Les Claypool of Primus celebrates his 61st birthday today. Primus and Faith No More’s history has been intertwined throughout the years so we have detailed some of their connections.
Apart from Mike Patton sporting a Frizzle Fry shirt for most of the FNM tour of Brazil in 91, the bands have played together on at least four occasions, the most recent in 2010. Mr Bungle have also shared the bill with Primus also.
'We’ve known those guys for many, many years. Mike Bordin is one of my oldest friends. And Mike Patton, he’s an incredible talent. All those guys are great guys. We started playing with them around San Francisco in the ’80s.' - Les Claypool | AV Club | 2010
Mike Bordin and Les Claypool have been friends since the 80's and Bordin appears in the credits on many of Primus' releases.
On the first Primus album Frizzle Fry, the following credits appear: ‘Special thanx to Susan and Howard for letting us spill bong water into their console (the Exxon/Puffy conspiracy)’.
Faith No More are thanked on the 1989 live album Suck On This, ‘Hugs and Kisses to Faith No More’.
In the liner notes on Primus’ 1991 album Sailing The Seas Of Cheese Bordin is credited as playing the Two-Skinned Foreskin Drum on track 13, Los Bastardos. He is also listed as one of the Bastardos under drums and vocals as 'Puffster.
In the 1995 song Over the Electric Grapevine Primus mention Introduce Yourself:
Then 'Introduce Yourself' came on as they barreled through the fog."
Also FNM ex axe man Jim Martin plays guitar on Eclectic Electric, a track on Primus' 1999 album "
Antipop.
Bordin is also famously the subject of the Primus song Mr Krinkle.
‘Mr. Krinkle is basically about conversations I used to have with Mike Bordin. Mike Bordin, his hotel room name was "Mr. Krinkle." If you read the lyrics or listen to the song, it's basically about conversations with Mike. He's a huge San Francisco Giants fan, and there was all this talk that the Giants were goingto move from San Francisco. So, "Hey there, Mr. Krinkle, how are youtoday? Seems the rumors are abound your team might move away." And he was really pissed off about this! "Hey there, Mr. Krinkle, let's cruise the bastard boat"— we used to go out on my boat. The thing about Mike, he is one of these guys like Mike Watt — he has a very interesting perspective on things, and he's really good at tossing out these colorful little quips, on how he perceives things. So we would have these great conversations on the phone." - Les Claypool | 2012
In a Rolling Stone article from 1991, it states that Les sang on the song Epic!
‘With Faith No More leading the way, San Francisco is the epicenter of the thrash-funk scene. And everybody there seems to know one another. Claypool's good friend Mike Bordin, drummer for Faith No More, was a guest on "Seas of Cheese"; Claypool sang on Faith No More's hit "Epic." And Primus shares a sensibility, show bills and side projects with such up-and-coming Bay Area bands as the Limbomaniacs, Fungo Mungo and Psychefunkapus; Primus has also befriended stylistic compatriots, such as Jane's Addiction, Living Colour and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.’
This is a claim the presenters of Podcast Croissant put to members of FNM.
Bill Gould replied. ‘You know...he might have. There was a big back ground vocal party singing 'It's It"'
Mike Bordin had similar hazy recollections.
‘My first impulse is that we did "gang vocals", Matt's words, for Surprise, and also Epic. I do know that Les and also Larry were around at that time, so I don't think it too far fetched that one or both gathered around the mic with us and yelled. I lean towards a yes, but maybe just not 100% sure of it.’