Puscifer - Conditions Of My Parole.

An extended directors cut of Puscifers music video ‘Conditions Of My Parole‘ has now been made available which adds a bit more insight into what lead to Maynard and his gang of hillbillies rocking the Airstream with their southern booty bass. The video also features some of the best drunken rambling I’ve heard for a long time and a cameo from Maynard’s Major Douche alter ego.
Co-Directed by Mike King, Flea Circus Films, and Puscifer the video is a small slice of life in the Verde Valley and despite the initial ridiculous of it all is one of the most addictive songs on the album.

Puscifer - Conditions Of My Parole.

Maynard James Keenan and his various Puscifer collaborators have all donned their most hill-billy of outfits for their new live action video ‘Conditions Of My Parole’. Directed by the group and Mike King in Jerome, Arizona the title track for the album sees Maynard take on the role of Billy D with Mr. Show actress Laura Milligan as Hildy Berger.
Now streaming on RollingStone.com, the video is quite a departure from the bands ongoing partnership with digital artist Meats Meier but is non the less a fitting companion to the somewhat erratic antics featured in the songs lyrics.

Puscifer - Conditions Of My Parole.

Conditions Of My Parole, the second full album from Puscifer strips back on its now trademark sleaze with a number of chilling folkier tracks and in the case of ‘Monsoons’ a strings section that would feel at home in frontman Maynard James Keenans other other band A Perfect Circle. Opener ‘Tiny Monsters’ possesses a strange popiness which is balanced out by some Disintegration era Cure guitars in its third quarter. The lyrical weight of ‘Green Valley’ introduces us to the world of the Verde River, the lands and peoples of around Maynard’s vineyard retreat where the album was recorded.The incredible range of Maynards vocals shine through across the board on this album as they always do and crunch back into rockier gears on tracks like ‘Telling Ghosts’ and of course, single ‘Man Overboard’ which upto this point is so Puscifer it feels out of place. From the first grunt of ‘Toma’ its apparent that its predecessor simply marked a turning point in the album as does the song itself lyrically calling out that it’s “time to set things right” amid a vast list of everything that’s been took from him. Toma is easily one of my favourites on the new album with catchy lines like “Took the wind outta my romantic sigh”.
‘The Rapture (Fear is a mind killa)’ followed by the hilarious Conditions Of My Parole encapsulate the two halves of this album in the open soulful music and slightly scary threats of ‘The Rapture’ “I’m about to drop you like Cain dropped Abel” and the deliciously southern riffage of ‘Conditions…’ along with the misguided acts of the songs ex convict protagonist. On the whole the album does what it sets out to achieve acting as a window on the peoples, places and perspectives of the Verde Valley with that indefinable Puscifer skew on things. This record conjures the same sort of immersion and investment in its lyrical characters as Tools 10,000 Days record which given the more comical slant Maynard has placed on this band is kind of unexpected.This is certainly a Puscifer record but with a lot of different characters and emotions running throughout making for a suprising but nonetheless satisfying release.