Ween rule, and they are also a beam of guiding light for anyone who's former bandmates live 400 miles away and all you gots is a 4-track, drum machine, mic, and a few guitars.
― Hellfuck, Friday, 21 May 2004 23:04 (twenty years ago) link
― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Saturday, 22 May 2004 03:31 (twenty years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Saturday, 22 May 2004 04:29 (twenty years ago) link
Jeez, here I am looking at all the mp3s I have of this band, and I'm thinking why the hell doesn't anybody like them??? These songs are fucking fantastic!!
― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Saturday, 22 May 2004 04:36 (twenty years ago) link
― cutty (mcutt), Saturday, 22 May 2004 04:37 (twenty years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Saturday, 22 May 2004 04:54 (twenty years ago) link
1. Sarah2. She's Your Baby3. It's Gonna Be Alright4. Cold Blows the Wind5. If You Could Save Yourself (You'd Save Us All)6. Right To the Ways and Means of the World7. Exactly Where I'm At8. Buckingham Green9. Chocolate Town*10.It's Gonna Be A Long Night
*(it is often presumed that this song is a reference to anal sex, but I contend that it is a tribute to Hershey Pennsylvania)
― nickalicious (nickalicious), Saturday, 22 May 2004 19:04 (twenty years ago) link
"You Were The Fool" and "It's Gonna Be Alright" are without a doubt the 2 best "serious" Ween songs. Definitley both are in my top 5 ween songs, and they're both fucking gorgeous.
― billstevejim, Saturday, 22 May 2004 19:11 (twenty years ago) link
― Scott CE (Scott CE), Saturday, 22 May 2004 19:14 (twenty years ago) link
You mean the Prince cover?
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 22 May 2004 19:40 (twenty years ago) link
― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 22 May 2004 20:59 (twenty years ago) link
― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 23 May 2004 08:06 (twenty years ago) link
1 Madonna "What the Fuck Do You Think You're Doing?"2 Millie Jackson "The Fuck You Symphony (Live)"3 The Coup "Lazymuthafucka"4 Beck "Fuckin' With My Head"5 Sleater-Kinney "Write Me Back, Fucker"6 Liz Phair "Fuck and Run"7 Missy Elliott "They Don't Wanna Fuck Wit' Me"8 Fischerspooner "Fucker"9 Tupac Shakur "Fuck 'Em All"10 Ol' Dirty Bastard "You Don't Want to Fuck With Me"11 50 Cent "Fuck You"12 Jay Z "Fuck That"13 Three 6 Mafia "Get the Fuck Out My Face"14 Ween "Where th' Motherfucking Cheese At?"15 Jon and Al Kaplan "Put the Fucking Lotion in the Basket"16 Trey Stone and Matt Parker "Shut Your Fucking Face, Uncle Fucker" 17 Peaches "I Don't Give a Fuck"18 Rage Against the Machine "Fuck Tha Police (Live)"19 Dub Narc "Fuck Shit Up"20 Eamon vs. Sinead O'Connor "Fucking Compares 2 U (DJ Fancy Dan MiX)"21 D'Angelo "Shit Damn Motherfucker (Live)"22 Magnetic Fields "How Fucking Romantic"23 Belle and Sebastian "Fuck This Shit"24 Bernie Mac "Motherfucker"25 Black Sheep "For Doz That Slept"
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 23 May 2004 14:39 (twenty years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 23 May 2004 14:42 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 17:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 18:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub, Wednesday, 17 November 2004 19:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 22:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 22:32 (nineteen years ago) link
If I may suggest:26. Eminem - "Just Don't Give a Fuck".
― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 22:35 (nineteen years ago) link
Classico amigo.
― Piers (piers), Thursday, 18 November 2004 05:37 (nineteen years ago) link
Of those bands, how many name said demon god "Boognish?"
They were classic the first time I heard "You Fucked Up" and the were classic the last time I heard the 6+ minute long version of "Where'd the Cheese Go?" on their fan-request live album. Which was this afternoon.
I do have to disagree vehemently that they've anything in common with They Might Be Giants other than being a band with a core of two guys both of whom have severely under-noticed musicianship and songwriting ability. I completely get why some folks don't "get" either or both of these bands, but I still maintain that it's really easy to overlook facts like the fact that Dean just fucking shreds.
Fact.
On a related note: Moistboyz... C or D? Cause I had reservations (though I probably still wouldn't have said Dud right off), but now I have heard Moistboyz III on vinyl, and I'm gonna have to say Classic.
― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 18 November 2004 07:21 (nineteen years ago) link
It's late.
― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 18 November 2004 07:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― myopic_void (myopic_void), Thursday, 18 November 2004 13:35 (nineteen years ago) link
Moistboyz -- I enjoy them, my sister, the ultra-Ween fan mentioned above, LURVS them.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 18 November 2004 13:37 (nineteen years ago) link
It goes like this (scale from 1-10):
GodWeenSatan - 7The Pod - 8Pure Guava - 7The Mollusk - 6White Pepper - 5
― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 18 November 2004 15:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 18 November 2004 15:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― myopic_void (myopic_void), Thursday, 18 November 2004 16:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― myopic_void (myopic_void), Thursday, 18 November 2004 16:13 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 18 November 2004 16:25 (nineteen years ago) link
Yes I would say that, I would say that.
― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Thursday, 18 November 2004 16:56 (nineteen years ago) link
Ha ha. Thanks Ned!
― myopic_void (myopic_void), Thursday, 18 November 2004 16:59 (nineteen years ago) link
I have it on VERY good authority that the haze on The Pod has less to do with Scotchguard than it has to do with the fact that both Dean and Gene had mono during the recording of it.
There is a toss up for my favorite Ween song. It's like a battle... Captain Fantasy vs. Doctor Rock.
FITE!
― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 18 November 2004 17:42 (nineteen years ago) link
Do it before you get Chocolate and Cheese, too. Cause when you get Chocolate and Cheese it'll be the only thing in your CD player for quite a while.
― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 18 November 2004 17:44 (nineteen years ago) link
"AIDS"
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 18 November 2004 17:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Thursday, 18 November 2004 17:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Thursday, 18 November 2004 17:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 18 November 2004 17:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― darin (darin), Thursday, 18 November 2004 19:00 (nineteen years ago) link
On the other hand the new in-studio live one does feature a couple moments like this in spite of the recording quality being terrific.
― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 18 November 2004 19:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 19 November 2004 17:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub, Friday, 19 November 2004 17:54 (nineteen years ago) link
Get it? GET IT???? Everybody thought the other guy killed his brother, but it was actually the narrator of the song!! And now he'll never tell anybody the real truth, because now he's gonna kill him too!!
What a classic song. Best Ween song ever (and therefore one of the greatest songs ever written)!
― Mr. Snrub, Friday, 19 November 2004 18:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub, Friday, 19 November 2004 18:05 (nineteen years ago) link
"Piss Up a Rope" alone trounces everything on Quebec!
Bah!
I also don't get the preoccupation so many folks have with "Buenas Tardes." To me it's one of the few Ween songs where the joke just isn't funny after repeated listens. That, and it's too fucking long for what is a seriously weak punchline/twist after you already know the story.
"Mister Would You Please Help My Pony" on the other hand rocks, is bittersweet and funny as fuck.
He coughed up snot in the driveway, and I think his lung's fucked up.
Man I changed my mind. Three way battle for best song.
No wait, four way battle: "Sketches of Winkle".
She was a meditative hooker all strung out on Sinatra.
― martin m. (mushrush), Friday, 19 November 2004 18:15 (nineteen years ago) link
o.nate otm.
I remember buying Pure Guava in high school (b/c of “Daisies”) on tape, listening to on the bus, walking around the neighborhood, in my room, everywhere. Twas in love. Thinking about it now, it was the first of many sprawling, sloppy records I would become enamoured of as the years unfurled. I could sing every word, without messing up, of any song from that record...and that’s not true of many others I was into in ‘92/‘93/’94. (somehow I never got around to buying the earlier stuff)
So then Chocolate & Cheese came out and I flat out HATED it. It was too competent and not funny enough and there were other musicians involved that were pros. Owned this for perhaps a month before hocking it. (I did love Freedom of ’76 and a few others) Then I sorta gave up on ‘em.
When White Pepper came out I decided to give it a chance...only to discover that it was more boring than C&C had been (“Even If You Don’t” was the only song I liked). Heard C&C in a store recently and it sounded a lot better than it did when I was 17. Eventually I’ll give ‘em another go....
― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 19 November 2004 19:09 (nineteen years ago) link
That's the criticism I don't get unless you just mean the engineering/production was too competent. The musicianship has improved, yeah, but they were always competent musicians. Part of what I find so brilliant about them is how they've managed somehow to hide that from people so much. I mean the guitarwork on "Sketches of Winkle" is very competent. (To be honest the early Ween stuff is also amazingly well-recorded for something done on a four track too. Pure Guava especially.)
― martin m. (mushrush), Friday, 19 November 2004 19:41 (nineteen years ago) link
Absolutely -- the 1991 Trouser Press entry for them summed it up perfectly: "poorly disguised musical skills"
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 19 November 2004 19:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 19 November 2004 19:58 (nineteen years ago) link
I was thinking of that Butthole Surfers song. There's a few things about it.
In the sample a woman talks about being sexually assaulted and having bad dreams about it. According to them it was a woman who kept phoning into a radio show with different made up stories that contradicted each other. They said the track is a big fuck you to her for making up all these stories. But listeners have no way of knowing this unless they know this trivia and it simply sounds like they are using the account of a woman who's been sexually assaulted for shock value and listeners are likely to feel sympathetic towards her. Even if a most of her stories were made up, it's very possible she was sexually assaulted and/or suffered from mental illness.
There's also the Lisa Germano song
The song 'A Psychopath', which samples a real 911 call where a woman confronts an intruder in her home,[6] was inspired by an experience Germano had as a child, when she was riding her bike and a strange man exposed himself to her.[5] The song was written about the general feeling of powerlessness that women can experience, especially with regard to sexual predators.[5] She obtained the 911 call recording from a rape centre (with their permission), after originally encountering it in a documentary about violence.[1] She was initially hesitant to use the recording, thinking it was "too intense", however ultimately decided it was something worth saying.[4] Germano has said that making the song was scary and very upsetting, and that she had trouble sleeping after recording it.[1]
Obviously Germano is well meaning but I wonder if the woman in the sample was asked, because if not, I don't think she should have used it.
