Features
Les Claypool Is A Fungi To Be With
“The Oddity Faire: A Mutated Mini Fest” kicks off March 4 at House of Blues in San Diego and wraps clear across the country at New York City’s Terminal 5 on March 28.
Stops of note include the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles (March 7), Denver’s Fillmore Auditorium (March 14), Chicago’s Riviera Theatre (March 21) and Electric Factory in Philadelphia (March 27).
Joining Claypool and his band – Cake drummer Paulo Baldi, Ani DiFranco percussionist Mike Dillon and Deadweight cellist Sam Bass – for the trek is a rotating cast of characters that includes Yard Dogs, The Mutaytor, Saul Williams, Secret Chief 3, DeVotchKa, and O’Death.
Claypool explained the lineup for the tour reflects his unique point of view.
“Having trod the stages of such events as
“In my youth, I was always scouring the radio, clubs, record stores and concert halls for that group or individual that had new and unique perspectives to music. The freaks.”
Of Fungi and Foe is the expansion of material Claypool has recorded over the past few years for the video game “Mushroom Men” and the movie “Pig Hunt.”
The album, which is due March 17, features an fleshed-out version of the game’s theme song as well as “Bite Out of Life,” a track that grew out of a jam session with Gogol Bordello frontman Eugene Hutz.