Ween

August 1 - 8, 1 9 9 6 [Off the Record]

**1/2 Ween

12 GOLDEN COUNTRY GREATS

(Elektra)
The title is typical Ween: the "12 golden country greats" are all Ween originals, but there you have it: quirky, by turns brilliant and annoying, or both at once. Here Gene and Dean Ween have recruited Nashville session musicians and producer/eclectic popster Ben Vaughn to provide genuine country twang, heartache, and inebriated spunk. In the spirit of "Take This Job and Shove It," "Piss Up a Rope" is a catchy, scatological, juvenile country anthem about leaving a bad relationship. "Help Me Scrape the Mucus Off My Brain" is a sicko humorous take on the ways alcoholism tests love's endurance. The disc's more novel novelty items are "Powder Blue," offering country-ditty random impressions of Muhammad Ali, and "Fluffy," a parody of never-ending alterna-ballads about absolutely nothing at all. As always, you have to ask whether Ween are serious or just study-hall dorks with a recording contract. But the country genre at least offers them a venue for their wide-ranging parodies. And they can be pretty hilarious.
-- Dana Barnes