Primus

Primus formed in El Sobrante, California in 1984, built around bassist and vocalist Les Claypool — the band's sole constant member across four decades of lineup shifts, side projects, and hiatuses. Claypool's elastic, slapped, and hammered bass sits at the center of everything; guitarist Larry LaLonde pushes deliberately to the side, and the drums weave into Claypool's patterns rather than anchor them, producing a sound that sits between Frank Zappa's theatrical absurdism and Rush's technical precision without quite resembling either. Their 1991 album Sailing the Seas of Cheese broke them out of the Bay Area underground and spawned the alt-rock hit "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver"; Pork Soda followed two years later and went platinum. After a decade-long hiatus, Primus returned in 2010 and have stayed active, drawing lyrical inspiration from Italian children's books and political paranoia in roughly equal measure.