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A small issue like a drummer’s heart attack isn’t going to hold Primus back from their lofty plans.
The trio’s frontman Les Claypool told Rolling Stone that, despite the fact that drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander recently went under the knife for open heart surgery in the wake of his heart attack, he’s expected to be behind the kit for their next tour, which starts in October.
What that kit will look like is another story: Claypool describes his percussion setup for the band’s upcoming album, Primus and the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble, wasn’t a drum set, strictly speaking, but more like “A giant circle, or a pile of things to bang on.”
“He’s so musical at what he does, and he can be very orchestral when he wants to be, and taking him off a traditional kit just brought forth these sounds that we’ve just never gotten from him before,” Claypool said. “If you saw this kit, you’d laugh your ass off. He couldn’t get in and out of it. We’d open up a portion of it and shove him in there and then lock him in with other pieces of things.”
The album itself is a tribute to the classic 1971 musical film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder (and not, he points out, the 2005 remake directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp: both artists are talented, he said, but “But like all human beings, every now and then, we crap in our pants”).
The album is due on Oct. 21, with the band kicking off a tour the following night at the Tower Theater in Pennsylvania. Perhaps equally as exciting will be the return of the Primus candy bars made by Pennsylvania’s Asher’s Chocolates — which were originally created for a New Year’s Eve concert — including Mr. Krinkle (crisped rice), Professor Nutbutter (peanuts) and Bastard Bar (dark chocolate).
Claypool said, “The tour and the album are solely a marketing tool just so we can sell candy bars. That’s the whole impetus of this entire project. Because the f***ing recording industry rolled over and let this Internet s*** all over us. So we had to come up with another income stream, so we’re making chocolate bars because you can’t digitize a chocolate bar — yet.”
Primus and the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble will be available on chocolate-colored vinyl and, in keeping with the Wonka theme, five golden ones appropriately scattered about at random, although there’s no word if the golden ones will include a prize.
Primus Tour Dates:
October 22 – Upper Darby, PA @ Tower Theatre
October 24 – Albany, NY @ Palace Theatre
October 25 – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre
October 26 – Burlington, VT @ Flynn Center for Performing Arts
October 28 – Waterbury, CT @ Palace Theater
October 29 – Baltimore, MD @ Hippodrome
October 31 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre
November 1 – New Brunswick, NJ @ State Theatre
November 2 – Rochester, NY @ Main Street Armory
November 3 – Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore Detroit
November 5 – St. Louis, MO @ Peabody Opera House
November 7 – Cincinnati, OH @ Taft Theatre
November 8 – Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
November 9 – Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live
November 11 – Miami Beach, FL @ The Fillmore Miami Beach at The Jackie Gleason Theater
November 12 – Clearwater, FL @ Ruth Eckerd Hall
November 14 – Biloxi, MS @ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
November 15 – Austin, TX @ ACL live at the Moody Theater
November 16 – Dallas, TX @ The Majestic Theatre
November 17 – San Antonio, TX @ Majestic Theatre
November 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ Orpheum Theatre Phoenix
November 21 – Los Angeles, CA @ Orpheum Theatre LA
Primus and the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble track list:
1. Hello Wonkites
2. Candy Man
3. Cheer Up Charlie
4. Golden Ticket
5. Lermaninoff
6. Pure Imagination
7. Oompa Augustus
8. Semi-Wondrous Boat Ride
9. Oompa Violet
10. I Want It Now
11. Oompa Veruca
12. Wonkmobile
13. Oompa TV
14. Farewell Wonkites
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"We have a great bunch of outside shooters. Unfortunately, all our games are played indoors."—College Basketball player Weldon Drew
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