Primus on Tuesday previewed a new EP with an 11-minute progressive rock opus, “Conspiranoia”. The track will appear on the three-song EP Conspiranoid, out on April 22nd via ATO Records, and marks the trio’s first new release in five years.
Frontman Les Claypool recently alluded to the new music in an appearance on the Kyle Meredith With podcast. In the interview, the bassist/vocalist said that “Basically what I wanted to do was record one giant song,” and that’s exactly what he did. The sprawling single covers some expansive ground, serving as a stylistic microcosm for Primus’ range of moods.
Claypool’s frenetic fingering opens the song before eventually melding into acid rock guitar solos from Larry “Ler” LaLonde. The song ultimately descends into a drone of sampled voices discussing various conspiracy theories like John F. Kennedy Jr. still being alive, the Earth being flat, and a woman sprinkling cat urine into her eyes and putting garlic cloves in her nostrils rather than getting vaccinated (she died).
“Conspiranoia was sprouted from a seed I had planted in my notebook a year or so ago—a few lines commenting on the mental state of the contemporary world,” Claypool told Consequence, who premiered the track on Tuesday. “I watched the distrust and divide grow between friends, colleagues, relatives, and the general population because of the consumption and digesting of disinformation, misinformation, warped information, and flat-out fairy tales being perpetuated by anyone with a slight hint of web design aptitude. I was compelled to shed light on the ridiculousness of many of these perspectives and the lack of rational thought that was being applied in the interpretation of many such entities and theories.”
Related: Bob Weir Welcomes Billy Strings, Les Claypool At Sweetwater Music Hall [Photos/Videos]
“Conspiranoia” will appear as side one of the Conspiranoid 12-inch EP. The B-side will house two shorter compositions, “Follow the Fool” and “Erin on the Side of Caution”. The other side of Conspiranoid was born partly out of necessity, as Claypool notes, “you can’t just release one song so we had to have a B side, so we recorded another song, but then the first song was so giant that we had to do two songs.” However, “Follow the Fool” was already “in the chamber” as Les told Consequence, and “Erin on the Side of Caution” was birthed from one of Ler’s riffs.
Below, check out the music video for Primus’ latest single, “Conspiranoia”, as well as the tracklist and album artwork for Conspiranoid. The band is currently out on the A Tribute To Kings tour honoring Rush‘s 1977 album A Farewell To Kings. For tickets and a full list of tour dates click here.
Primus – “Conspiranoia” (Official Video)
