Paintin' the Town Brown... [Best of, Enhanced, Explicit Lyrics, Live]

I remember when I bought this CD... it was during my post-college, pre-employment phase. I woke up at about 3:00pm, swallowed a handful of asprin to stave off a bad hangover, went to pick up the CD, came home, popped it in and sat on my couch with a bowl of fruity pebbles... the full Ween experience! Anyway, I was pretty disappointed. I mean, I had sprung for the CD instead of another fifth of Early Times whiskey!! The first disc is listenable, with some great moments from their awesome '96 tour (best Ween tour ever??), but also some really badly recorded early stuff. There is a great version of "Mountain Dew" though, that will make this disc worthwhile for hardcore Ween fans. The vastly varying sound quality is what ruins my enjoyment of the first disc overall... if it was all lo-fi (a la "The Pod") I could have dealt with it, but going from crisp, pro-engineered multitrack recordings to amature DAT stuff is just annoying. The second disc has the best version of "Poopship Destroyer" and a hell of a lot of noodling that doesn't sound so good when one is sober.... hmm... A few years down the road, and I'm a respectable member of society. I still love Ween, but this is definitely the disc I reach for the least. This is aimed squarely at serious fans, and newcomers or general listeners should definitely start elsewhere... Not bad, but certainly in the "For Fans" category.

Lets face it -- if this album is your first exposure to Dean & Gene Ween's music, your response will probably range from mild annoyance to outright cringing. But for us Ween officianados, and especially for those who have been fortunate to be blessed with a 4-hour live show or two, this album is guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Early super-sloppy inclusions such as "Mushroom Festival in Hell" and "Mountain Dew" demonstrates the band's remarkable ability to really rock without really worrying about how they sound (you'll see what I mean). But before you dismiss them as just another over-indulging garage band, check out the hard-as-rock licks by Deaner in "Awesome Sound" or Gener's soaring vocals in "Can't Put My Finger On It" or Claude Coleman's other-worldly drum solo in "Vallejo". Ween rules. God bless the Boognish.

i swear i have bootlegs that are longer and better than this, but you have to love it since ween lovingly handpicked the songs themselves. the 26 minute poopship is a masterpiece, and i wish they had the hour long vallejo on another disc making it three but this is just fine. for a live album, ween has so many great live shows and some very old funny ones back in the days when 23 to 12 people were at a live concert, most were held in parking lots, they should have put out a 5 or 6 disc boxset, including all the old concerts, some more nashville material and all the funny stuff. but this is fine, get it or die!