Kirk Lee Hammett is an American musician who has been the lead guitarist and a contributing songwriter for heavy metal band Metallica since 1983. Before joining Metallica he formed and named the band Exodus. In 2003, Hammett was ranked 11th on Rolling Stone's list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. In 2009, Hammett was ranked number 15 in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists.
Leslie Edward Claypool is an American musician, best known as the founder, lead singer, bassist, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the funk metal band Primus. His playing style on the bass is well known for mixing tapping, flamenco-like strumming, whammy bar bends, and slapping.
Primus is an American rock band formed in El Sobrante, California in 1984. The band is currently composed of bassist/vocalist Les Claypool, guitarist Larry "Ler" LaLonde, and drummer Tim "Herb" Alexander. Primus originally formed in 1984 with Claypool and guitarist Todd Huth, later joined by drummer Jay Lane, though the latter two departed the band at the end of 1988. Featuring LaLonde and Alexander, Primus debuted with the live album Suck on This in 1989, followed one year later by their first studio album Frizzle Fry (1990). After signing to major label Interscope Records, the band first found commercial success with their second studio album Sailing the Seas of Cheese (1991), which produced one of their signature songs "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" and was certified platinum within a decade after its release by the RIAA. Their next two albums, Pork Soda (1993) and Tales from the Punchbowl (1995), were also successful, both charting in the top ten on the Billboard 200, and were certified platinum and gold respectively by the RIAA.
Suck on This is a live album by the band Primus, released in 1989. At the time of recording, the featured lineup of bassist/vocalist Les Claypool, guitarist Larry LaLonde and drummer Tim Alexander had only been playing together for "about two months". This release, along with Jane's Addiction's self-titled live album, are seen as popularizing the then-underground alternative metal genre.
Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People is a career-spanning retrospective DVD plus bonus EP by American band Primus, released on October 7, 2003. The title was inspired by a crayon-made story book written by guitarist Larry LaLonde's son, and the cover depicts a sculpture made by long-time Primus collaborator Lance "Link" Montoya. The DVD features all of the band's music videos to date, plus short films and live footage from as far back as 1986, whereas the bonus EP features five new songs written and recorded specifically for this release. When promoting the release, bassist Les Claypool remarked that "It seems of late that bands are adding supplemental DVD material to their album releases to promote record sales. We've done the opposite. We've added a supplemental audio recording of brand new music to an extremely comprehensive DVD of classic visuals."
Possessed is an American death metal band, originally formed in 1983. Noted for their fast style of playing and Jeff Becerra's growled vocals, they are often called the first band in the death metal genre, and paved the way for the 1980s Bay Area thrash metal scene, along with Metallica, Exodus, Testament and Death Angel. The band is also notable for featuring future Primus guitarist Larry LaLonde, who was the guitarist for Possessed from 1984 to 1987.
Frizzle Fry is the debut studio album by the American rock band Primus. The album was recorded in December 1989 and released on February 7, 1990.
Blind Illusion is an American progressive thrash metal band from Richmond, California. Formed in 1978 by lead guitarist and main songwriter Mark Biedermann, the band has had several lineup changes, with Biedermann being the only constant member. Blind Illusion is also notable for featuring Les Claypool and Larry LaLonde, both later of Primus, who performed bass and guitar respectively on their 1988 debut album The Sane Asylum.
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead is a two-disc compilation album by American singer-songwriter Warren Zevon, released on Rhino Records in 1996. It spans his career from his eponymous debut album on Asylum Records to date of release, ignoring his disowned initial album from 1969, Wanted Dead or Alive. It contains tracks from all ten of his albums released during this period, and includes contributions to soundtracks and his one-off album with members of R.E.M., Hindu Love Gods.
Miscellaneous Debris is an EP of five cover songs by Primus, released on March 12, 1992. The EP is the first release by the band to feature Les Claypool playing his now-famous fretless six-string Carl Thompson bass, nicknamed the "Rainbow Bass".
Sausage was a short-lived alternative/funk rock band featuring a reunion of the 1988 lineup of the San Francisco Bay Area band Primus. They released the album Riddles Are Abound Tonight in April 1994 through the Interscope Records imprint Prawn Song Records.
"My Name Is Mud" is a song by the American rock band Primus and is the first single from the 1993 album Pork Soda. The lyrics are written from the point of view of a blue-collar man, Aloysius Devandander Abercrombie, nicknamed Mud. When a man steps on his prized patent leather shoes, the two get into an argument that ends with Mud killing the man by striking him in the head with an aluminum baseball bat; Mud is now trying to bury the body. The song samples the line "Where are you goin', city boy?" from the film Deliverance.
Adam Gates is a graphic designer and musician from Orinda, California.
"Some Kind of Monster" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica from their studio album St. Anger. The song was released as a single on July 13, 2004. "Some Kind of Monster" was Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2005 but lost to Velvet Revolver for the song "Slither".
Victims of Deception is the second album by the American thrash metal band Heathen, which was released in 1991 by Roadrunner Records. It was re-issued by Metal Mind Productions in 2006, as a digipak in a limited amount of 2,000 numbered copies.
John Marshall is an American musician. He is the former guitarist for the metal band Metal Church. He was the guitar tech for Metallica's lead guitarist Kirk Hammett. Marshall also became the fill-in rhythm guitarist for Metallica's James Hetfield on two occasions when Hetfield was injured. First in 1986 while Hetfield's wrist was broken due to a skateboarding accident, and again in 1992 when Hetfield was recovering from pyrotechnics burn injuries stemming from a concert with Guns N' Roses in Montreal during the Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour. Marshall joined the band onstage for a performance of Sad But True during Metallica's four-day 30th anniversary concert in December 2011 at the Fillmore in San Francisco. He also briefly played in progressive thrashers Blind Illusion.
Demon Master is the second full-length album by American heavy metal band Blind Illusion. The band changed to a softer hard rock/heavy metal sound with this release. It came 22 years after their first album, The Sane Asylum.
Videoplasty is the third home video by Primus, following 1993's Cheesy Home Video and the fan club exclusive Horrible Swill. Videoplasty was released at the end of 1998 to complement the band's recent covers EP Rhinoplasty, and is composed mostly of highlights from a live show performed on October 14 that year at The Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, California. This live footage is interspersed with montages of clips filmed during previous tours and at other recent shows, footage shot backstage and in the studio, animations by bassist Les Claypool, and the band's then-current music videos, spanning the previous two years back to the recording of the Brown Album and presented in approximate reverse-chronological order.
Reid Laurence "Larry" LaLonde, also known as Ler LaLonde, is an American musician best known as the guitarist for Primus, a position that he has served since 1989, where he is known for his experimental accompaniment to the bass playing of bandmate Les Claypool. Previously, he played guitar for the groups Possessed, Blind Illusion, No Forcefield, and the Frank Zappa tribute band "Caca". He also has collaborated more recently with artists such as Serj Tankian and Tom Waits.
Primus & the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble is the eighth studio album by American rock group Primus. The album is a re-imagining of the soundtrack of the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. The album was released on October 21, 2014. It is the first full-length album with Tim "Herb" Alexander since 1995's Tales from the Punchbowl.
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