Genre: Rock, Punk Rock, Experimental Sub-Genres: Hardcore Label: Bird O' Pray Records Tracks: 17 Length: 42 Minutes Style: Funny/Weird/Happy My Rating: 7/8
Last time I reviewed a Ween album, it was "Crucial Squeegie Lip"... when Ween were still in high school and just starting out, they were able to have tapes of their early albums released through Bird O'Pray Records. So, CSL was the first Ween album... they released another album in 1987 called "Erica Peterson's Flaming Crib Death", but this was just a more condensed version of the first album with a couple out-takes. The "true" second Ween album is this one. AXIS... BOLD AS BOOGNISH.
Musically, it's a huge step up from the first one... in 'Crucial Squeegie Lip', the songs were mostly just noise or one-chorders with a few exceptions, and the songs weren't very long either. In just one year, their skills at playing their instruments really improved. However, it's all still hilarious, so don't worry! Time to cut to the chase and give All the Right Reasons (tm) why...
1. I'm Killing It (Kill Everything) The title sounds like something that GG Allin would write! The song opens with various screams from Deaner n' Gener, and the song has a pretty cool beat and rather than guitars playing the melody like you'd expect, it's tubas instead! Gene rants about "killing it".
2. Tweet Tweet Begins all cut-n'-spliced, and then the song becomes more linear and tells a story about accidentally wrecking someone's car, and the pressure just builds up until Gene screams "TWEET TWEET!" repeatedly, and the beat gets really fast n' stuff. More tubas. Gene re-enacts the pissed off man whose car has been wrecked, complaining about how he's going to have to WORK, AND WORK, AND WORK, AND PAY, AND PAY, ASSHOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! .
3. On the Beach A neat song with a really cool riff singing about surfing and hanging out at the beach. Very catchy. Oh, and there's a guitar solo also. A little Beach Boys-inspired, it feels like.
4. I Like You This one was also on their live album that I reviewed in February, but the vocals on here sound a lot more 'psycho', and I like the chorus a lot. The guitar on that part sounds awesome. As you might be able to guess, the lyrics describe liking this one person named "You", and flying through the night together on their bikes... kind of like E.T., I guess. The little riff they play at the very end of the song was neat.
5. Bumblebee AHHH! FUCK! A BUMBLEBEE! A lot of people might know about this song from the album "God Ween Satan". The early version is not any less funny. Gener screams about a BUMBLE BEE that has stung him and caused his sanity to go in shambles. There are even weird little (obviously fake) bumble-bee sounds in the background. Ha ha ha ha heeeeeeeeeee! Poor Gene Ween.
6. Emily I like this one a lot, too! It's just Gene and Dean singing to an extremely cool guitar melody. I fucking love this song. It just feels great to listen to, man (or wo-man). E-M-ILY! E-M-I-L-Y! E-M-I-L-Y! In the last verse, Gene sings in falsetto.
7. David the Negro This song is fucking hilarious, but not necessarily because of the usage of the word "negro". Y'see, the Weeners realized that it would be fucking funny as shit if they altered their voices to make it sound like they were constantly changing speeds... ah, I can't think of a good way to put it, but the way they do it sounds REALLY funny. Here they show off how much better they've become at playing guitar (lead guitar, at that) since the last album. David's a good boy.
8. The Iron Whore This song's sort of a piss-take on heavy metal, with Gene singing like Bon Scott from AC/DC or some other guy like that. The riff, while sounding like a lot of 70's metal songs in itself, is still pretty nice. Then there's a pretty awesome yet generic-sounding solo at the end of the song.
9. Sitting On My Ass (Wanton Nougat) A song with a bluesy a capella melody, and a weird-ass falsetto sex scene being acted out by Gene & Dean in the background.
10. Smoke In My Brain Cool beat, cool riff, and lots of screamed vocals! Pretty good, but also pretty short.
11. Anne The original version of this song was on "Erica Peterson's Flaming Crib Death"... this version is about twenty seconds shorter. Very fast, with lots of goofball screaming! Shortest song on the album (48 sex).
12. Aqua-Ween Man, the Weeners sure can scream! The chorus part is really cool. The song sings about doing all sorts of cool stuff in the park and at home.
