Pure Guava

9.5/10

  Depending on where you're coming from this is either one of the awesomest or most irritating albums ever.  When I first listened to it I probably fell into the latter category.  The only song I remotely liked at first was Sarah, as it's the closest thing to traditional sounding music on here and it's actually kind of pretty.  The rest of it sounded like noise with various annoying voices singing over the top.  There's no doubt these are Frankenstein mutants of songs and it's kind of crazy that this was released on a major label.  It's even crazier when you think some record executive signed them to said major label based on their previous album The Pod.  Apparently this was recorded at the same time as The Pod.  In fact it could almost be looked at as songs that didn't make the cut for The Pod, but now they've been given some sort of major label production polish that makes them sound even weirder.

  The early 90's really was an insane time as far as underground bands scoring major label record contracts.  I guess after Nirvana hit it big and upset the established order of things, record companies had no clue what the kids wanted and thus scrambled to sign every band that was remotely "alternative."  Hence Pure Guava coming out on Elektra records.  They even scored a bit of a hit with Push th' Little Daisies.

  So anyway I can't say I was initially a fan of this.  It was kind of a chore to sit through and it sort of seemed like it was weird simply for the sake of being weird.  But then when I was college and beginning to mess around with drugs and alcohol a little bit I came back to this.  I kind of put it on just for fun after getting really high for one of my first times.  All of a sudden I "got" this album in a major way.  It was almost like hearing music for the first time, or hearing a completely new kind of music.  All of those songs that seemed like pointless noise suddenly revealed themselves to have purpose.  Mourning Glory which had previously appeared to be nothing more than a lengthy mess of irritating feedback with a go nowhere semi-story about some pumpkins became the most amazingly brilliant thing I'd ever heard.  I remember having this distinct image of an electric starfish piercing my head with its arms as I listened to the song.  It was kind of intense and even painful but in an astonishing way.  And that story about the pumpkins became strangely meaningful and hilarious.  Long story short, my mind was blown.

  Now you could easily just dismiss this as being due to drugs and how all music sounds better when you're high, and to an extent you'd be correct.  I think Pure Guava definitely benefits from not being sober.  But it does so in a way that's above and beyond a lot of other music I've heard.  I'm doubtlessly inflating the score of this album due to both nostalgia and because it introduced me to the concept of music sounding different when you're high.  Lots of people have probably had lots of different albums fill that role for them and thus those albums will hold a special place in their hearts.  But Pure Guava really is some freaking deliciously out there brilliant music.  And the best part was once I realized that I could enjoy it without having to be high.  It was like the door had been unlocked and now I understood it.  On some level it changed the way I listened to music from that point on.  So yeah, I'm always going to have some bias towards this album.

  That said, some of this rules harder than other parts of it, but I think every track "works."  I dig opener Little Birdy a lot and The Stallion Pt. 3 is seriously whacked out in the best possible way.  Big Jilm is oddly catchy and hilarious at the same time.  I really do picture some big old hillbilly or something and the weird deep voice they use sells it.  The image kind of cracks me up.

  Oddly enough Push th' Little Daisies, despite being the "hit" off the album might be one of my least favorite tracks on here.  I like it.  It's once again catchy in a strange way, but it doesn't touch the bizarre awesomeness of Touch My Tooter or some of the other songs I've previously mentioned.

  Some of the other tracks here definitely seem like stoned jokes, although sometimes brilliantly so.  Reggaejunkiejew is driven by a memorable synth line and contains some really cool strange noises, even as it consists of lyrics like "Fuck you reggaejunkiejew" over and over.  I suppose it could be deemed offensive, but I've heard it's about a particular annoying person that rubbed Gene Ween, who happens to be Jewish, the wrong way.

  Elsewhere Hey Fat Boy (Asshole) is kind of simplistic and crass, but also kind of funny and catchy.  And at less than two minutes long it doesn't wear out its welcome.  Loving U Through It All kind of sounds like they were making it up as they recorded... like maybe they agreed on a few lyrics they would sing in advance, but then they don't always hit the same lyrics at the same time.  It's still listenable somehow.  That's one of the coolest things about this album.  There are probably a few songs that were being "written" simultaneously as they were being recorded.  Some of the songs have noticeable mistakes or the guys start laughing or something in the middle.  You can even hear one of them say "You fucked it up again!" in the middle of one of the songs.  Yet somehow it all works.  At least within the twisted, warped logic of Pure Guava it does.  Plus the mistakes, laughter, and chatter all just add to the feeling that this was probably a lot of fun for Gene and Dean to make.

