May 5, 2025 • 55 mins
Today's track tells the tale of Richard McCaslin, a self-proclaimed superhero, who, disguised as the Panthom Patriot, invaded the Bohemian Grove in search of child sacrifices and other horrific crimes...in the off-season when the economic and political elite were not present. We provide the background on the story, as does Les Claypool in our associated live cuts. We also have with us regular contributor Matt Hunter, who models the bass riff, discusses the dynamics of the song, and helps us find where the pinky finger fits into the whole thing, as Les infamously broke his pinky finger during filming of a movie, and was unable to play this tune on tour for weeks as a reult. Lots to explore in this one - don't get radicalized!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Josh Freaky with a couple of dump shits. Hello Primates,
you've found Primus Tracks. Congratulations. There are so many ways
(00:23):
to find Primus Tracks, but you've found the best one.
We're at Primus Tracks on Instagram and a bunch of
other places. Primus Tracks pod at gmail dot com as
the email address. There's a Facebook group appropriately titled Primus Tracks.
I am Josh Amy. The mysterious voice you heard belongs
to none other than the man with the elastic voice.
(00:44):
He is really he's creeping up on mel blank. He's
got so many distinctive voices. It's Frankie Verstein. Hey Josh,
welcome back. Frankie. You're your Bob cock is coming along
it is. We're talking about Phantom Patriot today. It's track
six on your of Whales and disc brought in a guy,
Frankie who I don't know if he does a lot
of funny voices, but he can certainly draw a lot
(01:07):
of voice sings out of that bass guitar of his.
It's one of our favorites. Matt Hunter, welcome back to
Primus Tracks.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Hey Matt, Hi guy, it's always a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Thanks for having me oh Man alive. We've got quite
a slab for you today. Looking forward to talking to
you about Phantom Patriot. I just want to start by saying,
in about two thousand and two or so, on my
college campus, they made a huge to do about Phantom
(01:37):
Planet performing on campus and it was some tie in
with PEPSI. So we were seeing these ads all over campus,
flyers and what have you, emails and everything, and it
became a running joke. So my buddy and I were
just running around and every you know, if we would
punctuate a lot of what we had to say with
(01:59):
as well as Dentum Planet, and we said that two
thousand times, and then of Wales and Will came out
a number of years later. We were yelling Phantom Planet
as opposed to Phantom Patriot. That's that story. It's not great,
but every once in a while I still yell Phantom Planet. Well,
before we talk about Phantom Patriot or Phantom Patriot, we
(02:20):
should talk about we have some miscellaneous debris. I said
the wrong thing, Frankie. There's a lot going on in
the primus world. What's happening?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
So we got a new song which we have previously mentioned,
Little Lord fentanyl is that is it fentanyl?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Little Lord Fentanyl is a fentanyl.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yes, the studio track has dropped, and I must say
that I really really enjoyed it. We should go into
detail during our Emergency Fentanyl podcast, but for now I'll
just say that I think it's quite an earworm.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So Little Lord Fentanyl is the new prime Is track.
By the time you hear this episode, it'll be out
there for everybody on the YouTube's. Let's reserve commentary on
it until our Emergency Fetanyl episode as you called it,
because it popped up as we had this one scheduled.
(03:21):
So Matt, if you haven't heard it yet, no fault
of yours, but I know you'll make it a priority.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I'm definitely going to check it out right after this.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Right on.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
We'll hurry it along then. In addition to Little Lord
Fentanyl make it its way into our ears, John Hoffman
is announced to be on the cover of the next
issue of A Modern Drummer magazine. What our meteoric rise
for that humble young man from Shreveport, Louisiana, Well earned,
well earned, indeed, looking forward to that. I believe there's
(03:51):
a feature on the drum Derby as well in that issue.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yeah, and another episode dropped today. It was really nice
because they acknowledged some of the people that submitted videos
during the audition process and they ship spotlight on some
very talented people.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
That's a great point, Frankie. To me, that was the
honorable mention episode where they wanted to give some praise
to people who just missed the cut. The guy from
Brazil is crazy, Demetrius is cool. I really wish he
could have made it to California to audition. Yeah, he
would have been a blast. So Yeah, a couple dozen
(04:33):
excellent candidates, and as Larry said in the episode, it's
really hard to whittle it down to ten or so,
so those folks certainly deserve some recognition for their auditions
and their talent. Spoiler alert if you haven't seen it yet,
you can scrub forward about a minute at the end
of this episode is a preview I think of the
final episode, because we got just a titch of Hoffman
(04:55):
and Gergoo playing Southbound packaderm with lesson Larry really looking
forward to what comes next in that series.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Matt.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
I just realized you could not scrub forward one minute,
so I spoiled the end of the episode for you, Oh.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
No problem, Yeah, what was the song?
Speaker 5 (05:15):
I think they posted Duchess a few weeks back of
a performance of Duchess with John Hoffman.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
His first gig, and that was the Tool in the
Sand business in the Dominican.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
Which was really fantastic. So yeah, I'm looking forward to
checking out any new footage. And it's as a not
that old Primus lad. It takes me back to the
Jay Laine days. It's definitely like an exciting time when
you get sort of a even though Jay Lane was
sort of a new old voice in the band so
to speak, you can tell that having new musicians and
(05:45):
new blood in the band always invigorates the creativity I
think in Primus.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
So it'd be really cool to see what happens next.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Looking forward to it myself, I think there is some
new excitement and I think it'll lead to good stuff.
Let's talk about Phantom Patriot. It is track six on
your of Whales and Woe disc or vinyl or digital download.
It checks in it four minutes in one second. Once again,
why can't you just make it four minutes flat? Come on, guys.
(06:17):
The credits are as follows les Claypool based vocals, guitar, drums,
Scarriic on tenor sas and Mike Jazz Dad Dylan on
a viabera phone. I said it right, Frankie. I have
a feeling this one has a pretty lively live history
and background, Frankie.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Phantom Patriot was premiered on December thirtieth, two thousand and five,
at the Fillmore in San Francisco. He then became a
staple during the two thousand and six tour with The
Fancy Band. It was occasionally performed by The Fancy Band
a few years after, and he was performed just a
(06:59):
handful times by the Fungy Band, and it was resurrected
triumphantly in twenty twenty three by the Frog Brigade, but
they didn't play it a whole lot. They just played
it a few times. So I think playing the song
only a few times has kept it as kind of
a legendary song to witness life. And not only that,
(07:23):
but it's also a song that has always been stretched
out during the live performances. So I think if you've
seen Phantom Patriot life, you should count yourself lucky.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Question Frankie on its triumphant return in twenty twenty three.
Did they only play it when Skaik was present?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Oh? Good question. With the Frog Brigate, the first performance
was on May twentieth. Lineup is Chanleannon Boco, guitar, Mike Dillon.
I don't see Skerrik in the lineup.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Oh, so they performed without him? This could have been one.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Actually, Actually Angela Moore sat in on Rombolo, the Diesel
went better and Cosmic Highway. So no, they did not
wait for Skerrik in order to perform this one.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Wow, that's surprising. But we do know they had some
guest saxophone players sit in throughout the first leg of
that Front Brigade tour. So now we do have.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
A little controversy here. We have a little controversy because
we're going to sample an introduction that Les Clipple made
for the song during a live performance. But we got
Matt here, our bass expert, so it would be great
if he could try to figure out why Les couldn't
(08:43):
perform this song due to the pinky incident. Can you
sample Josh the speech?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Wait does he tell it before that or after? Well
that's the beginning of the track me on the prior
track on the Life Cut.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, that's okay, But just to provide some context, Les
was working with a character actor who got really sorry. Yeah,
with a method actor who got really into character during
pig hunt, and he broke his pinky finger. So during
this speech he mentioned that he had to put this
(09:23):
track on hold while he was recovering, but by that
night he could use a pinky finger again. Hence why
he said, pinky do your stuff, and then he jumps
into phantom patriots. Can you clear this up for us, Matt?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I been thinking about this.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
The best that I can gather is, you know, when
we talk about the bass for this track, it's got
a very Flamenco style thing going on on the right hand,
the thumping and pluck in hand. You know, maybe it's
a tendon thing. Maybe, you know, I think you can
move these three fingers pretty independently of the pinky.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (10:01):
Maybe if he had it in a cast, maybe the
cast was bumping into the strings and getting in the way.
I'm really not sure because really a lot of the
notes with the left hand side of the neck here
are pretty much in one location. It's pretty much all
right here on the seventh fret, So I don't think
there's a whole lot of pinky action going on on
(10:21):
the left hand, which is you know where I think
less probably uses of the two pinkies. I'm sure that
that gets more play. I think he. I don't think he.
I think he only uses his three fingers on his
right hand for his plucking technique. I don't think he's
a John me Yung and uses the fourth finger as well,
but I could be wrong about that. So that's that's
(10:43):
the best I can theorize on that. I'm really not sure, though.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Can you elaborate on the baseline, Matt? How complex is it?
How difficult or interesting is it to play?
