Prawn Song Records

Template:Infobox record label

Prawn Song Records is an independent record label owned by Les Claypool of Primus. The name and logo are a parody of Led Zeppelin's label Swan Song Records.<ref name="Prato">Template:Cite book</ref>

Prawn Song is based in San Francisco, California, and distribution is handled by The Orchard in the United States<ref name="Live Frogs Copyright" /><ref name="Naugahyde" /> and Cooking Vinyl in Europe.<ref name="Purple Onion">Copyright information, Purple Onion (European issue), 2002.</ref>

HistoryEdit

The label was created in 1989 for the initial limited release of the Primus live album Suck On This. The band borrowed $3,000 from Claypool's father to fund the release and pressed 1,000 vinyl copies of the record.<ref>Liner notes, Suck On This (reissue), 2002.</ref><ref name="Animals Discog">Illustrated Discography, Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People DVD, 2003.</ref> They then used the profits from those sales to keep pressing the album, one thousand copies at a time, and signed a distribution deal with Rough Trade Records.<ref name="through the years">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The album was later licensed to be reissued by independent record label Caroline Records in 1990, the same label that released the Frizzle Fry album the same year.<ref name="Animals Discog" /> Primus then signed to Interscope Records, who released the band's third album Sailing the Seas of Cheese in 1991 and all of their subsequent records for the next twenty years.<ref name="Animals Discog" />

Prawn Song was resurrected in 1993 as a subsidiary of Interscope (at the time 50% owned by Atlantic Records, the parent company of the original Swan Song label) for the use of Claypool's side projects: Sausage and The Holy Mackerel.<ref>Copyright information, Riddles Are Abound Tonight, 1994.</ref><ref>Copyright information, Highball with the Devil, 1996.</ref> At this point, Prawn Song was also made a sister label to the Atlantic imprint Mammoth Records, working together with them to launch the musical projects of many of Claypool's friends and former bandmates, including M.I.R.V. (featuring Mark "Mirv" Haggard),<ref>Overview, Cosmodrome, allmusic.</ref> the Charlie Hunter Trio (featuring Jay Lane),<ref>Overview, Charlie Hunter Trio, allmusic.</ref> Alphabet Soup (also featuring Lane),<ref>Overview, Layin' Low in the Cut, allmusic.</ref> Porch (featuring Todd Huth),<ref>Overview, Porch, Discogs.</ref> and Laundry (featuring Tim Alexander).<ref>Overview, Blacktongue, Discogs.</ref> During this time, Primus' albums were released in CD and tape formats by Interscope, with double-LP pressings of the albums issued on Prawn Song.Template:Citation needed

In 1998 and 1999, Primus started utilising the Prawn Song imprint to release the EP Rhinoplasty and the album Antipop, respectively.<ref>Copyright information, Rhinoplasty, 1998.</ref><ref>Copyright information, Antipop, 1999.</ref> By 2001, Prawn Song had dropped its association with Mammoth and branched out from Interscope to become a fully independent label,<ref name="Live Frogs Copyright">Copyright information, Live Frogs Set 1 and Live Frogs Set 2, 2001.</ref> while also co-operating with Interscope for the release of the Primus EP/DVD Animals Should Not Try to Act like People in 2003.<ref>Copyright information, Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People, 2003.</ref> The 2006 compilation album They Can't All Be Zingers was released only by Interscope, separate from Prawn Song.<ref>Copyright information, They Can't All Be Zingers, 2006.</ref> Claypool alleged in 2018 that Mammoth severed ties with Prawn Song as a result of their refusal to release an album by his side project Beanpole, which he worked on with Larry LaLonde, Adam Gates and Mark Greenberg among others.<ref>How Sean Lennon Rescued Primus Side Project Beanpole from Oblivion Bandcamp Daily. August 29, 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2019.</ref> The album was later released by Prawn Song and Sean Lennon's imprint, Chimera Music in 2018.Template:Citation needed

