Puscifier Primus Celebrates 60th Birthday With A Perfect Circle and Primus

Puscifier and A Perfect Circle joined Primus onstage for the unconventional Sessanta tour to honor vocalist Maynard James Keenan’s 60th birthday celebrations, sharing one stage and playing songs simultaneously.

A Perfect Circle kicked off their show with powerful songs such as “The Package”, “Disillusioned”, and “Contrarian”, featuring Carina Round’s emotive vocals as one of its highlights.

What is Puscifier Primus?

New Puscifier song “The Algorithm” features an animated video featuring visuals created by Sumerian’s comic-book series based on Bret Easton Ellis’ cult classic novel American Psycho. Their latest single was released along with three song Sessanta E.P.P – an effort between Puscifier, A Perfect Circle and Primus to celebrate Maynard James Keenan’s 60th birthday celebrations.

This album includes original compositions by all members, as well as covers by XTC and Peter Gabriel. Additionally, Les Claypool directed a video for their cover of Black Sabbath’s N.I.B. from Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey film with video directed by Les Claypool himself.

After losing drummer Herb Alexander to Limbomaniacs and Praxis in 1996, they recruited Bryan “Brain” Mantia of Limbomaniacs and Praxis to continue recording, producing Brown Album (1997), Antipop (1999) and Rhinoplasty (1998) – though taking an indefinite hiatus they eventually continued touring alongside Coheed and Cambria as recently as 2013.

Maynard James Keenan

As frontman for Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer he has never been busier; not to mention building his winery in Jerome Arizona as well as maintaining his jiu-jitsu practice while being married with an adorable Yorkie as part of his daily life!

So when he decided to gather together his three bands for a concert series known as Sessanta (Italian for 60), three shows sold out quickly. Sessanta features performances by A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, and Primus with inter-band jamming throughout each night of performance.

Keenan brought along Les Claypool, a master bass player who is unrivalled in technique, proficiency and feel. Together the three bands become a sonic curtain of synthesized textures and male/female vocal harmonies; Keenan’s band‘s songs reveal distinctive sonic characteristics of each group: for instance “Kindred” captures A Perfect Circle’s emotional depth while “Pablo’s Hippos” showcases Puscifer’s unique combination of electronica with rock elements.

Carina Round

Carina Round hails from Wolverhampton in England. Her vocal style has been likened to artists like Patti Smith and Jeff Buckley. Since 2009 when she first began opening for Puscifier Primus live shows, Round has been touring as part of Puscifier Primus’ touring lineup.

She has performed in bands like Black Light Burns and Early Winters as well as touring with Puscifier Primus, helping to hone her musical abilities before eventually creating Tigermending, released on Dehisce label in 2012.

On October 30, 2020, Puscifier Primus held an exclusive performance of their new album Existential Reckoning in its entirety at Arcosanti, Arizona. This concert was recorded with creative lighting and camera effects to capture this memorable audio-visual event. Keenan led his bandmates Mat Mitchell (guitar), Carina Round (vocals), Greg Edwards (bass), and Gunnar Olsen (drums) – providing audiences with an exciting audio-visual experience throughout.

Les Claypool

Leslie Edward Claypool is an American bassist, singer and composer best known for his work with Primus. Citing bass virtuoso Geddy Lee from Rush and avant-garde group The Residents as major influences in his creative playing style; employing finger-tapping, flamenco-like strumming techniques as well as Larry Graham-like slap techniques into his music are hallmarks of success for Claypool’s style.

South of the Pumphouse was published in 2006 and tells an engaging and suspenseful tale about brothers, murder, drugs and fishing – similar to Hunter S. Thompson’s work.

Keenan returned to some of his most frequent collaborators from outside TOOL during the Sessanta tour: guitarist Mat Mitchell and drummer Carina Round from A Perfect Circle; bassist Les Claypool from Puscifier; all three performed together both on album and on stage, creating an experience of weird thundering funk that stood out among its counterparts. Gabby La La made a surprise guest appearance to make sure every set had something extra.