Primus announce Conspiranoid EP, share sprawling 11-minute lead single, Conspiranoia

Primus have announced a new EP, Conspiranoid, and issued its sprawling 11-and-a-half-minute lead single, Conspiranoia.

Set to arrive April 22 via ATO Records, the EP will land shortly after the band commence the second leg of their A Tribute to Kings world tour, which sees them perform Rush's landmark 1977 album A Farewell to Kings in its entirety as part of the set.

The EP will feature three tracks in total including Conspiranoia, though the other two are likely to be shorter.

“Because the single Conspiranoia is of such length, I realized that for a B-side of the vinyl, we would need at least two tunes to fill out the real estate of the actual 12-inch disc,” frontman Les Claypool told Consequence in a new interview.

“Because all three songs were bred in an odd time of divide, confusion, angst, frustration and social senility,” he continued, “Conspiranoid seemed like an appropriate moniker for the EP.”

Conspiranoia is exceedingly ambitious, filled to the brim with Claypool's winding, often frantic bass guitar lines, and a pair of outside-the-box solos from guitarist Larry LaLonde, which incorporate everything from high-register staccato stabs to lightning-fast sweeps. Check it out below.

“I'd been itching to record an opus – basically a long, winding bastard of a song, reminiscent of some of the compositions I cut my teeth (or ears) on, in my music-hungry adolescence,” says Claypool. “I said to the fellas, ‘Let's record a 20-minute song.’ The end result was an 11-and-a-half-minute, progressive hunk of sound called Conspiranoia.”

As he explains, the track was conceived from a few lines he had written in his notebook on the “mental state of the contemporary world” a year ago.

“I watched the distrust and divide grow between friends, colleagues, relatives and the general population because of the consumption and digesting of disinformation, misinformation, warped information, and flat-out fairy tales being perpetuated by anyone with a slight hint of web design aptitude,” he continues.

“I was compelled to shed light on the ridiculousness of many of these perspectives and the lack of rational thought that was being applied in the interpretation of many such entities and theories.”

Primus are likely to play some of Conspiranoid's material when they continue their A Tribute to Kings world tour from April 15 in Oklahoma City. The band will hit a host of cities across the US from April through August, before heading to Europe from September 9. For more info, head to Primus's website. 

Check out Conspiranoid's track list below.

1. Conspiranoia
2. Follow the Fool
3. Erin on the Side of Caution