  I probably wouldn't recommend this as the first Ween album to listen to, unless you're a stoner who's into weird music.  They definitely have other albums that are more accessible and easier on the ears.  But this is still a really cool album if you can get your head around it and it'll always be one of my favorites.  This is probably the last really weird Ween album.  They would stay plenty strange, but as they recruited a full band and began to write songs that were more conventionally musical and professionally produced they changed quite a bit.  In a lot of ways they probably changed for the better, but they never sounded like Pure Guava again.  So it remains an essential document of the early Ween sound. 

The Pod

8.5/10

  Okay I'm just going to come out and say that this was a damn hard album to get into.  The songs are dark, murky, and slow as hell and there are a lot of them on here.  Additionally the vocals have pretty much been messed with on every single track, often through tape manipulation.  They are either sped up, or as is often the case, slowed down.  Even the backing tracks seem to have been slowed down on many songs.  And the subject matter tends to be really weird.  There's a whole running theme throughout several of the songs of pork roll egg and cheese on a kaiser bun.  It's there to such an extent that this is almost a concept album about pork roll egg and cheese.  This could very well be the weirdest Ween album and that's saying something.  At the first listen it's pretty much impenetrable.  There is humor here but it's not quite as overtly goofy as it is on some of their other albums.  It definitely took me a little while to get to like this one.

  But the thing is once you do manage to wrap your brain around it there are a ton of really good songs on here.  It takes a little effort on the listener's part to get a handle on this thing, but there is a reward for putting the work in.  Looking at it now almost every song has something to recommend it, and many of them are flat out fantastic.  Plus it's more diverse than it initially seems.

  The popular theory is that Gene and Dean had a nasty case of mono and were also huffing scotch guard as they recorded this and that's why everything's so murky and weird.  The song Mononucleosis seems to lend credence to part of this as it would appear to be a somewhat factual account of one of the guys suffering from mono and the other guy offering his sympathy.  It's a nice showing of friendship and solidarity and it's actually got a hell of a melody to go along with it.  The scotch guard huffing part seems to have been a hoax, although it also seems to be reinforced by the cover, which is worth mentioning in and of itself.  It's quite simply the cover to Leonard Cohen's greatest hits album, with a picture of one of their friends with a scotch guard bong mask pasted right over Cohen's head.  It's not too subtle and it's not like they recreated the picture.  They used the original artwork and just plastered another head on top of it.  I read somewhere that Leonard Cohen was aware of it and thought it was funny, which is pretty cool.

  Some of the more accessible tunes on here include Pork Roll Egg and Cheese, which is probably the first song I was able to really embrace, because it's got an undeniable catchy pop melody, even as the subject matter remains weird and silly.

 Sorry Charlie was fairly easy to grasp as well.  It's a pretty straightforward song with some fairly relatable lyrics.  They seem to kind of muffle the sound on it a little though, so it seems really quiet at first.  It does increase a bit in volume as it goes along.  It might be the closest thing here to a normal song.

  There's also some good rockers on here in the form of Dr. Rock and Captain Fantasy.  Both of these tracks were staples of their live show late into their career and they lended themselves well to the live format.  But they're both pretty awesome as they exist here.  Sketches of Winkle actually rocks pretty hard, too.  Just thought I'd mention that.

  Elsewhere the tape manipulation-heavy Molly is one of the craziest songs I've ever heard, especially with its numerous pauses that trick you into thinking the song is over, before it kicks right back in again.  Pollo Asado is goofy as hell, but surprisingly listenable considering it consists of a couple of dudes who sound extremely stoned ordering Mexican food and screwing up the money transactions.  It's oddly funny especially since they make no attempt to change the voice of what is presumably several different customers.  I don't know if that's some sort of commentary on our consumer culture or if it's just drugged out ridiculousness.  Maybe a little of both.  It would seem like a track that would get old really quick, but I actually still enjoy listening to it.

  I honestly like almost every song on here, but I do want to give a shout out to Frank, Laura, Right to the Ways and the Rules of the World, Alone, and She Fucks Me.  Heck, I even dig the two Stallion songs, although they're pretty damn weird.

