There are two groups in town this week that may just be the two goofiest and wildest groups that have some strange brotherhood mentality going on. Whether or not the two front runners of both bands are actual brothers is up for debate.

First up is the ever so politically correct, Ween. Coming off a successful ( in Ween terms) album, La Cucaracha, they roll in to town tonight to play at the Orpheum Theatre. The last time they were in town they played at Avalon so this is a bit of step up for the Ween boys from New Hope, PA.

If you’re a non-Weenhead, you may remember their name from an appearance on Beavis and Butthead when the video for “Push th’ Little Daisies“ was so eloquently reviewed by the pyro happy couch bums.

But little did you know that their tasteless style of rock music, which is undoubtedly in a genre all on its own, has quite the following. In fact, tonights show at the Orpheum Theatre is just about sold out with only a few seats remaining in the balcony.

Their songs are not for the weak hearted. Titles like “Spinal Menagitis“, “Piss up a Rope“, “Mutilated Lips“, are just a handful of fan favorites. They even have a song about HIV. Dean and Gene Ween (not their official names and they’re not even brothers) have also been known to explore the unknown, sometimes taking it too far, especially when they start submitting themselves in to drug rehabs. Probably one of the main reasons fans of Phish were no strangers to their shows. That and the fact that Phish covered one of their songs off of Chocolate & Cheese, “Roses are Free“.

If you’re new to Ween and are curious, I recommend you start out with White Pepper (especially the first 4 tracks). Then work your way back a few years to Chocolate & Cheese, which is quite possibly their greatest album to date. Then move ahead a few more years and pick up Quebec. Once you’ve gotten a taste of those three albums, and you’re feeling the vibe, you’re ready for GodWeenSatan and The Mullosk. These last two are cult classics.

But you haven’t experienced Ween until you’ve seen them live.

Download: “Your Party” (La Cucaracha) – MP3 courtesy of Schitz Popinov. Download more Ween music from Hype Machine

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Pick up the last remaining tickets to tonights show – HERE

Watch a hilarious YouTube video of the boys on the Jane Pratt show back in 1993 playing one of my favorites, “Freedom of 76″

Myspace

Official Website

Purhcase Ween Music (Amazon) (Rounder Records)

Download Ween Shows – HERE and HERE

The last time Gil and Ultimate Donny graced us with their presence, The Square conducted an interview where we learned that Donny was one hell of an older brother, they like to buy caged birds and non-caged birds while on tour and Gil is fine with pederasts’ because it’s a free country and if they want to join groups like NAMBLA, then so be it.

Read the full interview – HERE

The last two shows were at PA’s Lounge, a fitting joint for this low brow duo from Youngstown, Ohio. But this time around it’s Great Scott. Lets just hope that a rope is put up around the stage as they’re known to take a spill or two, and not on purpose either.

They’ve released one official full length album, Bloodsongs, and a one self-release LP (Once Triangular) and EP (Best Friends). Both of the latter two are out of print.

Download: “Shadow Grip” (Bloodsongs) – MP3 from Hipster Runoff. Download more Party Dream tunes from Hype Machine

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Buy tickets to tomorrow’s show at Great Scott – HERE

Myspace

Official Website

Buy Party Dream’s first album, Bloodsongs (Fat Possum Records)

And what would be a Party Dream post without the video for “Elmo’s Wish“

There have been plenty of reviews and critiques, some I agree with and others I don’t about Richard Hawley’s new release, Lady’s Bridge. It is my first Hawley experience but it was with Cole’s Corner that brought Richard Hawley back out on to the scene after being M.I.A for most of the mid to late 90′s. So perhaps it’s for this reason that I find this to be a success rather than a retreat.

The first single off the album is “Tonight the Streets Are Ours”. An up-tempo soulful song with strings and bells that will strike a chord with any romantic. But it’s the title song, “Lady’s Bridge”, which strikes a chord with me.

Also a romantic song, well, lets face it, this album and artist are stooped in romanticism, but here I feel there is more sincerity behind the music and lyrics.