13. She Said, She Said "She said... I know what it's like to be dead...". This song has a pretty cool catchy melody, and the singers harmonize the vocals on thees song. They sample their own vocals and start placing them around randomly in the second half of the song. Kind of like a New Wave version of the Butthole Surfers.
14. The Journey Into Dinh The song opens with a fragment of the hilarious final track of the band's first album (the one where they scream for two minutes straight). Then the "song" begins, with lots of fucking around with the tape, as a lot of lead guitar can be heard playing inbetween. It's a pretty scary and weird piece. I'd imagine it'd make good theme music for some weird psychedelic claymation horror film. That I should make. Soon.
15. Gene's Lament (Tree Love Theme) A slow, droning ballad by Gene Ween himself! It's pretty calm, and it's packed with excellent guitar-playing and melodies.
16. Opus 51 Fugue Trilogy in A (Take Me To the Tree) This song iz made up of many different parts, so I'll review this one piece by piece.
A. Yurtle Swimming I'm guessing they're referring to "Yurtle the Turtle", because if they are, then I can see why, 'cause the main thing I think of when I hear this is Yurtle the Turtle swimming a pond made of yellow water. Excellent observation, Weenerz! It starts off with bass, a marching sort of beat, and a lead guitar melody, before transforming into an epic chord-laden trudge, with Gene screaming pure poetry on his way through! The guitar sounds really cool. Then there's a lot more of guitar noodling and needling until transforming into the next song.
B. The Tree This one's faster and more upbeat. This song's about wanting to go on magical journeys to a TREE. What fun!!!!! The riff is awesome, every part of this part of this part of this album rules.
C. Bertha Gets the Mooshy-Mooshy This part's just funny. It has a weird, creepy sort of melody, and a slower pace. The chorus goes, well, see the title. As a wonderfully retarded lead-guitar melody plays, the two scream "BERTHA GETS THE MOOSHY MOOSHY" faster and faster until they have no choice but to go back to the other section.
D. The Kitty and the Squirrel This is a section featuring one G-chord and harmonizing lead melodies, and Gene screaming over this tune (in rhyme, of course). This part takes up the rest of the song until...
E. The Departure Just a couple seconds of noise at the very end of the song.
So, in total, the entire track is over 13 minutes long. And it's a very legit 13 minutes!
17. One Love For Boognish An instrumental, psychedelic song. A soft, serene echoey feel to it. I love it. It cuts off at the end.
SOOOOOOOOOOooooOOOoooOoOoOoO, there we have it... this album is as Bold As a Boognish! Definitely a step up from the first album, possibly even better than "God Ween Satan", though nowhere near as good as the three albums that followed God Ween Satan. So, if you're a Ween fan and haven't heard their really early stuff, I strongly recommend checking out this album. It's very cool. Just be prepared to hear Dean and Gene scream a lot! The End.
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Opus 51 Fugue Trilogy in A (Take Me to the Tree) 2. Emily 3. One Love for Boognish
Genre: Experimental Rock, Punk Rock Sub-Genres: Noise, Hardcore Label: Bird O' Pray Records Tracks: 40 Length: 46 Minutes Style: Funny/Weird My Rating: 6/8
Ween is one of my favorite bands of all time, and they formed in 1984. The band originally formed as a duo, with the permanent members, Gene Ween and Dean Ween (Aaron Freeman & Michael Melchiondo Jr. at this point) and a drum machine supplying the beats. The two were only 14 years old and not even in high school yet when the band was formed. While many believe "God Ween Satan" to be the band's first album, they really released their first album as a tape independently called "The Crucial Squeegie Lip" on Bird O' Pray Records (who would put out all of their other albums pre-God Ween Satan throughout the mid to late 1980s). The two were 16 years old by this point, and even though they are young and the quality is murky, the great things about Ween are pretty much already here... many of the songs on this tape were later re-done and put on "God Ween Satan". There is a lot of diversity album, with everything from sloppy hardcore punk, to tongue-in-cheek soft pop songs, bizarre spoken word bits, and other oddities. But yes, this tape marks the true beginning of Ween, and there's a whole bunch of songs (and non-songs) on here, so let's listen, shall we?