Speaker 5 (10:54):
This is kind of a stomp and track. Yeah, you know,
it's it's really kind of a as far as the
bas goes, it's kind of a it's kind of got
an a part that just kind of carries through most
of the song and even sort of melodically or harmonically,
it's pretty it's fairly simple. It kind of sits in
a lot of the claypool you know, well trod paths
of the try tone and you know, the sort of
(11:18):
playing the one finger you know, quote unquote power chords
on the top two strings here basically you're starting off
with an open e and hammering onto what would be
the fifth So it's sort of like power chord basically,
and that's that's sort of the root note of the song,
(11:38):
is that. And then, like I said, what's interesting with
this is probably aside from Nature Boy, this is one
of the songs that really stands out to me as
incorporating a lot of the Flamenco style right hand stuff
less Clayble. You know, he uses a lot of raking
techniques with his right hand when he's sort of just
like flicking his fingers across the strings. Basically when you
(12:02):
get this kind of one two three on your fingers
plus the rake, it's that kind of thing. And so
that's really kind of the star of this bassline for
me is he's hitting that note and then hitting this
(12:24):
d sort of power cordish thing on the top two
strings on the seventh threat, and then he's sort of
hammering on the try tone for that b that I
mentioned earlier, that root note, and then a lot of
the rest of the baseline is just kind of riffing
(12:47):
on those same notes, and it kind of adds in interestingly,
kind of the blues note.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Of the scale the.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
Yeah, he's also but he's also playing the try tone
with that, so it's still pre dissonant. And then those
last two notes, I find that those kind of vary
and they become harder to hear throughout the song because
we get our old friend, the envelope filder pretty pretty
(13:15):
early into the song, after a delicious.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Delicious, savory.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Frankie hold it in man.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
It so, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
A lot of the song is really riffing on that bassline,
and so like like I said, where you can see
a lot of the a lot of the fingers that
I'm using on the right hand is really just kind
of index middle ring. Same with my right hand. So
that pinky, assuming that it was in some sort of
a cast or you know something, was probably just getting
it in the way somehow of however he plays that
(13:55):
bass line or I'm missing the secret sauce that only
less Claypool knows about.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
It. It's so fun to hear the clean tone versus
the envelope filter, because it's certainly more articulated before you
turn on the envelope filter. I will say this is
one of those tunes where I think the envelope filter
fits perfectly with what he's doing. Even though it's the
vast majority of the tune, it's not obnoxious because I
don't think he has it turned all the way up
(14:25):
to where it sounds like wet noodles hitting the wall.
It's a bit more tasteful, do I.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Do definitely think that. You know, while we as fans
we refer to the envelope filter as sort of one thing,
I think it definitely has been used in different ways,
and like you said, Josh in different at different settings
in terms of the controls on the pedal, So it's
it definitely doesn't just have one flavor. And this is
like you said, a little it doesn't jump out at
(14:56):
you quite as much, especially with everything else that's kind
of fil the mix, and so I do think it's
pretty tastefully implemented as well.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Yeah, I must point out that when I heard this
song for the first time, I had no idea Liz
was referring to a real life person. I didn't figure
that out until I heard his explanation about the song
during a live recording, But prior to that, when I
(15:24):
heard this song, I thought he had just come up
with the coolest superhero ever.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yeah, it's based on true events not far from his
home actually, so it would have been on his local
news station and in local papers the incident to which
he's referring, which was two thousand and two, if I
recall correctly. So he must have had this in his
notebook for a while, this idea about this guy. Yeah,
(15:54):
the Phantom Patriot.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I'm not familiar with the story.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Oh yeah, we should definitely talk about it when we
get to the lyrics. A few things I want to
point out with the tune itself, I just want to
play the first thirty seconds or so because it is
emblematic of the tune. Matt youw you noted that, especially
with the drums and bass, what we get in the
first thirty seconds is more or less what we get
the whole way. We do get that catchy chorus of
(16:18):
Phantom Patriot or the Phantom Patriot, which is a lot
of fun to sing. That's a bit of an earworm
in and of itself, and I think that catchy nature
of that Frankie you said, the word superhero. The way
he sings it, it does sound like he is introducing
some kind of caped crusader or some you know, some
(16:39):
kind of hero.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
The kind that you see on the cereal boxes.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yes, it just has that cartoon hero quality to it,
and it's great because he works in some vocal layering.
There's a great falsetto on that. You know, the sas
calls back to it after that iteration dan and which
is a lot of fun. So there's that flare to it.
The first thirty seconds kind of gives you what you're
(17:04):
gonna get. But that pulsing drum beat immediately hooked me
in two thousand and six when I first picked up
this record. Sha, it's hard to press pause on that
(17:44):
because I just want to let that go. Of course,
the envelope filter turns on and off we go with
that chorus. That drum beat is nice and pulsing, and
then when you listen to the high hats, gee, I
wonder who he's trying to channel there. I think we
all know by now we've set it for every track
of the record pretty much. The vocal delivery, I think,
(18:05):
once again, is that exaggerated cartoon hero title screen voice
to a degree. Matt on video, you just did the
less declaration hand when he's really summoning the power of
his voice.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
You can practically hear him like gesticulating, doing his famous gesticulations.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Pay triot, Yeah, he's digging down in there for it.
The other thing I wrote in my notebook was his
high hat work, while reminiscent of Jay Lane, helps you
understand John Hoffman winning the Primus drum throne. If you
go back to listen to Hoffman's audition and his first
performance with Primus and the Dominican, you can just hear
him work in that high hat and its calls it
(18:46):
the crispy high hat, and that's certainly caught Less's attention,
and it's something John does naturally, so it certainly isn't
forced when he's doing it, but you can hear those parallels.
Vocal delivery of the phantom Patriot allows some space on
the other side, and he throws in some extra vocalizations
later on in the tune, And as we've discussed numerous
(19:08):
times in the life of this podcast, Less' baseline allows
a lot of open space for those improvisations and flare
pieces of flair, pieces of flair for him to work in,
and a lot of those are kind of textbook Claypool
with sliding up and down the neck and like sliding
up and doing that thup and pluck and back down,
and you hear the slides as he goes back to
(19:30):
the first position or the position where he is delivering
the main lick. Essentially in those first thirty seconds, you
know where you're getting for four minutes, and quite often
you know when I think about something, that you're just
getting the same thing for four minutes. This one has
enough variation in it, and it's just so driving that
(19:53):
I don't mind. It's almost like it's such a straight
ahead tune. It's almost like Less's version of a Motorhead song.
And that's not to shay Motorhead, because I love Motorhead
and they you could say every Motorhead song sounds the same,
probably ninety seven percent of them sound pretty damn similar,
but they all kick ass. So that's that's I take
(20:14):
that criticism the right way. I don't know if you
if that resonates with you, Matt for sure.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
Yeah, and a fellow Motorhead fan over here. I can
deal with a lot of repetition if there's if the
energy is really carrying the music a lot, and this
you know this tune has a lot of energy. Like
I said, it's real stomping, real driving, and like we said,
there's really it is kind of like an apart through
the whole thing, but certain instruments sort of step back,
(20:43):
other instruments come to the floor at different times, just
enough to work in enough variation. And then, like you
were saying earlier, the chorus is a real earworm and
really does really carries the song a lot too. Is
really really catchy.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
And I think the opportunity for the variances in the
vocals after the song the phantom Pagetriot, He's come to
save the dry that I'm just I'm doing the gesture
again because you as now you've put that idea in
my head, Matt, that now you have to do it
when you're delivering these lines. Also mentioned that there's enough
(21:18):
instrumental variation, and actually want to forward to about the
two minute mark where we get a quasi guitar solo
from Wes Claypool, uh and some noodling underneath some vocal deliveries,
and if you remind yourself that this is less Claypool
playing guitar, it's very interesting.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Work with me.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
He alert, you know, I just I just hear him
playing that on the bass as well, you know, high
up on the neck that it just sounds like him
playing guitar. It's very funny to.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
Me, with the way he the notes he's choosing, and
the way he's kind of bending the notes, it sounds
like he's almost trying to channel a little bit of
Gabby in there.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
To me.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Hmm oh.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Interestingly, frankly, I never knew that that was guitar, or
I never put like, I never consciously recognized that as
guitar when I've listened to this song before, I almost
just kind of my brain must have just slotted Gabby
right in there.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Oh interesting, that's but that is really cool.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
I can't think of many other examples of clay Less
Claypole playing guitar on any of his recordings.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
You the most notable examples of him playing guitar are here,
as well as on One Better his Acoustic Guitar and
running the Gauntlet. Those those stand out to me. When
he's playing guitar, he still sounds like Bless Claypool for sure,
which stands to reason, of course, but it's still pretty
(23:14):
entertaining to hear, because, of course you know, he always
mentions a you know, when I was a kid, guitar
sounded wimpy, and I liked the big bass strings, and
also nobody else wanted to play bass, so so that's
how I got in. So to hear him play guitar
is always entertaining, and so when he was playing the
double neck on the Rush tour and he was marveling
(23:35):
that he was playing with a pick in a live
setting for the first time in his life, and it
was really satisfying to flick the pickout into the audience
after the song was over. You know, he got a
little thrill out of playing guitar as opposed to bass
guitar in a live setting too. The other thing I
noticed from that little clip is just how locked in
the drums of the bass are, and of course that
(23:57):
pattern that becomes more heightened. As you said, there's much
more noise going on and so deciphering all of those fills.
I would not challenge you to do that and share
them all with us, because there's so many of them
on the base. But there's just so much room for improvisation,
as we've discussed at nauseum, but everything just kind of
heightens up he's starting to hit more crash symbols on
the drums, the bass is doing more and more acrobatic stuff.
(24:21):
It just seems like things get louder and a crescendos
towards this saxophone solo in the last minute that I
certainly want to highlight because scarc and then that leads
(25:04):
into that really satisfying outro as well, and that and
then Mike Dee gets the last word, the last iteration
of the Phantom Patriot melody. It's certainly Krishan. He does
a couple of fun little drum fills there near the
end too, So let's has really shown off his multi
instrumental talent. And so this is one Frankie, you mentioned
(25:29):
this earlier. They would stretch it out later on Today, Matt,
we get to hear a ten minute version, or portions
of a ten minute version, because I saw your eyes
glaze over, and eighteen minute version of Phantom Patriot for
those of you watching by the way over at Patriot
dot com. Ford slash Primus tracks on the video. Frankie
(25:51):
has an outer space background, but there's a planet behind him,
and so I was looking at him when I said
Phantom Patriot and I almost said phantom play it. So
thanks for messing with me. There pell one other thing
we have to do, Matt, is identify the anatomy of
oils and woe. So for this track, Phantom Patriot, Phantom Patriot,
(26:13):
what a part of the body of the record do
you think it would be?