With the opening piano line I get little chills. And the same with the opening lyrics, “take me with you when you go, down to the river” and then the guitar with the Hawaiian style slide eases us in to the chorus where Richard delivers the short but sweet repetitive line, “down to the river…down to the river…down to the river”.

Like Richard’s last album, Cole’s Corner, which, according to the actual winners (The Arctic Monkey’s) should have won the Mercury Prize in 2006, we are treated to stories about Hawley’s home countryside of Sheffield. But probably more defining is the fact that his father, David Hawley, died of cancer while he was recording the album. David was a big influence on his son as he himself was a romantic and local singer / song writer that played with the likes of Muddy Waters and other local Sheffield favorites.

In “Lady’s Bridge”, it’s not clear who he is singing too; a lover, his father, his town. The bridge he speaks of is an actual bridge in Sheffield that separates the poor neighborhoods (Richards hood) from rich neighborhoods. It has a feeling of nostalgia and in my opinion, makes for a great segue way in the winter season.

Richard Hawley – “Lady’s Bridge”

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Purchase Lady’s Bridge (Amazon) (Mute)

Visit Richard Hawley on Myspace

Visit the Ricard Hawley page at Mute Records

(Artwork above by designer Mr. Asami from San-X)

I got in to the Ramis Auditorium last night and gave a couple test shots with the old Point n’ Click and then shut down city. It was all Broken Social Scenes fault. So no mind blowing pictures like I usually do for live shows. But I managed to jaut down some notes during the show so here it goes. My best attempt at a recap of the Freewheelin tour.

Right out of the gun they jammed out their first single off their latest album, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass. I like Beanbag chair but not a huge fan. That’s all I have to say about that. Then came the first onslaught of shout outs from the crowd. Apparently these kids didn’t go to kindergarten as they figured who needs to raise their hand to ask a question when I can just blurt it out. Of course, the first question was about the dismal Mets and if they knew what had happened. Ira came back with a quick remark saying “when we were here back in 87′ we were respectful enough to not stand up on stage and say, ‘hey what happened to the Red Sox’.”

Then someone blurted out, “what are your thoughts about the stock market“. James came back this time with his poignant remark, “it’s a good time to buy low and sell high“. Everyone got a chuckle. In fact, there was a good amount of chuckling because James is one funny motherf’er.

There was a question asked about their up and coming Saturday Night Live gig / not really an official gig. Apparently, since the writers are on strike, the entire cast of SNL is conducting a show at the UCB Theatre in NYC. All the skits were previously written and they asked if YLT would be their musical act. I guess this was suppose to be a secret so when Ira asked the guy, how did you find out about that, he replied “I have my sources”. Ira then replied, “well if you’re not going to tell me then I’m not going to tell you any more about the show.” Man, they were quick on the come backs. Very witty, the trio from Hoboken.

Other quick tidbits, James loves Red Snapper (label mates), playing with Jonathan Richman was an all time high for the band, Adrian Grenier from Entourage is a big YLT fan and finally, they like to drink micro-brews from Western Michigan.

And how was the music you ask? Outstanding. Down to every note and every harmony, Ira, Georgia and James were on point. They may come off as a laid back bunch and probably don’t practice all the time like some grueling rock bands say they do, but it doesn’t matter. When you have the chemistry that they have you don’t need no stinking practice.

One word I put down that I felt best described their sound, caressing. Even when they break in to their distorted jams and feedback mayhem, their sound creates a soothing aura and I was more then willing to take it all in.

Here is my attempt at their the complete set list (with a little help from Brad):

1. Beanbag Chair
2. From a Motel 6
3. Decora*
4. Be Thankful for What You’ve Got (William DeVaughn cover)
5. You Tore Me Down* (The Flamin Groovies cover)
6. Big Day Coming
7. Mr. Tough
8. Gentle Hour* (Snapper cover)
9. One PM Again
10. Today is the Day
11. No Water (one of their many Phil Milstein tunes)
12. Fourth Time Around (Dylan cover from I’m Not There soundtrack)
13. Pablo and Andrea
14. Deeper into Movies
15. Emulsified* (Rex Garvin & The Mighty Cravers) (Appeared to be a cover song called Multiply but not the Jamie Lidell song. Sounded like Ira was doing a Jerry Lee Lewis impersonation but it wasn’t a Jerry Lee Lewis song. Oh well. It was rocking who ever it was.)

