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Primus: Green Naugahyde

Prawn Song/ATO

Given Les Claypool’s near ubiquity with his various solo and side projects during the last decade, it’s easy to forget that there hasn’t been an “official” full-length from Primus since 1999’s Antipop. Claypool is so relentlessly front-and-center on Green Naugahyde that for the first third of the album, guitarist Larry LaLonde and newly recruited drummer Jay Lane (who was actually in an early lineup of Primus and anchored the Claypool-led spin-off Sausage) just seem to be warming up. All that changes with “Tragedy’s A-Comin,” a dirt-funky throwback to the days of Suck on This, with LaLonde choking a signature kitchen-sink solo out of his overdriven Strat. It gets better with “Moron TV,” a raw dub-punk send-up that showcases Lane’s prodigious reggae chops and Claypool’s own knack for making a complex slap-and-pop bass line sound simple. As accessible as it is willfully in-your-face, this is vintage Primus.