1. Introview The tape starts off with an interview, complete with hilarious weird effects added to Dean and Gene's voices, as the interviewer asks himself about the "Satanic influences" that the holy god of Ween, the Boognish has on their music (it also likes to kill small animals). Ween explains the beginnings of Deaner and Gener's friendship in a school typing class and how this album is the result of their learnings from the Boognish recorded onto a tape. Let's observe what this divine inspiration brought them...
2. Talk To Me About Ericka Glabb An extremely loud -- ear-shatteringly-loud -- piece featuring one of the Ween brothers screaming so loud that it drowns out all other sounds and emits creepy bass noises from the speakers. There is a little drumming in this track, but for the most part it is drowned out by the intense screaming.
3. Nippy Wiffle The first musical-sounding track on the album. It's a one-chord mid-tempo tune with unintelligible monster-gibberish instead of lyrics. There's a guitar solo that resembles the tune to "Mary Had a Little Lamb" in the middle of the song.
4. Jelly (Part I) A slower, blues-y song with Gene singing about putting jelly on toast.
5. Boobtalk Another hilarious spoken bit. Dean and Gene talk in super-funny voices about the role that boobs (probably female ones at that) have in society. This bit serves as an intro to the next song.
6. Boobs (Part I) A soft, tender song in which Gene gently sings about his love of boobs. The guitar quietly plays a beautiful melody in the background.
7. Boobs (Part II) This is the second part of the "Boobs" song... Deaner (I think) sings this part in a screamy voice about... also loving boobs.
8. Go! A very fast song in which Dean screams "GO!" to one chord acompanied by a single hit of a snare which repeats faster and faster until it just sounds like he's going "Guhuhguguggughgugugggghuhughggghuhugggghgugugugugugggggggoo!".
9. Stresstabs A sloppy, messed up song where Gene goes off on a rant about being stressed out and "needing stresstabs" while a inconsistent beat and guitar riff are played.
10. Drinktalk One of my personal favorite moments of the album. It's the intro for "I Drink A Lot". Deaner talks in another weird voice (it sounds like he's underwater or something like that) about a time that Gene (Aaron) got caught drinking by his dad one time. He goes on to admit that Ween "encourages kids to smoke crack and drink... a lot."
11. I Drink A Lot A more straight-forward punk rock song about an apathetic person who gets drunk a lot and doesn't give a shit about much else.
12. Jessica Deaner yells "JESSICA!" repeatedly to a rumbling beat and ominous humming noises made in the background. This one sounds like it was recorded in a cave during a cave-in or something.
13. Red As Satan One of the few songs on the album that's over a minute and a half long! Begins with a fucked-up mish-mash of VOIP and WOIEERP noises. However, this is an acoustic love-ballad. It has a very nice melody, and Dean sings "nicely" here. Dean expresses his wish that his heart could be "as red as Satan" for the love of a girl. It's one of the more serious-sounding songs on the album, and it's a nice change from hearing the Weeners scream over a one-chord riff (not that that's not awesome either). This song is over four minutes long.
14. Murphy Flattens His Frustrations Reminds me of Pissed Jeans. Mainly because of the voice. Noisy guitar noises and beat. More screaming and yelling.
15. Cowbell A person imitating a cow mooing can be heard in the background. A wispy voice chants about a cowbell, crushed organs, and splattering blood in the wind.
16. Ingrown Mayo An ultra-fast song with Gene screaming a bunch of gibberish.
17. Duke of Denim A slower song. Dean sings about "the Duke of Denim", a loser-ish fellow who threw a Halloween party that nobody went to!
18. Blow It Out Your Ass More thrash and random guitar-playing. Screaming and fart noises. YAY!
19. You Fucked Up The earliest incarnation of this classic anthem. It eventually even was recorded for "God Ween Satan". The line "YOU FUCKING NAZI WHORE" still kills me to this day. Gene screams his anger at some random bitch who "FUCKED UP", evidently. Guitar solo about 2/3 through the song! Fast verse and slow chorus. Great riff.
20. Talkthing Another mock-interview. I can't really make out what they're saying at some points. At one part, Dean is asked what his favorite food is. The echoes made by the wisping voices float around like dust in a spotlight in the dark if you pay enough attention.
21. I Drink A Lot (Nice Version) A soft, "nice" version of I Drink A Lot. No guitar chords used here, just one-string notes.
