When I first heard that Claypool had put together a band called Oysterhead with Trey Anastasio and Police drummer Stewart Copeland, I was stoked.  I knew nothing about Trey, other than that he was the guitarist for Phish, but I've always worshiped at the idol of Copeland, so I was really jazzed about this collaboration.  The Grand Pecking Order came out in 2001, and I snatched it up rather eagerly.

Um, you know what they say about being careful what you wish for?

In all honesty, I was disappointed - this was definitely an example of the whole being less than the sum of its parts.  There's great musicianship, to be sure, but it seems like such a mish-mosh of aimless and unfocused noodling, without the conviction and purpose of the similar jams from Les's other projects.  It seems to contain little of what I dig about both Claypool and Copeland.

And I ended up hating Anastasio's singing voice.  Ugh.

I do enjoy a few of the tracks, though, and "Shadow of a Man" is one of them.  So for the sake of completeness, I am posting it today.

Click here to watch a live performance of "Shadow of a Man" on YouTube.

This is part of a week-long series on the many projects of Les Claypool.