Customer Reviews

Pork Soda

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Corrosive grooves, minimalist noise, and surreal banjo interludes make this weird, and very very wonderful.

Hehehe.

Let's start this track-by-track analysis with a bold, daring "PRIMUS SUCKS."

Now, let's begin.

1. Pork Chop's Little Ditty: Pretty much a twenty-second intro to the album. Nice banjo playing. This track is later revisited in track 14.

2. My Name Is Mud: This may be the best song on the entire album. The story is hilarious (so I kissed him upside the cranium with that aluminum baseball bat), and the bass is very, very well done. But hey, that's Les for ya. Guitar solos (yup, there's two) are pretty damn good as well. Watch the video.

3. Welcome To This World: Interesting song. Great bass intro. Typical Les vocals... then the explosion of bass and drums and guitar, then back into subtlety, then back again, and so it goes. Lyrics are friggin' great. Bass in the middle nearing and during the guitar ambience/solo is great. Pretty good song.

4. Bob: Ah yes, Bob. Bob was a friend who took a belt and hung himself in the doorway of the apartment where he lived. Not a happy story. Very, very low bass. Must have been either a 5 or 6 string. Very unusual guitar licks. The part that starts around 1:18 sounds like something out of a nightmare. Well... maybe. There are a couple of those interludes. Guitar is again very strange sounding. Les's vocals get weirder as they go, until near the end he just kinda loses it.

5. DMV: YES!!! FREAKIN YES!!! How in God's name does he do that with the bass? The drums sound great on this song, and the guitar solo at 3:24 is only made better with the strange improvisation Les does on the bass. He takes his fingers, and taps the frets while he drags the fingers... it's unbelievable. Just listen.

6. The Ol' Diamondback Sturgeon: Hmm... very repetitive. Not sure what to make of this song. Let's skip it and move on.

7. Nature Boy: I love this song. The bass that sounds like it's coming from a rocking ship (sounds weird, I know), the guitar is standard sounding with a sort of talk box feel to it. Each chorus is like a musician's wet dream. Guitar solo: 5/5. End of conversation. At 2:40, the song takes a complete 180º turn. The drums get more frantic. The bass speeds up... and then... it all goes into this completely wonderful jam sort of thing. And the bass... Jesus H. Christ. The man is a god. Someone put up a shrine. People will come, I swear.

8. Wounded Knee: An interesting percussion piece. Not very long. Drums, xylophones, wooden chimes... you name it. Very atmospheric. Makes you feel like you're stranded on an island, and you want to leave now.

9. Pork Soda: I still laugh after I hear this song. No one knows what the hell he's saying. I read a response Les wrote when asking what the lyrics were, and he said they were "the Lord's prayer sideways." I tried it; it didn't work. Bass goes up and down. If you listen to this for too long, you get paranoid. "Grab yourself a can of pork soda/ You'll be feelin just fine/ Ain't nothing quite like sittin round the house/ Swiggin down them cans of swine." That's all I got. Yay for me.

10. The Pressman: "I AM THE PRESSMAN! ACKNOWLEDGE ME!" Great, great, great song. Great guitar solo. Lyrics are actually really deep. Drums kick on this song (pardon the pun). The whistling and the intensity of the drums near the end give this great feeling of uncomfortability. And then it's over.

11. Mr. Krinkle: Upright bass, tremelo guitar, steady drum beat. Great combo. Sounds like they had a lot of fun making this song. Three minutes into the song, it takes on this more scary tone. Very strange, yet good.

12. The Air Is Getting Slippery: Funny. Banjo, upright, steady beat, awesome vocals. Very, very funny. Did I mention it was funny?

13. Hamburger Train: I always thought the idea for this song was to make people who were already high on something scared out of their minds. I listen to it, and I've never done drugs, and it scares the crap out of me. We can only imagine taking that big, daring step into the realm of "Altered Consciousness + Frightening Surroundings = Dear God, Get Me the Hell Out of Here!" Great instumentation, though. If it matters at this point.

14. Pork Chop's Little Ditty: We have come back to the first track and expanded on it. This is not only longer, but better. Great banjo, nice foot tapping (???), and an interesting fade out all together.

15. Hail Santa: Ok, so I'm still scratching my head at this one. It's weird bass, ringing bells, and... that's it. Not much else on the song.

Well, that's the track-by-track for ya. Overall, I'm giving this a 5, perhaps not for the instrumentation (which still deserves a 5 anyway), but for the unique feel the album has. This is a band that is hard to categorize. This also applies for bands like Tool, the Residents, or Tom Waits. But Primus will always be known for their eccentricity, both through the singing and through the instrumentation. If you don't like to listen to an album more than once in order to take the full effect in, this is by no means for you. But you'll come to appreciate it over time. I know I did.

This Primus's darkest album. It was quite a shocker to fans of the newly popular band after the release of the fun and out of control 'Sailing The Seas Of Cheese', but people still loved it, and so do I. Although I prefer SSoC I still love this album. Ler LaLonde, one of my favorite and in my opinion the most underrated guitarist of all time, gets a lot more riffs on this album, but it still doesn't get in the way of Les Claypool's bass genius. "Hamburger Train" is one of few songs over 8 minutes long that never gets boring. Also great are "My Name Is Mud", "Welcome To This World", "Bob" "DMV" "Nature Boy" "The Pressman", but all the songs (except Hail Santa, which when you think about it really can't be considered a song) are above average. If you unique, bass driven, alternative rock bands that stand out from the crowd this band and album is for you.

There are alot of people hating on this album. You should note that these people probably aren't musicians and have never tried to play the bassline to DMV. Y'see, just attempting that, or listening to the solo near the end of Diamondback Sturgeon just makes me feel like I'm listening to some incredible music.

