Five Brownest Ween Tunes

G.L. and I are going to see Ween down at DAR Constitution Hall tonight. To preview, I thought I'd do a list of Ween's "brownest" musical moments. For those of you unfamiliar with the band, the band and its fans use the term "brown" typically to refer to the inherent "Ween-ness" of something, usually something lo-fi, terrible, but awesome in its terribly low fidelity. Ween fans, does that seem like an accurate definition?

Here's the list:

1. "Poop Ship Destroyer" - The most requested Ween tune by far, and the most evocative of the term "brown". The Brothers Ween pull this out to alternately punish terrible crowds (by playing long-winded versions of it) and express their gratitude to rabid ones.

2. "Awesome Sound" - This lengthy, repititive favorite from The Pod is a live staple, where sheer enthusiasm and volume make it seem like an actual song, as opposed to just maniacally fuzzed-out vocals buried under a pile of heavy riffage.

3. "Spinal Menangitis" - It almost hurts to listen to, as Dean Ween adopts a child's voice during this tune about Ween's favorite of subject matters: disease. When they play it live and that little keyboard melody comes in at the beginning, you know a wave of brown-ness is upon you.

4. "Don't Laugh (I Love You)" - This is something of a personal preference, because I think to be truly "brown", a song has to retain some elements of normalcy. So here's a quaint middle school love song that aurally recreates the experience of huffing paint-thinners (or what I imagine that might be like).

5. "Happy Colored Marbles" - Off 2003's quebec, it's got a vaguely "Spinal" feel to it, but then takes off out of nowhere with this brown-defining, trademark Deaner solo. The plunking synths are also the perfect combination of crappy, unnerving, and spacey -- this is vintage Ween.

Honorable Mentions: "Mushroom Festival in Hell", "The Golden Eel", "Papa Zit", "The Stallion Part 5", "Stroker Ace"

Those are my five. Anyone care to add to that?