{"id":1466,"date":"2017-01-05T05:30:08","date_gmt":"2017-01-05T10:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/?p=1466"},"modified":"2017-01-04T23:28:03","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T04:28:03","slug":"1466","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2017\/01\/05\/1466\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Missed In 2016: The Dean Ween Group’s Happy-Inducing Deaner Album"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dean Ween Group<\/a> – The Deaner Album<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Since I launched this blog in March, I have tried to write about as many wonderful things as I can, in essays, the podcast, and every Friday in the New Release Roundup. Try as I might, I can\u2019t write about all the good stuff coming out. This will be my annual attempt to correct that. For the next ten days, I\u2019ll be highlighting albums I missed in 2016. To cast an even wider net, I\u2019ve enlisted some talented friends to write about some of their favorites this year. You can read that here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I do love when I can write about an intersection between two or more of the main subjects of this site \u2013 music, comedy, and horror. And any Ween-related project is going to have an offbeat sense of humor. There is misdirection from the start. Who would expect a spot-on early Allman Brothers tribute on a Dean Ween Group album? But that\u2019s what you get on \u201cDickie Betts,\u201d an instrumental jam that captures Betts\u2019s winding, melodic guitar style perfectly. And there\u2019s no better way to follow that up than with a tribute to a \u201cdouchebag\u201d on a bike called \u201cExercise Man.\u201d If you need a consistent style or feel throughout an album, this isn\u2019t the music for you. There\u2019s riff-heavy rock (\u201cI\u2019ll Take It And Break It\u201d and \u201cCharlie Brown\u201d), more melodic rock (\u201cYou Were There\u201d) and bluesy guitar features (\u201cDoo Doo Chasers\u201d), interrupted by the occasional jaunty instrumental like \u201cShwartze Pete,\u201d which sounds like the soundtrack to a silent comedy, or something funky like \u201cMercedes Benz.\u201d Sometimes Dean just wants to shout like a demented person about how much he likes gum on\u2026 well\u2026 \u201cGum.\u201d <\/p>\n

The cohesiveness comes partly from the attitude that whatever this band plays, they lay into it with enthusiasm. So bring on whatever\u2019s next. Sludgy, punky, strange. Whatever. They\u2019ll play it like the pit band for some absurdist musical. There\u2019s also that sense of humor much of this music projects. Not everything is played for laughs, but there’s a lot to make you smile. Even when playing some big, fat guitar riff that makes you want to bang your head, it feels like the band is parodying rock god swagger while also pulling it off marvelously. They stuff a lot of fun into these fourteen tracks. They\u2019re also on tour now<\/a>, and this music is going to make for an invigorating show. <\/p>\n

“Mercedes Benz”<\/strong>
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