Les Claypool, a triple-threat player
By Chris Nixon
Foir The San Diego Union-Tribune
June 22, 2006
'I am the foreign body in the host,” says the fast-talking bass maestro Les Claypool, describing (in his own oddball way) the recent blur of activity in the mediums of music, film and long-form fiction. With his triple crown of art projects, Claypool and his outsider mentality are showing up at every turn.
Project No. 1: film.
Claypool is making the festival rounds as a first-time filmmaker with his mockumentary about the nouveau hippie band Electric Apricot. Featuring cameos by Mike Gordon (Phish) and Bob Weir (Grateful Dead/Ratdog), “Electric Apricot: The Quest for Festeroo” takes a hilarious look at the holier-than-thou nature of the jam band scene. Songs like “Burning Man” (Hey are you going to Burning Man? / I've got a recipe for cosmic flan) accent the overblown self-righteousness of jam bands much like Rob Reiner's “This Is Spinal Tap” lampooned heavy metal.
Project No. 2: book.
Meanwhile, he's also releasing his first novel, “South of the Pumphouse,” 180 pages of Claypool's classic unconventional musings. His publisher, Akashic Books, describes the book like this: “a dark, clever tale of two brothers, a fishing trip, misconceptions, drugs and murder, 'South of the Pumphouse' skillfully combines classic motifs of epic struggle and intelligent layers of imagery, reminiscent of 'The Old Man and the Sea,' and the raw, tweaked perspective and hallucinogenic tutorial of a Hunter S. Thompson novel.”
Project No. 3: solo album.
The former Primus bassist is currently touring in support of his first official solo disc, “Of Whales and Woe.” Claypool explains: “It's my first real official solo record. I've had solo records in the past, but it's always been with Holy Mackerel or Frog Brigade or Sausage. This is the Les Claypool record.”
The 42-year-old musician first gained attention with Primus in the late 1980s. His percussive style on the bass completely redefined the instrument, and shot Primus into the limelight. The trio headlined Lollapalooza in 1993 and played the Woodstock 1994 festival.
Claypool meandered through a bunch of side project groups like the aforementioned Sausage and Frog Brigade along with the powerhouse trio of Stewart Copeland (Police) and Trey Anastasio (Phish) in Oysterhead. He also penned the title song for the animated series “South Park.” Despite tons of albums and music projects, Claypool has been content to stay a bit more underground than his Primus years.
“Of Whales and Woe” features Claypool on almost all of the instruments, except for a little help from sax player Skerik, Mike Dillon and sitar player Gabby La La.
“I think it's much more in your face than anything I've done in a long time,” says Claypool from his home in Northern California, which he calls “Rancho Relaxo.” “I'm playing my four string and I'm smacking the hell out of it. It's right up there in the mix. I've found that the response has been: 'This is a little more aggressive than we've heard you in a while, Claypool.' ”
So Claypool is firing on all cylinders, seemingly mastering three mediums in one shot. Not so, says he: “Right now it appears that I'm this gushing source of creativity because all these things are coming out at once. The book started out as a screenplay 10 years ago and it just happens to be coming out now. The film we worked on last year. And the record I picked away at and finished it up end of last year. So, to me it doesn't seem out of the ordinary, but to most people it must seem like I'm vomiting my notions on the world.”
