"We're Ween!"

Those lovable chaps Ween have been tinkering around in the studio for a while now in preparation for their upcoming album, recently reported to be called La Cucaracha (ew!). It’s unclear whether or not the five track The Friends EP represents a sampling of what we can expect from their much anticipated new tunage, or whether they’re just goofing around and spitting out this little EP to assuage our simmering expectations. I’m going to vote (and pray that I’m correct) for the latter, because as the carefree nature of this work suggests, with this here album they seem to have just been fucking around. Not that this is abnormal for those rapscallions Dean and Gene — whose efforts I’d liken to teenage hooligans messing around with expensive equipment and magically ending up with talent-infused gems — but rather the playful tone throughout makes the EP reek of ironic studio fun. The innate cheesyness of the cover further cements this feeling, as we’re presented with formless stick figures brandishing the colors of the Pride rainbow and hanging out casually in a random, deserted field. Ween are masters of what they do, and indeed they’re one of my most favorite bands ever, so I’m content to take this as a blithe afternoon frolic rather than dismiss the material coldly.

The EP is an experiment in five different musical genres, and while this sort of dabbling and mastery of many forms of song is something to be applauded and is indeed definitive of Ween’s output, here it’s all just corny as hell. The first song, “Friends,” is a jumpy techno number that calls out to those playful blokes on the cover, and the audience in general, to come join the crazy fucking around, exclaiming “Do you want me as your special friend? ‘Cause you’re the friend that I’ve been searching for.” This straightforward techno jam certainly tackles a new genre for Ween — if you ask me, I’d say they’ve been listening to a little too much Blümchen, Germany’s pop sensation. The electronic madness continues on “I Got to Put the Hammer Down,” which sounds more like a Ween song I’d expect but is still ripe with synthy and robotic experimentation.

Next we move on to Reggae and then Mambo, with “King Billy” and “Light me Up.” The former again sounds more familiar to the Ween-tuned ear, and playfully evokes a latter day citizen and his dealings with an overlordly king. This “King Billy” and the warped callouts of his name hearken back to the “Billy” of The Mollusk’s “Polka Dot Tail,” which to this day makes me laugh aloud. “Light me Up,” the catchy dance hit with the sounds of a large Latin band providing the backup, seems like themewise it may be a rumination on, gasp, drug use. Those crazy kids!

Winding down with the terribly cheesy ballad “Slow Down Boy,” Ween seem to have had a good bit of fun messing about in the studio, but sadly they’ve not created any smash hits. The somewhat generic and overproduced machine sound of this EP take something away from the experience, but I don’t doubt that in a live setting, some of these tunes might be a good time. Mainly, it seems as if the fellows Ween were simply fiddling around one long afternoon before buckling down and creating their next full-length. While I do praise these dudes for weaving more genres into the eclectic quilt that is their backlog, gee, I really hope that La Cucaracha is a mind blower.