Primus changed its name because of a prank legal threat
Les Claypool's band started out as Primate, until a member of a group called the Primates rang up pretending to be a lawyer and threatened to sue. It was a joke, but they switched to Primus anyway. The bass-driven oddballs went on to sell platinum records and write the South Park theme.
Claypool and guitarist Todd Huth began playing in El Sobrante, California, in 1984, backed at first by a drum machine because no drummer could be found. Claypool sold his car to pay for their first demo. Drummers came and went at a remarkable rate, and by 1988 the band was selling out Berkeley Square in the Bay Area. Huth left to spend more time with his growing family, and the classic trio took shape with guitarist Larry LaLonde and drummer Tim Alexander.
They debuted with a live album, Suck on This, released in 1989 on Claypool's own label and reissued by Caroline Records, followed by the studio album Frizzle Fry in 1990. Its underground buzz brought major labels calling. Sailing the Seas of Cheese in 1991, on Interscope, gave them a chart hit for the first time with Jerry Was a Race Car Driver, and the album went platinum within a decade. Pork Soda in 1993 and Tales from the Punchbowl in 1995 both reached the Billboard top ten; a single from the latter is the only Primus song ever to chart outside North America.
Critics have long struggled to pin them down. The sound mixes progressive rock, metal, funk and psychedelia around Claypool's bass lines and strange lyrics, and it is usually filed under funk metal, a label the band rejects. In 1993 critic Robert Christgau called them possibly the strangest band ever to reach the top ten, and meant it kindly.
The lineup kept shifting. Alexander left in 1996, and with his replacement Bryan Mantia the band recorded two more albums and the original South Park theme. After a hiatus from 2000 to 2003, Alexander returned, left again in 2010, came back a third time and finally departed in October 2024, replaced four months later by John Hoffman. Their 2011 album Green Naugahyde was their first studio release in twelve years, and later projects included a reworking of the Willy Wonka soundtrack and The Desaturating Seven in 2017.
Source: Primus (band)
