Hurricane Relief

The few long-time followers of this blog surely know of my affinity for Ween, Moistboyz and pretty much anything Mickey "Dean Ween" Melchiondo has contributed his considerable talents to. In addition, his expertise as a fisherman and undying devotion to his home town and east coast shoreline is nothing short of an already cool musician keeping it totally fucking real. Sadly, friends and family of his were directly affected by the Hurricane Sandy disaster of 2012 (some significantly) and things are still far from fully recovered. Hosting two benefit shows in 2012 and 2013 under the moniker Dean Wean & Friends (mostly local pals from Moistboyz, Ween and Chris Harford's Band Of Changes), Mickey has truly gotten his feet wet and hands dirty trying to help the community which gave so much to him. He can tell you about it better than I can here. He recently released a "best" of live mp3 containing choice cuts from the two shows - you got some Bowie songs, a Dead cover, even The Carpenters as well as "She Fucks Me" and some other Boognish favorites. Enjoy.

Take Me Down

OK, OK, time for a change of pace...

Back in 1992, Princeton native Chris Harford and his band the First Rays Of The New Riding Sun (Hendrix influence anyone?) was about to hit it big. His debut album Be Headed was dropping on Elektra Records and with that comes all the riches and royalty a major-label musician expects to imbibe. Twenty years and eight indie albums later, most of the world outside of New Jersey still has yet to be introduced to the man who called his debut album a "major label record which vanished into the system like the black hole of the industry will do to so many a band. Someday there will be some great jams that will emerge from that black hole." Remember what the music world in 1992 was... without a supporting video, Be Headed was dead on arrival. Yet Harford forged ahead, convincing Elektra to sign Ween (the boys Boognish were only too happy to contribute voice and guitar to his debut record - other guest appearances include Richard Thompson, The Proclaimers, and Toshi Reagon) and emerging post-contract as a songwriter with more ideas then most major labels are comfortable with - an guitarist who can pick up fresh with other artists to create music spanning genres. For me, Be Headed is like a pistachio: hard open and close; soft inside. The opener "Raise The Roof" is a tight track of bluesy rock and the dénouement "Sing, Breathe And Be Merry" is a touching, harmonic revelry in optimism. Completely opposite of most of the shit I tend to listen to, the rest of the album works, albeit somewhat disjointedly but fuck it, I dig it. Check out what Chris is doing here. Enjoy.

Sing, Breathe

 
Currently watching: The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, And Her Lover

Currently listening to: ABACABB Survivalist

Live Shellfish

Another oddity from the brothers boognish, a live jam from July 15, 1991 playing as the Green Lipped Mussels. There seems to be some ambiguity between Ween fans as to the true moniker of the band; what little info I did find seems to suggest there already existed a jam band called the Green Lipped Mussels (composed of Dreiwitz, Guzda, Di Gesu and Harford) and the addition of Gene and Dean technically morphed the whole thing into the Jimmy Wilson Group (supported by the fact that everyone calls each other "Jim" during the gig). Regardless of what you want to call them, the guys on stage that hot Monday night two decades ago were Gene and Dean playing with Dave Dreiwitz (bass, duh), Matt Guzda (drums), Greg Di Gesu (guitar) and Chris Harford (guitar, vocals). Bassosaurus Andrew Weiss guest stars during Ween's "The Stallion Pt. 3". Recorded at New Brunswick, NJ's famous Court Tavern, the Mussels rip through a bunch of covers, Ween tunes, Harford tunes and Mussel originals with the same tenacity and humor you'd find in any Aaron and Mickey performance. My guess behind their pseudonym is this was some unannounced/surprise/private show for friends and for whatever reason (record label) they couldn't advertise themselves as "Ween". Deaner called the band "a white version of Kool And The Gang" and they supposedly reunited in 2009 for a couple shows with Harford (whether they actually played as the 'Mussels is anyone's guess though). With all that being said, my only gripe with this recording is the crappy mp3s. I originally pulled them from some random FTP site nearly a decade ago so the fact they are 128kbps isn't all that surprising but there is a LOT of hiss and compression noise, even for a bootleg. It doesn't take that much away from the performance but fair warning. I also discovered a CD cover I created way back in the day that I think looks pretty cool. It's included in PDF format with the music file.

8/20/14 update: A solid reupload with the most complete recording of the show I could find - culled from old Lostwave mp3's, FLACs from archive.org and a few other sources. Sadly the lossy limitations are still evident but it sounds as good as it probably ever will. I also updated the above post with some more factual info. Enjoy.

Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim and Jim

Currently watching: Redacted
Currently listening to: Electric Wizard Black Masses