22. Hey Bullfrog A slow, heavy-metal type song. Gene sings in an southern accent. It's pretty groovy, I'd say.
23. Smash My Head This one sounds like it was recorded live and improvised. It's pretty horrible, but in a good way. You can hear some guy screaming in the background at one part of the song. Whether it's Gener or an audience member, I'm not sure.
24. (You) Piss Me Off A fast song. Deaner sings really fast about a guy who pissed him off that he wants to kill.
25. Justalking A stoned Dean and Gene Ween talk in weird voices about shit that I can't even understand due to the effects they used for this bit. It sounds funny and slightly creepy simultaneously.
26. Blue Hair There's a little tape-manipulation done at the beginning. A slow song with no guitar and Deaner quietly moping about how everything has blue hair. The song fades out.
27. Sweetness The first part is made up of fast acoustic guitar-playing and some wild harmonica and fast gibberish-speaking. In the middle, everything slows down and gets more quiet. Then the third part is more like the first part. Very weird.
28. The Refrigerator That Wouldn't Close This song was also recorded live. "Lean Cusine Ween", heh heh. Dean refers to this song as a "sixteenth century ballad", despite that there were no refrigerators in the 16th century (pretty sure, at least). Gene sings in a funny accent. Before Ween get to play the theme song from "Fat Albert", the song fades out.
29. Mindfuck The Ween bros. mumble and groan, and then scream along with a wild-ass random thrash through the guitar. MINDFUCK!
30. Livetalk HAHAHAH! MORE FUNNY VOICES! In this part, Ween advertises the splendor and excitement of their live shows, recommending that people come to their concerts to see them dress up in funny outfits, imitate 1970s rock bands, and have a fun time (and talk too much). However, they also claim that they "make everybody go home with a headache". Very funny. If you talk in this voice about wearing a chef's hat on stage, you have just said something very funny.
31. Boognish A more "normal" song that sings praises to the Boognish. Once again, the riff uses only one chord, but you don't really notice due to Ween's sheer genius.
32. Boobs (Part III) Return of the Boob Songs! A slow metal song with Gene sings about wanting to suck, fondle, and touch boobs. Excellent noisy bit at the very end.
33. Yolk A loud, noisy song with more screaming.
34. Shnagenhausen A very fast song recorded live featuring Ween and various audience members screaming "SHNAGENHAUSEN!" and speaking in gibberish. This sounds like it would have been a fun show to be at.
35. We See Ween Bean Another live song. Very loud, fast, and noisy. "We See Ween Bean" is the sole lyric of this track. It actually goes on for quite a bit, though. An energetic and fun song.
36. Everyone's a Lesbian Gene and Ween sing about how everybody's a lesbian, and how they enjoy watching lesbians have sex.
37. Yeah, Sure Wait a second... that "girl in the audience" isn't a girl... that's Dean Ween before his voice changed! Some of these cuts extend back into when Deaner's voice didn't even change yet. That's just weird, now. Probably one of the first bands I've heard that started so young that their first recordings feature a member before his voice even changed! "YEAH, SURE". Rolling drums.
38. Oik A song about a person named "oik" with a slow beat.
39. Jelly (Part II) The other part of Jelly. Slow. The guitar is sloppy and improvised.
40. Outroview This is the "outro". Dean talks in a funny voice like a mental retard and basically just goofs off. It's actually really funny in some parts. He screams so loud his voice cracks. Dean continues to thank the listener for listening to the album. The band just sort of hangs around there, and eventually Deaner SCREAMS HIS FUCKING HEAD OFF repeatedly and makes funny breathing-in noises, in an amusing attempt to get the listener to turn off the tape already! No thanks, Ween. I'm too busy listening to DEAN SCREAM!! How can these screamo pussies think they're badasses when Ween clearly outdoes them in every way?
So, that's the end of the first musical output of Ween. However, at this point they were far from greatness. Many of the songs use only one chord, and only a few use song structures that go beyond that ("Red As Satan", "I Drink A Lot"...). Most of the songs are a minute long or less. Some of them are just simple drumbeats and screaming. However, the funny jokes and gags make it all worthwhile. To be completely honest, some of the songs here seem to have required little to no thought to write. ANY teenage kid with a microphone, a guitar, some pot, and an hour to record an album would probably come up with something like this. But it works. This album is mediocre and the Ween bros. know it, so it presents itself as an enormous toilet joke, representing everything we high school kids find hilarious, whether we admit it or not. Funny voices, spontaneous screaming, complete improvisation, mediocre songwriting... it's all good in its own way. Of course, by the early '90s, Ween would become a band that was actually extremely talented at writing great songs, but the spirit of the incarnation of Ween in this album never quite left them.
