Free from the confines of his day job in Primus and his numerous jam band side projects, the freakish flamingo-legged and nasally-voiced bassist lets his inner Zappa loose in a flurry of prog rock artiness, funky rhythms and slicing marimba riffs. But more than just an album of rock weirdness, its also infectiously groovy with horn stabs paying tribute to the obvious influence of George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic. The musical ingenuity serves as a totally appropriate backdrop against which the fish-obsessed Claypool tells tales of characters pulled from the depths of some deep-dark corner of the oceans. It all plays like a collection of sea shanties written after a night indulging heavily in absinthe and opium. Fun, catchy and odd, its exactly what weve come to expect from Claypool.
(Prawn Song)Les Claypool
Of Whales and Woe
BY Stuart GreenPublished Jul 1, 2006
