Les Claypool: Of Fungi and Foe (Prawn Song)

Be it with the band Primus or on his own, singer/bassist/songwriter Les Claypool has always been a weird dude. And we mean that in the best possible way. His off-kilter bass playing and nasal vocals may be distinctive, but it’s how he uses them in conjunction with equally odd guitar tones, strangely satirical story lyrics, and untraditionally timed rhythmic instrumentation that makes Claypool coolly unique in the tradition of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart.

So you know it says something when we say that this, his latest solo album, might be the weirdest album he’s ever made.

This may be because, in some respects, this is one of the few true solo albums Claypool has ever made. While much of his non-Primus work has had the word “Claypool” on the cover, they’ve often just been other bands; Claypool-led bands, for sure, but bands nonetheless. But unlike his work with Les Claypool’s Frog Brigade, Colonel Claypool’s Bucketful of Bernie Brains, Les Claypool’s Fancy Band, or Les Claypool & the Rat Brigade, Fungi doesn’t feature a consistent set of musicians throughout.

Fungi is also distinctive in Claypool’s canon because the songs weren’t originally written as songs. Instead, the music was done for the soundtracks of the video games Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi and Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars, and for the movie Pig Hunt (though some have been reworked or restructured from score pieces into songs). This is not a new thing for Claypool — he did TV show theme songs for South Park (with Primus) and for Robot Chicken (on his own) — though unlike those tunes, the ones here actually work on their own, outside of the thing they’re the theme for.

In some ways, Fungi is reminiscent of Primus’ 1993 masterwork Pork Soda, an album that found their drummer, Tim “Herb” Alexander, being more of a percussionist than a rhythm keeper. Songs such as “Mushroom Men,” which opens the album, “Kazoo,” and “You Can’t Tell Errol Anything” all feature eclectic rhythm patterns that aren’t played on traditional rock drums. “Red State Girl” even has Claypool using his stand-up bass in a way that recalls the Pork track “Mr. Krinkle.”

Many of the songs on Fungi also recall the little musical interludes and offbeat bits that Claypool, both solo and with Primus, often builds into his albums. Not in their structure or role as asides on the album, but in that they go well beyond the usual guitar/bass/drums instrumentation and quirky tone. Besides “What Would Sir George Martin Do,” with its Oompah Loompah-esque rhythms, and the drum circle-sounding title track, there’s the ironically named “Pretty Little Song,” which sounds like Claypool’s trying to scare the crap out of his wife with some moody droning.

And then there’s “Bite Out of Life,” on which Gogol Bordello lead singer Eugene Hutz rants and raves like a lunatic. It’s the kind of thing people either love or loathe. You know, kind of like Primus.

Still, there are tunes that wouldn’t be out of place on one of Claypool’s earlier albums. Songs such as “Ol’ Roscoe,” “Primed By 29,” and the aforementioned “Mushroom Men” may not work on a Coldplay album, but they are classic Claypool.

Ultimately, Fungi is not the album that will cross Claypool into the mainstream. If anything, it might be the album that most divides his loyal following, albeit only into factions who will argue over whether “Bite Out of Life” is “really annoying” or “really cool, you just don’t get it.” Either way, though, they will all agree that Fungi as a whole is very weird, and very Claypool-ian. Which is just how we like it. - Paul Semel

Mr. Semel has written about Les Claypool and other musicians for such publications as Rolling Stone.com, Ray Gun, Paste, Creem, and others.