Pork Soda is the third studio album by the American Rock music band Primus. It was released on April 20, 1993, by Interscope Records and Prawn Song Records. The album was certified gold in September 1993 and platinum in May 1997. The 2005 re-issue comes in a digipak and contains a booklet with lyrics printed to nine songs, omitting "Pork Soda" which consists of a series of unintelligible rants. Claypool explained the term "pork soda" was meant to refer to how Primus - a band that, in his eyes, wasn't suitable for radio play - was "an acquired taste, like a meat-flavored Soft drink would be", and that "Pork Soda is the exact opposite of what people want from a soda these days. It’s got all the cholesterol, all the ".
The album debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200 chart, which some considered surprising considering the group's uncommercial sound. It became the group's first top ten album, and sold half a million copies. Singles include "My Name Is Mud" and "Mr. Krinkle". The album was performed in its entirety for the first time at the Fox Oakland Theatre on December 31, 2015.
Regarding the song "Wounded Knee" drummer Tim Alexander said "I needed a name. I was reading this book called Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. It was something I never really thought about before... I mean how this country came to be. We are taught to be so proud. But a lot of what we have is based on lies and deceit. They only teach you what they want you to know. I hope people will see the title and check it out. Next time you listen to 'Wounded Knee', try and put the story and the music together. The rhythm and the pulse, there is an element of it that is angry then peaceful." Primus FAQ Retrieved 2012-10-18.
Production-wise, Pork Soda was the first album the band recorded entirely on their own, opting to record in their rehearsal space and spending the advance on recording equipment to be able to do so.
In his retrospective review for AllMusic, Steve Huey contends that Pork Soda is "one of the strangest records ever to debut in the Top Ten." He notes that the album "showcases the band's ever-increasing level of musicianship" and that "their ensemble interplay continues to grow in complexity and musicality", although "the material isn't quite as consistent as Seas of Cheese". He concludes that "the band keeps finding novel variations on their signature sound, even if they never step out of it." David Fricke of Trouser Press similarly said that Pork Soda debuting in the top ten of the Billboard chart was "a remarkable achievement for such an idiosyncratic combo." Despite praising some songs, he felt a "slight predictability" had crept into the band's "winning, weirdo ways", with Claypool's melodramatic singing "blurring the shades of black humor in his lyrics," and that despite Primus' inventive complexity, "the herky-jerky time and tempo changes don't always provide enough variety."
Chris Norris of Spin Alternative Record Guide (1995) writes that much of the record resembles "a pissed-off octopus flailing around a gymnasium", with half of the songs "bashed out in the studio", but because it sold over half a million copies, "the band's perversion of astounding chops starts to feel like a genuinely subversive act. Maybe this is what Van Halen looks like post Ren, Stimpy, and Nirvana." In Rough Guides (1999), Alex Ogg called it Primus' breakthrough album and wrote that while they were not original, "you can forgive a band a great deal if they take themselves so (un)seriously and deliver songs and catchy and immediate at these."
Singles
1993 | "My Name Is Mud" | US Modern Rock Tracks | 9 |
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