[1][2] In May, Claypool revealed that the album was complete and had been named Green Naugahyde, and though the band had been "shooting for June", they chose to push it back to July to avoid conflict with the holiday season.

[11] On September 6, Primus released a teaser trailer featuring audio clips from Green Naugahyde set to video footage of the "astronaut" character from the album's artwork.

[12] From September 7–12, the TV show South Park made the entire album available for streaming to anybody who "liked" their Facebook page, including the iTunes bonus live track "Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers".

The sheriff is then strung up by his ankles as the corpse takes his badge and staggers off towards the sunset on the horizon, and it is revealed that the whole video was actually a movie at a drive-in theater that is being booed by the patrons, except for one young boy who applauds the film... before getting his left arm blown all to hell.

The corpse and sheriff characters in the video resemble the Spaghetti Western actors Lee Van Cleef and Clint Eastwood, respectively, as they appeared in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy.

"[20] Some clips that are repeatedly featured include children sledding down a snowy hill, parents organising wrapped presents around Christmas trees, and a drumming monkey toy among others in Santa Claus' workshop.

[24] In his review for Allmusic, Gregory Heaney commends the band for continually being "able to push the envelope creatively", describing the new material as "both technically dazzling and perfectly irreverent."

"[35] Scott McLennan, for The Boston Globe, describes the album as having "all of the absurd contours and whimsical tones one expects" from a Primus record, though "overall, the writing is richer", and "the band's twisted humor keeps things provocative.

"[36] Consequence of Sound reviewer David Buchanan describes the new material as both "funky nightmare rock" and "bouncy grooves direct from Wonka's boat ride."

He wrote that "Green Naugahyde couldn’t be exclusively classified as a new page in the band's history, because there is so much of the past scrambled in, deliberately or otherwise", concluding that "much like Primus’ musical territory, we have yet another gray area that defies the laws of tradition, which instead of reinventing the wheel gives it a fresh coat of paint.

"[27] In his review for Now, Benjamin Boles wrote that "'Wacky' isn't supposed to be a good thing any more, but being unfashionable has never stopped bass guitar abuser Les Claypool before, and that's exactly why Green Naugahyde works."

"[37] David Fricke's review for Rolling Stone sees him describe Green Naugahyde as "more a series of creepy pranks than a set of tunes", but wrote that the band themselves are "a tight knotty rhythm team".

[31] The Skinny's David Bowes describes the album as "a surprisingly consistent and rewarding listen", writing that "there's little here that wouldn’t work in the context of some freakish nightmare concoted by celebrated hoaxer P.T.

"[32] Christopher R. Weingarten, for Spin, describes the album as "all rubbery... missing practically everything that made them unlikely belles of the Headbangers Ball: the maddening 11/4 prog mutations, the heavy-metal muscle, the dissonant oddball skronk."

"[33] USA Today reviewer Brian Mansfield predicts that fans of Primus will appreciate the album, writing that the "slap-funk grooves hark back to the band's 1990 debut, Frizzle Fry", but concedes that "those who don't appreciate [Claypool]'s complex chops and whimsy may find Green Naugahyde nearly unlistenable.

[39] In addition, Claypool mentions how Primus' hiatus from 2000 to 2010 made the production process of the album especially enjoyable, as demonstrated when he remarks, "Having that time from 2000 to 2010 for us to—obviously, I went off and did a ton of stuff, and everybody did their thing, and then coming back with Jay Lane, who has always been my guy as far as go-to drummers, we were very excited and fired up to make that record".