  At the end of the day I have to say this album kicks ass, but I sure as hell wouldn't recommend it to someone who's new to Ween.  I probably wouldn't play it around your mom either, unless she's a cool mom into weird music.  It's just too damn out there and I can see it being off putting for sure.  But once you kind of get what Ween's all about you're going to absolutely want to hear this one.  It's a really warped version of rock and pop music, and it's pretty unique.  It's definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I for one am glad these bizarre mutant songs exist.

God Ween Satan: The Oneness

9.0/10

  I just want to come out and admit from the getgo that Ween is one of my all time favorite bands.  I can't really be too objective about them because I just like them too damn much.  I genuinely think they're an awesome band, but I've found that outsiders to the cult of the Boognish don't always seem to see their amazingness quite as apparently as I do.  Maybe they're a little too weird, vulgar, or silly for some people.  But for me the fact remains that they are phenomenal songwriters, they're diverse as hell, Gener is an awesome singer, Deaner is one hell of a guitar player, they're experimental, they can pull off other band's styles better than the bands they're cribbing from, and they're pretty damn funny a lot of the time.  Plus they seem like they'd be a lot of fun to hang out with.  For the record I would say pretty much the same things about the Beatles.

  GodWeenSatan was their first "officially released" album.  They'd been making limited release cassette only albums for awhile before this, but those are mostly of interest to die-hard fans only.  In their early days they consisted of two friends who posed as fake brothers Gene and Dean Ween.  They recorded on 4-track cassettes at home presumably high on drugs and tended to utilize drum machines and other "fake" instrumentation.  They would recruit a full band later on, but Gene and Dean would always remain the heart of the band and some fans prefer these early days.  I, for one, am glad of the existence of early Ween.  It's much more "brown" to use the band's terminology.  I'm also glad their later more polished and accessible stuff exists, too.  

 A lot of what makes Ween "Ween" is already on display here.  There are goofy jokes, lots of different styles, some really awesome songs mixed with some weird little experiments, a fondness for messing with the vocals via effects or tape manipulation, and some killer guitar parts.  Also lots of screaming and curse words.  I can actually understand this album being a little off-putting to the uninitiated.  The humor's sometimes kind of crude and frat boy-ish and the screaming could rub you the wrong way if you're not in the mood for it.  But one of the things that's great about Ween on all of their albums is that once the shock wears off from the joke or the bad language, there are solid if not amazing songs underneath to be discovered.  It's one of the reasons why they are not the "joke band" they're often accused of being.  They're a completely serious band that happens to utilize a lot of goofy humor.  And for some reason humor in music tends to be marginalized and looked down upon.  You can take your "serious" self-pitying emo crybaby band.  I'll take Ween.

  They really don't hold anything back right from the start.  Things get kicked off in full obnoxious fashion with You Fucked Up, in which Gener screams the title along with numerous other vulgar insults.  Now this could easily come across as misogynistic, mean-spirited, annoying, or kind of dumb.  But the thing is Ween is taking the piss out of this kind of music.  There are bands out there who sing stuff like this for real and mean it.  Ween is poking fun of this kind of attitude while simultaneously rocking out with a kick-ass guitar part.

  There are several other songs that kind of fit into the same sort of vein as You Fucked Up, but there are also a couple of Prince odes, a super twee love song, some faux gospel music, some pretty acoustic music, a 19 second long dead-on impression of Bruce Springsteen, and some just plain weirdness.

  At 26 tracks (29 if you have the reissue) and over 70 minutes this is undoubtedly a lot to take in in one sitting.  Especially nowadays when everyone's attention spans are shorter.  I don't often sit down and listen to the whole thing anymore, but there are some major highlights here.  Birthday Boy is just a really phenomenal song.  The melody is fantastic in that sends-chills-down-your-spine kind of way and I dig the sound they get on the guitar and the choice to not use any kind of drums pays off as well.  Plus there are actual real-world relatable lyrics on display, something Gene in particular would explore more and to good effect as time went on.

 Another one I really like is Marble Tulip Juicy Tree.  I don't really have a clue what it's about, but it's catchy and has a genuinely awesome guitar solo.  I'm not even a big guitar solo type of guy but Deaner's just tearing it up here.  I even dig the weird spoken word bit at the end.

