Bohemia Afterdark showed the video for Praxis's "Animal Behavior" a few times after its release, and apparently that was enough for me to take the plunge with this one. I dug the shit out of that song, and any band that I could out-cool people with was good to go in my book. Turns out this record was perfect for that. Not only is this album incredibly complex and musically mind-blowing, it's also somehow really fun to listen to. Considering that "Animal Behavior" is the only song with lyrics, and that this CD is almost an hour long, that's damn impressive. It didn't hurt that I was still incredibly into Mr. Bungle around the time this came out, and this music isn't too far removed from the style they were immersed in at the time.
Maybe I was smoking a lot of grass at the time (there's no maybe about it), but I really got heavy into this album for a while. Even by '94 or '95, I still have fond memories of playing this album for people and them hating it. It's good to have CDs like that around.
This was my first exposure to Buckethead, and I was very intrigued by him. He doesn't go too nuts on "Animal Behavior," but when I purchased the CD, I was treated to plenty of his inhuman guitar craziness. Mix that with the bass-thumpery of Bootsy Collins, the skin-hitting of Brain, and the keyboard manipulation of Bernie Worrell, and you've got yourself a band. Oh, and the mighty Bill Laswell headed the whole thing up. He's nuts.
This is as far as I went with Praxis, and I've always regretted that. I still wouldn't mind owning Sacrifist, their black-metal-ish follow-up. I should remember to look for that.
"Animal Behavior"
1 comment:
Man, I have so many memories of that "Animal Behavior video." It instantly brings me back to middle school. Creepy.
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