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Sailing the Seas of Cheese
Sailing the Seas of Cheese is the second studio album and major label debut by the American rock band Primus. It was released on May 14, 1991, through Interscope Records. It spawned three singles: "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver", "Tommy the Cat", and "Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers".
The album has been described as funk metal. Similar to its predecessor Frizzle Fry, founding guitarist Todd Huth received writing credits on the songs "Tommy the Cat" and "Sgt. Baker".
The album's lead single "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" is known for its intricate bassline that Les Claypool played on a fretless six-string bass using the tapping technique. It also contains a sample from the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 in which the character Chop Top exclaims "Dog will hunt!" The track "Los Bastardos" contains samples from the BBC television series The Young Ones including Vyvyan shouting, "Shut up, you bastards!", Vyvyan's mother saying, "He is a bastard isn't he?", as well as Rick saying, "You just called me a bastard, didn't you?" and "Mike, you bastard!"
The single "Tommy the Cat" is also characterised by its highly complex bassline that mixes strumming and slapping. There is not a clear consensus on exactly what notes are being played; as a result, numerous different interpretations exist on the Internet. The song features spoken word by Tom Waits providing the voice of the titular character; in live performances Claypool does these parts himself. Another example of the album's musical complexity is the song "Eleven", which is named after its unusual time signature of 11/8.
The song and album title "Seas of Cheese" would later be referenced in the song "DMV" on their next album Pork Soda, as well as the song "Dirty Drowning Man" on 1999's Antipop.
The album was performed live in its entirety in 2003 and 2004 on their Tour De Fromage, on December 30, 2010 and once more during a two night show at Royal Albert Hall in April 2012.
Reviewing Sailing the Seas of Cheese for the Chicago Tribune, Greg Kot wrote that Primus "explore funk 'n' rock with bemused brilliance" and that "its musicianship, blending velocity with virtuosity, continues to set it apart from the crowded pool of punk-funk bands." Mike Gitter of Kerrang! called the album "as viciously strange an offering as any to come from a major label all year" and commented that Primus were "working without the shackles of genre" and "immersing the listener in the mire of their own hyper-reality." NME critic Stephen Dalton credited Primus for avoiding self-indulgence and "avant-wank fusion", while in Entertainment Weekly, Simon Reynolds said that the band are "too self-consciously goofy for their own good, but their rubber-boned thrash-funk can be cartoonish fun."
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Steve Huey contends that "Sailing the Seas of Cheese completely redefined the possibilities of the electric bass in rock music for those who'd never heard the group before." He describes the album as "mostly riff-driven, fleshing out their heavy metal roots with prog rock tricks from Rush and Frank Zappa, as well as the novelty side of Zappa's sense of humor." He notes that "the willful goofiness may alienate some listeners, but ... it never detracts from the band's frequently stunning musicianship" and concludes that the album is "the tightest, most song-oriented representation of their jaw-dropping, one-of-a-kind style."
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Sailing the Seas of Cheese
Sailing the Seas of Cheese is the second studio album and major label debut by the American rock band Primus. It was released on May 14, 1991, through Interscope Records. It spawned three singles: "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver", "Tommy the Cat", and "Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers".
The album has been described as funk metal. Similar to its predecessor Frizzle Fry, founding guitarist Todd Huth received writing credits on the songs "Tommy the Cat" and "Sgt. Baker".
The album's lead single "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" is known for its intricate bassline that Les Claypool played on a fretless six-string bass using the tapping technique. It also contains a sample from the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 in which the character Chop Top exclaims "Dog will hunt!" The track "Los Bastardos" contains samples from the BBC television series The Young Ones including Vyvyan shouting, "Shut up, you bastards!", Vyvyan's mother saying, "He is a bastard isn't he?", as well as Rick saying, "You just called me a bastard, didn't you?" and "Mike, you bastard!"
The single "Tommy the Cat" is also characterised by its highly complex bassline that mixes strumming and slapping. There is not a clear consensus on exactly what notes are being played; as a result, numerous different interpretations exist on the Internet. The song features spoken word by Tom Waits providing the voice of the titular character; in live performances Claypool does these parts himself. Another example of the album's musical complexity is the song "Eleven", which is named after its unusual time signature of 11/8.
The song and album title "Seas of Cheese" would later be referenced in the song "DMV" on their next album Pork Soda, as well as the song "Dirty Drowning Man" on 1999's Antipop.
The album was performed live in its entirety in 2003 and 2004 on their Tour De Fromage, on December 30, 2010 and once more during a two night show at Royal Albert Hall in April 2012.
Reviewing Sailing the Seas of Cheese for the Chicago Tribune, Greg Kot wrote that Primus "explore funk 'n' rock with bemused brilliance" and that "its musicianship, blending velocity with virtuosity, continues to set it apart from the crowded pool of punk-funk bands." Mike Gitter of Kerrang! called the album "as viciously strange an offering as any to come from a major label all year" and commented that Primus were "working without the shackles of genre" and "immersing the listener in the mire of their own hyper-reality." NME critic Stephen Dalton credited Primus for avoiding self-indulgence and "avant-wank fusion", while in Entertainment Weekly, Simon Reynolds said that the band are "too self-consciously goofy for their own good, but their rubber-boned thrash-funk can be cartoonish fun."
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Steve Huey contends that "Sailing the Seas of Cheese completely redefined the possibilities of the electric bass in rock music for those who'd never heard the group before." He describes the album as "mostly riff-driven, fleshing out their heavy metal roots with prog rock tricks from Rush and Frank Zappa, as well as the novelty side of Zappa's sense of humor." He notes that "the willful goofiness may alienate some listeners, but ... it never detracts from the band's frequently stunning musicianship" and concludes that the album is "the tightest, most song-oriented representation of their jaw-dropping, one-of-a-kind style."