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Red As Satan 2. Outroview 3. We Seen Ween Bean
Genre: Punk Rock, Psychedelic Rock Sub-Genres: Hardcore Label: Bird O' Pray Records Tracks: 11 Length: 19 Minutes (Medium-Length) Style:Funny/Weird My Rating: 6/8
I discovered and fell in love with Ween nearly two years ago, now. One hot summer night, while taking a short break from roaming the redneck infested street shirtless on the hunt for stray beer to steal, I was on his laptop watching videos from one of my favorite YouTube channels, CringeVision. The channel posts up all of the horrible things that have come out of Texas public access television. Mostly 4th-rate children's educational programs, drunken baptist sermons, horrible Christian shows, really bad "talent" programs, racist commercials, and a demonic straight-to-video show from the '80s called "Peppermint Park". However, on this night I saw they posted up a whole bunch of videos of a lil' band called "Ween". They said "if you don't own a Ween album, you are missing out" -- with a name like 'Ween' and a music video called "Push th' Little Daisies", how could I go wrong with this? Well, I watched it and got something even greater than I expected. Stupid-as-hell lyrics, a squeaky sped-up voice, two guys with guitars making weird faces, and a fucking catchy but weird riff. I laughed my ass off the first time, but while I thought it was hilarious, I also actually liked the song a lot. I tried showing it to my friend (who was an emo at the time), and he wrote it off as stupid. It took a few more listens, but it grew on him and for the rest of the year we would regularly sing the lyrics because we loved it so much. At the time, I didn't know what to think. I was so amazed. It didn't sound like anything else I'd ever heard before -- at the time, my musical diet mainly consisted of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sonic Youth, and the Smashing Pumpkins. Y'know, music that was pretty serious and angsty and sung about heroin a lot. But because of my alternative tastes, I was pretty open to weirder music. I listened to the song all morning the next day after our all-night adventure (which also included listening to my friend watch "Deliverance" while trying to sleep and forking some fucker's yard at 4:45 AM). But I STILL hadn't truly known of Ween's potential. I seriously at first thought this was just some stoned high-school kids with a camcorder and some chick decided it would be funny to make a music video and put it on local public access or something. I was wrong. Turns out the band still plays today. I tried listening to some of the immediate links in the 'related videos' section. Wasn't too interested. I didn't make a real effort to check out Ween's other music for awhile, but "Push the Little Daisies" was something I listened to OVER AND OVER. Around December of that year, me and my friend Joseph (same kid as I mentioned earlier) decided to look up some more Ween. I was hearing other songs from "Pure Guava" -- "Sarah", "Little Birdy", "Pumpin' 4 the Man", among basically every other song on the album... I had found my niche. These songs were hilarious, druggy, bizarre, but also with an innocent charm to it... perhaps it's just because Gene Ween sounds 12 years old on half of that album. Whatever the case, though, I realized that this was not just the work of a bunch of high school stoners doing it for a laugh which accidentally turned out to be something brilliant. This was the work of GENIUSES.
However, at one point, they actually WERE high school stoners doing it for a laugh. Back when Ween formed in 1984, they were two 14-year-old punks that met at a typing class. They initially hated eachother but soon became friends. They played and recorded music all of the time, releasing a series of relatively unknown albums on the now defunct Bird O' Pray Records. These tapes are now out-of-print. However, by the late '80s, Ween was touching upon a new wave of brilliance. A lot of people consider "God Ween Satan", the album that came after this to be Ween's first album, but that is not true. This album sort of bridges the two eras along with that album, because it has songs from older albums AND God Ween Satan, and it's their first ever vinyl release, moving past mere cassette tapes. It's actually a double-album of sorts, not because it uses two discs, but because the two sides are different "albums" in their own right. Side 1 in a live record. Side 2 is a studio record. Actually, to make it even weirder, both sides apparently are supposed to be played at different speeds... weird, huh? Well, let's talk about the album. I don't have all day...