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I think it's it's got to be either the furrowed
brow or the stiff upper lip of the record.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Oh dang, it is a tough tune. I like the
stiff upper lip. I like that the upper lip of
the record because it kind of snarls a little bit,
you know, it has that. It's very The upper lip
is very expressive for nonverbal communication, and I think this
tune is extremely expressive. I'm going with the pinky the
(26:47):
pinky of the track, all right. You know there's no
rule against having two body parts for a track. True,
Frankie's all about breaking rules. In twenty twenty five, he
clearly made some kind of New Year's resolution after the
Gold shows that girl you have turned a leaf. Yeah,
he's doing some crazy stuff this year. This is a
(27:11):
really satisfying tune, and it's certainly caught me the first
time that I spun this album and it was a favorite.
It was probably top three on the record for me
for quite some time. And it's hard to maintain a
top three that's consistent on any particular Primus or Claypool
related record, because, as you know, Matt, they're all our
(27:32):
beautiful children, so different tracks going to grab you on
a different day. But I think this one is consistently
up there. And I just think it's that pulsing beat
and that it's so up tempo and has that really
catchy chorus.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah, I would agree.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
I think it's definitely if I'm trying to search my
soul in Heart of Hearts right now, it probably is
top three on the record for me as well. And yeah,
like I said, the energy of the performance can really
go a long way for me. Yeah, so the fact
that it is so energetic and dynamic, like a lot
of the things you were talking about earlier. Less Claypool
(28:07):
really likes to talk about how important dynamics are and
how he learned that very early on. I think this
track's a great example of that because it is so
simple structurally, but they're able to play with those dynamics
so much throughout the track that I don't ever really
find myself getting really bored or kind of losing interest midway.
(28:29):
I think the variation, really, the energy and the variation
really carries it through for me, and I'm always happy
to revisit it.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Matt, I was remiss in asking you your relationship with
this record as a whole, because it is one that
Frankie was incredibly excited to cover. I think it holds
up for a lot of people.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
Yeah, this record in terms of solo Claypool, for me,
this is definitely way up there.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
For me.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
I think that probably Purple Onion is the most successible one,
and in terms of production it might still be sort
of of the the cleanest and most sort of even
sounding of all of his solo records. This this record
has a really unique production that some some days I'm
really on board with and some days I I really
(29:14):
kind of struggle with, Oh, interesting on what mood I'm in.
But you can tell that Less was really enjoying slapping
at the moment, because sometimes he's really I think he
you know, maybe by the time you get around to
Fungi and Foe, maybe he feels like there's times in
his career where I don't think he wants to be
seen as that always that really proficient slap bass player.
(29:36):
I think he wants to be seen as a more
well rounded player than that, and a more sort of
diverse player than that. But so when you get to
a Fungi infoe, I'm I mean, you can get a
little bit of slapping here and there, but it's it's
not employed in like a real traditional slap way. But
when you when you're listening to this record and you're
you're hearing one Better and you're hearing Filipino Ray, it's
(29:57):
just a super energetic, funky record with lots of layers,
and I think it works remarkably well for most of
its run time. It's one of the ones that I
can definitely revisit easily and listen to front to back
pretty easily. I think the quality is really consistent across
the record. So yeah, I have my sort of as
(30:18):
you said, Frankie, I think I have my little nitpicks
about each of the record and things that you know,
maybe I don't prefer as much as this or that,
but I'd say this is definitely really high up there
in the solo catalog for me.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Well, let's talk about the lyrics of good Old Phantom Patriot.
They are based on a true story of the Bohemian
Grove and actual place in northern California, not far from Sebastopol, California,
where less as stomping grounds are. So if you continue
on up Route one sixteen to the north and then
(30:54):
to the west, you will find yourself in the redwoods
and buried in there. Not too far off of Route
one sixteen is the Bohemian Grove and it has quite
a colorful history. Frankie, did you read up on it?
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Two?
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yes, let us happen.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Can you elaborate for us please?
Speaker 1 (31:13):
It was actually started in the late eighteen seventies as
a gentleman's club and it was called the Bohemian Club,
and they would get together once a year in the
summertime just to have a big old bash. And it
actually started as a goodbye party for an actor. I
think he was moving away. They have a party for
the guy. He moves away, but everybody who's still there
(31:34):
had such a good time. They hold the party again
the next year without him, and then it becomes an
annual tradition, and then at some point it becomes a
formal club that is only admitting people of stature, and
that accelerates over time, and then fast forward to the
present day, into the twentieth century and into the present
day that it's an extremely exclusive club for the most
(32:00):
politically connected and the richest people in the country and
they still go annually to the Bohemian Grove to socialize,
to play, make believe, to get hammered. I don't know
everything that they do. However, there is a Reddit ama
from fifteen years ago titled I worked at the Bohemian
(32:22):
Grove ama, and there's a lot of great stuff in
that thread that you can get. This guy was a
server there because they have to hire outside help to
serve food, to cook the food, to clean up after
all the drunk rich guys. His description was the Bohemian
Grove is basically a summer camp for super rich and
powerful white guys to go get drunken scheme. Lots of
famous people attend, and it's highly secretive. That's a great description,
(32:46):
succinct to the point. But this particular tune has to
do with somebody who tried to infiltrate the Bohemian Grove,
which actually has quite a lot of high tech and
heavy personnel that are securing the place because of the
client tele The way.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
That Liz describes his attire in the song makes him
sound slightly humorous. But if you look at a photograph
of the real life Phantom Patriot, that looks really scary. Yes,
we should point out that Phantom Patriot was a man
(33:25):
named Richard mccaslyn who passed away in twenty eighteen. He
was discharged from the Marines and over the course of
his life he developed several personas, many of them in
the superhero category, including the Lynx, Iron Claw and years later,
(33:46):
the Phantom Patriot.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
So unless delivers that chorus, he's really playing on the
superhero personas.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Yes, McCaslin he infiltrated the group because he was concerned
learned that there were ritualistic child sacrifices taking place there
and he was planning on barging in and interrupting them.
According to the report, he was wearing a skull mask,
a blue jumpsuit with Phantom Patriot written in red on
(34:16):
the chest, armed with a pump action rifle, a shotgun hybrid,
a point forty five caliber handgun, a crossbow, a two
foot longsworth, a knife, and a fireworks mortar two.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
So he's setting fires, he's heavily armed. He's going to
take these people out because they are doing something in heinous.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
He could find no evidence of the rituals he believed
he was going to run into. He also got lost
on the grounds and he ended up kicking in a
door from a cabin and spending the night there.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Until being apprehended. I imagine.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Yes, here's an amusing anecdote. On June twenty eighth, twenty eleven,
using the name thought crime, mcathleen protested outside the Alcap
plant in Davenport, Iowa, where Barack Obama was speaking. He
accused Obama, as well as the Bushes and the Clintons,
(35:14):
of being blue bloods, which is code named for reptilian
human hybrids.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
He was a reptilian believer believer. Oh mcaslyn. That is
first of all, Davenport, Iowa was my hometown and it's
where I saw my first Prime show, so that rang
a bell. But he was a lizard people believer, and
he also believed that there were child sacrifices at the
(35:41):
Bohemian Grove.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
So it was quite the outsider. Is interesting, very interesting
person to pick for a song.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
He was buying into some real friend stuff.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
Man.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yeah, and I do wonder what he thought about the song.
That would have been really interesting if somebody had asked
him for his opinion.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
I imagine somebody would have showed it to him while
he was still alive.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
Yeah, and I wonder what his reaction might have been.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Well, you know, Less doesn't really come across as judgmental
in this tune about mccaslyn. He describes the weaponry.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Yeah, he's just not rating. I mean, yeah. It also
sounds like he's kind of endeared with the character because
he says, our hero soon is apprehended. So yeah, there's
no judgment. It sounds like Less is just narrating from
a nail troll perspective.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Yeah, there could be a bit of tongue in cheek
interpreted through the delivery of the phantom Patriot and that
he's coming to save the day because you know, he
found nothing there indicative of what he thought what he
was going to find, and the fact that he is
imagining himself a hero. At the same time, he is
largely just telling this tale of mcaslyn at the Bohemian Grove.
(36:55):
By the way, the child sacrifice thing, do you know
where he probably got that idea. Where our old friend
Alex Jones, who actually took a camera crew to the
Bohemian Grove looking for that same thing a couple of
years prior to mccaslyn showing up. Really, yeah, I think
I remember watching that video too and not being convinced.
Speaker 5 (37:14):
And by the way, see I always got a bit
of a Sergeant Pilcher vibe from the delivery of the
lyrics for this, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Oh, for sure, And in.
Speaker 5 (37:25):
Revisiting this, I definitely at the time I wouldn't have
made this connection. But now since Conspiratoia has come out,
this is almost sort of like a this could have
been a verse in like the Conspiratoia song. Yes, that
makes sense, like it? It feels very much like that
to me. With Yeah, Boheman Grove is a really popular
subject of a lot of different conspiracy theories for sure,
(37:48):
as it as it would obviously be with a bunch
of high profile rich people just getting together for it's
sort of like a it rings of like Skull and
Bones and like all those secret societies.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
And things like that.
Speaker 5 (37:59):
Yeah, always gotten a little bit of a tongue in
sheet kind of Sergeant Pilcher delivery like our dutiful I
forget how the delivery and Sergeant Pilcher. The word patriot too,
especially in two thousand and two, and I guess even
now really does come kind of loaded with a little
bit of that somewhat that conspiracy ideology. I mean, it
(38:20):
can be a very benign word, but when we're talking
about things that emerge later, like the tea party and
all this stuff, like the word patriot or the label
of patriot as you would apply to yourself for a
group of people, kind of carries some of that baggage
with it.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
I think when you call yourself a patriot, something's probably
not patriotic about what you're doing. That's what I'm gathering.
