The Grand Pecking Order - Oysterhead (2001)
I could easily dedicate a week to the various bizarre shit Les Claypool has created in his spare time from Primus.
I could I come close to the same volume on the various projects Police Drummer Stewart Copeland has been part of. He has his “classic rock drum god” portfolio to lean back on, but that doesn’t stop him being endlessly curious and playful.
Trey Anastasio is… Look, I don’t know a ton about Phish or Anastasio–but bewteen Phish, his solo work, and his session work he seems to never say no to a chance to plug in and play.
These three played a one-off gig that turned into one-off a recording session. It is exactly as bizarre as you might expect. But it’s also pretty great.
There’s a little of each of these guys in the session, often mixed together in intersting ways. Claypool and Anastasio share vocals, and there are plenty of oddball lyrical ideas to go along with the twisted rhythms.
The fascinating thing is how well these three Type A scenery-chewers mesh together as a unit without showing each other up. They each sort of take turns driving the energy of a track but they don’t spend much time clashing or drowning each other out.
It’s an excellent set of exploratory weirdness.
Tracks I Liked
Oz Is Everfloating - a paean to scientist, philosoher, and psychedelic explorer John C Lilly, I guess?
Radon Balloon - an ECM jazz record on some sort of mild and friendly hallucinogens
Wield the Spade - fun and funky
