Frizzle Fry

Frizzle Fry
Studio album by Primus
Released February 1990
Recorded 1989 at Different Fur, San Francisco, California
Genre Alternative rock, progressive metal, funk rock
Length 51:23 (55:31 for reissue)
Label Caroline (1990), Prawn Song (2002)
Producer Primus, Matt "Exxon" Winegar
Primus chronology
Suck on This
(1989)
Frizzle Fry
(1990)
Sailing the Seas of Cheese
(1991)
Singles from Frizzle Fry
  1. "John the Fisherman"
    Released: 1990
  2. "Too Many Puppies"
    Released: 1990
  3. "Mr. Knowitall"
    Released: 1990
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
Robert Christgau [2]

Frizzle Fry is the first studio album recorded by the band Primus. Suck on This, a live album, preceded its release.

Released in 1990 on Caroline Records, it features the band's first single and minor radio hit "John the Fisherman". It was remastered in 2002, after the original had been out of print for years, and was released on Prawn Song Records. The remaster includes an extra track, named "Hello Skinny/Constantinople", a cover of the tracks "Hello Skinny" and "Constantinople" by The Residents.

"You Can't Kill Michael Malloy" is an excerpt from the Spent Poets song of the same name. The album's producer, Matt Winegar (who also recorded and produced Suck on This), was a member of the group, and a clip is featured just before "The Toys Go Winding Down". During Primus' 2004 Hallucino-Genetics Tour, where Frizzle Fry was performed as the second set, "You Can't Kill Michael Malloy" was used in its entirety as a short set break, as opposed to merely the excerpt. The beginning of "To Defy the Laws of Tradition" is an excerpt from the song "YYZ" by the band Rush on their "Moving Pictures" album, and was also featured in the live version of "John the Fisherman" which appears on "Suck on This".

"Too Many Puppies" has been adopted by some sports venues as bump music. The track "John the Fisherman" was used in the video game Guitar Hero II.[3]

Track listing

All lyrics written by Claypool (Sturgeon BMI), all music composed by Primus with the following exceptions:

No. Title Length
1. "To Defy the Laws of Tradition"   6:41
2. "Groundhog's Day"   4:58
3. "Too Many Puppies"   3:57
4. "Mr. Knowitall"   3:51
5. "Frizzle Fry"   6:05
6. "John the Fisherman"   3:37
7. "You Can't Kill Michael Malloy"   0:26
8. "The Toys Go Winding Down"   4:35
9. "Pudding Time"   4:09
10. "Sathington Willoughby"   0:24
11. "Spegetti Western"   5:43
12. "Harold of the Rocks"   6:17
13. "To Defy"   0:39
14. "Hello Skinny/Constantinople" (2002 reissue only) 4:49

Personnel

Primus
Production
  • Todd Huth – second acoustic guitar on "Toys"
  • Stephen Marcussen – remastering
  • Matt Murman – second engineer
  • Primus – producer
  • Ron Rigler – engineer
  • Matt "Exxon" Winegar – producer (except "Hello Skinny/Constantinople")
Visual art
  • Paul Haggard – jacket design, photography
  • Lance "Link" Montoya – sculpture
  • Snap – airbrushing, cartooning
Sathington Willoughby Orchestra
  • Todd (Todd Huth) – acoustic guitar
  • Chunker (Larry LaLonde) – archtop acoustic guitar
  • Exxon (Matt Winegar) – toy piano
  • Herb (Tim Alexander) – toy organ
  • Snap (Les Claypool) – banjo, string bass

References