Speaker 5 (38:42):
Whiff of the Yeah, there's a whiff of domestic terrorist.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Yeah. So this this bohemian grove more or less a
rich guy camp, and they actually do a lot of
like the different camps within the facility, they actually do
a lot of playing. Believe there's one of the particular
camps is Scottish themed and they brought in a bagpiper
and they dressed up in traditional Scottish regalia. So there's
(39:09):
all this there's a lot of stuff that they do,
but I think the main thing they do is drink
and plot and scheme. I do recommend that you read
up on the Bohemian Grove. There is a lot of
helter skelter around it, but I don't imagine that anything
has come of it. I think part of the hysteria
around it stems from the fact that in the early
(39:29):
days of the existence of it, they would put on plays.
Remember the first guy to put this together was a
stage actor, and so they would put on plays and
that has continued too. And what's very interesting interesting to
me is that largely it's male dominated. So families and
wives and spouses and girlfriends can be on the property,
(39:51):
but they have to leave around sunset essentially, and then
these guys put on their plays, and many of these guys,
who are ultra wealthy conservatives, dress and drag when they perform.
Imagine that highly interesting and I highly recommend reading it
if you want to know more. We've talked about it enough.
(40:18):
It's time for Primates takes. If you want your takes
read right here on the podcast. All you have to
do is go to Patreon dot com Ford slash Primus
tracks the universal constant over there. As I post a
thread about the track up for discussion and you post
your thoughts, I'll read them right here. Usually I post
the thread well ahead of time. This time I aired,
(40:38):
So we only have a couple of primates takes this time.
Let's thank Anthony and Brian for being on top of things.
Here's their takes regarding Phantom Patriot own now. Anthony del
prete Go Bills says, Ski Rackington total destruction. Badass. Yeah,
(41:01):
I can't disagree with that, and I should provide some
context for these couple of comments which I asked the
question what resonates with you on this one? So Anthony
del pret mentioned Ski Rackington. Brian Bergie Frankie says, when
the envelope filter is used for evil? Thanks Brian. Would
(41:26):
you categorize this as an evil envelope filter?
Speaker 5 (41:29):
That's a very good question. Maybe it's just subtle enough
to sneak its way in. Maybe it's a sneaky, slivery
kind of evil.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Oh, it's the Phantom Patriot of envelope filter usages then
sneaking into the bohemian growth. Gotcha. Well, thank you guys
for your takes. I apologize to the other primeatrons. Get
him in. I'll read them as miscellaneous to breed next episode.
And now it's time for Frankie's favorite segment of the show.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
Live cuts from.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Live cuts, the Jam Vehicle live cuts.
Speaker 4 (42:02):
What's going on here?
Speaker 1 (42:04):
We have two live cuts today, as I mentioned earlier,
one over ten minutes, the other over eighteen minutes. Now, Frankie,
have you listened to that entire eighteen minute phantom Patriot
numerous times?
Speaker 3 (42:18):
Multiple times?
Speaker 2 (42:19):
You are a true patriot.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
You're a special man. You're a true primus patriot. Actually
so yes. Because of the primus patriot, you should have
the same belt logo as our friend McCaslin.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
Imagine somebody is showing up to a vip Q and
are cast playing as a phantom Patriot and just standing there,
not saying anything.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
I'm sure he would be quickly removed from the premises,
but he would certainly leave an impression on everybody. All right,
Our first live cut is the ten minute version. This
is from Frankie's of Wales and Woe Live Sessions box set.
For it doesn't have any metadata for date or location.
(43:04):
Please direct all complaints to at Frankie Berestein on Instagram.
Let's hear Gabby Lala on this one. You mentioned Matt
that you were always clocking Gabby on the studio version.
You get to hear on the live cut here. Nicely done,
(43:54):
Gabby and that pinky's doing it stuff.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
It must be.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
I can see why you were possibly conflating the guitar
with the guitar, because they're not too far off as
far as the tone that's achieved on the two.
Speaker 5 (44:08):
Yeah, I get the sense maybe he was even going
for that kind of vibe in terms of just the
tone of it, because it is very kind of thin
and ready the tone that he chose to use for
the guitar in that part.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
Speaking of vibes, let's hear Mike Dylan on vibraphone.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
Who I like this?
Speaker 4 (45:06):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (45:07):
I love the ominous turn that took about halfway through there.
That was a lot of fun, and of course Mike
always brings it. Man, he's the best. I love that guy.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
And not to be outdone though, let's give the man
with the pinky a bass solo. Yeah. That even got
(46:19):
Frankie dancing, which never happens. Holy smokes. Just a taste
of a ten minute version of Phantom Patriot sounds great.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
What I like about these Phantom Patriot live performances is
that Liz lets everyone in the band shine.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Well, if you're gonna let it go eighteen minutes, you're better. Yeah,
everyone gets their turned, everyone gets a seated at the table.
Let's turn our attention to Jam Cruiz two thousand and six.
I imagine it's the same fancy band lineup, Les, Gabby,
Mike Skerrick, Paolo right. He labeled this time code of story,
(47:02):
so let's hear it.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
Then it is? Then it is.
Speaker 4 (47:08):
You know where I live, there's an area little northern
Bohemian groove. I don't know, a few folks know what
this is.
Speaker 6 (47:24):
It's a gathering place for the big monkey monks.
Speaker 4 (47:27):
The streams, and there's all the spimulation that there are
evil doings. Could I don't know. I have no clue.
But there was a sun though. I read about the.
Speaker 6 (47:41):
Nest pushing the Hongkound, which is a highly guarded compound.
Speaker 4 (47:48):
Because it is where all the moneymunks home.
Speaker 6 (47:54):
Now, this guy was wandering around for a few days,
and he had he had an arsenal of.
Speaker 4 (47:59):
Various what and he was there to write.
Speaker 3 (48:03):
The Wrongs of the World.
Speaker 6 (48:07):
He had a crossbow, he had saber, and he had
out of his map on a hockey mask.
Speaker 4 (48:14):
Now I'm guessing it was buckethead.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
But he'd swear that he would him.
Speaker 4 (48:18):
That was a true story. So now the monkey lost
the gatherer.
Speaker 6 (48:24):
Every summer in this place bohemian growth, and supposedly performed
these strange rituals and what I don't know. I think
there's just a bunch of good old boys going out
there doing a little camp and.
Speaker 4 (48:37):
Plotting con question of attorney.
Speaker 6 (48:42):
So anyway, I was reading about this fellow in the newspaper,
and what happened was.
Speaker 4 (48:47):
He wandered around for days up there, and that he
was finally apprehended. He stumbled out of the woods and
he was wearing his.
Speaker 6 (48:53):
White mask, and he had this weaponry, saber and crossbow
and whatever the hell else he had.
Speaker 4 (48:58):
And on his shirt Brittany Sharpie were the words plans
of the Patriot. Oh. I thought him off tilboy, and
I thought, you know, what an interesting guy. The unfortunate
thing is he went there during the winter time.
Speaker 7 (49:15):
Oh yeah, so there was nobody there for him too,
that's straight.
Speaker 4 (49:20):
So so anyway, you know, it was interesting Connor for
the little that you were playing right here? Do you
think he was a dumb ass? Tell your opinion.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
That's a good place to pause. No wonder, it's an
eighteen minute version. He tells the story of it in
the right in the middle. Uh, first of all, love
how Polo just drops to halftime and then plays a
funky ass drum beat under this story. Let's forward to
some atmosphere boost half time again.
Speaker 7 (50:33):
Yeah, that's some nice atmospherics right there.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
You like him while you're hearing Matt I.
Speaker 5 (50:53):
Am When you go halftime and you give a lot
of space for the other instruments to do their thing.
It's and it's such a I mean, the fancy band
I think was just such a strong lineup. And anytime
Skak's involved, I think he just makes everything better.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
So I'm here for it.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
Let's close out this live cut with a build up
towards the ultimate finish. Oh we got faked out. They
(51:55):
build up to a viabraphone solo. Frankie, yep, you got us.
Thought there was going to be a huge Catharsis Nope, biographone.
Nothing wrong with vi abraphone. Let's give Mike a few
more seconds to wow us. Mm hmm, I would take
(52:51):
an eighteen minute Phantom Patriot NDA the week at this point. Well,
thank you for those live cuts, Frankie. They are excellent.
Speaker 3 (52:59):
Kind of listening to that track, well, to that sample
made me fantasized I was on the Jam cruise.
Speaker 1 (53:07):
Someday you will be, Frankie.
Speaker 3 (53:09):
We'll be there one day. Yeah, one day with our
shorts and sandals.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
Our live podcasting gear.
Speaker 3 (53:17):
Exactly, and we'll be vibing to Greasy D with Les
claypol on some bastard jazz.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
Well I should say this, Phantom Patriot, we're the heroes
today because you've been tracked. Next time, Frankie, we're going
to talk about a track that for years I thought
was dedicated to me. Really, I'm an iowand Gal.
Speaker 3 (53:41):
You were corn fifth.
Speaker 1 (53:43):
Oh, I got some stories for you in that regard.
Matt Hunter, thank you so much for helping us with
Phantom Patriot or Phantom Patriot. Matt is at Ham of
Truth eighty six on the Instagram's Lots of pedals, lots
of basses, lots of cool stuff.
Speaker 2 (54:01):
Thanks again, Pal, always a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (54:04):
Primates, Primatrons, people of Earth. Thank you all so much
for listening. There are not reptilians out there, and I
don't think there are ritual sacrifices at the Bohemian Grove,
but you never know where they might pop up. That
sounds like an oblique endorsement to commit crimes. Don't do that.
Speaker 2 (54:27):
It might happen in a pizza shop.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
That's right, Yeah, don't. Pizza Gate wasn't really either. Don't
do these things. Don't bust into places that aren't yours
looking for shit.
