Les Claypool's Frog Brigade

About Les Claypool's Frog Brigade

Les Claypool's Frog Brigade started as what happens when the Primus bassist gets bored between proper band commitments. Around 1999, Claypool assembled a rotating cast of Bay Area musicians to do something deliberately weird, even by his standards. The idea was loose enough to accommodate whatever impulses struck him, which initially meant tackling a full cover of Pink Floyd's Animals album because apparently that seemed reasonable at the time.

The live Animals recreation became the Frog Brigade's calling card early on. They didn't just play the album straight through like a tribute act cashing checks at county fairs. Claypool and company stretched it out, added horns, threw in genre detours, and generally treated the source material like clay to be reshaped. The 2000 release of "Live Frogs Sets 1 & 2" captured these performances, complete with original Frog Brigade material sandwiched around the Floyd worship. Songs like "Whamola" and "Buzzards of Green Hill" showed what the group did when not paying homage to Roger Waters.

The lineup kept shifting but usually featured Skerik on saxophone, Mike Dillon on vibraphone and percussion, and various other players from Claypool's extended musical family. Eenor was the guitar player for a stretch. The whole thing had a jazz-funk-rock-whatever vibe that gave Claypool room to groove in ways Primus didn't always allow. Less thrash, more exploration.

In 2002, they released "Purple Onion," the only proper studio album under the Frog Brigade name. It leaned into the jammy, genre-fluid approach with tracks that wandered between Dixieland jazz, heavy funk, and Claypool's usual bass-forward weirdness. "Whamola" appeared again in studio form. "Barrington Hall" became a minor staple. The album didn't change anyone's life, but it proved the Frog Brigade was more than just a Pink Floyd cover project with delusions of grandeur.

The group toured sporadically through the early 2000s, playing festivals and club dates when schedules aligned. By 2004, things had pretty much run their course. Claypool moved on to other projects because sitting still has never been his strong suit. The Frog Brigade became one of many side ventures in his catalog, remembered fondly by Primus fans who appreciated watching him stretch out without the constraints of his main gig.

These days, the Frog Brigade exists mainly in past tense. No reunion tours on the calendar, no surprise album announcements. Claypool keeps busy with Primus and whatever other musical experiments he dreams up. The Frog Brigade served its purpose as a sandbox for ideas that didn't fit elsewhere, then dissolved back into the ether like most side projects do. The recordings remain for anyone curious about what Claypool sounds like with horns and vibraphone backing him up while he reconsiders seventies prog rock.

People stand around confused for the first two songs, then gradually realize they're watching something genuinely weird happen. Claypool's bass does impossible things. Crowds get quietly invested in where this is going. No mosh pits. Mostly just sustained attention and occasional bursts of recognition.

Known for The Big Eyeball in the Sky, Holy Mackerel, Brain to Mouth, Rhinosaur, Me in Honey

See Les Claypool's Frog Brigade Live