Ween - The Pod

The more you listen to albums like these, the less interested you would be in pursuing any kind of chemical stimultants, depressants and hallucingens.

The Pod fits in the group of "strangest albums ever existed", even for a group known for going into the deep end of creativity in that weird high-brow low-brow way. Reportedly fueled by Scotchguard (which the band has refuted in doing, although it was reported that they witnessed other people doing it) but more realistically a four-track tape machine, a collection of drum machines, various effect pedals, guitars and other assortments (and an unexpected case of getting mono), Ween created an album that demonstrates their ecletic tastes, a command of genre and a deliberate command of insanity.

Its charm - or some its turn-off - the deliberate distortion. Years after this album, Ween would play some of these songs but yet give it a normal rendition. Here pitches are bent, guitar solos are deliberately out of whack with anything related to the song (the guitar lick at the end of "Laura" is an example), effects are used to their extreme (flangers, distortion, rototary/Leslie, chorus, fuzz) and the vocals are either too high or too low (courtesy of tape speed). It is as if the recording is deliberately meant to be bad, when compared to a polished and refined production one is accustomed to any group other than Ween (or any other creative oddball group).

So is it meant to irritate your ears? Perhaps. More than anything, it should make you laugh (especially if you have a musical sense of humor). Yes they like their Boognish, their pork roll egg and cheese and their other bathroom humor moments. But to say that they just do humor that would make any 12 year old laugh limits their capabilities. Anyone with an understanding of music would appreciate their musical humor ("Dr. Rock," "Captain Fantasy" and "Sketches of Winkle" has a Spinal Tap aura) and will be laughing with them during "Right to the Ways and the Rules of the World."

In fact, their point of having fun is made very clear on the first track... a song built completely on a neverending cymbal roll and fast guitar strum (usually signaling the end of a song performed live) occasionally interrupted by a sharp snare attack and then starting again. If you are laughing by the 30 second mark of that 3 minute "anti-climax," then chances are that you'll get the rest of the fun and creative joke.