Speaker 3 (54:37):
Be cool every now, every now and then, Josh, since receive,
I'll just be doing I'll just be out and about
doing my random errands, and your voice will pop into
my head when you said chem trails are real.
Speaker 1 (54:57):
That's just the start. You're on a half now, Frankie,
we better get out of here before we accidentally recruit
more people to this cause. Later days wheel a mace
(55:21):
Phantom Patriot
It's Josh Freaky with a couple of dump shits. Hello Primates,
you've found Primus Tracks. Congratulations. There are so many ways
(00:23):
to find Primus Tracks, but you've found the best one.
We're at Primus Tracks on Instagram and a bunch of
other places. Primus Tracks pod at gmail dot com as
the email address. There's a Facebook group appropriately titled Primus Tracks.
I am Josh Amy. The mysterious voice you heard belongs
to none other than the man with the elastic voice.
(00:44):
He is really he's creeping up on mel blank. He's
got so many distinctive voices. It's Frankie Verstein. Hey Josh,
welcome back. Frankie. You're your Bob cock is coming along
it is. We're talking about Phantom Patriot today. It's track
six on your of Whales and disc brought in a guy,
Frankie who I don't know if he does a lot
of funny voices, but he can certainly draw a lot
(01:07):
of voice sings out of that bass guitar of his.
It's one of our favorites. Matt Hunter, welcome back to
Primus Tracks.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Hey Matt, Hi guy, it's always a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Thanks for having me oh Man alive. We've got quite
a slab for you today. Looking forward to talking to
you about Phantom Patriot. I just want to start by saying,
in about two thousand and two or so, on my
college campus, they made a huge to do about Phantom
(01:37):
Planet performing on campus and it was some tie in
with PEPSI. So we were seeing these ads all over campus,
flyers and what have you, emails and everything, and it
became a running joke. So my buddy and I were
just running around and every you know, if we would
punctuate a lot of what we had to say with
(01:59):
as well as Dentum Planet, and we said that two
thousand times, and then of Wales and Will came out
a number of years later. We were yelling Phantom Planet
as opposed to Phantom Patriot. That's that story. It's not great,
but every once in a while I still yell Phantom Planet. Well,
before we talk about Phantom Patriot or Phantom Patriot, we
(02:20):
should talk about we have some miscellaneous debris. I said
the wrong thing, Frankie. There's a lot going on in
the primus world. What's happening?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
So we got a new song which we have previously mentioned,
Little Lord fentanyl is that is it fentanyl?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Little Lord Fentanyl is a fentanyl.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yes, the studio track has dropped, and I must say
that I really really enjoyed it. We should go into
detail during our Emergency Fentanyl podcast, but for now I'll
just say that I think it's quite an earworm.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So Little Lord Fentanyl is the new prime Is track.
By the time you hear this episode, it'll be out
there for everybody on the YouTube's. Let's reserve commentary on
it until our Emergency Fetanyl episode as you called it,
because it popped up as we had this one scheduled.
(03:21):
So Matt, if you haven't heard it yet, no fault
of yours, but I know you'll make it a priority.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I'm definitely going to check it out right after this.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Right on.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
We'll hurry it along then. In addition to Little Lord
Fentanyl make it its way into our ears, John Hoffman
is announced to be on the cover of the next
issue of A Modern Drummer magazine. What our meteoric rise
for that humble young man from Shreveport, Louisiana, Well earned,
well earned, indeed, looking forward to that. I believe there's
(03:51):
a feature on the drum Derby as well in that issue.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yeah, and another episode dropped today. It was really nice
because they acknowledged some of the people that submitted videos
during the audition process and they ship spotlight on some
very talented people.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
That's a great point, Frankie. To me, that was the
honorable mention episode where they wanted to give some praise
to people who just missed the cut. The guy from
Brazil is crazy, Demetrius is cool. I really wish he
could have made it to California to audition. Yeah, he
would have been a blast. So Yeah, a couple dozen
(04:33):
excellent candidates, and as Larry said in the episode, it's
really hard to whittle it down to ten or so,
so those folks certainly deserve some recognition for their auditions
and their talent. Spoiler alert if you haven't seen it yet,
you can scrub forward about a minute at the end
of this episode is a preview I think of the
final episode, because we got just a titch of Hoffman
(04:55):
and Gergoo playing Southbound packaderm with lesson Larry really looking
forward to what comes next in that series.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Matt.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
I just realized you could not scrub forward one minute,
so I spoiled the end of the episode for you, Oh.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
No problem, Yeah, what was the song?
Speaker 5 (05:15):
I think they posted Duchess a few weeks back of
a performance of Duchess with John Hoffman.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
His first gig, and that was the Tool in the
Sand business in the Dominican.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
Which was really fantastic. So yeah, I'm looking forward to
checking out any new footage. And it's as a not
that old Primus lad. It takes me back to the
Jay Laine days. It's definitely like an exciting time when
you get sort of a even though Jay Lane was
sort of a new old voice in the band so
to speak, you can tell that having new musicians and
(05:45):
new blood in the band always invigorates the creativity I
think in Primus.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
So it'd be really cool to see what happens next.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Looking forward to it myself, I think there is some
new excitement and I think it'll lead to good stuff.
Let's talk about Phantom Patriot. It is track six on
your of Whales and Woe disc or vinyl or digital download.
It checks in it four minutes in one second. Once again,
why can't you just make it four minutes flat? Come on, guys.
(06:17):
The credits are as follows les Claypool based vocals, guitar, drums,
Scarriic on tenor sas and Mike Jazz Dad Dylan on
a viabera phone. I said it right, Frankie. I have
a feeling this one has a pretty lively live history
and background, Frankie.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Phantom Patriot was premiered on December thirtieth, two thousand and five,
at the Fillmore in San Francisco. He then became a
staple during the two thousand and six tour with The
Fancy Band. It was occasionally performed by The Fancy Band
a few years after, and he was performed just a
(06:59):
handful times by the Fungy Band, and it was resurrected
triumphantly in twenty twenty three by the Frog Brigade, but
they didn't play it a whole lot. They just played
it a few times. So I think playing the song
only a few times has kept it as kind of
a legendary song to witness life. And not only that,
(07:23):
but it's also a song that has always been stretched
out during the live performances. So I think if you've
seen Phantom Patriot life, you should count yourself lucky.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Question Frankie on its triumphant return in twenty twenty three.
Did they only play it when Skaik was present?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Oh? Good question. With the Frog Brigate, the first performance
was on May twentieth. Lineup is Chanleannon Boco, guitar, Mike Dillon.
I don't see Skerrik in the lineup.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Oh, so they performed without him? This could have been one.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Actually, Actually Angela Moore sat in on Rombolo, the Diesel
went better and Cosmic Highway. So no, they did not
wait for Skerrik in order to perform this one.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Wow, that's surprising. But we do know they had some
guest saxophone players sit in throughout the first leg of
that Front Brigade tour. So now we do have.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
A little controversy here. We have a little controversy because
we're going to sample an introduction that Les Clipple made
for the song during a live performance. But we got
Matt here, our bass expert, so it would be great
if he could try to figure out why Les couldn't
(08:43):
perform this song due to the pinky incident. Can you
sample Josh the speech?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Wait does he tell it before that or after? Well
that's the beginning of the track me on the prior
track on the Life Cut.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, that's okay, But just to provide some context, Les
was working with a character actor who got really sorry. Yeah,
with a method actor who got really into character during
pig hunt, and he broke his pinky finger. So during
this speech he mentioned that he had to put this
(09:23):
track on hold while he was recovering, but by that
night he could use a pinky finger again. Hence why
he said, pinky do your stuff, and then he jumps
into phantom patriots. Can you clear this up for us, Matt?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I been thinking about this.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
The best that I can gather is, you know, when
we talk about the bass for this track, it's got
a very Flamenco style thing going on on the right hand,
the thumping and pluck in hand. You know, maybe it's
a tendon thing. Maybe, you know, I think you can
move these three fingers pretty independently of the pinky.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (10:01):
Maybe if he had it in a cast, maybe the
cast was bumping into the strings and getting in the way.
I'm really not sure because really a lot of the
notes with the left hand side of the neck here
are pretty much in one location. It's pretty much all
right here on the seventh fret, So I don't think
there's a whole lot of pinky action going on on
(10:21):
the left hand, which is you know where I think
less probably uses of the two pinkies. I'm sure that
that gets more play. I think he. I don't think he.
I think he only uses his three fingers on his
right hand for his plucking technique. I don't think he's
a John me Yung and uses the fourth finger as well,
but I could be wrong about that. So that's that's
(10:43):
the best I can theorize on that. I'm really not sure, though.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Can you elaborate on the baseline, Matt? How complex is it?
How difficult or interesting is it to play?
