Review Summary: IV: One of the band's most underrated releases acts as an awesome prologue to the "Pork Soda" era of Primus.
After spilling nachos all over MTV with
Sailing the Seas of Cheese, Primus were riding high. They lured the masses in with their well-crafted hooks and instantly identifiable sound, but never lost the fight in distancing themselves from the rising grungers and radio-friendly pop crowd. Their next LP,
Pork Soda, is usually the next in line in the Primus Pantheon, but a year before
Pork Soda hit, an under-the-radar EP of covers was released. The EP, called
Miscellaneous Debris, is often overlooked, but it really shouldn’t be. It wasn’t a rebirth of Primus, but thanks to some daring song choices and a noticeable shift in musical direction,
Miscellaneous Debris acts as a great prologue to what we’d hear on
Pork Soda a year later.
Miscellaneous Debris isn’t anything too comprehensive: a simple, five-song EP completely composed of covers. The material is surprisingly varied ranging from
Peter Gabriel to
XTC to
Pink Floyd, but all of the songs sharing Primus’ love for the quirky and obscure. The artsy stuff takes precedence over more predictable choices like Rush; essentially, Primus challenge themselves the whole way through. While some songs are a bit too much of a stretch to fit Primus’ identity (Peter Gabriel’s “Intruder” is probably the most out-of-place of the five), the overall song selection is just as against-the-grain as Primus themselves.
But
Miscellaneous Debris’ biggest grab is how different the songs sound compared to the band’s previous release.
Sailing the Seas of Cheese. The covers all have creepy effects, giving them darker and eerier aesthetics. Les Claypool’s vocals are layered with cavernous echoes (as heard in the XTC cover “Making Plans for Nigel”), his bass and Tim Alexander’s drums give off a low resonance, and most notably, Larry LaLonde’s guitars don’t sound nearly as nimble and vibrant. The guitar melodies are high-pitched and thin, especially in the Peter Gabriel cover “Intruder.” LaLonde doesn’t aim for virtuosity on
Miscellaneous Debris, instead providing shriller, more atmospheric guitar riffs. This kind of sound is interesting in that it is also used in the band’s next studio LP,
Pork Soda. It’s darker and much less groove-oriented than
Sailing the Seas of Cheese. These kinds of songs simply don’t give off the same level of bouncy alternative rock appeal that “Tommy the Cat” or “Jerry Was a Racecar Driver” did.
But that change in aesthetic isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As
Pork Soda proved a year later, Primus wanted to embrace the ambient and atmospheric. The creepy sound gives the covers their own identity.
The Residents’ already disturbing “Sinister Exaggerator” is given a spin with LaLonde’s siren-sounding guitars, Alexander’s ritualistic drum thumps and Claypool’s nasally chants. Claypool makes his bass the star on
The Meters’ “Tippi-Toes”, a funky jam with creaky, jangly guitars and a swingy tempo. The heaviness of Primus definitely shows the most on the steadier Pink Floyd cover “Have a Cigar”, where Claypool does more calling than sneering, all with an excellent bass rhythm. “Making Plans for Nigel” is noticeably different than the XTC original; while it has the same bouncy beat, the shrieking guitars and Claypool’s echoing vocals make the cover considerably darker in tone.
It’s kind of odd that
Miscellaneous Debris is such an underrated release by Primus, as it marks the direction that the band would take after their commercial breakthrough. They embrace the “scene setting” position more than the “wonky rocking” one, the same philosophy that they implemented into
Pork Soda. Tone becomes key in making each cover worthwhile, but since these are covers and not Primus originals, they don’t possess the completely comfortable vibe that
Frizzle Fry and
Sailing the Seas of Cheese did. Primus had to accommodate to make these covers work the way they do, which is something they really aren’t familiar with doing; they’ve always worked best in their own element. That being said, this release has a lot of surprises. The covers originate from bands in the same avant-garde sphere of Primus, while the band themselves transition into the
Pork Soda era with evolutionary gusto. Eerie guitars, textured bass notes and more atmospheric drumming all contribute to a whole new world for Primus to explore.
Miscellaneous Debris isn’t phenomenal, but thanks to some ambitious song selections and a fresh preview of the band’s new musical direction, it’s a release that any Primus fan should check out, especially if you love
Pork Soda.
