The first
Primus
album was actually a fairly canny way for the band to get itself recorded -- like a number of other acts from the late '80s and after, the trio decided to simply record a couple of live shows for its debut. This has the advantage of not only demonstrating
' undeniable live flair for
art
/
prog rock
funk
of its own devising, but capturing an already rabid fan base getting off on it big-time. That said, a good chunk of the album ended up in studio form on
Frizzle Fry
the following year, so aside from hyperfans
Suck on This
is going to be a bit of a secondary listen, though many of those same fans would claim it as the superior release. Certainly the band is flat-out throughout, its tempo-shifting riffing and
Funkadelic
-meets-
Rush
rhythm explosions benefiting from a fairly crisp recording. The downside is that
Les Claypool
's voice is sometimes searching for breath or a touch buried in the mix, though -- songs like the merry grind of
"John the Fisherman"
and
"Harold of the Rocks"
suffer a little for it. Still, anyone who likes the
Zappa
Beefheart
goofy voice approach
Claypool
is fond of will be perfectly happy with his nutty lip-flapping on songs like
"Groundhog's Day"
"Pudding Time."
The highlight is probably
"Tommy the Cat,"
an early favorite that didn't surface in the studio until
Sailing the Seas of Cheese
. Here, sans
Tom Waits
cameo, it's a rollicking explosion of beatnik rant and spastic lust, while the band makes one hell of a righteous noise unto the heavens. Various stage-patter snippets and other odd moments -- at one point
cheerily asks the crowd to proclaim
Larry Lalonde
a bastard, while elsewhere the band's slogan "We're Primus and we suck" takes a bow -- fill out the disc. ~ Ned Raggett