― 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
― Nancy Boy (Nancy Boy), Friday, 19 November 2004 22:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― Nancy Boy (Nancy Boy), Friday, 19 November 2004 22:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Friday, 19 November 2004 22:35 (nineteen years ago) link
GodWeenSatan The Oneness 8.8The Pod 9.8Pure Guava 10.0Chocolate And Cheese 9.012 Golden Country Greats 9.7The Mollusk 10.0Painting The Town Brown 8.1White Pepper 8.3Quebec 8.6
And I suppose if they ever release a 4-CD boxed set with all the best b-sides and rare tracks, that would obviously be a 10.0.
― billstevejim, Saturday, 20 November 2004 02:25 (nineteen years ago) link
Oh shit, also..
Moistboyz III 8.3Z-Rock Hawaii 8.8
Haven't heard the first 2 Moistboyz records yet.
― billstevejim, Saturday, 20 November 2004 03:13 (nineteen years ago) link
But it's NOT a joke!! It's an honest-to-God straight-up murder ballad! Ween are honestly trying to emulate certain styles of music that they happen to enjoy! Hell, with a couple exceptions, I bet you will not laugh out loud ONCE during the entirety of Chocolate and Cheese and all the albums afterward. You want to laugh, go listen to "The Stallion Part 1" or "Nan" or "Common Bitch" or "Up on the Hill."
― Mr. Snrub, Saturday, 20 November 2004 14:04 (nineteen years ago) link
competent? dean is a great, really expressive, blues-rock guitarist, and gene is a spectacularly elastic singer, and if they tried to hide it on their records it was always plainly evident from their live shows. i haven't paid close attention in several years, but i used to love 'em partly BECAUSE of those skills.
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 13 October 2005 20:14 (eighteen years ago) link
I heard Push Th' Little Daisies and just thought it was wierd, heard Voodoo Lady and kinda liked it. For some reason I was always very suspicious of them, and I don't know why. I bought Quebec for some reason and it didn't move me very much. A year later I tried the Mollusk and it totally blew me away. I still think it's their best album. I gradually got a few more albums, and I discovered that the more albums I heard the more I liked them overall. It is very hard to get a sense of this band from only a couple of albums. A few days ago I went on a binge and bought everything I was missing, so I've been drowning in Ween. I haven't listened to anything else in about two weeks, which is something that has never happened with me. All day long at work on the ipod, all night long on the stereo. At some point, the wife is going to put a stop to this.
― Joseph Cowart (Joseph Cowart), Saturday, 12 November 2005 10:20 (eighteen years ago) link
I dunno. I originally got involved with this band in a kind of collegiate-stoner scene and sense, thanks mostly to a friend who geeked out on them more than I can ever dream to. What keeps them from every being a "joke" band -- and what I think has been spelled out by the progression of their albums -- is that no matter what kind of song they're attempting, they tend to commit to it absolutely and entirely. Often they're joking, but it's incredibly rare that they're actually parodying a sound. This is possibly why Chocolate and Cheese works well for me: it was the first moment where the really leapt beyond the fun of their recording process, and the songs managed to come out fully functional without really changing much at all. "Freedom of 76," or "Joppa Road" -- the lyrics joke (a little), but is there really anything about these songs that doesn't function really well within the styles they're adopting? And from there to, umm ... "Ocean Man?" It's only really after The Mollusk that I feel like they've dedicated themselves more than I like to their "proper" songwriting, and in the process lost a little of the imagination and breadth of the stuff before.
I'd actually say the same of a lot of the lyrics, but that's a little more complicated -- something about how a "weird" song will read as funny, intentionally off, even when it can more interestingly be read as (theoretically) serious. E.g. as a light example, what makes "Freedom of 76" so far removed from a "real" tribute to Philadelphia? (And for a heavier one, isn't it kind of fun to imagine "Mister Would You Please Help My Pony" as an actual situation and problem? Kid's pony is in mortal peril!)
Anyway yeah: it helps to try not to read "weird" as "funny," because in a lot of cases, with these guys, it's actually just wonderfully imaginative, especially when it comes to the songs and the sonics -- which are rarely half-assed "joke" performances, and are often written for total earnest effect. I'm surprised more people don't cover these songs, to be honest: I know Phish have adopted "Roses are Free" as practically theirs, but there are loads and loads of great fascinating songs beyond that kinda begging for various interpretations.
The White Album reference from before is a really terrific one -- styles and novelties thrown on out of sheer imagination, and delivered in a way that's not "kidding" but fully-committed and just incidentally fun. And if you think everyday Ween fans are freaks, then whoah Jesus you should have seen the crowds that showed up for their country tour! I have some some weird-ass people in my life, but nothing tops the country contingent at their Chicago show for that one.
― nabiscothingy, Saturday, 12 November 2005 18:49 (eighteen years ago) link
Axes: Bold as Boognish - 5.5God Ween Satan - 9Pod - 9.5Pure Guava - 7.5Chocolate & Cheese - 712 Golden Country Greats - 9Mollusk - 8White Pepper - 7Quebec - 5.5Shinola - 7
― LoneNut, Thursday, 9 February 2006 21:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― mom, Thursday, 9 February 2006 23:54 (eighteen years ago) link
flies on my...........DICK!!!
― mom, Thursday, 9 February 2006 23:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 10 February 2006 03:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Monday, 31 July 2006 17:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marmot 4-Tay: The root cause of dragon hatred among power metal bands. (marmotwo, Monday, 31 July 2006 17:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Monday, 31 July 2006 17:55 (seventeen years ago) link
Classic
― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Monday, 31 July 2006 17:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marmot 4-Tay: The root cause of dragon hatred among power metal bands. (marmotwo, Monday, 31 July 2006 17:59 (seventeen 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