Frizzle Fry (Remastered)

With its first studio album, Primus became heroes to three of the most notoriously hard-to-please segments of music culture: thrash metal purists, classically trained instrumental virtuosos, and willfully eccentric alternative rock devotees. Songs like “Frizzle Fry” and “John the Fisherman” had the ingredients of prog-rock, the rhythmic intensity of funk, and the explosive aggression of metal. The band's secret weapon was its sense of humor. While the members of Primus took their playing very seriously, they didn’t regard themselves with seriousness. The interludes “You Can’t Kill Michael Malloy” and “Sathington Willoughby” aligned Primus with a long tradition of subversive mirth, a connection that's emphasized by the band’s cover of The Residents’ “Hello Skinny/Constantinople.” The comedic and otherworldly effect of Les Claypool’s cornball voice exclaiming “It’s pudding time, children!” often overshadows the fact that the band also dealt with darker themes. Among the best songs on Frizzle Fry is “Too Many Puppies,” a plunging and enraged riff. Though the song at first seems utterly inexplicable, it slowly emerges as a venomous anti-war allegory.