  I could probably go on a lot more about this album, and it's not even my favorite of theirs.  They were really young when they made it and it sounds like they had a super fun time.  The enthusiasm is infectious.  It's plenty weird, but it's not even close to the weirdest Ween album.  And if you don't like this one, you still shouldn't write them off because they sound completely different from album to album and even song to song.  They're Ween, damn it, and they rule.

Nanobots

7.0/10

  Thirty years into their career They Might Be Giants are still cranking out pretty solid albums.  Once again I haven't had the chance to live with this one as much as their earlier stuff, nor did it reach me at an age when I probably would have been most susceptible to its charms, so I can't help but rate it below their classic output.  Yet, I don't see anything to dislike here.

  Granted there's a tiny bit of TMBG by numbers feel to this.  They have the by now obligatory educational song in the form of Tesla and the series of short quirky songs can't help but feel like a slight retread of Fingertips.  But at this point in their career do we really want them to make radical departures in their sound or approach?  I don't really.  They have their formula down and it consists of ingredients that I enjoy.  Catchy songwriting and slightly off the wall subject matter are what I expect from this band, and once again, they deliver.

  I'm not sure if there's a major standout track here, but as usual they start off with a strong song in You're On Fire which features a melody that gets stuck in the old noggin.  The title track is also pretty catchy, which is something this band has always been good at.  It's nice to see that skill hasn't abandoned them this far into their lifespan as a band.

   Call You Mom is deliciously silly and weird with its line about dressing in a sailor suit and calling someone Mom because they remind the narrator of his mom.

  Black Ops has that familiar TMBG feel to it to such a degree that I was really surprised I hadn't heard it before.  I'm not saying it rips off any song in particular, just that I could have sworn it was already on one of their earlier albums.

  As I mentioned earlier, I don't know this album inside out like I do with their older ones.  I could see my rating going up or down a point with more familiarity, but probably not much more than that.  What I hear is another solid TMBG.  It's honestly surprisingly strong considering how long they've been at this.  I don't think they're done for yet.  They may not particularly innovate anything but if they continue to put albums out every few years as solid as this I'll keep listening.

Join Us

7.5/10

  Somehow the release of this one escaped my notice at first.  I thought I was pretty in tune to knowing when albums were coming out these days, but I didn't find out about Join Us until almost a year after it came out.  Talk about dropping the ball.  I don't remember a lot of fanfare accompanying the release of this album.  I don't recall reading any reviews of it or seeing any sorts of advertisements.  In a weird sort of way it was cool because it sort of took me back to the pre-internet days when I was surprised to discover John Henry had been released.

  So I was behind the game a bit in listening to this.  At first it kind of didn't make much of an impression, but as I've been listening to this more it makes me happy to say this is a really solid album.  They're once again giving you a lot of songs for your dollar at 18 tracks, and they seem to have really returned to form here.  I don't detect any obvious stinkers, while there are some damn catchy tunes on here that could have easily fit on their earlier albums.

  They've honestly always opened their albums strongly and this one is no exception.  I think the first four tracks are quite good, and it doesn't even drop off much after that.  Who would have thought they could be this solid so late in their career?  Especially as they'd already gone through a bit of a rough patch.

  There are plenty of their trademark quirky lyrics and catchy melodies on display.  2082 is an odd but amusing tale about traveling into the distant future and somehow finding that you're still alive.  Meanwhile When Will You Die is quite upbeat for what amounts to some pretty dark subject matter.  They've definitely paired catchy happy melodies with dark lyrics dating all the way back to their debut, so this fits in well with their canon.

  As much as this album is a throwback in some ways to their old days, they still manage to try a few new tricks on here.  Spoiler Alert features both Johns singing two different vocal melodies at the same time.  It works surprisingly well and you can kind of focus on one, the other, or both and almost hear three different songs.  Dog Walker utilizes some pitch-shifted vocals in a manner somewhat reminiscent of Ween.  The Lady and the Tiger features a spoken word verse over an almost hip-hop beat.  That's the kind of thing that could have been a disaster, but they manage to pull it off.

  I've been listening to this album more in preparation of reviewing it and I have to say that overall I've been pretty impressed with it.  I could imagine bumping the rating up a little.  As it stands I'm just not as familiar with this album as the early stuff because it hasn't been around long enough for me to have the same level of attachment.  I think I can safely say that if this album had come out in the 90's I would have loved it just as much as their other albums from that era.  It's good, man.

