Ween- Caesar (Quebec Demos)

Ween's guitarist, Mickey Melchiondo aka Dean Ween, uploaded most of the demos, about 2 hours worth of music, from their 2003 record Quebec, posting them on facebook for about 10 minutes before taking the link down. Ween have a track record of providing unreleased music to their fans, Craters of the Sac being the prime example, and many demos from their other records are floating around the infernalnet. Some of these demo tracks are throwaways and some real gems, "Kim Smoltz", "Seconds", "Short Span Of Attention" representing the latter. The Caesar Demos is much more hit than miss. There's a vintage Prince homage, "Ambrosia Parsley", a highway drivin' pop ditty sung by Dean, "Linda (The Sexy Dancer)", a bluesy bar-burner "That Man (From The Flatlands)", "Love Come Down (9-11-01)", A Zeppelin-esque psych tune, wherein Gene Ween repeats the title's lyrics as a descending and rising accompaniment, that encapsulates a lot of Quebec's overall mood and aesthetic, "She Caught My Fancy", a sweet, straight-forward ballad with just Gener and acoustic guitar, plus all of the Quebec songs in demo form, sans "The Argus" and "Fucked Jam". This is a must have for any serious Ween fan but it should entertain casual listeners equally as well. Below are Mickey's "liner" notes:


ween-caesar (we were calling this record that until the last moment when we decided to change the title to "quebec")

well what can i say about this here, lemme see. the first thing that comes to mind is that all the while we were doing this we still had claude coleman on drums, he eventually got into a major car wreck and wasn't around when it finally came time to make the "real" record. instead the drum duties fell on me, josh freese, and sim cain for a couple of tunes. almost all of this was recorded at our beach house in holgate, nj onto 16 track tape. a tiny bit of it was recorded in the garage behind aaron's house in pt. pleasant, pa. some of it was recorded in the spare bedroom of my house in new hope. most of the tunes are just me and aaron, with the two of us playing everything, with me on drums. the songs with claude, dave, and glenn are pretty obvious. on just a few tunes we took what you hear here and cleaned them up and had andrew weiss mix them for the record after some overdubs. dave sings on "it's gonna be a long night", this was days before he had surgery to remove polyps in his throat and his voice was really rough so we figured he was the guy for the job. This isn't even all of the tunes that we ended up choosing from, just the ones i happened to burn to cd before we drove home from the beach every week. hope you dig it for what it is.

-mickey

Buy this record if you like alternate movie endings and tri-colored pasta.

www.ween.com 

Unknown Mortal Orchestra- Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Imagine a peppier version of Tame Impala with soul-inflected vocals and that's about what you'll get from this Kiwi cum Portland, OR trio. This band displays a rare pop restraint, giving individual instruments plenty of room to breath, and linger on your ear palette. A pastiche of psych music, "Thought Ballune", and garage rock, "Nerve Damage", adds to a very rewarding listening experience.

Buy this record when you just want a big plate of gravy fries.

www.unknownmortalorchestra.com

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds- Henry's Dream

By the release of Henry's Dream in 1992, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds were just beginning to find a global audience. Henry's Dream reached #29 on the UK charts while six of the next seven Bad Seeds releases cracked the UK's top 20 list, three went to #1 in Norway, and all seven reached the top 5 in Cave's native Australia. Cave's lyrics had been steadily evolving from vague subject matter to detailed narratives and a quasi-concept album seemed like a good idea, at the time. Apparently Cave really disliked the production on this record and ultimately re-mixed it himself. It didn't detract from the quality of the record, "Papa Won't Leave You, Henry" became a concert staple for years to come while "Straight To You" was one of the prettiest ballads the group ever released. Henry's Dream really encapsulated the Bad Seeds distinctive ambience: timeless tales of drunken louts, lost souls, and unrepentant marauders traipsing through the Outback with bible in pocket and gun in hand, like an Australian version of the classic American Western.

Buy this record if the cops are busting in and you need to get out the back door.

www.nickcaveandthebadseeds.com