Disco de Primus: “Rhinoplasty”

Primus's Rhinoplasty is more than just a mere album of covers, it is simply amazing. Somehow, the band manages to recreate the trademark sounds of every artist that they cover on the album and still manages to keep some of the trademark Primus sound intact. For starters, the amazing cover of XTC's "Scissorman" would probably make even Andy Partridge (the XTC guy) go, "Hmm, are you sure that's Primus, sounds like us!" Stanley Clarke's amazing instrumental "Silly Putty" (featuring some amazing scratching by DJ Disk) gets perfunctory treatment. Jerry Reed's classic "Amos Moses" is also great, with Larry LaLonde managing to create and exact replica of Jerry's licks, and Les Claypool adding his own vocal spin to it. The Police's "Behind My Camel" is also great, complete with bass chops that sound just like Sting's. Metallica's "The Thing That Should Not Be" is also great. If that wasn't enough, there are three Primus classics, two of them performed live. The remix of "Too Many Puppies" is very danceable. Threre is also a video on the CD accessable through your computer, a claymation video of "The Devil Went Down To Georgia," that is hilarious, and worth the price of admission alone. The thing that really puzzles me about this disc is it is classified as an EP and sold at an EP price, which seems almost criminal considering that most of the current "big" full length albums released today don't even have a hundredth of this much substance.

I was starting to burn out on Primus with the few albums prior to this one, but I had to buy this for the Jerry Reed song. I'm glad I bought it. I remembered "Amos Moses" from my childhood. Primus's version is fresh and different but also a dead on rendition. While I'm not as familiar with many of the remaining songs they are none the less enjoyable and allow Primus to stretch into some stuff I haven't heard from them before. "Scissor Man" would fit nicely into any Primus album musically and lyrically. Silly Putty is a near Acid Jazz instrumental. "The Thing That Should Not Be" doesn't really add much to the Metallica version but is servicable. The two live bonus tracks are exciting versions of two of my favorite Primus songs.

I think that doing this album of covers revitalized something in Primus. I don't think it's a coincidence that their next album Anti-Pop was one of the freshest, best albums they've put out since Sailing The Seas Of Cheese.

First of all, anyone that doesnt enjoy this album obviously has no idea what music is or Primus' music for that matter. The rhino is one of my favorite Primus albums, right up there with frizzle fry. i highly encourage anyone, long time fan or newbie, to go out an buy two, three, or four copies of Rhinoplasty, this way you get the full effect...really you do.

This cd just proves that Primus can and will do anything they want too. All the covers are really good. Ones that really stand out are "scissor man", "The Family and the Fishing Net" and "The Thing that should not be". As for the The live songs go, they rock. Live Primus is always a good thing. Too Many Puppies is the only song on the cd that is Primus's songs and isn't live. The enhanced portion of the cd is cool too. Just by watching the animation you can tell that this is Primus. The only down side to this cd is the price, I think it's a bit high. Other then that this cd is great. Any big Primus Fan should have this in their collection. Also check out the Miscellaneous Debris EP which is really awesome too.

Primus has made better albums, but this is still good stuff. The two live tracks are a real treat, same with Amos Moses and Silly Putty. This is not Primus, but is still similar in that this music is unique. P. S. did you know Les Clay pool tried to be Metallica's bass play after the old one died, but they thought he was too talented, and the songs would be too complex with him in the band.