Speaker 5 (10:54):
This is kind of a stomp and track. Yeah, you know,
it's it's really kind of a as far as the
bas goes, it's kind of a it's kind of got
an a part that just kind of carries through most
of the song and even sort of melodically or harmonically,
it's pretty it's fairly simple. It kind of sits in
a lot of the claypool you know, well trod paths
of the try tone and you know, the sort of
(11:18):
playing the one finger you know, quote unquote power chords
on the top two strings here basically you're starting off
with an open e and hammering onto what would be
the fifth So it's sort of like power chord basically,
and that's that's sort of the root note of the song,
(11:38):
is that. And then, like I said, what's interesting with
this is probably aside from Nature Boy, this is one
of the songs that really stands out to me as
incorporating a lot of the Flamenco style right hand stuff
less Clayble. You know, he uses a lot of raking
techniques with his right hand when he's sort of just
like flicking his fingers across the strings. Basically when you
(12:02):
get this kind of one two three on your fingers
plus the rake, it's that kind of thing. And so
that's really kind of the star of this bassline for
me is he's hitting that note and then hitting this
(12:24):
d sort of power cordish thing on the top two
strings on the seventh threat, and then he's sort of
hammering on the try tone for that b that I
mentioned earlier, that root note, and then a lot of
the rest of the baseline is just kind of riffing
(12:47):
on those same notes, and it kind of adds in interestingly,
kind of the blues note.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Of the scale the.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
Yeah, he's also but he's also playing the try tone
with that, so it's still pre dissonant. And then those
last two notes, I find that those kind of vary
and they become harder to hear throughout the song because
we get our old friend, the envelope filder pretty pretty
(13:15):
early into the song, after a delicious.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Delicious, savory.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Frankie hold it in man.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
It so, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
A lot of the song is really riffing on that bassline,
and so like like I said, where you can see
a lot of the a lot of the fingers that
I'm using on the right hand is really just kind
of index middle ring. Same with my right hand. So
that pinky, assuming that it was in some sort of
a cast or you know something, was probably just getting
it in the way somehow of however he plays that
(13:55):
bass line or I'm missing the secret sauce that only
less Claypool knows about.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
It. It's so fun to hear the clean tone versus
the envelope filter, because it's certainly more articulated before you
turn on the envelope filter. I will say this is
one of those tunes where I think the envelope filter
fits perfectly with what he's doing. Even though it's the
vast majority of the tune, it's not obnoxious because I
don't think he has it turned all the way up
(14:25):
to where it sounds like wet noodles hitting the wall.
It's a bit more tasteful, do I.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Do definitely think that. You know, while we as fans
we refer to the envelope filter as sort of one thing,
I think it definitely has been used in different ways,
and like you said, Josh in different at different settings
in terms of the controls on the pedal, So it's
it definitely doesn't just have one flavor. And this is
like you said, a little it doesn't jump out at
(14:56):
you quite as much, especially with everything else that's kind
of fil the mix, and so I do think it's
pretty tastefully implemented as well.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Yeah, I must point out that when I heard this
song for the first time, I had no idea Liz
was referring to a real life person. I didn't figure
that out until I heard his explanation about the song
during a live recording, But prior to that, when I
(15:24):
heard this song, I thought he had just come up
with the coolest superhero ever.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yeah, it's based on true events not far from his
home actually, so it would have been on his local
news station and in local papers the incident to which
he's referring, which was two thousand and two, if I
recall correctly. So he must have had this in his
notebook for a while, this idea about this guy. Yeah,
(15:54):
the Phantom Patriot.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I'm not familiar with the story.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Oh yeah, we should definitely talk about it when we
get to the lyrics. A few things I want to
point out with the tune itself, I just want to
play the first thirty seconds or so because it is
emblematic of the tune. Matt youw you noted that, especially
with the drums and bass, what we get in the
first thirty seconds is more or less what we get
the whole way. We do get that catchy chorus of
(16:18):
Phantom Patriot or the Phantom Patriot, which is a lot
of fun to sing. That's a bit of an earworm
in and of itself, and I think that catchy nature
of that Frankie you said, the word superhero. The way
he sings it, it does sound like he is introducing
some kind of caped crusader or some you know, some
(16:39):
kind of hero.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
The kind that you see on the cereal boxes.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yes, it just has that cartoon hero quality to it,
and it's great because he works in some vocal layering.
There's a great falsetto on that. You know, the sas
calls back to it after that iteration dan and which
is a lot of fun. So there's that flare to it.
The first thirty seconds kind of gives you what you're
(17:04):
gonna get. But that pulsing drum beat immediately hooked me
in two thousand and six when I first picked up
this record. Sha, it's hard to press pause on that
(17:44):
because I just want to let that go. Of course,
the envelope filter turns on and off we go with
that chorus. That drum beat is nice and pulsing, and
then when you listen to the high hats, gee, I
wonder who he's trying to channel there. I think we
all know by now we've set it for every track
of the record pretty much. The vocal delivery, I think,
(18:05):
once again, is that exaggerated cartoon hero title screen voice
to a degree. Matt on video, you just did the
less declaration hand when he's really summoning the power of
his voice.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
You can practically hear him like gesticulating, doing his famous gesticulations.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Pay triot, Yeah, he's digging down in there for it.
The other thing I wrote in my notebook was his
high hat work, while reminiscent of Jay Lane, helps you
understand John Hoffman winning the Primus drum throne. If you
go back to listen to Hoffman's audition and his first
performance with Primus and the Dominican, you can just hear
him work in that high hat and its calls it
(18:46):
the crispy high hat, and that's certainly caught Less's attention,
and it's something John does naturally, so it certainly isn't
forced when he's doing it, but you can hear those parallels.
Vocal delivery of the phantom Patriot allows some space on
the other side, and he throws in some extra vocalizations
later on in the tune, And as we've discussed numerous
(19:08):
times in the life of this podcast, Less' baseline allows
a lot of open space for those improvisations and flare
pieces of flair, pieces of flair for him to work in,
and a lot of those are kind of textbook Claypool
with sliding up and down the neck and like sliding
up and doing that thup and pluck and back down,
and you hear the slides as he goes back to
(19:30):
the first position or the position where he is delivering
the main lick. Essentially in those first thirty seconds, you
know where you're getting for four minutes, and quite often
you know when I think about something, that you're just
getting the same thing for four minutes. This one has
enough variation in it, and it's just so driving that
(19:53):
I don't mind. It's almost like it's such a straight
ahead tune. It's almost like Less's version of a Motorhead song.
And that's not to shay Motorhead, because I love Motorhead
and they you could say every Motorhead song sounds the same,
probably ninety seven percent of them sound pretty damn similar,
but they all kick ass. So that's that's I take
(20:14):
that criticism the right way. I don't know if you
if that resonates with you, Matt for sure.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
Yeah, and a fellow Motorhead fan over here. I can
deal with a lot of repetition if there's if the
energy is really carrying the music a lot, and this
you know this tune has a lot of energy. Like
I said, it's real stomping, real driving, and like we said,
there's really it is kind of like an apart through
the whole thing, but certain instruments sort of step back,
(20:43):
other instruments come to the floor at different times, just
enough to work in enough variation. And then, like you
were saying earlier, the chorus is a real earworm and
really does really carries the song a lot too. Is
really really catchy.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
And I think the opportunity for the variances in the
vocals after the song the phantom Pagetriot, He's come to
save the dry that I'm just I'm doing the gesture
again because you as now you've put that idea in
my head, Matt, that now you have to do it
when you're delivering these lines. Also mentioned that there's enough
(21:18):
instrumental variation, and actually want to forward to about the
two minute mark where we get a quasi guitar solo
from Wes Claypool, uh and some noodling underneath some vocal deliveries,
and if you remind yourself that this is less Claypool
playing guitar, it's very interesting.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Work with me.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
He alert, you know, I just I just hear him
playing that on the bass as well, you know, high
up on the neck that it just sounds like him
playing guitar. It's very funny to.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
Me, with the way he the notes he's choosing, and
the way he's kind of bending the notes, it sounds
like he's almost trying to channel a little bit of
Gabby in there.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
To me.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Hmm oh.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Interestingly, frankly, I never knew that that was guitar, or
I never put like, I never consciously recognized that as
guitar when I've listened to this song before, I almost
just kind of my brain must have just slotted Gabby
right in there.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Oh interesting, that's but that is really cool.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
I can't think of many other examples of clay Less
Claypole playing guitar on any of his recordings.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
You the most notable examples of him playing guitar are here,
as well as on One Better his Acoustic Guitar and
running the Gauntlet. Those those stand out to me. When
he's playing guitar, he still sounds like Bless Claypool for sure,
which stands to reason, of course, but it's still pretty
(23:14):
entertaining to hear, because, of course you know, he always
mentions a you know, when I was a kid, guitar
sounded wimpy, and I liked the big bass strings, and
also nobody else wanted to play bass, so so that's
how I got in. So to hear him play guitar
is always entertaining, and so when he was playing the
double neck on the Rush tour and he was marveling
(23:35):
that he was playing with a pick in a live
setting for the first time in his life, and it
was really satisfying to flick the pickout into the audience
after the song was over. You know, he got a
little thrill out of playing guitar as opposed to bass
guitar in a live setting too. The other thing I
noticed from that little clip is just how locked in
the drums of the bass are, and of course that
(23:57):
pattern that becomes more heightened. As you said, there's much
more noise going on and so deciphering all of those fills.
I would not challenge you to do that and share
them all with us, because there's so many of them
on the base. But there's just so much room for improvisation,
as we've discussed at nauseum, but everything just kind of
heightens up he's starting to hit more crash symbols on
the drums, the bass is doing more and more acrobatic stuff.
(24:21):
It just seems like things get louder and a crescendos
towards this saxophone solo in the last minute that I
certainly want to highlight because scarc and then that leads
(25:04):
into that really satisfying outro as well, and that and
then Mike Dee gets the last word, the last iteration
of the Phantom Patriot melody. It's certainly Krishan. He does
a couple of fun little drum fills there near the
end too, So let's has really shown off his multi
instrumental talent. And so this is one Frankie, you mentioned
(25:29):
this earlier. They would stretch it out later on Today, Matt,
we get to hear a ten minute version, or portions
of a ten minute version, because I saw your eyes
glaze over, and eighteen minute version of Phantom Patriot for
those of you watching by the way over at Patriot
dot com. Ford slash Primus tracks on the video. Frankie
(25:51):
has an outer space background, but there's a planet behind him,
and so I was looking at him when I said
Phantom Patriot and I almost said phantom play it. So
thanks for messing with me. There pell one other thing
we have to do, Matt, is identify the anatomy of
oils and woe. So for this track, Phantom Patriot, Phantom Patriot,
(26:13):
what a part of the body of the record do
you think it would be?
