The Lowlist: Primus’ Crusing The Seas Of Cheese – a bizarre mixture of twisted basslines, warped lyrics and common weirdness

Love him or hate him, it’s a must to admit Les Claypool without end modified the face of bass. Whereas he could not precisely have Gary Willis’s technical precision or Jaco’s fretless intonation, Claypool is without doubt one of the greats due to his potential to throw slapping, sliding, tapping, and chording into an enormous, sloppy, massively quirky melting pot. 

Crusing the Seas of Cheese is certainly one of a handful of significant albums that ushered within the Nineties’ various revolution, answering slick ‘80s productions with a extra irreverent – much less glammy – strategy to rock. 

“Mainstream rock was fairly tacky,” says Claypool. “We have been going to both sink or swim, therefore the title Crusing the Seas of Cheese.”

Launched in Might 1991 by Interscope Data, Crusing the Seas of Cheese was Primus’ second studio album and main label debut. The music movies for Jerry Was A Race Automotive Driver and Tommy the Cat obtained heavy play on MTV and the album hit #2 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart, peaking at #116 on the Billboard 200.

Primus toured extensively in 1991 and 1992, together with dates with Public Enemy, Anthrax, Fishbone, Rush, and U2 and Crusing the Seas of Cheese was licensed Gold inside two years, finally climbing to Platinum in 2001.

Each Primus document has tons of woodshed-ready bass traces, however we selected 1991’s Crusing the Seas due to such traditional, super-high-energy ditties as Jerry Was a Race Automotive Driver, Is It Luck? and Tommy The Cat (with Tom Waits voicing Tommy the Cat). 

A fan of Rush and Sure, the teenage Claypool had his head turned by funk. “Sooner or later, a pal of mine stated, ‘Geddy Lee is sweet, however he is nothing in comparison with Stanley Clarke and Larry Graham.’ I informed him he was loopy, regardless that I did not know who these guys have been. Then I noticed Stanley’s I Wish to Play for Ya in a document retailer. I purchased it, and it blew my thoughts. 

“I additionally noticed Louis Johnson on [the TV show] Don Kirshner’s Rock Live performance, noticed him go bang-bippety-bip-bang, and thought, “Man, that is the best factor!” By my junior yr, I used to be getting manner into all of the funk gamers. Guys would give me shit and name me Disco Les as a result of I used to be enjoying all this funk stuff.”

The classes for Crusing the Seas of Cheese, discovered Les leaping from 4-string fretted to 6-string fretless.  “I did not truly get my 6 till simply earlier than we began Crusing the Seas of Cheese,” he informed BP. ”We have been on tour in New York, and I tracked down Carl Thompson. I informed him I used to be inquisitive about a 6-string.

“I could not resolve whether or not I wished a fretted or a fretless. However I used to be getting to some extent with my 4-string the place it was like a stalemate; I used to be becoming bored with it. I wanted one thing that might simply blow issues vast open, so I made a decision to go for the fretless 6-string.

“After I acquired the bass, I assumed, ‘Ohmigod – what have I performed?’ It was so far more tough to play. I used to be used to my 4-string’s 32″ scale, and impulsively I had this large hunk of wooden with a 36″ scale and no frets…”

Perhaps that added to the mania. In all of those tunes, Les takes a twisted, screwed-up bass line, wraps it with warped lyrics and different common weirdness, and manages to finish up with a music that is each memorable and mosh-inducing. Many have tried, however no one pulls it off fairly like Claypool. 

For a good stranger effort, try Riddles Are Abound Tonight by Claypool’s facet challenge, Sausage.

Crusing the Seas of Cheese by Primus is available to buy (opens in new tab) or stream