Solo work
In 1993 Claypool began a short-lived alternative/funk rock band featuring Todd Huth on guitar and Jay Lane on drums. The group released their first album in April 1994 "Riddles Are Abound Tonight" by Prawn Song Records, and did a few short tours and opened for groups such as Helmet, Rollins Band, and Slayer. The band reunited for a show on December 31, 2019, opening for The Claypool Lennon Delirium and have not returned since.
In 1996, Claypool produced, engineered, and released a solo album, "Les Claypool and the Holy Mackerel presents" Highball with the Devil. He is credited with playing bass, and drums as well as vocals on several tracks as well as guitar. Also on the album are Mark "Mirv" Haggard, Adam Gates, Jay Lane, Joe Gore, Charlie Hunter, and Henry Rollins. The accompanying tour included Haggard and Gates on guitars with Bryan Mantia on drums. It was announced during the Holy Mackerel tour that Mantia had been chosen to become the next Primus drummer.
In April 2000, Claypool collaborated with Trey Anastasio (of Phish) and Stewart Copeland (of the Police) to form a supergroup called Oysterhead. Claypool and Anastasio had been looking for an opportunity to collaborate. Each had a mutual interest in playing with Copeland who had been a rock idol of their teen years. Plus, Claypool and Copeland already had an established friendship. Oysterhead were originally intended as a one time performance during Jazz Fest in New Orleans. Though timid of the band's sudden and surprising popularity they decided to record and tour. They released one studio album, The Grand Pecking Order, and toured before disbanding in 2001. They re-united in 2006, at the Bonnaroo Music Festival. In 2016 Les tried to reunite the group, but ended up releasing an album with The Claypool Lennon Delirium. They re-united once again in 2020 for two shows at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colorado, with the rest of their tour cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2000, Claypool formed Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, an experimental rock group. He was asked to put together a band for the Mountain Aire Festival in Angels Camp, California. The band "of the most incredible guys (he) could possibly find" debuted that Memorial Day weekend and played a number of other festivals including moe.down. Originally he was going to call the band "Les Claypool's Thunder Brigade". Claypool said:
I originally was going to do the two drummer thing with Herb and Jack Irons, so I was gonna call it the Les Claypool Thunder Brigade. Michael Bailey from Bill Graham Presents said to me that it may sound a bit too heavy for the Mountain Aire crowd and to perhaps try something a little different that had to do with the event itself. Since it was home of the Calaveras County Frog Jump... hence the Frog Brigade and then it evolved into Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade.
The Primus hiatus allowed him to return to his musical roots, playing songs by bands such as Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and the Beatles. Claypool has called the Frog Brigade his "mid-life crisis band". From a set of October shows recorded at Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, Claypool released two Frog Brigade live albums, one being a cover of Pink Floyd's Animals. The line-up included Todd Huth, Eenor, Jeff Chimenti, Jay Lane, Skerik and Claypool.
The Frog Brigade is also noted for Claypool's being accepted into the jam band scene. Live Frogs Set 1 won "Best Live Album" at the second annual Jammys. Jay Lane and Jeff Chimenti are both members of Bob Weir's bands Ratdog and Wolf Bros. Claypool performed with the Rat Brigade when opening for Ratdog once in 2000 and again in 2007. The Rat Brigade includes Claypool, drummer Lane and keyboardist Chimenti, with guest appearances by saxophonist Kenny Brooks and Bob Weir.
Claypool also guested on the Ratdog sets in 2000, 2006 and 2009.
In 2002, Claypool released a studio album of the Frog Brigade, Purple Onion. Musicians on multiple tracks for Purple Onion include Warren Haynes (Gov't Mule) Eenor, Mike Dillon, Skerik, Jay Lane, Ben Barnes, and Sam Bass (Dillon and Skerik were both from Critters Buggin; Barnes and Sam Bass were from Deadweight). The album includes "Whamola" which later appeared as a remix for the theme of South Park Season 10.
Also in 2002, Claypool collaborated with guitarist Buckethead, Parliament-Funkadelic/Talking Heads keyboardist Bernie Worrell, and former Primus drummer Bryan Mantia under the name Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains (stylized "C2B3," which is pronounced as "C Squared, B Cubed"). Their concerts pushed the improvisational envelope by preparing no material and not rehearsing beforehand. At one of their shows they prepared sandwiches onstage for the audience to eat.
C2B3 re-united in 2004 to record The Big Eyeball in the Sky, an album with equal parts instrumental and vocal songs. The band began an 18-state tour of the US on September 24, 2004. Aux TV was dismissive of Claypool's effort, but when the tour arrived in Northern California where Claypool lives the local press gave a very positive review.
The album features only one guest, the childlike multi-instrumentalist Gabby La La (noted as Gabby Lang on Les Claypool's Frog Brigade's Purple Onion) on vocals and sitar. She also opened on every show (sometimes to scathingly negative reviews) during the 2004 tour as a solo act, and sometimes with members of C2B3. Claypool also produced and performed on Gabby La La's first album, Be Careful What You Wish For.... Gabby La La is the first artist Les has signed to his label since Charlie Hunter in 1993. He has performed select shows with her (including the 2005 Bonnaroo Music Festival) and added her to his then new touring band, Les Claypool & His Fancy Band. The 2005 Fancy Band line-up also included Skerik, Dillon and Lane.
