Oysterhead may not be a familiar name at first, but when you take into account who the band features within its ranks, this may all change rather quickly. With such talent as Primus bassist/vocalist Les Claypool, former drummer for The Police, Stewart Copeland and Phish guitarist/vocalist Trey Anastasio all in place, its becomes quite clear that the music they make on this, their debut outing will be enough to at the very least get the creative juices flowing. True to their roots, with the 13 tracks contained here the band do just that as "The Grand Pecking Order" is essentially a free flowing eclectic mix of all the band members prior outings, combining psychedelic jam with cerebral prog rock and awkward and outlandish song structures with extremely proficient and complex musicianship, making for an album that is loose, groove heavy and by all means colorful.

The vocal duties for the trio are split between Les and Trey, with some songs being for all intensive purposes, complete solo ventures, while others find the two nearly completing each others sentences. Though this may seem odd at first, their distinctly different vocal tones generally weave together quite well, creating an enjoyably contrasting friction in the end. Meanwhile, the guitar work included is heavily reminiscent of Trey's playing with Phish as long winded noodling and foreign sounding tones are employed to brighten up the songs and help expand their range, while the occasional fuzz distortion drenched riff rings out and ties it all back together. However, despite a seemingly self indulgent guitar performance, one of the most noticeable factors about Oysterhead's sound is that it is for the most part rhythm section driven, consistently relying upon a clever array of Les's laid back, technically proficient tapping, slapping and popping to generate a dazzling momentum; While Stewart's mind blowing drumming ability and stiff, yet off timed percussive grace help to align the entire band on a steady course.

There's no doubt that the music contained here is challenging, bordering somewhere between jam band irreverence and prog rock enlightenment. Its uneasy, yet free spirited and though its definitely quirky, it also quite friendly and engaging. The lyrical content is humorous and playful as expected, but is perhaps also some of the most focused and digestible work both frontmen have done to date. There's actually a lot to be taken in, with tracks like the first single, "Mr. Oysterhead", reminiscing of the days when music was a lot more creative and had a message, while "Shadow Of A Man" lightly weighs in on the dementia of a Vietnam war veteran. Still, this by no means suggests that a serious listen is required to fully enjoy what "The Grand Pecking Order" has to offer, but if the mind state is there, even more can be culled from it as a whole. Unfortunately though, in a time where heavier and more aggressive music rules the roost, this album is definitely the ugly duckling of the pack. It's psychedelic overtones and kind spirited hippie tendencies will most likely do little for anyone whose into today's current crop. Aside from that, the album is not without its downfalls either as it should be noted that though the songs here are generally interestingly written, there are still a lot of times when the band blindly stumble in and get caught in the muck of self indulgence. However, for those who are into the experimental sounds of Primus or even the improv stylings of Phish, this trio will generally satisfy and inspire in the end. Its hard not to be at least somewhat impressed with the quality and skill level of the musicians involved and even though their ideas are inherently progressive and definitely require an open mindset, the end result almost always pays off in some regard. Ultimately, Oysterhead's Primus connection will more than likely draw the largest amount of interest to the group, and with the aforementioned band currently on an indefinite hiatus, this album admittedly does go on help fill in some of the gaps which many of their diehard fans have been facing while waiting for their eventual return. Yet still, it doesn't fill them all in and perhaps it is the recent extreme left field direction Les' side projects have been taking lately that makes Oysterhead kind of disappointing, because ultimately, it is really not that far distanced from the Fearless Flying Frog Brigade. Its something we've basically heard before and its things like this which leave a lot of his fans wishing he could just turn his attention back to a more traditional side project like Sausage once again...