SAILING THE SEAS OF CHEESE

Sure, a lot of people will go around saying that Primus isn't a full fledged progressive band, and it is true. However, they definitely had some progressive tracks, they have influenced progressive bands and they are important to the genre in general. There is no doubt that leader Les Claypool is a progressive artist and many of his other projects and solo albums are correctly listed as Eclectic. It is apparent in his music that he is influenced by the music of The Residents, King Crimson and Pink Floyd. But he puts a huge twist on these influences drenching it in quirkiness, bass and crazy guitar making it his own. That influence carries over to Primus which uses a more direct tie to hard rock and heavy metal with the progressive traits being less apparent, yet they still appear.

Primus' 2nd official studio release "Sailing the Seas of Cheese" was an important album for the band in that it catapulted the band onto the world stage the help of the supporting singles "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" and "Tommy the Cat". What made it stand out above other rock acts? The fact that it is so quirky, unhinged and off the wall, plus the fact that the three members, Claypool, Larry LaLonde and Tim Alexander are amazing musicians and compliment each other so well. This album was also very important for me too in that it helped me realize that I have this crazy attraction to quirky and eclectic music. I fell in love with the singles that were being played mostly on the alternative radio station the first time I hear them. In fact, "Tommy the Cat" is where my on-line name comes from and I have used it for almost 30 years now. I still love these singles, even after they have received so much air play. It was these singles that made me want to buy the album in the first place.

Of course, the album didn't let me down, I loved it the first time I played it. The 2nd side took a little more time to grow on me, but now I love it all. If you want to discover Primus' music for yourself, this is the perfect place to start. It is quite consistent with quirky, heavy and wild music all the way through. The short snippets are quite humorous, the regular tracks are all "zingers", which is not something you can't say for many albums. There is no point in analyzing each and every track, but they are all excellent and heavy, zany and have all aged quite well.

It's funny how listening to this album now, it seems almost normal to be listening to music like this, but in 1991, there just wasn't anything else like this in the mainstream. Primus was unintentionally being an influential band, but you just can't ignore the fact that it sounds like they were just having a good time. When you listen to songs like "Eleven" with its 11/8 meter, "Sgt' Baker" with its unhinged vocal delivery, or the multi-faceted and hard driving (mostly) blues masterpiece "Fish On", you just know these guys were not just having fun, but they were geniuses at work, and this album is just loaded with examples of genius.

Yes, I might be rating this album high in the opinion of so many critics, but to me this is an essential album and always will be. I feel there is always enough progressive music in Primus' tracks and albums for them to be considered progressive. I mean, look at Alan Parsons Project for example. Only one of their albums is truly, completely progressive and after that, the progressive trait appears only from time to time. Primus is definitely more progressive than that and if one of them is considered prog, then they both should be. So, I can easily justify giving this album 5 stars, and it deserves it.