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Supergroup Featuring Mastodon Guitarist, Tool Drummer To Open For Primus In Oakland NYE

By Dave Pehling

OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- The mysterious nautically themed supergroup known as Legend of the Seagullmen that features members of Tool and Mastodon will make it's Bay Area debut in Oakland, opening for local heroes Primus on New Year's Eve.

The Los Angeles based band featuring Tool drummer Danny Carey, Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds, bass player Peter Griffin (Zappa Plays Zappa, Dethklok, Giraffe Tongue Orchestra), vocalist/guitarist/producer Jimmy Hayward (also a noted filmmaker who directed "Horton Hears a Who!" "Jonah Hex" and "Free Birds"), singer David "The Doctor" Dreyer and synth player Chris "Mad Dog" DiGiovanni was announced Tuesday morning as the opening act for the December 31 concert at the Fox Theater in Oakland.

Word about the group first surfaced in 2015 when it's currently offline website released a pair of songs -- "The Deep-Sea Diver" and "Ships Wreck" -- that can still be found on YouTube. Stories reporting on the band were published online by Rolling Stone and Consequence of Sound.

Primus leader and mainstay Les Claypool has a long history of hosting New Year's Eve celebrations in the Bay Area, headlining annual concerts at the Fillmore in San Francisco and more recently at the Fox Theater in Oakland. There are additional connections between the two bands, as Carey filled in for ailing Primus drummer Tim "Herb" Alexander in 2014 after Alexander underwent open heart surgery following a heart attack.

Primus with Danny Carey perform Southbound Pachyderm - New Year's Eve 2014 by professorfarnsworth on YouTube

Carey has also appeared as a special guest onstage with Alexander, performing the song "Southbound Pachyderm" with the band at a New Year's Eve show at the same venue that year. Primus and Tool toured together the following year and Tool's bassist Justin Chancellor is reportedly one of the voices on the new Primus albumThe Desaturating Seven. Tickets for the December 31 concert at the Fox will go on sale to the general public this Friday, Oct. 20, at 10 a.m. with a special presale at 10 a.m. Thursday.

While plans for Legend of the Seagullmen have been shrouded in secrecy, the band is being handled by the Rick Sales Entertainment Group (which also manages Mastodon, Slayer and Gojira) and reportedly will release its debut album in 2018.

 

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