Green Naugahyde

Untitled

Green Naugahyde is the upcoming seventh studio album by alternative rock group Primus, due for release by ATO Records and Prawn Song on September 12, 2011 in Europe, and on September 13 in the United States. It marks the band's first album since 1999's Antipop, and features their first new material since 2003's Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People EP.

The release of Green Naugahyde has been subject to many delays. The band had originally given the album an estimated street date of May 2011, and later stated that they were "shooting for June", but had chosen to push it back to July to avoid conflict with the holiday season. Finally, it was announced in a press release that the date was settled in September.

Two tracks from the album have been made available to stream as a preview of the new material. The first was "Tragedy's a' Comin'" on August 17 via the Spin magazine website, followed by "HOINFODAMAN" on September 1 via the Rolling Stone site.

The title of the album comes from a line in the song Lee Van Cleef, and is the name of the drug which Claypool was on during the story described in "Over The Electric Grapevine" on Tales From The Punchbowl.

Style and themes

Green Naugahyde is the first Primus album to feature drummer Jay Lane alongside perennial bassist/vocalist Les Claypool and guitarist Larry LaLonde. Lane had previously been in the band for a brief period in 1988 with Claypool and original guitarist Todd Huth, and has been involved with a number of Claypool's side projects, such as The Holy Mackerel, The Les Claypool Frog Brigade, and Sausage, which was itself a reunion of the 1988 Primus lineup. Claypool has stated that "[Lane] coming back has just breathed life back into the project. We did some touring, and we decided, "Let's go make a record," because we were creating things on the road."

Claypool has consistently described the new material as being reminiscent of Frizzle Fry, Primus' 1990 debut studio album, due largely to Lane's involvement. "If I were to look at all of our records, it seems like this is reminiscent of the early stuff. Obviously, with Jay there’s a newness to it, but because he left the band right before we recorded our first record, his approach has an eerie harkening to the old Frizzle Fry days.” "[It's] almost like Frizzle Fry-era Primus. But we also go off into some dark, moody stuff, and there are a lot of textures to it." "Jay Lane was the guy that wrote most of those drums parts on those early records. Having his view and vibe back into it and having Ler (LaLonde) bringing a lot of stuff to the table this time, there’s definitely a lot of continuity to the record."

From a sonic perspective, it definitely is [reminiscent of Frizzle Fry] in many ways, because of Jay coming back into the fold. The rhythmic feel of it is very similar. But it's also got 20 years of life experience on it – from many different angles. A song like "Jilly's on Smack" just wouldn't have been written in the early Nineties, because we hadn't lost a friend to heroin addiction. A song like "Lee Van Cleef" which is reflective of my youth just wouldn't have been written back then. So there's a lot of salt to it, yet there is this vigor of Jay's very rhythmic playing.

— Les Claypool, Rolling Stone, June 10, 2011

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Prelude to a Crawl"	1:19
2.	"Hennepin Crawler"	3:59
3.	"Last Salmon Man" (Fisherman's Chronicles, Part IV)	6:15
4.	"Eternal Consumption Engine"	2:44
5.	"Tragedy's a' Comin'"	4:52
6.	"Eyes of the Squirrel"	5:32
7.	"Jilly's on Smack"	6:37
8.	"Lee Van Cleef"	3:28
9.	"Moron TV"	4:27
10.	"Green Ranger"	2:02
11.	"HOINFODAMAN"	2:58
12.	"Extinction Burst"	5:20
13.	"Salmon Men"	0:58
Total length:		50:31

Personnel

• Les Claypool - bass, vocals
• Larry LaLonde - guitar
• Jay Lane - drums