As an independent label, Prawn Song reissued the early, out-of-print, pre-Interscope Primus albums,<ref name="Animals Discog" /> as well as DVDs of some of their recent live tours. The label also released material from Claypool's more recent side projects Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade and Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains,<ref name="Live Frogs Copyright" /><ref name="Purple Onion"/><ref>Overview, The Big Eyeball in the Sky, Discogs.</ref> his solo albums,<ref>Overview, Of Whales and Woe, Discogs.</ref><ref>Overview, Of Fungi and Foe, Discogs.</ref> and Gabby La La's debut Be Careful What You Wish For..., on which Claypool produces and provides the rhythm section.<ref>Copyright information, Be Careful What You Wish For..., 2005.</ref> The Oysterhead album The Grand Pecking Order, however, was released by Elektra Records.<ref>Copyright information, The Grand Pecking Order, 2001.</ref>

In 2011, Prawn Song partnered with ATO Records for a joint release of the Primus album Green Naugahyde,<ref name="Naugahyde">Overview, Green Naugahyde, Discogs.</ref> and together they subsequently released the band's 2014 album Primus & the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble,<ref>Overview, Primus & the Chocolate Factory, Discogs.</ref> and the Duo de Twang album Four Foot Shack.<ref>Overview, Four Foot Shack, Discogs.</ref>

CatalogEdit

InceptionEdit

RED 22 – Primus – Suck on This (1989)

As a subsidiary of Interscope RecordsEdit

INTD-92361 – Sausage – Riddles Are Abound Tonight (1994)
INTD-90085 – Les Claypool and the Holy Mackerel – Highball with the Devil (1996)
490214-2 – Primus – Rhinoplasty (1998)
INTV-90302 – Primus – Videoplasty (1998)
490414-2 – Primus – Antipop (1999)
0602498613603 – Primus – Animals Should Not Try to Act like People (2003)

As an associate of Mammoth RecordsEdit

MR0065-2 – M.I.R.V. – Cosmodrome (1994)
MR0066-2 – Charlie Hunter Trio – Charlie Hunter Trio (1993)
MR0082-2 – Alphabet Soup – Layin' Low in the Cut (1995)
MR0094-2 – Porch – Porch (1994)
MR0098-2 – Laundry – Blacktongue (1994)
MR0102-2 – Eskimo – The Further Adventures of Der Shrimpkin (1995)

As an independent labelEdit

PSR-0001-2 – Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade – Live Frogs Set 1 (2001)
PSR-0002-2 – Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade – Live Frogs Set 2 (2001)
PSR-0003-2 – Primus – Suck On This (reissue, 2002)
PSR-0004-2 – Primus – Frizzle Fry (reissue, standard release, 2002)
PSR-0005-2 – The Les Claypool Frog Brigade – Purple Onion (standard release, 2002)
PSR-0006-2 – Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains – The Big Eyeball in the Sky (2004)
PSR-0007-2 – Primus – Hallucino-Genetics: Live 2004 (limited release, 2004)
PSR-0008-2 – Primus – Hallucino-Genetics: Live 2004 (standard release, 2004)
PSR-0009-2 – Gabby La La – Be Careful What You Wish For... (2005)
PSR-0010-2 – Les Claypool – 5 Gallons Of Diesel (2005)
PSR-0011-2 – Les Claypool – Of Whales and Woe (standard release, 2006)
PSR-0012-9 – Primus – Blame It on the Fish: An Abstract Look at the 2003 Primus Tour de Fromage (2006)
PSR-0013-9 – Les Claypool – Fancy DVD (2007)
PSR-0014-2 – Les Claypool – Of Fungi and Foe (standard release, 2009)
PSR-0015-1 – Les Claypool – Of Fungi and Foe (limited vinyl release, 2009)
PSR-0016-1 – Primus – Frizzle Fry (reissue, limited vinyl release, 2009)
PSR-0017-1 – The Les Claypool Frog Brigade – Purple Onion (limited vinyl release, 2009)
PSR-0018-1 – Les Claypool – Of Whales and Woe (limited vinyl release, 2009)
PSR-0019-2 – Primus – Green Naugahyde (joint release, 2011)

As an associate of ATO RecordsEdit

ATO0113 – Primus – Green Naugahyde (joint release, 2011)
ATO0223 – Duo de Twang – Four Foot Shack (2014)
ATO0250 – Primus – Primus & the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble (2014)
ATO0404 – Primus – The Desaturating Seven (2017)