Les Claypool has never been a guy to sit still. If Primus isn’t on the road, there’s Oysterhead, Duo de Twang, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, or some new band he’ll invent just to keep the ideas moving. But in 2023, he dusted off a project that hadn’t been seen in two decades: Colonel Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade.
The Brigade first appeared around the turn of the millennium, born from what Claypool himself calls “desperation and fear.” Primus was essentially broken up — though they called it a “hiatus” to avoid the finality — and Claypool needed something new. “I gathered my favorite musicians locally, bought an old Airstream motorhome, and started driving up and down the coast playing bars,” he recalled. “We didn’t play any Primus songs. That’s when the Pink Floyd thing came in. I’d always wanted to play ‘Pigs,’ and once we had a keyboardist, we just learned the whole Animals record.”
That live cover of Animals quickly became the Brigade’s calling card, and when Claypool announced the 2023 return, it made perfect sense to bring the album back with it. “My manager had been saying for years that there’s a whole generation that missed the Floyd shows the first time. I thought, ‘Been there, done that,’ but the more I considered it, the more I realized it could be fun again,” he said.
The 2023 lineup leaned into Claypool’s entire orbit. “It’s almost like the complete evolution of my Claypool world in one band,” he explained. Sean Lennon handled guitar, meaning there was room for The Claypool Lennon Delirium songs. Percussion wizard Mike Dillon brought his manic energy, while keyboardist Harry Waters — son of Roger — joined with an eagerness that thrilled Claypool. “Harry was pumped up to do this stuff, and that excitement was contagious.”
Claypool laughed about the naming origins, too. He had originally considered calling the project the Thunder Brigade, given the double-drummer lineup at its birth. But festival promoter Michael Bailey steered him toward something lighter. “He thought Thunder Brigade might freak out some of the hippies. So I called it Frog Brigade, because it was the Jumping Frog of Calaveras County Festival, and it stuck,” he said.
The return sparked questions about whether the Frog Brigade would record again, as it did with 2002’s Purple Onion. Claypool, ever evasive, said it depends on what material comes naturally. “Sometimes nuggets appear at soundcheck, and maybe a record comes from it. But right now, I’m halfway through a new Delirium record, I’ve got stuff with Billy Strings, and some other things cooking. We’ll see.”
The mention of Strings lights Claypool up. “It’s kind of like Duo de Twang, but with Billy,” he said. “He’s just on another level. He’s got salt. He’s lived a life, and that comes through when he plays. It’s natural and honest, the same way it was with Bernie Worrell. With Billy, it’s like breathing — solos just fall out of him.”
Of course, no Claypool conversation is complete without a detour into the absurd. Asked about covering full albums beyond Pink Floyd, he says: “I’ve always wanted to cover ‘Safety Dance’ by Men Without Hats. That might be my next project — Less Clichépool.”
So while Claypool’s world is as restless as ever, the Frog Brigade’s return serves as both a callback to a strange corner of his past and a reminder that his best work often comes from not sitting still for long.
Watch the interview above and then check out the video below.
