Cheese seas

Sometimes dusting off an old album is the perfect elixir for a musical malaise. I never really listened to Primus' 1999 release, "Antipop," until the past few days though it's been sitting in my CD collection. I thought of Primus a lot during our trip to California. The Bay Area trio often references NoCal locales in their songs--places like San Pablo Bay, El Sobrante and Coddingtown. I realize now that frontman Les Claypool's Rancho Relaxo is in Wine Country. Especially when we drove past Dee's Diner in Sebastopol, Calif., during our trip. Les has a solo song that is a tribute to the diner.

I rediscovered "Antipop" when I was reading Primus' Wikipedia entry. The piece suggested that the album was well-received by longtime Primus fans. That surprised me since Primus' hey-day was in the early 1990s. Purists prefer the stripped down weirdness of 1990's "Frizzle Fry" whereas latecomers prefer the stained-out oddities of 1993's "Pork Soda." I love it all, even the mid-1990s stuff.

Despite its name, "Antipop" always seemed the most "pop" of Primus' albums. Several stars guest on songs and several even guest-produce. The list ranges from Tom Morello to James Hetfield to Fred Durst.

In giving it another listen, I am blown away.

Maybe it's the new affection for NoCal, I don't know, but what an album. It's heavier than the records they made in the mid-1990s (most of which were filled with trippy ditties, upright bass and fuzzed-out drums--fuzzed-out drums, only Primus could achieve that!). "Antipop" delivers a return to the sound of "Fry" and "Cheese"--lots of heavy riffs and even the use of small cymbals and other unusual additions to the drum kit. Primus even discovered a new sound--a distorted guitar that sort of sounds like someone waving a piece of sheet metal.

Claypool announces his return to rocking with a yell at the beginning of the opening song, "Electric Uncle Sam." The fifth track, "The Antipop," opens with a Pink Floyd/Rush freakout and climaxes with a wall of metal that would make Metallica blush. Same with "Eclectic Electric," which actually includes Hetfield (of Metallica) on the ax. Strangely, "Lacquer Head," the first single released off the album (the video was banned by MTV despite it's anti-sniffing message) is not one of my faves. Anyway, Primus still "sucked" as they will be the first to tell you, and they were still discordant (as my college dorm-mates used to say) in 1999.