This was my first Primus album, and remains my favorite after purchasing Antipop (disappointment) and Seas of Cheese (close second to Pork Soda). The first time I listened to the album, I had just picked up the bass (I got a 5 string) and was just dropped at how amazing and complex the bass was. And then I got into the lyrics...

Alot of people lack the ability to really understand what Les is singing about. They think, "Oh, he's singing about a guy who lives alone, this is dumb." To really get the meaning of the songs, you have to THINK.

And then of course after Les Claypool, Ler and Herb are incredible musicians. Ler isn't the best, but he's a damn good guitarist, and Herb manages to snake around Les's basslines like no other drummer could. The double bass drum on Mud is primitive and wonderful sounding.

Standouts on the CD are The Ol' Diamondback Sturgeon, Hamburger Train, Wounded Knee, My Name is Mud, and DMV.

Definitely check out this cd.

First, let me quote Jeff Bateman of Amazon.com when he says "Corrosive grooves, minimalist noise, and surreal banjo interludes make this weird and not very wonderful." Remove the word not, and I agree completely. In no way candy coated or even really explained, through the use of glib, off the cuff pseudo-folk tales, Pork Soda contains some simple lessons that you dont learn in school. Feeding off of the insanity and strange coping mechanism we are all familiar with to some degree, the moods that this album reeks of are ones people, for better or worse, tend to leave alone. This album fearlessly dives right into the dark side of the collective American psyche (as do most original Primus works) and addresses it with a twinge of insane glee that leaves one with a loss of equilibrium and one step closer to the underworld of America that is its greatest source of art. But the album isnt even all that, for example The Ol' Diamondback Sturgeon. The feel of this song is so transcendentally stoned that I bet the great Les himself had difficulty getting it all out. Fortunately for the listener, he just trusts his instincts and lets 'er rip. The song is all Primus, melding the sounds of Appalachia and India to tell so well the story of catching a fish, from the fishes perspective. The instrumental percussion song Wounded Knee, more of a segway than a song, is in no way corrosive or minimalist, but rather a soothing little diddly that most definitely seems to have its place, a relief from the intense visions on the first half of the album, and a pat on the back to go on. In Bob and Nature Boy, Les creates characters and stories that give a twisted and lighthearted look at dementia, making the listener laugh and cringe at the same time. While some of the songs may feel a bit hollow, the mood is uniquely Primus. Primus has always been a band that takes itself with a grain of salt, so to scrutinize their work as anything more than well done amusement is probably a waste of time. It might not be a masterpiece, but I like this album, and wonder how these guys express what they do and maintain a semblance of sanity. Perhaps they dont.

I became a Primus fan in early 1992, after buying _Sailing_the_Seas_of_Cheese, and I think _Pork_Soda_ is a fantastic album! However, pompous critics continue to annoy me with their tendency to dismiss this album with such ignorant and insipid "critical commentaries." Not only is "weird" an irrelevant and imprecise term to use when describing inventive, non-commercial music like Primus makes, but I'm surprised that so-called "critics" would still use such a generic term. If you like your rock far left of center with tight, inventive musicianship and a twisted sense of humor, buy this album and the entire Primus catalogue.

Primus aren't for everyone, and this is sort of the darkest, most experimental Primus album, so much like an actual can of Pork Soda, some of this stuff can be hard to digest. That said, while I'd reccomend getting a couple other albums first just so you're used to the Primus style to begin with, what's here is great once you've let it sink into your brain right. Primus has always been about finding weird grooves, and there's plenty of them here, although they're kind of done in less of a king crimson/fusion kind of way and more of a disorienting drugged out kind of way. I mean "My Name Is Mud" has no actual notes in it and verses written in iambic pentamater, and that was the hit. Elsewhere, "welcome to this world" features a bassline so oddly fast and doodly sounding that I remember putting on a mix tape with that as the first song and everyone thinking there was something wrong with the tape player, and "hamburger train" sounds like Les Claypool and Larry LaLonde going on an endless duel over who can make the strangest noises come out of his respective instrument while Herb the drummer keeps the pace. And if that's not enough to make you want this, you're probably not going to be a fan

Les Claypool is without a doubt one of the most impressive bass guitarists out there. Every other project he's participated in, such as Oysterhead, he's DOMINATED. On PORK SODA, he's in the company of excellent musicians, yet the music always revolves around him.

Although Primus has always been comprised of musical virtuosos (Tim is particularly kick-butt on the drums here), there's only so much that can be done with their unique style. Their last few albums have found the band struggling to mine new territory. While none of their albums [are bad], PORK SODA is the last album to explore a different direction so effectively. Highlights include the torturous "DMV" and "Mr. Krinkle" featuring Claypool on classical bass (with bow). I also have a strange affinity for the grim suicide tale "Bob" and I love the evocative guitar play on the fateful tale of "The Ol Diamondback Sturgeon."

Primus is one of my favorite bands, so the fact that you can start to see their creative decline on this album is dissapointing to say the least. However, the album itself is still very good. Not nearly the brilliance of Sailing on Seas of Cheese or Frizzle Fry, but a good listen nevertheless. Still better than Tales From the Punchbowl, which I bought basically just for the song "Southbound Pachyderm."

Standouts:
"Welcome to This World"
"DMV"
"Natureboy"

This album is a change of pace from Primus' rockin, funky grooves and hooks that are created in their other albums (Sailing The Sea of Cheese, They Can't All Be Zingers, etc.) making a slightly twisted, dark, and almost caveman-like sounds that is oddly beautiful. Starting off with a thrashing blitzkrieg of drum and bass on My Name Is Mud to more oddball stories of suicide (Bob) and worldly issues (Welcome to This World). Its power weakens towards the end but still earning a solid four stars overall. This really is not a bad place to start...it's a cool, unique collection of Primus.