In celebration of National Chocolate Day – TODAY — October 29th, we are delighted to share Primus’ new delicious lyric video for the track “Pure Imagination”. The video brings viewers into the inner workings of a chocolate factory, the same factory where the Primus Wonka Bars were made. Watch and share the lyric video from the new Wonka-inspired album Primus & The Chocolate Factory, courtesy of the Gawker site io9. Also, Primus will be performing a very special, intimate show at WNYC’s The Greene Space on October 30th, which will be available on livestream at 1pm EST.
Primus’ full-length studio album, ‘Primus & The Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble’ is out now via ATO Records. The album debuted in Billboard’s Top 20, reaching #2 on the Independent album chart. In support of their album, the definitive Primus line up — Les Claypool, Larry LaLonde and Tim Alexander –have started their nationwide tour.
“The idea was to combine the Frog Brigade and Primus, and do this record,’ says Claypool. I think like a good portion of the planet, we were all pretty put off by the remake of the ‘Willy Wonka’ movie – the Tim Burton version. I really wanted to pay homage to a film [1971’s ‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,’ starring Gene Wilder] that was very important to me as a kid and very influential to me musically. So that’s what we did. And as opposed to just going in and recording the songs and playing them the way they are in the film, we twisted them up a bit…twisted them up a lot.”
It felt so good, in fact, that he decided to take Primus into the studio to prepare the soundtrack for an album release. Claypool admits that he’s always, “in some way, wanted to be Willy Wonka,” and, also, that he’s always wanted to work a cover of “The Candyman” — a memorable number from the film’s soundtrack — into Primus sets.
With Primus & The Chocolate Factory scheduled to drop on October 21, Primus plans to tour the Chocolate Factory beginning the very next day. “We’re going to do some touring with it and we put together this pretty abstract stage production,” says Claypool, “We’re going to take it out there, around the planet, and see what happens. And, in light of the record business being gutted by the Internet, we’ve made some PRIMUS brand chocolate bars to peddle as well.”
Of course, Claypool realized that it was risky business to adapt a cinematic classic that is so close to so many people’s hearts. And, naturally, he realized that it was dangerous waters to swim in the wake of Gene Wilder, who portrays Willy Wonka in the original film. The band pulls it off by making something that is truly their own, without taking anything away from the movie.
“Our project is an homage to Gene Wilder and David L. Wolper’s, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and the effect it had on me in my youth,” spouts Les, “Now we get to sell PRIMUS bars and hang out with demented Oompa Loompas. Plus to top it off, it gives me an excuse to wear a purple, velvet waistcoat and brown top hat for the next 18 months.”
Primus & The Chocolate Factory Tour Dates
10/29 – Hippodrome – Baltimore, MD
10/31 – Beacon Theatre – New York, NY SOLD OUT
11/01 – State Theatre – New Brunswick, NJ
11/02 – Main Street Armory – Rochester, NY
11/03 – The Fillmore – Detroit, MI
11/05 – Peabody Opera House – St. Louis, MO
11/07 – Taft Theatre – Cincinnati, OH
11/08 – Tabernacle – Atlanta, GA
11/09 – Hard Rock Live – Orlando, FL
11/11 – The Fillmore – Miami, FL
11/12 – Ruth Eckerd Hall – Clearwater, FL
11/14 – Hard Rock Live – Biloxi, MS
11/15 – The Moody Theater – Austin, TX
11/16 – The Majestic Theatre – Dallas, TX
11/17 – Majestic Theatre – San Antonio, TX
11/19 – Orpheum Theatre – Phoenix, AZ SOLD OUT
11/21 – Orpheum Theatre– Los Angeles, CA SOLD OUT
11/22 –Center For The Arts – San Siego, CA
11/23 –Fox Performing Arts Center– Riverside, CA
12/31 – Fox Theater – Oakland, CA*
1/2 – Arlene Schnitzer – Portland, OR
1/3 – Paramount Theater – Seattle, WA
*annual New Year’s show, without Chocolate Factory