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I think it's it's got to be either the furrowed
brow or the stiff upper lip of the record.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Oh dang, it is a tough tune. I like the
stiff upper lip. I like that the upper lip of
the record because it kind of snarls a little bit,
you know, it has that. It's very The upper lip
is very expressive for nonverbal communication, and I think this
tune is extremely expressive. I'm going with the pinky the
(26:47):
pinky of the track, all right. You know there's no
rule against having two body parts for a track. True,
Frankie's all about breaking rules. In twenty twenty five, he
clearly made some kind of New Year's resolution after the
Gold shows that girl you have turned a leaf. Yeah,
he's doing some crazy stuff this year. This is a
(27:11):
really satisfying tune, and it's certainly caught me the first
time that I spun this album and it was a favorite.
It was probably top three on the record for me
for quite some time. And it's hard to maintain a
top three that's consistent on any particular Primus or Claypool
related record, because, as you know, Matt, they're all our
(27:32):
beautiful children, so different tracks going to grab you on
a different day. But I think this one is consistently
up there. And I just think it's that pulsing beat
and that it's so up tempo and has that really
catchy chorus.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah, I would agree.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
I think it's definitely if I'm trying to search my
soul in Heart of Hearts right now, it probably is
top three on the record for me as well. And yeah,
like I said, the energy of the performance can really
go a long way for me. Yeah, so the fact
that it is so energetic and dynamic, like a lot
of the things you were talking about earlier. Less Claypool
(28:07):
really likes to talk about how important dynamics are and
how he learned that very early on. I think this
track's a great example of that because it is so
simple structurally, but they're able to play with those dynamics
so much throughout the track that I don't ever really
find myself getting really bored or kind of losing interest midway.
(28:29):
I think the variation, really, the energy and the variation
really carries it through for me, and I'm always happy
to revisit it.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Matt, I was remiss in asking you your relationship with
this record as a whole, because it is one that
Frankie was incredibly excited to cover. I think it holds
up for a lot of people.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
Yeah, this record in terms of solo Claypool, for me,
this is definitely way up there.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
For me.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
I think that probably Purple Onion is the most successible one,
and in terms of production it might still be sort
of of the the cleanest and most sort of even
sounding of all of his solo records. This this record
has a really unique production that some some days I'm
really on board with and some days I I really
(29:14):
kind of struggle with, Oh, interesting on what mood I'm in.
But you can tell that Less was really enjoying slapping
at the moment, because sometimes he's really I think he
you know, maybe by the time you get around to
Fungi and Foe, maybe he feels like there's times in
his career where I don't think he wants to be
seen as that always that really proficient slap bass player.
(29:36):
I think he wants to be seen as a more
well rounded player than that, and a more sort of
diverse player than that. But so when you get to
a Fungi infoe, I'm I mean, you can get a
little bit of slapping here and there, but it's it's
not employed in like a real traditional slap way. But
when you when you're listening to this record and you're
you're hearing one Better and you're hearing Filipino Ray, it's
(29:57):
just a super energetic, funky record with lots of layers,
and I think it works remarkably well for most of
its run time. It's one of the ones that I
can definitely revisit easily and listen to front to back
pretty easily. I think the quality is really consistent across
the record. So yeah, I have my sort of as
(30:18):
you said, Frankie, I think I have my little nitpicks
about each of the record and things that you know,
maybe I don't prefer as much as this or that,
but I'd say this is definitely really high up there
in the solo catalog for me.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Well, let's talk about the lyrics of good Old Phantom Patriot.
They are based on a true story of the Bohemian
Grove and actual place in northern California, not far from Sebastopol, California,
where less as stomping grounds are. So if you continue
on up Route one sixteen to the north and then
(30:54):
to the west, you will find yourself in the redwoods
and buried in there. Not too far off of Route
one sixteen is the Bohemian Grove and it has quite
a colorful history. Frankie, did you read up on it?
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Two?
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yes, let us happen.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Can you elaborate for us please?
Speaker 1 (31:13):
It was actually started in the late eighteen seventies as
a gentleman's club and it was called the Bohemian Club,
and they would get together once a year in the
summertime just to have a big old bash. And it
actually started as a goodbye party for an actor. I
think he was moving away. They have a party for
the guy. He moves away, but everybody who's still there
(31:34):
had such a good time. They hold the party again
the next year without him, and then it becomes an
annual tradition, and then at some point it becomes a
formal club that is only admitting people of stature, and
that accelerates over time, and then fast forward to the
present day, into the twentieth century and into the present
day that it's an extremely exclusive club for the most
(32:00):
politically connected and the richest people in the country and
they still go annually to the Bohemian Grove to socialize,
to play, make believe, to get hammered. I don't know
everything that they do. However, there is a Reddit ama
from fifteen years ago titled I worked at the Bohemian
(32:22):
Grove ama, and there's a lot of great stuff in
that thread that you can get. This guy was a
server there because they have to hire outside help to
serve food, to cook the food, to clean up after
all the drunk rich guys. His description was the Bohemian
Grove is basically a summer camp for super rich and
powerful white guys to go get drunken scheme. Lots of
famous people attend, and it's highly secretive. That's a great description,
(32:46):
succinct to the point. But this particular tune has to
do with somebody who tried to infiltrate the Bohemian Grove,
which actually has quite a lot of high tech and
heavy personnel that are securing the place because of the
client tele The way.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
That Liz describes his attire in the song makes him
sound slightly humorous. But if you look at a photograph
of the real life Phantom Patriot, that looks really scary. Yes,
we should point out that Phantom Patriot was a man
(33:25):
named Richard mccaslyn who passed away in twenty eighteen. He
was discharged from the Marines and over the course of
his life he developed several personas, many of them in
the superhero category, including the Lynx, Iron Claw and years later,
(33:46):
the Phantom Patriot.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
So unless delivers that chorus, he's really playing on the
superhero personas.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Yes, McCaslin he infiltrated the group because he was concerned
learned that there were ritualistic child sacrifices taking place there
and he was planning on barging in and interrupting them.
According to the report, he was wearing a skull mask,
a blue jumpsuit with Phantom Patriot written in red on
(34:16):
the chest, armed with a pump action rifle, a shotgun hybrid,
a point forty five caliber handgun, a crossbow, a two
foot longsworth, a knife, and a fireworks mortar two.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
So he's setting fires, he's heavily armed. He's going to
take these people out because they are doing something in heinous.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
He could find no evidence of the rituals he believed
he was going to run into. He also got lost
on the grounds and he ended up kicking in a
door from a cabin and spending the night there.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Until being apprehended. I imagine.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Yes, here's an amusing anecdote. On June twenty eighth, twenty eleven,
using the name thought crime, mcathleen protested outside the Alcap
plant in Davenport, Iowa, where Barack Obama was speaking. He
accused Obama, as well as the Bushes and the Clintons,
(35:14):
of being blue bloods, which is code named for reptilian
human hybrids.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
He was a reptilian believer believer. Oh mcaslyn. That is
first of all, Davenport, Iowa was my hometown and it's
where I saw my first Prime show, so that rang
a bell. But he was a lizard people believer, and
he also believed that there were child sacrifices at the
(35:41):
Bohemian Grove.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
So it was quite the outsider. Is interesting, very interesting
person to pick for a song.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
He was buying into some real friend stuff.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
Man.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yeah, and I do wonder what he thought about the song.
That would have been really interesting if somebody had asked
him for his opinion.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
I imagine somebody would have showed it to him while
he was still alive.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
Yeah, and I wonder what his reaction might have been.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Well, you know, Less doesn't really come across as judgmental
in this tune about mccaslyn. He describes the weaponry.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Yeah, he's just not rating. I mean, yeah. It also
sounds like he's kind of endeared with the character because
he says, our hero soon is apprehended. So yeah, there's
no judgment. It sounds like Less is just narrating from
a nail troll perspective.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Yeah, there could be a bit of tongue in cheek
interpreted through the delivery of the phantom Patriot and that
he's coming to save the day because you know, he
found nothing there indicative of what he thought what he
was going to find, and the fact that he is
imagining himself a hero. At the same time, he is
largely just telling this tale of mcaslyn at the Bohemian Grove.
(36:55):
By the way, the child sacrifice thing, do you know
where he probably got that idea. Where our old friend
Alex Jones, who actually took a camera crew to the
Bohemian Grove looking for that same thing a couple of
years prior to mccaslyn showing up. Really, yeah, I think
I remember watching that video too and not being convinced.
Speaker 5 (37:14):
And by the way, see I always got a bit
of a Sergeant Pilcher vibe from the delivery of the
lyrics for this, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Oh, for sure, And in.
Speaker 5 (37:25):
Revisiting this, I definitely at the time I wouldn't have
made this connection. But now since Conspiratoia has come out,
this is almost sort of like a this could have
been a verse in like the Conspiratoia song. Yes, that
makes sense, like it? It feels very much like that
to me. With Yeah, Boheman Grove is a really popular
subject of a lot of different conspiracy theories for sure,
(37:48):
as it as it would obviously be with a bunch
of high profile rich people just getting together for it's
sort of like a it rings of like Skull and
Bones and like all those secret societies.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
And things like that.
Speaker 5 (37:59):
Yeah, always gotten a little bit of a tongue in
sheet kind of Sergeant Pilcher delivery like our dutiful I
forget how the delivery and Sergeant Pilcher. The word patriot too,
especially in two thousand and two, and I guess even
now really does come kind of loaded with a little
bit of that somewhat that conspiracy ideology. I mean, it
(38:20):
can be a very benign word, but when we're talking
about things that emerge later, like the tea party and
all this stuff, like the word patriot or the label
of patriot as you would apply to yourself for a
group of people, kind of carries some of that baggage
with it.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
I think when you call yourself a patriot, something's probably
not patriotic about what you're doing. That's what I'm gathering.
