After Primus went on hiatus at the turn of the century, lead singer and driving force Les Claypool said that the years that followed were some of the “most prolific, creative periods” of his life. “I always said back in the day that Primus would go until it wasn’t fun anymore,” Claypool said during a phone interview last week. “At the end of the ’90s, it just wasn’t fun anymore. Creatively we hit this stagnant wall.”
After a decade of other music projects, Claypool and Primus are back. The band released new album “Green Naugahyde” last week, and is embarking on a monthlong U.S. tour. The tour includes a stop at the newly opened Fillmore in Silver Spring on Saturday.
| ONSTAGE |
| Primus |
| » Where: Fillmore, 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring |
| » When: 8 p.m. Saturday |
| » Info: $45; fillmoresilverspring.com. |
Claypool said the upcoming set of shows isn’t just some sort of trip down memory lane. The bassist and the other two members of the band — guitarist Larry LaLonde and drummer Jay Lane — are excited about the tracks on their new album, the group’s first collection of new tunes since the 2003 EP “Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People” and the first full-length since 1999.
“I personally wasn’t interested in going out and just doing a nostalgic run again,” Claypool said. “It’s like a couple of parents staying together for the kids more than anything. I don’t want to be disrespectful to the old tunes or disrespectful to the fans, but we needed to move forward creatively, or otherwise it wasn’t going to be fair to anybody, including us.”
“Primus needed to be not just a financial kick in the pants, but a creative kick in the pants as well for me to want to do it again,” Claypool added.
Primus first formed in the mid-’80s, and Lane was replaced early on by Tim Alexander. The band had its biggest success in the 1990s behind such popular songs as “Jerry Was A Race Car Driver,” “My Name is Mud,” and “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver.”
The band went into hiatus in 2000, and Claypool went on to other projects, such as Oysterhead and some solo efforts. According to Claypool, Alexander wasn’t enthusiastic about creating new Primus material. So Lane, whom Claypool had kept in touch with and played with in side projects such as Sausage, came back into the Primus fold.
“We have a very intuitive musical relationship, and the personal relationship is great,” Claypool said of Lane. “I’ve been working with him, he’s always been my go-to guy, for the past 20 years.”
