Apologist Thread

[fonpr]

Steak, Jazz, Cigarettes

This was a Jarmusch movie with Tom Waits wasn't it?

[akaJudge]

I feel like I posted this somewhere else, but I'm pretty sure Tom hates everything I like.

Tom Waits, jazz, alt.country, Fight Club (I like the book much more than the movie, but who's that gonna shock?), Al Green, Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, blues....I suppose I could go on, but I shant.

[yesno]

I will see Ween every time they are in town.

I finally saw Ween for the first time (at Red Rocks, no less), and it was good but not great.  Dean Ween's guitar solos scream, but most of their "rocking" songs kind of suck.  Overall, they have a lot of shitty songs, particularly from their last several albums. The Mollusk is such a great album, but after that, they should have packed it in.  (Plus, a lot of what I liked about Ween in the first place I've discovered in the original.  Why listen to copies of ELO and Fairport Convention when the real thing exists?)  Overall they're a good band, but why they have such an obsessed fanbase is beyond me, and it's kind of insulting to the Meat Puppets to be opening for them.

It could be that Red Rocks is just too big a venue for my taste.  I saw David Byrne there and wasn't impressed either.  (Best show of the year has been Black Hollies w/ maybe 10 in the audience on a weeknight.) Also I was not on drugs.

[MC Shakespeare]

I enjoy the music of Soupjam Stevens.

[Reeleyes]

I could easily fill an entire page of this thread but let's just start with the fact that I have a Boognish tattoo and some (old) Star Wars ink as well. Maybe I'll get a best show tat in between them.

[Christina]

Steak, Jazz, Cigarettes

This was a Jarmusch movie with Tom Waits wasn't it?

No, it's the biography of Sam Fuller!

[Kid Pain]

I could easily fill an entire page of this thread but let's just start with the fact that I have a Boognish tattoo and some (old) Star Wars ink as well. Maybe I'll get a best show tat in between them.

I don't have any tattoos, but I will say that I've seen Ween at least 75 times.

I went to a Gene Ween Band show last winter and I think I may have officially checked out.

[yesno]

I could easily fill an entire page of this thread but let's just start with the fact that I have a Boognish tattoo and some (old) Star Wars ink as well. Maybe I'll get a best show tat in between them.

I don't have any tattoos, but I will say that I've seen Ween at least 75 times.

I went to a Gene Ween Band show last winter and I think I may have officially checked out.

A lot of the flithy hippies at the show really liked some of the (in my opinion) not-so-great songs like "Zoloft" and "Your Party."  I'll stand by "God Ween Satan," "The Pod," "Pure Guava" and "The Mollusk" being good albums, but they're not good to the level of supporting a whole subculture.

They went from being a funny weird band with some catchy songs, to a band that does 70s rock pastiche, to a kind of adult contemporary novelty act.

[Reeleyes]

I could easily fill an entire page of this thread but let's just start with the fact that I have a Boognish tattoo and some (old) Star Wars ink as well. Maybe I'll get a best show tat in between them.

I don't have any tattoos, but I will say that I've seen Ween at least 75 times.

I went to a Gene Ween Band show last winter and I think I may have officially checked out.

A lot of the flithy hippies at the show really liked some of the (in my opinion) not-so-great songs like "Zoloft" and "Your Party."  I'll stand by "God Ween Satan," "The Pod," "Pure Guava" and "The Mollusk" being good albums, but they're not good to the level of supporting a whole subculture.

They went from being a funny weird band with some catchy songs, to a band that does 70s rock pastiche, to a kind of adult contemporary novelty act.

I think that they were a novelty act but it afforded them the freedom to be really original and good but after the Mollusk and 12 Country Greats they started feeling the need to prove themselves as musicians and it's gone downhill a bit but I find good tracks on every album just not as many anymore.

[yesno]

Yeah, I like 12 Golden Country Greats too.  Forgot that one.

I think you're correct.  Also, they've felt the need to do songs in every genre they can think of. 

"Shamemaker" has the best Philly accent outside of Roy and the Dead Milkmen.

[Kid Pain]

I could easily fill an entire page of this thread but let's just start with the fact that I have a Boognish tattoo and some (old) Star Wars ink as well. Maybe I'll get a best show tat in between them.

I don't have any tattoos, but I will say that I've seen Ween at least 75 times.

I went to a Gene Ween Band show last winter and I think I may have officially checked out.

A lot of the flithy hippies at the show really liked some of the (in my opinion) not-so-great songs like "Zoloft" and "Your Party."  I'll stand by "God Ween Satan," "The Pod," "Pure Guava" and "The Mollusk" being good albums, but they're not good to the level of supporting a whole subculture.

They went from being a funny weird band with some catchy songs, to a band that does 70s rock pastiche, to a kind of adult contemporary novelty act.

I think the subculture started because they were doing 3 hour shows with different sets each night for a while plus hours and hours of unreleased stuff that was pretty easy to find on the internet. A good band for obsessives.

[Christina]

I think the subculture started because they were doing 3 hour shows with different sets each night for a while plus hours and hours of unreleased stuff that was pretty easy to find on the internet. A good band for obsessives.

Obsessives love bands that let you tape their shows.

I've got a similar thing about Ween as many of you on this thread ... I listened to them early on in their history, in the '90s. Same w/the BH Surfers, but I got tired of both bands. Probably around the same time I stopped doing lots of bong hits.

I had some friends a few years ago who were super into Ween, and I went to a few recent shows with them in the last couple of years. Once was really fun & it was almost nostalgic, but then the next time I went it was overrun by fratboys who threw shit at the band.

Another weird thing about Ween: other bands worship them.  It seemed like any time you read some piece on some band, especially big mainstream-y bands that fill stadiums, they'd go on and on about Ween and how we don't understand how awesome they are. They're like this generation's Zappa.

[yesno]

Well, The Mollusk is definitely one of the top albums of the 1990s.  I got into Ween after that, after thinking they were mostly a joke band.  So when people are dismissive of them I have to wonder if they've given that album a fair chance.  It has some off-putting elements (fake drama, fake psychedelic mysticism--I like that stuff though) but the songs are well put together.

(And a few songs that were really good on later albums, like Flutes of the Chi, are really songs from the Mollusk sessions.)

I just find it weird that they just got more massive throughout the 2000s, well after their creative peak.

My caveat above stands, though, I bet they'd seem better live in a club or something.  Massive, gorgeous outdoor venues are nice to look at but they don't immerse you in sound the way a dinky rock club does.

[Christina]

My caveat above stands, though, I bet they'd seem better live in a club or something.  Massive, gorgeous outdoor venues are nice to look at but they don't immerse you in sound the way a dinky rock club does.

I also liked Mollusk ... and the show I went to that was good was in a small club in Buffalo. So there you have it!

[Reeleyes]

I mostly love them for the humor. I love humor in all aspects of art. Even La Cucaracha which I think is their worst effort yet has funny songs (Object) on it that still work for me. I got into them right when Pure Guava came out (I think I was 13 or 14). They are a great live band (especially in small clubs) and they're super cool to the fans. I've seen them 5 or 6 times and hung out with them after 4 of those shows. I do like some Zappa too but mostly just the funny stuff.