Speaker 5 (38:42):
Whiff of the Yeah, there's a whiff of domestic terrorist.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Yeah. So this this bohemian grove more or less a
rich guy camp, and they actually do a lot of
like the different camps within the facility, they actually do
a lot of playing. Believe there's one of the particular
camps is Scottish themed and they brought in a bagpiper
and they dressed up in traditional Scottish regalia. So there's
(39:09):
all this there's a lot of stuff that they do,
but I think the main thing they do is drink
and plot and scheme. I do recommend that you read
up on the Bohemian Grove. There is a lot of
helter skelter around it, but I don't imagine that anything
has come of it. I think part of the hysteria
around it stems from the fact that in the early
(39:29):
days of the existence of it, they would put on plays.
Remember the first guy to put this together was a
stage actor, and so they would put on plays and
that has continued too. And what's very interesting interesting to
me is that largely it's male dominated. So families and
wives and spouses and girlfriends can be on the property,
(39:51):
but they have to leave around sunset essentially, and then
these guys put on their plays, and many of these guys,
who are ultra wealthy conservatives, dress and drag when they perform.
Imagine that highly interesting and I highly recommend reading it
if you want to know more. We've talked about it enough.
(40:18):
It's time for Primates takes. If you want your takes
read right here on the podcast. All you have to
do is go to Patreon dot com Ford slash Primus
tracks the universal constant over there. As I post a
thread about the track up for discussion and you post
your thoughts, I'll read them right here. Usually I post
the thread well ahead of time. This time I aired,
(40:38):
So we only have a couple of primates takes this time.
Let's thank Anthony and Brian for being on top of things.
Here's their takes regarding Phantom Patriot own now. Anthony del
prete Go Bills says, Ski Rackington total destruction. Badass. Yeah,
(41:01):
I can't disagree with that, and I should provide some
context for these couple of comments which I asked the
question what resonates with you on this one? So Anthony
del pret mentioned Ski Rackington. Brian Bergie Frankie says, when
the envelope filter is used for evil? Thanks Brian. Would
(41:26):
you categorize this as an evil envelope filter?
Speaker 5 (41:29):
That's a very good question. Maybe it's just subtle enough
to sneak its way in. Maybe it's a sneaky, slivery
kind of evil.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Oh, it's the Phantom Patriot of envelope filter usages then
sneaking into the bohemian growth. Gotcha. Well, thank you guys
for your takes. I apologize to the other primeatrons. Get
him in. I'll read them as miscellaneous to breed next episode.
And now it's time for Frankie's favorite segment of the show.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
Live cuts from.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Live cuts, the Jam Vehicle live cuts.
Speaker 4 (42:02):
What's going on here?
Speaker 1 (42:04):
We have two live cuts today, as I mentioned earlier,
one over ten minutes, the other over eighteen minutes. Now, Frankie,
have you listened to that entire eighteen minute phantom Patriot
numerous times?
Speaker 3 (42:18):
Multiple times?
Speaker 2 (42:19):
You are a true patriot.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
You're a special man. You're a true primus patriot. Actually
so yes. Because of the primus patriot, you should have
the same belt logo as our friend McCaslin.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
Imagine somebody is showing up to a vip Q and
are cast playing as a phantom Patriot and just standing there,
not saying anything.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
I'm sure he would be quickly removed from the premises,
but he would certainly leave an impression on everybody. All right,
Our first live cut is the ten minute version. This
is from Frankie's of Wales and Woe Live Sessions box set.
For it doesn't have any metadata for date or location.
(43:04):
Please direct all complaints to at Frankie Berestein on Instagram.
Let's hear Gabby Lala on this one. You mentioned Matt
that you were always clocking Gabby on the studio version.
You get to hear on the live cut here. Nicely done,
(43:54):
Gabby and that pinky's doing it stuff.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
It must be.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
I can see why you were possibly conflating the guitar
with the guitar, because they're not too far off as
far as the tone that's achieved on the two.
Speaker 5 (44:08):
Yeah, I get the sense maybe he was even going
for that kind of vibe in terms of just the
tone of it, because it is very kind of thin
and ready the tone that he chose to use for
the guitar in that part.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
Speaking of vibes, let's hear Mike Dylan on vibraphone.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
Who I like this?
Speaker 4 (45:06):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (45:07):
I love the ominous turn that took about halfway through there.
That was a lot of fun, and of course Mike
always brings it. Man, he's the best. I love that guy.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
And not to be outdone though, let's give the man
with the pinky a bass solo. Yeah. That even got
(46:19):
Frankie dancing, which never happens. Holy smokes. Just a taste
of a ten minute version of Phantom Patriot sounds great.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
What I like about these Phantom Patriot live performances is
that Liz lets everyone in the band shine.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Well, if you're gonna let it go eighteen minutes, you're better. Yeah,
everyone gets their turned, everyone gets a seated at the table.
Let's turn our attention to Jam Cruiz two thousand and six.
I imagine it's the same fancy band lineup, Les, Gabby,
Mike Skerrick, Paolo right. He labeled this time code of story,
(47:02):
so let's hear it.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
Then it is? Then it is.
Speaker 4 (47:08):
You know where I live, there's an area little northern
Bohemian groove. I don't know, a few folks know what
this is.
Speaker 6 (47:24):
It's a gathering place for the big monkey monks.
Speaker 4 (47:27):
The streams, and there's all the spimulation that there are
evil doings. Could I don't know. I have no clue.
But there was a sun though. I read about the.
Speaker 6 (47:41):
Nest pushing the Hongkound, which is a highly guarded compound.
Speaker 4 (47:48):
Because it is where all the moneymunks home.
Speaker 6 (47:54):
Now, this guy was wandering around for a few days,
and he had he had an arsenal of.
Speaker 4 (47:59):
Various what and he was there to write.
Speaker 3 (48:03):
The Wrongs of the World.
Speaker 6 (48:07):
He had a crossbow, he had saber, and he had
out of his map on a hockey mask.
Speaker 4 (48:14):
Now I'm guessing it was buckethead.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
But he'd swear that he would him.
Speaker 4 (48:18):
That was a true story. So now the monkey lost
the gatherer.
Speaker 6 (48:24):
Every summer in this place bohemian growth, and supposedly performed
these strange rituals and what I don't know. I think
there's just a bunch of good old boys going out
there doing a little camp and.
Speaker 4 (48:37):
Plotting con question of attorney.
Speaker 6 (48:42):
So anyway, I was reading about this fellow in the newspaper,
and what happened was.
Speaker 4 (48:47):
He wandered around for days up there, and that he
was finally apprehended. He stumbled out of the woods and
he was wearing his.
Speaker 6 (48:53):
White mask, and he had this weaponry, saber and crossbow
and whatever the hell else he had.
Speaker 4 (48:58):
And on his shirt Brittany Sharpie were the words plans
of the Patriot. Oh. I thought him off tilboy, and
I thought, you know, what an interesting guy. The unfortunate
thing is he went there during the winter time.
Speaker 7 (49:15):
Oh yeah, so there was nobody there for him too,
that's straight.
Speaker 4 (49:20):
So so anyway, you know, it was interesting Connor for
the little that you were playing right here? Do you
think he was a dumb ass? Tell your opinion.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
That's a good place to pause. No wonder, it's an
eighteen minute version. He tells the story of it in
the right in the middle. Uh, first of all, love
how Polo just drops to halftime and then plays a
funky ass drum beat under this story. Let's forward to
some atmosphere boost half time again.
Speaker 7 (50:33):
Yeah, that's some nice atmospherics right there.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
You like him while you're hearing Matt I.
Speaker 5 (50:53):
Am When you go halftime and you give a lot
of space for the other instruments to do their thing.
It's and it's such a I mean, the fancy band
I think was just such a strong lineup. And anytime
Skak's involved, I think he just makes everything better.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
So I'm here for it.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
Let's close out this live cut with a build up
towards the ultimate finish. Oh we got faked out. They
(51:55):
build up to a viabraphone solo. Frankie, yep, you got us.
Thought there was going to be a huge Catharsis Nope, biographone.
Nothing wrong with vi abraphone. Let's give Mike a few
more seconds to wow us. Mm hmm, I would take
(52:51):
an eighteen minute Phantom Patriot NDA the week at this point. Well,
thank you for those live cuts, Frankie. They are excellent.
Speaker 3 (52:59):
Kind of listening to that track, well, to that sample
made me fantasized I was on the Jam cruise.
Speaker 1 (53:07):
Someday you will be, Frankie.
Speaker 3 (53:09):
We'll be there one day. Yeah, one day with our
shorts and sandals.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
Our live podcasting gear.
Speaker 3 (53:17):
Exactly, and we'll be vibing to Greasy D with Les
claypol on some bastard jazz.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
Well I should say this, Phantom Patriot, we're the heroes
today because you've been tracked. Next time, Frankie, we're going
to talk about a track that for years I thought
was dedicated to me. Really, I'm an iowand Gal.
Speaker 3 (53:41):
You were corn fifth.
Speaker 1 (53:43):
Oh, I got some stories for you in that regard.
Matt Hunter, thank you so much for helping us with
Phantom Patriot or Phantom Patriot. Matt is at Ham of
Truth eighty six on the Instagram's Lots of pedals, lots
of basses, lots of cool stuff.
Speaker 2 (54:01):
Thanks again, Pal, always a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (54:04):
Primates, Primatrons, people of Earth. Thank you all so much
for listening. There are not reptilians out there, and I
don't think there are ritual sacrifices at the Bohemian Grove,
but you never know where they might pop up. That
sounds like an oblique endorsement to commit crimes. Don't do that.
Speaker 2 (54:27):
It might happen in a pizza shop.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
That's right, Yeah, don't. Pizza Gate wasn't really either. Don't
do these things. Don't bust into places that aren't yours
looking for shit.
Speaker 3 (54:37):
Be cool every now, every now and then, Josh, since receive,
I'll just be doing I'll just be out and about
doing my random errands, and your voice will pop into
my head when you said chem trails are real.
Speaker 1 (54:57):
That's just the start. You're on a half now, Frankie,
we better get out of here before we accidentally recruit
more people to this cause. Later days wheel a mace
(55:21):
Phantom Patriot
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