Today's song will also be accompanied with a special guest: A cover performed by Ween during the production of The Pod.
A common noun used to describe Ween is "brown." In the context of Ween, brown can be defined as: "(a noun used) to refer to the inherent "Ween-ness" of something, usually something lo-fi, terrible, but awesome in its terribly low fidelity."
The appeal of brownness for me has two components. First, Gene Ween and Dean Ween are very talented musicians, so anything they produce is going is to have some thought and skill behind it. I would like to expand on this point more, but I don't, you know, really understand music well-enough to analyze its technical aspects in depth.
Second, the browner songs in Ween's catalog have a strong do-it-yourself feel. This does not necessarily influence the quality of the song, but the idea of two guys fooling around with whatever equipment is available and making music has a strong element of authenticity. Despite having no musical talent, in high school and college I would often participate in impromptu musical performances.* Even though the performances were horrible to anyone except my closest friends, there was a unique energy that only existed at the time of the performance. Brown Ween tracks, such as the one below, capture this unique energy (I think the Lo-fi sound quality helps here), and in that sense allows them to be terrible in a very good way.
*One of the performances was a cover of 'Stairway to Heaven' that involved me singing and a friend if mine playing an acoustic guitar. Ween's 'Close My Eyes Forever' reminds me of that.
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