1. You Fucked Up (Live) Originally from the Crucial Squeegee Lip. Begins with Gener cackling and laughing like a maniac. Suddenly, the main riff can be heard and the song pretty much goes into its thing. My favorite line is "YOU FUCKING NAZI WHORE". It alternates between more speedy parts and slightly slower parts. It's a violent, screamin'-like-a-demon anthem to fucking up.
2. Jelly (Live) A song about jelly and putting it on your toast. It's a little slower than the song before it. Sometimes the vocals are screamed, sometimes they're roared.
3. The Refrigerator that Wouldn't Close (Live) Similar tempo to the previous song. It's very short. It's a song about a refrigerator that wouldn't close and Deaner starts going on about South Africa before the song begins. "Open my ears, and open my nose..."
4. I Like You (Live) At the beginning of the song, Gener encourages everyone in the audience to hold hands. It's a song about being friends with someone and liking them and playing in the park. More psycho-goofball vocals. Hee hee hee.
5. I Drink A Lot (Live) Another one taken from the first album. Gener gets the title wrong and Deaner tries to explain to the audience that Gene "hasn't learned to read, yet". It's a more straightforward punk song about an apathetic trainwreck of a man who just doesn't care about anything, listens to jazz-fusion, and of course, drinks a lot. His wife is fat and his brother is thin. The song ends with some weird noize and more screaming, to which Gene explains "that's how it ends."
6. Nippy Wiffle (Live) The last live song. As Gene introduces the next song, Deaner sings his praises to the almighty Boognish in the background. Also the longest song on the Live Brain Wedgie half of the album. Mainly a mid-tempo beat, a one-chord riff and some screamed gibberish vocals. There's a bridge section with a solo in it, too. Dean and Gene scream on as the song fades out after it's all over. And that's the end of the Live Brain Wedgie.
7. In the Node of Golgothia Now we're on to the WAD Excerpts. Starts with a weird voice (it could be either one of them) talking in an echoey/metallic voice saying something weird. After some more weird noises, the next song begins. It's extremely fast accompanied by fuzzed-screams and other garbled vocals. The in-between parts are slower. The vocals here are just fucking HILARIOUS.
8. I Gots a Weasel This one got on "God Ween Satan" later on. Deaner sings in a low-pitched gravelly-soundin' voice, as a nice little beat plays and there's no rhythm guitar here, just bass guitar. Gene supplies the frantic background vocals. It's pretty laid-back. At the very end, Gene asks "you got a weasel?"
9. Hippie Smell A song making fun of modern-day hippies, asking questions of why anybody would want to live in the '60s when "a lot of shit happened in the sixties", and "your hippie little ass would've probably gotten killed" -- also calling modern hippies "not real" and "not surreal". Ends with a lot of screams. This song sounds a lot more like the kind of stuff that would be on the albums after this ('The Pod', for example). It's a happy-sounding psychedelic-rock song. Longest song on its half of the album.
10. Stacey A song about having a crush on a girl named "Stacey". Great solo. In the final verse, the vocals are screamed like a maniac.
11. Gladolia Heartbreaker A '70s rock-sounding song. You can actually hear the background instruments and vocals walk from the left to the right speaker. Adds a nice touch. It sadly ends here, though.
Must say, it was a pretty neat-o album. After this they released an album called "Prime 5", a "best of" compilation which contained their personal picks from this album and all of the ones before it. After this one, they were finally signed to a higher-profile label, Twin/Tone Records. On that label they released their first "real" album called God Ween Satan. It had a lot of re-recordings of songs from the older era as well as forays into a new direction for Ween. Starting with that album, the band would begin to move past their initial punk phase to a more psychedelic, weirder one. This is epitomized on "The Pod" and "Pure Guava" -- eventually they just started doing everything, including a country album at one point. But this is a good listen, and it gives a coherent look into the days of Ween that you likely missed out on. Side one is an early live show, and side two sounds like they just did some new songs in their room. Recommended for all true Ween fans, who would call this record "brown". Oh, and it's my birthday today. Yay...
