The Pod

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For other uses, see POD (disambiguation).
The Pod
Ween-ThePod.jpg
Studio album by
Ween
ReleasedSeptember 20, 1991[1]
RecordedJanuary–October 1990
StudioThe Pod (Solebury Township, Pennsylvania)
Genre
Length76:40
LabelShimmy Disc
ProducerAndrew Weiss[3]
Ween chronology
GodWeenSatan: The Oneness
(1990) 		The Pod
(1991) 		Pure Guava
(1992)

The Pod is the second studio album by American rock band Ween.[4][5] It was released on September 20, 1991, by Shimmy Disc.

Music Videos[]

The Pod produced three music videos, tied with Chocolate and Cheese for the most of any Ween album to date. Videos for “Pollo Asado”, “Captain Fantasy”, and “Pork Roll Egg And Cheese” were created. These were included on a VHS Video titled Shimmy Disc Video Volume 3.[6] Shimmy Disc Video was a series of VHS Tapes created by Shimmy Disc containing Music Videos from artists who were signed to the label.

Background and production[]

The album was recorded on two tapes made by Ween from January to October 1990, at the Pod on Van Sant Road in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania. The tapes were titled the Bilboa tape and the Big Timmy Wasserman tape. Both tapes contain not only demo versions of songs on the album, but many outtakes not used on any album or tracks used on future albums. The Pod, according to Ween lore, was written under the influence of Scotchgard. However, when their fans began huffing Scotchgard, it was refuted by Gene Ween and Dean Ween themselves as being "the most slime-bag thing we could think of."[7] The Pod was remastered and reissued by Elektra Records, after the relative success of Ween albums such as Pure Guava (1992) and Chocolate and Cheese (1994).[4] Shimmy Disc released a vinyl version in 1991. The Pod is Ween's longest studio album.

Composition[]

All of the songs have a murky, sludgy quality to them, due to being recorded on a Tascam four-track cassette recorder, and many of the vocals are manipulated in strange ways. The album contains bizarre lyrical content, often attributed to the fact that Dean and Gene both came down with cases of mononucleosis during the recording of the album, as well as their notorious relationship with huffing. The song "Alone" borrows the guitar riff/melody from Robyn Hitchcock's "The Bones in the Ground".

Title and album cover[]

The album takes its name from the band's apartment where the album was recorded, which the band nicknamed "The Pod".[8] The album's cover art is a takeoff of the 1975 The Best of Leonard Cohen cover; Ween simply positioned a photo of part-time bassist Mean Ween's head (wearing a "nitrous oxide powered bong" which is sometimes mistaken for a "Scotchgard bong") over Cohen's cover art, and altered the title text and other graphics. The copy of the Leonard Cohen record that Ween used had purportedly belonged to Dean Ween's mother, Eileen Ween.

Reception & legacy[]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic3.5/5 stars[9]
Robert Christgau(dud)[10]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music2/5 stars[11]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide3/5 stars[3]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide2.5/5 stars[12]
Spin Alternative Record Guide5/10[13]

In 1993, the album was named one of the 20 best albums of 1992 by Spin.[14] Trouser Press wrote: "Less inflamed and inspired than the first album (blame, perhaps, the five cans of Scotchguard the band claims to have inhaled), The Pod lurches, howls, fuzzes and strums through sloppy creations that are mostly one hit short of a high."[15] Aphex Twin named it one of his 10 favorite albums of all time (making it one of two Ween albums on the list, the other being Pure Guava).[16] In a 1999 review of the album, The Stranger called it "excellent" and wrote that "someday, classical music students will write dissertations on The Pod."[17] Kerrang! wrote that "the electrified production on tracks like 'Dr. Rock' and 'Sketches of Winkle' is utterly unhinged, while the barking, aimless pace of 'The Stallion' (either part, really) feels like the sweaty blatherings of the most poisonous of drunks."[18]

Track listing[]

No.TitleLength
1."Strap on That Jammypac"3:03
2."Dr. Rock"3:11
3."Frank"3:46
4."Sorry Charlie"3:51
5."The Stallion (Pt. 1)"2:51
6."Pollo Asado"2:45
7."Right to the Ways and the Rules of the World"5:05
8."Captain Fantasy"3:19
9."Demon Sweat"4:11
10."Molly"4:49
11."Can U Taste the Waste?"1:39
12."Don't Sweat It"4:02
13."Awesome Sound"2:22
14."Laura"4:37
15."Boing"1:33
16."Mononucleosis"3:01
17."Oh My Dear (Falling in Love)"1:57
18."Sketches of Winkle"2:44
19."Alone"3:12
20."Moving Away"3:06
21."She Fucks Me"3:59
22."Pork Roll Egg and Cheese"3:02
23."The Stallion (Pt. 2)"4:35
Total length:1:16:40
  • "The Stallion (Pt. 1)" was not listed on the covers of original Shimmy Disc (CD, tape, double vinyl) releases, although the song is present as track #5.

Liner notes[]

From the Shimmy-Disc CD:

"Recorded by Dean and Gene Ween on a Tascam four-track cassette recorder between January and October 1990. All songs recorded at the Pod, where we lived for a year and 10 months (with our cat Mandee). The Pod was scenically located on Van Sant Road in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania. Our apartment was a haven for flies because it sits in the middle of a horse farm. In the time this album was completed, we filled up 3,600 hours of tape, and inhaled 5 cans of Scotchgard. This album was then produced and mixed by Andrew Weiss (our pal) at the Zion House of Flesh, Hopewell, New Jersey. Straight to DAT Mang. Mean Ween played the bass on "Alone" and that's him on the cover doin' up some Scotchguard powered bongs. We got evicted on October 1, 1991. But Dave Ayers says he's gonna help us out. Cover and art designs by Logarithms."

Personnel[]

Ween
Additional musicians

References[]

  1. ^ "Ween the Pod | Ween Discography | Ween.Net". Ween.net. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  2. ^ "Heather Phares. "The Pod"". Allmusic. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1999. p. 1219.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Goldstein, A. H. (September 20, 2011). "Ween's The Pod turns twenty years old today". Westword.
  5. ^ Pappademas, Alex (May 30, 2012). "Requiem for a Ween".
  6. ^ {{Cite web|url=| https://www.discogs.com/Various-Shimmy-Disc-Video-Volume-3/master/1005992
  7. ^ Earles, Andrew (September 15, 2014). Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1996. Voyageur Press. ISBN 9780760346488 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ Buckley, Peter (February 15, 2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. ISBN 9781843531050 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ Phares, Heather. "Ween: The Pod". AllMusic. Retrieved 2018-09-26.
  10. ^ "Robert Christgau: CG: Ween". www.robertchristgau.com.
  11. ^ Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Volume 8: MUZE. p. 570.CS1 maint: location (link)
  12. ^ Sarig, Roni (2004). "Ween". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon & Schuster. pp. 864–65. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  13. ^ Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. ISBN 9780679755746.
  14. ^ "Ween, The Pod (Shimmy-Disc) SPIN". www.spin.com. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  15. ^ "Ween". Trouser Press. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  16. ^ "Perfect Sound Forever- interviewee's favorite music". www.furious.com. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  17. ^ Heimlich, Adam. "WEEN". The Stranger. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  18. ^ "11 of the best albums inspired by drugs". Kerrang!.
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