Prawn Song-ATO

At first I was a little put off that a cover-to-cover take on the Willy Wonka soundtrack was the first new LP from the classic lineup of Primus since 1995’s Tales from the Punchbowl with beloved drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander.

But then I remembered the time when I saw them headline Lollapalooza in 1993 at Waterloo Village in New Jersey, when Les Claypool began singing the tune Gene Wilder crooned during the creepy boat ride scene at some point during their set. It quickly occurred to me that their intentions for covering these beloved songs from a movie all three members, including guitarist Larry “Ler” LaLonde, grew up on and were lucky enough to have seen in movie theaters as children was not unlike the way Neil Young released Americana with his reunited Crazy Horse before they delivered their 2012 double album opus Psychedelic Pill.

And this Primus rendition of the music for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory sidesteps the predictable goofy trappings the trio could’ve easily fallen into by breathing exploratory new life into these songs, seeming to focus more on paying homage to the madcap genius of Gene Wilder than the film itself. By expanding the group to include “The Fungi Ensemble,” comprised of longtime Claypool associates Mike Dillon on percussion and marimba and cellist Sam Bass, the trio are able to really dive full-bore into the compositions of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, transforming Golden Ticket” into a lost outtake from ¬_Sailing the Seas of Cheese_, while their spin on “Pure Imagination” could very well be the most outright Zappa-esque Primus has ever been in their 25 years together. As for the aforementioned “Semi-Wondrous Boat Ride,” well this five-piece version of the band compounds the psychedelic factor of the tune to full-tilt mind melt, as if the visual montage on display before the frightened children was animated by Ralph Steadman. Nothing on Primus and the Chocolate Factory, however, matches the four-second “Lermaninoff,” Wonka’s musical code into the Chocolate Room and a nod to Mike Teevee’s mother’s mistaking it is the introduction of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” for Rachmaninoff.

With Herb back in the saddle once again, it will be indeed be exciting to see where this essential lineup of the mighty Primus goes from here. So long as they continue to stretch out the nucleus of that jazz-prog-punk-funk-metal-pop thing they do so well in new and heady ways for us aging moshers to tune in, turn on and mosh out to, we’ll be there to say it sucks.