Talk:The Primates

Untitled

Can any of this be verified? I was living in Athens and performing in the clubs 1981-1989, and I don't recall this band at all. The "original" acts were Vietnam (band) and The Fans (band). There were some noise bands out of Atlanta/Athens and oddities like the various Vick Raimes bands (Go Van Gogh and the like), but we need a citation for this act. Utgard Loki 15:07, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

My dad was in The Primates. It was real. :) Johnip86 (talk) 07:34, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

Interesting tirade by Utgard Loki. I was in grad-school at UGA from 1986-1989 and remember The Primates quite well, and for some reason always associated them locally with REM - REM's guitarist even played on a couple of songs at one show I attended @1988 at the 40-Watt. Other bands I remember seeing: Dreams So Real, Oh-Ok, Widespread Panic, Time Toy, Mercyland, Little Tigers, BBQ Killers, Kilkenney Kats, The Plague. They existed. Fresno-Cowboy 17:03, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

It’s like Utgard didn’t name any of the regular athens ga bands in that time frame. May favourites were bbq killers, Mercyland , little debi, Primates and Flat Duo Jets

Tons of other other regular bands

could also hear some great shows over the years at the uptown before it closed and other spots as well…

also , Vietnam was from Atlanta I thought and I would put them more new wave back during that time. 2001:569:B913:EA00:7DDA:FCA6:4F71:7837 (talk) 02:54, 23 September 2025 (UTC)

Notes - Citations - Links

<<< NOTE: The exact quote was "One of the original post-punk / rock bands to come out of Athens, Georgia in the mid 1980s". There were many other bands just as good, and better, and as notable - unfortunately I do not know anything about the two acts listed above (Vietnam (band) and The Fans (band)) or would do a blurb on them also. If anyone can remember anything about these two groups (positive please), help by contributing or chronicling their histories and contributions at Wikipedia.org and help update the Music of Athens Georgia page >>>

• Citations and Links: Flagpole Article That Beat in Time - The Primates, John Keane Studios Clients List - The Primates, Athens Walking Tour 393 Oconee Street - Stitchcraft Building, and there are many other links and citations. The Red and Black Athens Georgia local band of the year - 1985; Local record of the year - 1986; etc. The Primates final show was on July 8, 1988 with long time friends (show verification) REM opening.

• Other mentions, citations and links: AthensMusic.net article, AthensMusic.net John Keane article, Times-Courier "A Natives Return - Eric Sales", OnlineAthens.com - Eric Sales returns to Athens

The Primates (like Mercyland, Dashboard Saviors, Jack-O-Nuts, Wide Spread Panic, Time Toy, BBQ Killers, and so on) were not part of the traditional Athens "Music Scene", as were most probably Vietnam (band) and The Fans (band).

(At some point in the future I will put all of these references in the main page. I may contact the members - two still live in Athens - to make copies of the old press kits and photos and the local publication accolades will have to be run down in archives. Loki - sorry you never saw The Primates, they were a lot of fun!)

Author has been living in Athens Georgia since 1979 and is involved in the entire music community, not just the Athens Music Scene. Lute 15:27, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Update to reference the Primus connection

I propose adding the following sentence to the article:

“Primus frontman Les Claypool said that his band was initially named Primate, but adopted the name Primus after being contacted by a lawyer representing a band called the Primates over the similarity of the names.”

The source is a 1993 interview with Claypool in The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/07/16/first-or-last-primus-out-there/36851532-d764-47a3-ba9f-fbb3c8fadcda/

One caveat is that the source does not explicitly identify the Primates as the Georgia band covered by this article. Jaxtraw26 (talk) 23:02, 28 July 2026 (UTC)

No. This is WP:TRIVIAL for this subject. It might be reasonable to add to the band's article, though. - In solidarity, UtherSRG (talk) 23:29, 28 July 2026 (UTC)