The Else

7.0/10

  I'm tempted to call this a comeback album.  I definitely like it more than the last two They Might Be Giants albums.  I think I was still slightly down on them at the time this was released, and while it didn't necessarily knock my socks off, I was pleasantly surprised with the results.  There's nothing on this album that approaches the obnoxiousness of Mr. Xcitement, which if you haven't been able to figure out by now was a song I just really didn't like.  What's more I don't think any of the songs here are boring either.  They all have something to recommend them, albeit some more than others.  On top of that there are some really excellent songs to be found here.

  Looking back I have to say TMBG have always been good at kicking off their albums and this one is no exception.  I'm Impressed is upbeat and catchy and gets things started on the right note.  Take Out the Trash isn't my favorite track on here, but it's not bad by any means.  It almost has a little bit of a funk vibe to it, but it's not quite as clever or catchy as their very best stuff.  But then, that's a pretty high standard.

  The next two tracks are pretty killer and really cement this for me as a return to form.  Upside Down Frown gives me a right-side up smile and I especially like Climbing the Walls.  This is probably my favorite song on the album, and maybe my favorite song they've released since Factory Showroom.  With the possible exception of Hopeless Bleak Despair from Mink Car.  That song's been stuck in my head for a few days since I wrote that review.

 (The) Else-where (get it?  The Else?  I know, it's obvious and bad.) Bee the Bird of the Moth is kind of strange lyrically.  Not that that's anything unexpected from this band, but I'm really not sure exactly what they're going on about.  But it's got an oddly infectious melody that guarantees its status as a keeper.

  I also like The Cap'm, which is both catchy and funny.  I can't help but crack up at the notion of a guy who insists on being called the Captain (or cap'm in this case) but doesn't drive a boat.  I also like the part where he jumps on the notion that he thinks he heard someone say they like his hat and accepts the compliment.  Somehow they've managed to leave some doubt as to whether anyone actually gave such a compliment, but he's ready to hear it anyway.  I can totally picture this dude and he's funny.

  The other highlight for me is The Mesopotamians.  Apparently chronicling the adventures of an unknown band comprised of members hailing from an ancient civilization, it's goofy and catchy in the best possible way.

  Most of the rest of the songs here range from not bad to pretty dang good but not especially worth singling out.  I definitely would rate this a notch below their classic albums, but it stands as a solid latter day TMBG album and shows that this band isn't finished yet.  And that's pretty good news.

The Spine

5.5/10

  I have a confession to make.  I haven't really given this album a fair shake over the years.  I don't know if I had a bit of residual disappointment from Mink Car or what, but I wasn't even all that excited to hear that a new TMBG album was out at the time this was released.  I think maybe I also felt a little like I had started to "outgrow" this band.  They were starting to do children's albums around this time and my musical interests were starting to evolve elsewhere.  So I gave it a bit of a cursory listen.  It didn't seem to have many tracks that stood out and I kind of just dismissed it as the worst They Might Be Giants album yet.  I was starting to get ready to write this band off completely.  This was somewhat misguided of me, but this remains one of my least listened to TMBG albums.  As such. my opinion of this is more subject to change than on the albums prior to this, which my feelings about are pretty cemented.

  I've been listening to this album a bit more closely during the process of writing these reviews and there are definitely some good songs on here.  It actually starts off pretty strong.  The opener Experimental Film is catchy as hell and could have easily fit on one of their earlier albums.  Memo to Human Resources and Wearing a Raincoat are solid tracks.  Thunderbird is a good tune.  Museum of Idiots is another very strong track.  Even the couple of Spine tracks aren't bad even though they're only about 30 seconds long.  Heck, I even like Some Crazy Bastard Wants To Hit Me even though it features what kind of sounds like autocorrect or something on the vocals, which is normally something I don't enjoy very much.

  The latter half of the album has still kind of failed to make much of an impression on me up to this point.  I'm open to the idea that some of those songs might reveal themselves to me.  As such I might just revise the rating of this one up over time.  I still don't feel like it stands up to their classic albums like Lincoln or Flood.  I feel it's more on par with Mink Car, although it doesn't contain anything as unpleasant as Mr. Xcitement.  But there are a few songs that are slightly boring, which is something I really couldn't say about their earlier albums.  I will say that a lot of my issues with this album are just on me.  It's not the Spine, it's me.