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Best/Favourite Ween Albums?

Started by Hand Solo, July 27, 2020, 04:22:56 PM

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shagatha crustie

'Chocolate Town' is a masterpiece. Maybe my all-time favourite Ween song. 'I Don't Want It' as well. What a pair of tearjerkers.

The Mollusk

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on July 30, 2020, 10:31:50 AM
My other half's favourite Ween thing is the Live In Chicago DVD. The number of times I'd hear this blasting out the TV speakers at 1am about twelve years ago.

Haha, it's up there for me as well. I have watched it countless times (probably always when either drunk or high or both) and it is a great source of comfort to me, perhaps more so than any of their albums. I know they're taking the piss out of Phish when they do it, but when they do the extended jam of "Roses Are Free" and Gener and Deaner stand toe-to-toe wailing out on the guitars, it fucking melts my heart and brings me so much joy.

Quote from: shagatha crustie on July 30, 2020, 10:59:15 AM
'Chocolate Town' is a masterpiece.

Agreed, and I think country is one of the genres that they have always aped the best. I'm not sure if you know this but the song is about Gener going to rehab in the town of Hershey.

SteveDave

I'm listening to all the Ween LPs I've never heard (so every LP apart from "Chocolate And Cheese") over the next few days.

I've started with "GodWeenSatan" (the 25th anniversary edition) and am 16 songs in. My wife mentioned Frank Zappa before I started listening and it's coloured by experience.

Noodle Lizard

There's a weird tendency to compare any "eclectic" rock artists to Zappa, but I often find the comparisons to be superficial at best (puerile humour, obtuse composition/instrumentation etc.) I suppose both Ween and Zappa have a bit of a trade in pastiche/parody of genres, although I think it comes from a very different place. Pretty sure Dean Ween mentioned not particularly caring for Zappa at one point, and I can understand why - Zappa's far "wankier" than any of their more direct influences, although I'd be surprised if Deaner wasn't impressed by his guitar work.

Either way, did you like the album? That's probably not the easiest one to start with.

SteveDave

Yeah it was tough going.

I've listened to "The Pod" and "Pure Guava" as well. They're much the same for me.

I've got "12 Golden Country Greats" to listen to this afternoon. I've previously heard "Piss Up A Rope" so I sort of know what I'm in for.

The Mollusk

The Pod was the one I found the most impenetrable. I adore it now, but there's not really much else like it and it is fucking bizarre. Kudos for going in from the beginning, since their most accessible music is mostly at the latter half of their career!

sutin

I loved The Pod straight away. It's classic rock played by two stoners with bad head colds in a stinking flat, what's not to love?

SteveDave

I'm halfway through "The Mollusk" and it's all gold so far.

I've checked through Wiki but I can't see what LP "Booze Me Up And Get Me High" was on? Does anyone hear know?

Egyptian Feast

It's an outtake from that era and hasn't had a proper release yet, which is annoying as it's a fucking great song. I think there's a version on one of the live albums - Live At Stubb's maybe?

The Mollusk

Quote from: sutin on September 09, 2020, 09:18:50 PM
I loved The Pod straight away. It's classic rock played by two stoners with bad head colds in a stinking flat, what's not to love?

That's very accurate. Even though it didn't take me long to twig that Ween were often playing very accomplished pop music and burying it under great globs of distortion and pitched vocals and crass humour, The Pod is the one that's the most buried under all that stuff. I sort of had to hack away at it like a machete through a dense jungle of snot and farts before I eventually realised how great it is.

Unrelated, but I was listening to Tender Situation recently and suddenly realised that the toms on the drum machine form the bass line for the entire song. I really like the idea that they wrote a song which was tuned in accordance to the notes of those toms.

SteveDave

Fuckinell, I've just heard "Even If You Don't" for the first time in my life and, although I can hear why it wasn't a hit, it should've been.

The Mollusk

Quote from: SteveDave on September 17, 2020, 10:32:56 AM
Fuckinell, I've just heard "Even If You Don't" for the first time in my life and, although I can hear why it wasn't a hit, it should've been.

Whether or not naming the album White Pepper was the boys intentionally a compounding two classic Beatles album titles, Even If You Don't is undoubtably one of Ween's most direct Beatles homages. It is fucking brilliant and the production really helps it to shimmer and sparkle in precisely the way it deserves. One of my all-time favourite Deaner guitar solos as well.

Noodle Lizard

Yeah, White Pepper's full of songs which make you wonder "why wasn't this bigger?" Stay Forever is something I could easily imagine hearing all over the radio around that time.

If you like Even If You Don't, the video directed by South Park's Matt & Trey is a must: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIK5Lb-3rP4

SteveDave

Quote from: Egyptian Feast on September 17, 2020, 09:37:13 AM
It's an outtake from that era and hasn't had a proper release yet, which is annoying as it's a fucking great song. I think there's a version on one of the live albums - Live At Stubb's maybe?

I found a torrent of a stupid amount of unreleased and live songs and it was on there.

SteveDave

It turns out that I can only take "Chocolate And Cheese" and "12 Golden Country Greats" in their entirety. Every other LP have small slivers of gold (for me) but do nought for me on the whole.

samadriel

I remember when The Mollusk was album of the week on Triple J, back when Triple J were good.  That week of radio eased me into that album, and it's got a head start for me, to this day; I have a particular weakness for "She Wanted To Leave".  Golden Country Greats was an album of the week too, but it's not nearly as impressive as The Mollusk.