright, I think
it's just a different venue.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
Now, well, let's hear what the roxy sounded like.
Speaker 3 (53:06):
I have to wow. This is a.
Speaker 2 (53:08):
Fourteen minute cut by the smokes wo Let's hear what
Frankie terms the bridge again, it's pretty rare. I think
(54:07):
I've said this before, but there are just certain cuts
in this I think is qualifying. I just want less
to record a funk record, straight funk, Like, get a
whole bunch of funk legends and Jaysky on drums, why
not and then just do a straight funk album.
Speaker 5 (54:24):
Yeah, he's definitely getting into that, like p funk mode.
Yeah with that, you know, it's like that we want
the funk basine. You know, he's like really laying into it.
Speaker 3 (54:34):
And these live cuts it's cool, it's ripping.
Speaker 2 (54:37):
You might hear a familiar tune coming up in this
part of the track. There's a person in the crowd
(55:13):
who really enjoys this rendition a glide Like one person
is screaming their full head off love it. Yeah, that
base sounds great.
Speaker 5 (55:30):
Something like that.
Speaker 2 (55:33):
For those of you listening, that wasn't the live recording.
That was Luke Beemonah.
Speaker 3 (55:39):
That's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (55:41):
It's for our last stop on the One Better Express.
Speaker 3 (55:46):
We are going back to the Everglades. March six, two
thousand and eight.
Speaker 2 (55:51):
Is this the infamous Envelope Filter show, Frankie.
Speaker 4 (55:55):
It is the Envelope Filter Delight Show.
Speaker 3 (55:57):
We get to hear some wonderful base.
Speaker 2 (56:38):
And of course Mike can just pick up double it
whenever he wants. It's pretty cool, but taking it to
a different place there. We haven't heard that yet.
Speaker 5 (56:51):
Yeah, it's cool. He like, you know, like they based
a lot of these jams around the One Better being
based around like an E seven cool word, so like
a dominant seventh chord, which is a popular like funk chord,
like a oh sure on Hog's Day chord, and he's
really like leaning into like with the it almost has
more like a minor sound to it and the verses
(57:13):
and the chorus, but they're really leaning into that like
seven chord funk with the improv, which gives the song
kind of a different feel.
Speaker 3 (57:19):
I feel like that was definitely different. That was a
lot of fun.
Speaker 5 (57:23):
But yeah, like they're leaning more into like the major
key vibe. Yeah, the dominant seven. If I may music nerd.
Speaker 2 (57:29):
Out, you may and it looks like Frankie really wants
us to hear glide again, so why not Everglades Style Baby.
Speaker 3 (58:00):
Sounds pretty good to me. Good one.
Speaker 2 (58:07):
Anytime he throws in a glide, I'm pretty happy because
it's so funky.
Speaker 5 (58:10):
Yeah, I'm playing Glide with the band this weekend.
Speaker 3 (58:13):
Actually, so oh nice.
Speaker 5 (58:15):
I just love banger.
Speaker 2 (58:23):
That's one you can pretty well dig into. I imagine
it probably feels really good.
Speaker 5 (58:27):
Oh yeah, it's so fun. It's like the first time
I heard it, I didn't know what it was. I
think it was like Colonel Claypold's a Bernie Brain show.
Oh teased it, and then I heard it, and like
years later I found out what the song was. Yeah,
it's a great baseline.
Speaker 2 (58:39):
Nice uh, and we're gonna wrap it up with the
outro here.
Speaker 5 (58:44):
I love it. Yeah, he's just like a chromatic and
(59:22):
then the last up the minor scope.
Speaker 2 (59:25):
Yeah, great, end sounded good and and I know that
was an audience recording, but that bass at the end,
with that strumming sound, it's so blown out.
Speaker 3 (59:34):
It was great.
Speaker 5 (59:35):
Love that yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a cool road
where what venue is that? It's just like in the
swamps of the Everglades, not even like at a venue,
just like on a like a steamboat.
Speaker 2 (59:49):
Yeah, Everglades National Park, Langorado Music Festival. So yeah, Frankie
keeps taking us back to the Everglades. I've got malaria
like five times. I guess I could say this one better.
Try to make it two better because you've been tracked
(01:00:11):
next time, Frankie.
Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
It burns sometimes it itches and burns.
Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
We'll just leave it at that.
Speaker 2 (01:00:19):
Luke Beman, thank you so much for joining us today
to talk one better.
Speaker 3 (01:00:23):
It was a pleasure.
Speaker 5 (01:00:24):
Thank you fellas always a blast.
Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
Thanks for having you bet Man, and you are at
Luke Beaman Base on Instagram of course a special music.
You're all over the place, man, I don't I don't
know how you keep up with your numerous social media accounts. Yes,
this is all about the Grimstones, right, go get those Grimstones,
Prime Matrons, prime Maates, People of Earth.
Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
Frankie, Luke, thank you all so much.
Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
Later days, I don't undoing anyone back anything, any
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