Encore

1. Don’t Cry No Tears (Neil Young cover)*
2. Detouring America with Horns*

*Songs added by Mr. Bradley Almanac. I left my description of the set closer as I thought they were singing Multiply when really they were singing Emulsified. Ah, these old ears of mine. The fact that I couldn’t get the Neil Young cover is going to get me in hot water with a good friend of mine from Philly. And “You Tore Me Down” I had as the Cats Stevens tune, “Here Comes My Baby“, which is on the same album as the Flamin Groovies cover, the Fakebook album. It was a lyric in the song that threw me off, “Baby don’t run away”. So many baby’s in the lyrics my intuition was to go with the track that had baby in it. Oh well, goes to show you how intuitive I am.

Check out Brad’s flickr pics from the show: http://flickr.com/photos/bsearles/tags/yolatengo/

He’ll have an MP3 recording up of the show some time down the road. The auditorium sounds amazing in person so I can only imagine that his recordings sound just as clear.

If you happen to be going to the final Freewheelin show tonight in Williamsburg, NY, I advise you request your favorite song, they most likely will play it if you yell it out first.

Downloads:

“The Summer” Recorded at KEXP 10/15/06

“I Feel Like Going Home” Recorded at KCMP 10/7/06

Broken Social Scene: Presents Kevin Drew played last night at the Paradise Rock Club. If you haven’t checked out Kevin’s new album, Spirit If…, you really should. All songs were written by the BSS front man himself, Kevin Drew, hence the “presents: Kevin Drew”. Stand out songs for me so far are “F-ked up Kid“, “Frightening Lives” and “Back Out on The…“. Stream all these songs below.

The album has it’s similarities to traditional BSS releases, wild noises and mayhem infused endings. However, there is a softer and more straightforward rock pop themes to Spirit If.

As for the show itself, they came out on stage and one of the first things Brendan Canning said to the crowd was, “we’re going to play our guts out tonight for you Boston”. The crowd went crazy. They also should have warned us that they were going to talk their guts out too.

They sure can jam and at times their songs probably reached the 8 to 10 minute mark, but man, can they talk. Some points were funny, like the time Brendan thought a guy he saw in the crowd was the same dude that sold their tour manager drugs. Then their were the drawn out moments where you just wanted to scream, “shut up and play!”

However, it’s hard to argue with artists on stage that clearly love to make, play and share music as much as they do.

The set seemed to be pretty similar to the one they played last time they were in Boston, which was the Myspace secret show on August 28th (see the setlist and review over at Bradley’s Almanac). The only difference is they mixed up the BSS songs with Drew’s own songs throughout the set versus playing them all towards the end. They also didn’t play “Lover’s Spit” because the crowd just doesn’t know when to shut up. “Back out on The…” continues to be my favorite track off the album and is now my favorite song heard live as they played their (in the words of Brendan) guts out during the song.

Andrew Kenny, of American Analog Set, has been playing keys with them on this tour and he came out front and center last night to play a tune. This may have been an American Analog song or it could have been a brand new one. Brad reported back in August that Andrew is working on some new material. He will probably start recording as soon as this tour is over. I was introduced to AA Set just about two years ago and immediately connected with their sound so I’m looking forward to hearing more from Andrew.

Stream the whole album at the Arts & Crafts Kevin Drew page.

Stream my favorite tracks off Spirit If… below:

“F-ked up Kip”

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“Frightening Lives”

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“Back Out on The…”

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Buy Spirit If… (Amazon) (eMusic)

Visit Broken Social Scene on Myspace

Visit Arts & Crafts and check out more artists on BSS’s label (Like American Analog Set)