Ween. What the fuck is Ween? I sure don't know. If someone asked me to tell them about Ween, I would probably rub jelly on my testicles and do a handstand whilst eating Captain Crunch Cereal Bars .
This band is fucked up. Not fucked up like retarded midgets playing Frisbee in a pool of peanut butter, but more fucked up like a Camel running on a treadmill while his Chimpanzee slaves made sauerkraut muffins in your sisters easy bake oven.
Point being, you can't describe this band, and when finally think you figured out how, they will vomit out another record of fucked up songs just waiting in the corner to pounce at your face and boggle your mind with some serious next level, jammed out, crazy shit.
Every Ween song sounds completely different, so I am going to take this track by track.
"It's Gonna Be a Long Night": This is straight up 70's and 80's inspired rock and roll about staying up all night, cutting lines of coke, and bugging out yo! Great opening song.
"Zoloft": This band loves drugs, and probably writes most of their music under the influence of illegal narcotics. This song is incredibly spacey, great mid-tempo drum machine beat, other world sound effects, and some nice relaxing vocals.
"Transdermal Celebration": This song is straight up incredible. The opening riff is so catchy it's ridiculous. This song defines what I love about Ween. Sometimes they stop being weird and fucking out of their minds and write insanely great rock songs.
"Among His Tribe": Pretty slow, sad sounding acoustic guitar with really mellow vocals. Not much to say about it, although it's one of my favorites on the record.
"So Many People In The Neighborhood": This is when shit gets silly. A weird drumbeat filled with odd sounding horn noises and squeaky bleeps and blips followed by a robotic sounding voice repeating the title of the song over and over. Why? Who fucking knows?
"Tried and True": Another contender for my favorite song on this record. Same style as "Transdermal Celebration." So catchy, so beautiful.
"Happy Colored Marbles": A weird concept but pulled off well. Really odd, but really catchy. This is what Ween is about, weird drugged out songs about marbles.
"Hey There Fancy Pants": Another "what the fuck?" song. This song goes way over my head, and is completely insane. It sounds like something on a 6 year old's Children's Sing-Along tape. This band is out of their mind.
"Captain": A really slow jammed out instrumental track. Fits really well and is a great transition to the rest of the record.
"Chocolate Town"/"I Don't Want It": Two more great, catchy pop rock songs. Gene Ween's vocals are incredible.
"The Fucked Jam"/"Alcan Road": Two very fucking odd instrumental songs. The Fucked Jam is a weird drug trip of a song with weird noises and guitar effects everywhere. Easily my least favorite song on the record.
"The Argus": I think my favorite song on the record lyrically. Really slow, great guitar work, really epic sounding. It really builds up at the end to be an amazing batch of musical genius. This is definitely something my dad, mom, sister, roommate and girlfriend would dig. Ween is for everyone!
"If You Could Save Yourself": I have a story for you. This summer my good friend and fellow Ween fan and I were driving back from the beach in Massachusetts. We drove by this venue that I always look at because funny bands like 311 and LL Cool J play there. I saw Ween was playing and screamed "Ween is playing!" My friend jammed on the breaks, backed the car up, and about 3 seconds later we were staring at a sign that read: "WEEN, PLAYING TONIGHT." I was the happiest dude ever. We bought tickets, argued with the bouncer for about an hour while they played. The show was 18+ and we were both 17, but finally got in. My soft-spoken friend and myself were in this huge venue, amongst a bunch of drunk, acid dropping, dread lock sporting weirdoes dancing their asses off, and we just stood their in awe, watching one of the best live bands of our time. "If You Could Save Yourself" was played that night, and absolutely blew me away. The amount of emotion that is generated through this song is spectacular. As far as I know the song is about divorcing his wife, and is just so touching, and uplifting, only the word "magnificent" could successfully be used to describe it. One of my favorite songs I have ever seen performed live simply because of how personal it is. It still blows me away to think about.
I love this record, I love this band recorded, and I love this band live. This is coming from a kid who generally listens to hardcore and pop punk. God bless.
