Primus on Friday broke a studio silence of five years with the new, three-song EP, Conspiranoid. Available now across streaming platforms, the release is anchored by the 11-minute epic, “Conspiranoia”.
Ahead of the EP’s release, bassist/vocalist Les Claypool explained that Conspiranoid largely served as a delivery mechanism for “Conspiranoia”. Rather than putting out a single, Primus churned out a pair of B-sides to accompany the “long, winding, bastard of a song,” as Claypool referred to it. “Follow The Fool” and “Erin On The Side Of Caution” fill out the flip side, and carry on the modern themes from “Conspiranoia” about the age of disinformation.
“‘Conspiranoia’ was sprouted from a seed I had planted in my notebook a year or so ago—a few lines commenting on the mental state of the contemporary world,” Claypool told Consequence when premiering the track. “I watched the distrust and divide grow between friends, colleagues, relatives, and the general population because of the consumption and digesting of disinformation, misinformation, warped information, and flat-out fairy tales being perpetuated by anyone with a slight hint of web design aptitude. I was compelled to shed light on the ridiculousness of many of these perspectives and the lack of rational thought that was being applied in the interpretation of many such entities and theories.”
The three-song collection fits together in a neat, digestible, 19-minute package. Primus has not issued a full-fledged album since 2017’s The Desaturating Seven, and as Claypool said to podcast host Kyle Meredith, the band is in no hurry to issue an entirely new LP just yet.
“We didn’t have a ton of time to go and make a full-blown album, but also how many people are open to us playing a full-blown album live these days?” Claypool, who is currently performing Rush‘s A Farewell To Kings nightly on the band’s 64-date world tour, asked on Kyle Meredith With last month. “It’s like we got the Rush stuff, we got all our stuff, and you know, when you go see a band that you’ve been seeing for many years, oftentimes watching them play a bunch of new songs isn’t necessarily what you want, but trickling in a few songs will be better. That way we can actually play these things live and we’re not burying people with all this music that they don’t know. Except for the one song is literally 13 minutes long, so go to the bathroom before we start that one.”
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Claypool furthered his discussion of current affairs last week with the release of “Zelensky: The Man With The Iron Balls“. The guest-filled tribute to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saw Les team up with Gogol Bordello‘s Ukrainian frontman Eugene Hütz and welcome contributions from Billy Strings, Stewart Copeland, Sean Lennon, and Hütz’s bandmate Sergey Ryabtsev.
“We now have a recording to help rally support for a bullied country, and a David versus Goliath-type man who stood up for their liberty, freedom, and homeland,” Claypool told Rolling Stone. “[We’re] giving praise to a man who stepped up for his people beyond anything I’ve seen in my tenure on this planet. This unlikely fellow has grabbed the reins of leadership and held fast in such a way that the world is now galvanized in support.”
Stream the new Primus EP Conspiranoid via the player below and click here to order vinyl copies, available on August 5th. Primus’s A Tribute To Kings tour continues tonight, April 25th, in Knoxville, TN. Scroll down for a full list of tour dates and click here for tickets.
Primus – Conspiranoid
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