Primus: Tales From the Punchbowl (2LP) [INTERSCOPE]

Why you'll love it

This remastered 2LP set spreads the album over four sides of 180g vinyl, with an art insert and a download card. It reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and went gold in both the US and Canada.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 180g vinyl
• Remastered
• Art insert
• Download card included

About the album

Les Claypool has always played bass the way other people play lead guitar, and on Tales From the Punchbowl he finally had a studio of his own to do it in. Primus recorded the album between November 1994 and March 1995 at Rancho Relaxo in Sebastopol, California, producing it themselves with Larry LaLonde on guitar and banjo and Tim Alexander on drums.

"Wynona's Big Brown Beaver" was the hit, a banjo-flecked hoedown with a claymation video. "Mrs. Blaileen" followed as the second single, "Southbound Pachyderm" lumbers along beautifully, "De Anza Jig" and "Over The Electric Grapevine" stretch out, and "Professor Nutbutter's House Of Treats" opens things up with a typical Claypool tall tale before "Captain Shiner" sails it home. LaLonde's six-string banjo gives several tracks a back-porch twang, and Alexander keeps the strangest bits swinging.

It was Alexander's last record with the band before he came back seven years later. The cover shows the trio dressed as penguins on an iceberg, which, for Primus, counts as a sober photo shoot.

Also at Kops: more Primus on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Interscope, a reissue of the 1995 album.