Then there's some sampled interviews about people's horrible lives in Swans.
Even if all this stuff was used with the best construcive intent in brilliant music, a lot of people wouldn't like their traumas to be used like that.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 9 June 2016 19:48 (eight years ago) link
re: "22 Going On 23" thank you for explaining that. I like the song a lot better now. Definitely felt uncomfortable the last few times I heard it.
― billstevejim, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 01:53 (seven years ago) link
i don't listen to them at all as far as their CDs go - last one i probably heard all the way through was the pod when that came out - but sometimes i will flip through stuff on youtube and i feel like i can point to some of their genre homages and say: okay, that's better than any phish/neutral milk hotel/destroyer/of montreal/paul mccartney/etc song i've ever heard.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 02:12 (seven years ago) link
and they are also weird in the way i can listen to a song by them and say: okay, that's better than any latter-day tears for fears song i've ever heard.
who else could i even say that about?
― scott seward, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 02:15 (seven years ago) link
i feel like i can point to some of their genre homages and say: okay, that's better than any phish/neutral milk hotel/destroyer/of montreal/paul mccartney/etc song i've ever heard.― scott seward, Tuesday, March 7, 2017 6:12 PM (two minutes ago)
― scott seward, Tuesday, March 7, 2017 6:12 PM (two minutes ago)
yup, same here. also with you on the listening approach. a song here, a song there, but i never sit down & listen to a ween album.
― “Remember,” he says, “Noddy Holder is a gangster.” (contenderizer), Wednesday, 8 March 2017 02:25 (seven years ago) link
oh wait, shit, you had mccartney in there?
― “Remember,” he says, “Noddy Holder is a gangster.” (contenderizer), Wednesday, 8 March 2017 02:26 (seven years ago) link
haha, well, just thinking of examples off the top of my head. i've heard some mccartney-esque ween that i would probably rather listen to than a lot of mccartney though.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 04:27 (seven years ago) link
a ween tribute album done by serious singer-songwriter types playing the songs straight with modern digital folk-rock production would be cool. to me.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 04:29 (seven years ago) link
Ween are one of those bands where the live recordings almost always shred the studio albums. Archive.org has a zillion live shows you can download for free, some of which have stellar sound quality. You could spend months and months going through those.
― frogbs, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 14:04 (seven years ago) link
it's funny that two burnout kids who met in typing class ended up like living a rock and roll fantasy... they really turned into an amazing live band
― global tetrahedron, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 14:19 (seven years ago) link
yea especially since they weren't exactly talented chaps to begin with. I doubt anyone who heard their early recordings was thinking "it's rough, but damn they've got potential!"
― frogbs, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 14:41 (seven years ago) link
i did! kinda. i mean i thought god/ween/satan and the pod were really ambitious but i guess that's not that early. they obviously had song-writing ability.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 15:11 (seven years ago) link
i kinda think of them as an oingo boingo i would listen to. and later a jam band i would listen to. even though i only listen occasionally on youtube. i can even imagine seeing ween on acid would be fun.
i do see weird (science) parallels. O.B. even had acoustic interludes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYfjDyGPt4g
― scott seward, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 15:14 (seven years ago) link
i have never actually listened to an oingo boingo album. did ween ever have horn sections on their later albums?
― scott seward, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 15:15 (seven years ago) link
scott you should check out the white pepper some time. it is a stone-cold kinks are the village green preservation society / who sell out-level classic
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 8 March 2017 15:16 (seven years ago) link
oh no, I'm talking about the stuff they did before that - GodWeenSatan was the culmination of like six years of writing and recording
― frogbs, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 15:20 (seven years ago) link
does the Cake cult intersect with the Ween cult at all? seems like it might.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 16:26 (seven years ago) link
was not aware there was a cake cult
― global tetrahedron, Wednesday, 8 March 2017 19:00 (seven years ago) link
there really is.
― scott seward, Thursday, 9 March 2017 00:43 (seven years ago) link
Trust me on this: all of Ween's pre-GodWeenSatan albums are TERRIBLE. But they do make you appreciate what an astonishing leap in songwriting chops they made in such a short time.
― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 9 March 2017 02:01 (seven years ago) link
which reminds me, the recently released front-to-back live recording of that album from 2001 is GREAT. don't think I'll ever listen to the studio album again.
― frogbs, Wednesday, 15 March 2017 12:57 (seven years ago) link
just stumbled upon my copy of All Request Live, I forgot how good it was. still think it's hilarious that they let the fans vote on the tracklist, who responded by filling it with a bunch of bizarre non-songs like "Pollo Asado". it's actually quite nice because practically nothing on here is part of their regular live set, other than maybe "Cover it With Gas and Set it On Fire". and the Pizza Hut jingle rules. can't believe they passed on it.
― frogbs, Thursday, 7 September 2017 15:14 (six years ago) link