Year: 1991 Genre: Psychedelic Rock Label: Shimmy-Disc Records Tracks: 23 Length: 76 Minutes (Very Long) Style: Weird/Happy/Sad/Funny/Mysterious My Rating: 8/8
Ween is an alternative rock band from New Hope, Pennsylvania that formed in 1984. Ween released a series of underground, little-known albums throughout the '80s, but Ween eventually left their first label, "Bird O'Prey Records", to sign to Twin-Tone Records, and released their first record, "God Ween Satan" in 1990. After that, they signed to Shimmy-Disc Records, the label that they would release "The Pod" on. The Pod is said to be their most "challenging" work, and it might be for some, but I think any true Ween fan will love this. While Ween's music was mostly punk rock, as well as experimenting with other sorts of genres, this album marks their shift to the bizarre psychedelic rock, the style they are mostly known for playing.
With that being said, this is probably their weirdest album they did. Legend has it that they were high on scotchgard glue during the recording of this album, though the band itself denies it. Still, I'll bet they were on SOMETHING. Most "normal" people could only dream of making music this awesome. The album itself will make you feel at least stoned. It's got a very funny, odd, fuzzy, murky, but endearing nature about it. And it's one of the best works of Ween ever.
1. Strap On the Jammypac I dunno if this was the intent of the song, but this one is too funny. Basically the same riff combined with clattering cymbals and one of the funniest-sounding voices ever saying "Stwap on da jaimmypac...", or some other unintelligible phrase, followed by a single beat of a drum. This just repeats over and over for several minutes in a hilariously annoying manner. I love it.
2. Dr. Rock One of the more normal songs on the album (still very weird, however). It's a psychedelic-punk-type song with phasered-vocals. The song seems to center around "Dr. Rock", some type of superhero/doctor type of guy who you can call whenever you need help.
3. Frank A slow, acid-drenched song. First mentions of the elusive "Pork Roll, Egg, and Cheese" and "Mega-Weedge", two prominent items that are often mentioned throughout the album. The song is about a guy named Frank who is being asked by the song's protagonist for some food.
4. Sorry Charlie This is a great one. It's a mellow, softer song with telephone-sounding vocals and a light stick-beat. It's half-sad, it's half-happy. The lyrics are about a guy named Charlie who's having a pretty shitty life and doesn't have enough money to support his girlfriend who's still in high school, and he has to resort to selling more pot. Nice to listen to when you're feelin' blue.
5. The Stallion, Pt. 1 "The Stallion" is a recurring character throughout the Ween universe. This is a really trippy song with bizarre vocals. It's actually somewhat scary. This song seems to actually be about some sort of tough-guy horse (the Stallion, of course!) who recons you not to fuck around with him.
6. Pollo Asado This one is really funny. It's sort of another mellow, psychedelic song, but in the foreground is a hilarious skit about a guy trying to order mexican food. It's funnier than I'm making it sound. End of Side 1.
7. Right to the Ways and the Rules of the World A song with some violin (or at least a synth) in it. Uses a lot of acoustic guitar, and vocals from both Gene Ween and Dean Ween. Not a ton of effects used on this one, but that's okay.
8. Captain Fantasy A truly great song. It's a slow, hard, trippy song with sped-up vocals. It's just really good. What else can I say? This song is really legit.
9. Demon Sweat A slow, soft song that makes use of synths. It's really relaxing to listen to. It's like a lullaby or something. I think they were really tripping out at this point. There's some vocal harmonies, as well. At two minutes and thirty seconds, the song suddenly gets louder with synth organs and a ridiculous guitar-solo. The song gets really off-tune during this point.
10. Molly Sounds like a Butthole Surfers song. Really funky vocals combining a normal voice and a really high-pitched voice. And the quiet mumbling of "mollymollymollymollymollymollymolly...". Pretty slow and weird.
11. Can U Taste the Waste? A short heavy-metal song whose only line is "Can U Taste the Waste?". EXTREMELY badass. Or "brown", as a lot of Ween fans prefer to say.
12. Don't Sweat It A slow, gothic-sounding, dreamy song. There's a mid-section where the guitars get even more distorted and there's a beautiful little solo towards the end. End of Side 2.
13. Awesome Sound A really weird funk song. Second mention of the "Pork Roll, Egg and Cheese". Actually somewhat similar to the Butthole Surfers. I even heard one of the vocalist use an exact same vocal effect involving taking a voice and slowly speeding it up as used in "Human Cannonball" by the Butthole Surfers. Towards the end, you can start to hear the two cracking up.
