Sailing the Seas of Cheese

Sailing the Seas of Cheese is the second studio album and major-label debut by the American rock band Primus, released on May 14, 1991. It spawned three singles: "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver", "Tommy the Cat", and "Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers". "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" appeared in the video games ATV Offroad Fury, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater,[2][3] Rock Band 3,[4] The Bigs and as downloadable content for Rocksmith 2014,[5] while "American Life" appears in Tony Hawk's Project 8,[6] as well as in the first season of True Detective.

Sailing the Seas of Cheese
Studio album by
Primus
ReleasedMay 14, 1991
RecordedJanuary – February 1991
StudioFantasy Studios, Berkeley, California
Genre
Length45:43
LabelInterscope
ProducerPrimus
Primus chronology
Frizzle Fry
(1990)		 Sailing the Seas of Cheese
(1991)		 Miscellaneous Debris
(1992)
Singles from Sailing the Seas of Cheese
  1. "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver"
    Released: 1991
  2. "Tommy the Cat"
    Released: 1991
  3. "Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers"
    Released: 1992

Album information
  • "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" contains a sample from the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 in which the character Chop Top exclaims "Dog will hunt!"
  • "Los Bastardos" contains samples from the BBC television series The Young Ones including Vyvyan shouting, "Shut up, you bastards!", Vyvyan's mother saying, "He is a bastard isn't he?", as well as Rick saying, "You just called me a bastard, didn't you?" and "Mike, you bastard!"
  • The lyrics "sail the seas of cheese" from "Seas of Cheese" would later appear in the song "DMV" on their next album Pork Soda, as well as the song "Dirty Drowning Man" on 1999's Antipop.
  • The song "Eleven" is in an unusual time-metric of 11/8, hence the name.
  • The song "Tommy The Cat" is considered by many to contain Les Claypool's single most difficult bassline. Due to its complex nature, there is not a clear consensus on exactly what notes are being played, and as a result, dozens of different interpretations exist.

Live performance

The album was performed live in its entirety in 2003 and 2004 on their Tour De Fromage, on December 30, 2010 and once more during a two night show at Royal Albert Hall in April 2012.[7]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
Chicago Tribune[9]
Entertainment WeeklyB+[10]
NME7/10[11]
Q[12]
Record Collector[13]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[14]
The Daily VaultB+[15]
Punknews.org[16]
Spectrum Culture[17]

Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Steve Huey contends that "Sailing the Seas of Cheese completely redefined the possibilities of the electric bass in rock music for those who'd never heard the group before." He describes the album as "mostly riff-driven, fleshing out their heavy metal roots with prog rock tricks from Rush and Frank Zappa, as well as the novelty side of Zappa's sense of humor." He notes that "the willful goofiness may alienate some listeners, but... it never detracts from the band's frequently stunning musicianship" and concludes that this album is "the tightest, most song-oriented representation of their jaw-dropping, one-of-a-kind style."[8] Simon Reynolds reviews the album for Entertainment Weekly by describing Primus as "too self-consciously goofy for their own good, but their rubber-boned thrash-funk can be cartoonish fun."[10]

Release history

Sailing the Seas of Cheese reached Gold status in March 1993. It was certified platinum in December 2001.[18]

2009

Plain Recordings released a 180 gram version of the LP.

2013 reissue

A deluxe edition of the album was released on May 21, 2013. It is available in two six-panel Digipak configurations, each featuring the album’s new stereo mix on CD and the new 5.1 surround mix on Blu-ray or DVD, plus three exclusive, previously unreleased bonus tracks, and liner notes by music journalist Greg Prato.”[19] Claypool stated, “Musically, it holds up incredibly well. Sonically, it holds up fairly well. There’s some old-style reverbs that are a little bit syrupy. With modern technology, we can fix some of that stuff. But we don’t want to mess with it too much, because it is what it is. We want to fatten it up a little bit.”[19]

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Les Claypool; all music is composed by Primus, guitar melodies on "Tommy the Cat" and "Sgt. Baker" by Todd Huth.

No.TitleLength
1."Seas of Cheese"0:42
2."Here Come the Bastards"2:55
3."Sgt. Baker"4:16
4."American Life"4:32
5."Jerry Was a Race Car Driver"3:11
6."Eleven"4:19
7."Is It Luck?"3:27
8."Grandad's Little Ditty"0:37
9."Tommy the Cat"4:15
10."Sathington Waltz"1:42
11."Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers"5:20
12."Fish On (Fisherman Chronicles, Chapter II)"7:45
13."Los Bastardos"2:39
Total length:45:43
2013 deluxe bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
14."Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers" (Live at Bass Hall, Austin, TX, 11/07/2012)7:54
15."American Life" (Live at Bass Hall, Austin, TX, 11/07/2012)11:37
16."Here Come the Bastards" (Bassnectar remix)5:18

Personnel

Charts
Year Chart Peak

position

1991 US Billboard 200[20] 116
1992 US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard)[21] 2

References
  1. Jenkins, Mark (27 October 1991). "California's Funk-Metalists, Putting on Airs". Retrieved 31 January 2017 – via washingtonpost.com.
  2. Casamassina, Matt (2000-03-17). "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater". IGN Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
  3. Scary, Larry (2000-03-29). "Tony Hawk {{sic}} Pro Skater". GamePro Media. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-04-11. Retrieved 2012-05-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. http://rocksmith.ubi.com/rocksmith/en-us/music/index.aspx
  6. "Tony Hawk's Project 8 Drops 56 Tracks". IGN Entertainment, Inc. 2006-10-17. Archived from the original on 2011-03-16. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
  7. "Interview with Les Claypool of Primus: Odd Man Out | The Aquarian Weekly". Theaquarian.com. 2010-10-08. Retrieved 2013-03-01.
  8. Huey, Steve. "Sailing the Seas of Cheese – Primus". AllMusic. Retrieved April 8, 2012.
  9. Kot, Greg (June 6, 1991). "Primus: Sailing the Seas of Cheese (Interscope)". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved June 2, 2017.
  10. Reynolds, Simon (May 24, 1991). "New Hybrid Sounds". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved April 8, 2012.
  11. "Primus: Sailing the Seas of Cheese". NME: 36. June 15, 1991.
  12. "Primus: Sailing the Seas of Cheese". Q (104): 130. May 1995.
  13. McIver, Joel (July 2013). "Primus – Sailing The Seas Of Cheese (Deluxe Edition)". Record Collector (416). Retrieved June 2, 2017.
  14. Kot, Greg (2004). "Primus". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 654. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  15. Thelen, Christopher (2019). "The Daily Vault Music Reviews : Sailing the Seas of Cheese". dailyvault.com. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  16. "Primus - Sailing the Seas of Cheese". Punknews.org. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  17. Kangas, Chaz. "Primus - Sailing the Seas of Cheese". spectrumculture.com. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  18. "RIAA - Gold & Platinum". RIAA. Archived from the original on 2010-12-10. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
  19. Business Wire. "Primus' 'Sailing The Seas Of Cheese' Newly Mixed and Expanded for New Deluxe Edition, to Be Released May 21 by Universal Music Enterprises". Business Wire. Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  20. "Primus Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  21. "Primus Chart History (Heatseekers Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
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