Primus - Sailing The Seas Of Cheese

The career of an eclectic northern California trio by the name of Primus has been marked pretty much by the impact they've had on today's hard-music scene, greatly influencing such top acts as Korn, Limp Bizkit and the Deftones.

Opening with the creaky sounds of a ship at sea, 1991's Sailing The Seas Of Cheese, their second full-length album, charts the funk-punk waters the San Francisco Bay area band returns to again and again. It's all here: the acerbic humor, Les Claypool's gurgling fretless bass lines, Larry LaLonde's seasick metal guitar, and Tim Alexander's Bill Bruford-inspired syncopation. The narrator of "Sgt. Baker" aims to "rape your personality," while the reapers of the "American Life" live out their dreams "residing in a cardboard box." Tom Waits makes a cameo on the funky back-alley tale "Tommy the Cat," and the protagonist of "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" has "too many cold beers one night" and "wraps himself around a telephone pole." Primus concert fave "Those Damned Blue Collar Tweakers" helps round out this bizarre prog-punk masterpiece.