14. Laura This is one of the best songs on the album, but I can't even understand what the fuck he's saying, here. The voice sounds extremely weird. Still, it has a very nice guitar-line. It all fits the mood of the song very well. Very slow. I really wish I came up with the riff for this song first.
15. Boing The shortest song on the album (one minute and thirty-three seconds long). It's an extremely quiet, bassy song with extremely low-pitched vocals and mostly bass guitar (though a little rhythm guitar does try to creep out). Sounds like someone's fat grandpa snoring/talking in his sleep.
16. Mononucleosis It's said that the group was down with Mononucleosis when they were recording this album. With that being said, it's a good song to listen to when you feel sick. It's a very echoey, depressing sort of song. "Now you're on the couch, you can't even move your fucking head... tell me that you wish that you was dead..." crap, if I listen to this song anymore, I might get sick myself!
17. Oh My Dear (Falling in Love) A pop song. Probably the most normal-sounding song on the album. Really pretty guitar sounds. You just can't get a sound like this out of digital recording. Digital recordings hurt my ears, which is why a lot of new music (regardless of the actual song) sounds so unlistenable to me.
18. Sketches of Winkle A punk song. My favorite part, however, is the chorus that goes "Sketches of Winkle, flying through the heavens in a fit of rage", followed by a great-sounding guitar lead. Another great song on the album. End of Side 3.
19. Alone A very quiet, slow song. I read the lyrics, and I feel like I can relate. It's basically a song about those people who feel very alone, with few or no friends, as everyone else seems to move forward, and you're just stuck in the same shit forever.
20. Moving Away A soft, reggae-sounding song. Similar to "Alone" in a lot of ways as far as the musical notes used and the riff, but it's more of a reggae riff. Gener and Deaner have never sounded more black. There's an R&B-sounding section at the end of the song, too. The song in general seems to be an impersonation of black music.
21. She Fucks Me Another mellow song. It's a love song, the way Ween does it, anyways. Very calm and beautiful. Yet ANOTHER mention of the "Pork Roll, Egg, and Cheese". In fact, that line is just repeated in the background throughout the entire sound. Despite the fact that the vocals are very slowed-down, they still sound very good. Wonderful-sounding guitars. Another really good song.
22. Pork Roll, Egg, and Cheese You saw this one coming. Or maybe you didn't. Anyways, this song is the culmination of all Pork Roll Egg and Cheeses that existed throughout the album. It's a very happy song with water-y sounding guitars. It's my favorite song on the album. There was a very rare music video for it with trash floating around the city streets and Dean Ween swimming at the beach shot with a Super-8 camera. It's really cool, and it was on YouTube for awhile, but it was taken down by Warner Bros., the corporate gluttons, even though they didn't even publish this album. I can't find it anywhere else, but I'm guessing it was on one of the Shimmy-Disc Video Compilations.
23. The Stallion, Pt. 2 The final song on the long, long album. A slow, groovy piece with weird vocals with the recurring line, "I am the Stallion, Mang." Hilarious yelled vocals at a part towards the end. Unfortunately, that's the end of ze record.
Wow... what a trip. This is pretty much one of the greatest Ween albums of all time. It was also their last on an independent label for awhile. After this, they were invited to become artists on Elektra Records, a label owned by Warner Music Group. They released "Pure Guava", which was of a similar style to this album to some extent, but still not nearly as weird as this one. Still, I like "Pure Guava" slightly more. But this album is just as good. Many would consider it better. They are probably right. But what the fuck? Ween is great. Listen to this album if you like weird music. It's very un-mainstream but it's almost pop. It's happy but it's sad. It can make you laugh and cry simultaneously. Like, if you laughed so hard that you started crying. Or if you cried so hard that you started laughing. Drugs will only enhance the experience. This album is great to listen to even sober. Fuck anyone who says otherwise. Ween is one of the greatest bands ever.
(There were actually three music videos made for "Pollo Asado", "Captain Fantasy", and "Pork Roll, Egg, and Cheese" created for the Shimmy-Disc Video Compilations, but they are extremely rare on the internet and I cannot find a single copy, so I can't show you any of the videos for it. But they're pretty cool. They look like the album sounds.)