At the end of 2005, Claypool released 5 Gallons of Diesel, a video retrospective of all of his work away from Primus.
On May 30, 2006, Claypool released a solo album, Of Whales and Woe, with guest appearances by Skerik, Mike Dillon, and Gabby La La. The album includes the song "Robot Chicken", which is the theme song of the show of the same name that airs on Adult Swim. His son Cage and his daughter Lena make a special appearance on the song "Back Off Turkey". The release was followed by a tour of the U.S. with the following lineup:
Les Claypool – Bass Guitar, Upright Bass, Bassjo, vocals
Skerik – Tenor Saxophone
Mike Dillon – Vibraphone, Percussion
Gabby La La – Sitar, Theremin
Paulo Baldi – Drums
The lineup is called Les Claypool's Fancy Band and did national tours in both 2006 and 2007. A live DVD, Fancy, was recorded from the 2006 tour and released in 2007. The audio track includes a mix of both soundboard and taper recordings. A song from the album, "One Better", was used in National Lampoon's TV: The Movie in a fight scene between Preston Lacy and Lee Majors.
Besides touring in the summer of 2007 nationally with the Fancy Band, Claypool performed that October with a version of the band, dubbed the Fancy Trio. The trio consisted of Claypool, Skerik on saxophone, and Mike Dillon on drums, vibraphone and percussion. They played at The Echo Project, an inaugural ecologically minded 3-day festival in Fairburn, Georgia on the Boukeart family farm. The set was similar to that of the Fancy Band's tours, culling from Claypool' solo and Frog Brigade albums, as well containing a cover of "One Step Beyond" by Prince Buster and teases of other songs, including several Primus tunes, throughout their improvisational jams.
For many years Claypool has done a New Year's Eve show at The Fillmore in San Francisco. More recently the New Year's Eve show has been an annual New Year's Eve Hatter's Ball featuring a hat contest. December 31, 2007 was the 3rd such annual event.
In 2008, a United States tour spanned from February 29 to April 5. It kicked off at the Neighborhood Theatre in Charlotte, North Carolina and ended at The Warfield in San Francisco. The 2008 tour was a quartet featuring Claypool, Dillon, Skerik and Baldi.
During the year Claypool also performed several shows with Primus at festivals across America and Canada.Pig Hunt is a film directed by James Isaac released in 2008. Claypool contributes previously unreleased material and plays the role of "The Preacher". He composed several songs for the Wii game Mushroom Men, released in December 2008.
On December 31, 2008, Claypool rang in the New Year with his annual New Year's Eve show. It was at the San Francisco Opera House with Zappa Plays Zappa sharing the bill and playing first.
Claypool was also a judge for the 7th annual Independent Music Awards. His contributions helped assist upcoming independent artists' careers. His second solo album, Of Fungi and Foe, was released on March 17, 2009. The album consists of expanded material of the music from the Mushroom Men game, as well as the Pig Hunt motion picture, and features a guest appearance by Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hutz.
In 2009, Claypool toured with Matisyahu, performing as a 'double-feature' set, as well as appearing together on stage. On March 28, 2010, Claypool performed a rendition of Rush's "The Spirit of Radio" for their induction into the Canadian Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
From May 2010 to July 2013, Claypool toured extensively with Primus, alongside Larry LaLonde, and the return of former Primus drummer, Jay Lane. On September 6, 2012, a new side project was revealed as an acoustic band called Duo de Twang. Featuring Claypool and originally Marc Haggard. After two shows, Haggard was replaced with Bryan Kehoe. Both guitarists play together in the associated band M.I.R.V.
On September 25, 2013, it was announced Lane had left Primus to rejoin the Bob Weir group RatDog. Tim Alexander was named as his replacement. Claypool and Dean Ween worked together for a reality TV show called Musishermen.
On February 4, 2014, Duo de Twang released their debut album Four Foot Shack and began touring in late February. During the last part of the 2014 Spring Tour, Primus's drummer, Tim Alexander, had a small heart attack rendering him unable to play. Luckily instead of canceling the September shows, they were able to use their close friend Danny Carey as a drummer for the late shows.
On January 19, 2016, it was announced that The Claypool Lennon Delirium, a collaboration between Claypool and Sean Lennon, would debut at Bonnaroo 2016. Claypool has spoken fondly of the collaboration, stating, "Sean is a musical mutant after my own heart. He definitely reflects his genetics – not just the sensibilities of his dad, but also the abstract perspective and unique approach of his mother. It makes for a glorious freak stew."
On March 21, 2016, it was announced that the duo would release their debut album, entitled Monolith of Phobos, on June 3, 2016. Their second album, South of Reality, was released February 22, 2019.
On May 31, 2016, he was featured on the Death Grips song "More Than The Fairy".
In 2016, Claypool formed a group with Sean Lennon of The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, Paulo Baldi of Cake, and João Nogueira of Stone Giant. Claypool met Lennon in 2015 when he was on tour with Primus, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, and Dinosaur Jr. Claypool stayed in touch with Lennon and the group released their first album The Monolith Of Phobos in 2016. On their first tour they switched out their keyboardist Money Mark of Beastie Boys for Pete Drungle. In 2017, The Delirium returned with their EP Lime And Limpid Green and released their second album South Of Reality in 2019, this time with Nogueira on keyboards.
