The Grand Pecking Order

The recent news that Phish was packing it in—at least for the near future—was the biggest blow to the bongs-and-sandals crowd since the death of Jerry Garcia. What will this wandering mass of dirty white people do now? Many will surely follow Phish’s prolific and talented frontman Trey Anastasio wherever he treks, in this case to Oysterhead, Anastasio’s new band with Primus bassist Les Claypool and ex-Police drummer Stewart Copeland. Their collaboration is predictably bizarre, a meandering funk-rock boogie that—while not without moments of coherence (particularly the low-key “Radon Balloon”)—never quite finds its feet. Claypool’s slap-happy bass-playing is prevalent and quite frankly, more than a little annoying, and his nasally vocal patter might be the only sound on Earth that makes Anastasio’s own monotone pipes sound comparatively endearing. Most disappointing though, is that Oysterhead are weird without being particularly ambitious or experimental, something that’s all the more surprising considering the pedigrees of those involved.