Discord & Rhyme: An Album Podcast

Discord and Rhyme is a podcast where we discuss the albums we love, song by song.

003: Ween - The Mollusk (1997)

 "The Mollusk is by far and away my favorite. The people who are into it, are really into it. It's a whole bunch of things: a prog, nautical, and even a children's record."

-Dean Ween

Yikes — things are getting a little brown on this episode of Discord & Rhyme. For his first outing as host, Phil Maddox leads his co-hosts through New Hope, PA, alternative rock duo Ween’s highly idiosyncratic and mildly sophomoric 1997 release The Mollusk. Ween initially gained notoriety in the early ’90s, when major labels were snapping up every weird band under the sun in search of the next Nirvana, and it was awesome. The band is best known for its grating MTV hit “Push th’ Lil’ Daisies,” but The Mollusk is more of a loving homage to progressive rock and sea shanties — with a few jarring doses of Ween humor.

Miscellany

  • Content note: We try to keep it clean, but as you can probably tell from the track list below, Ween is a band that is very difficult to discuss without some coarse language. If you listen to our show with your kids, you may want to wait until they go to bed for this one. It’s not too bad, but some blue language is unavoidable.

  • Technical note: Will was experiencing problems with his mic for the first stretch of the episode, and is completely absent from tracks 6 and 7. Because we love Will, we have taken steps to ensure that his voice is nothing but silky smooth in the future.

  • This episode demonstrates that the brothers Ween and Christopher Cross are cut from the same songwriting cloth.

  • Gryphon (excerpted during the discussion of “Cold Blows The Wind”) is one of Phil’s favorite bands of all time, and he insists on using this space to insist that everyone buy a copy of their 1974 prog rock masterwork “Red Queen To Gryphon Three.”

Discord & Rhyme Roll Call

  • Phil Maddox (host)

  • Rich Bunnell (moderator)

  • Dan Watkins

  • Chris Willie Williams

The Mollusk track list

  1. I’ll Be Dancing in the Show Tonight

  2. The Mollusk

  3. Polka Dot Tail

  4. I’ll Be Your Jonny on the Spot

  5. Mutilated Lips

  6. The Blarney Stone

  7. It’s Gonna Be (Alright)

  8. The Golden Eel

  9. Cold Blows the Wind

  10. Pink Eye (On My Leg)

  11. Waving My Dick in the Wind

  12. Buckingham Green

  13. Ocean Man

  14. She Wanted to Leave (Reprise)

Other clips used

Ween:

  • Transitions

  • Where'd the Cheese Go?

  • Poop Ship Destroyer

  • Pandy Fackler

  • Freedom of ’76

  • Exactly Where I’m At

  • Push Th’ Lil’ Daisies

  • Nan

  • Stay Forever

  • The Argus

  • Never Squeal

Others:

  • Gayla Peevey - Are My Ears On Straight

  • Christopher Cross - Ride Like the Wind

  • Gryphon - The Unquiet Grave

  • Richard Thompson - 1952 Vincent Black Lightning

Band/album personnel

Ween are:

  • Aaron Freeman, alias Gene Ween – guitar, lead vocals, engineering

  • Michael Melchiondo, Jr., alias Dean Ween – guitar, vocals, engineering

Personnel:

  • Dave Dreiwitz – bass

  • Glenn McClelland – keyboards

  • Mean Ween – bass

  • Kirk Miller – sound effects

  • Claude Coleman, Jr. – drums, percussion, engineering

  • Bill Fowler – guitar, bass

  • Andrew Weiss - producer

Other links

Support the podcast by buying The Mollusk through our Amazon affiliate link!

Credits

“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:

  • Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste

  • The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...

  • Faith No More - Midlife Crisis

  • Herbie Hancock - Hornets

  • Kraftwerk - Autobahn

  • Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen

  • Ween - Pink Eye (On My Leg) (this episode only)

You can buy or stream The Mollusk and other albums by Ween at the usual suspects such as Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Follow Phil @pamaddox, Rich @zonetrope, and Dan @DanSWatkins. Will used to be on Twitter, but he wanted to leave, so he did. Special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and editing. See you next album, and be ever wonderful.

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