Weird Weeds, Hold Me

I think that's a dog morphing into a Canadian flag ball.

My original copy of Hold Me got me through some tough times. Specifically that time in Cleveland where I got so lost on back roads for an hour I pretty much figured I should just get out of my car and build a house somewhere in the forest and get ready for winter. I pulled off to the side of the road, reclined in my seat, and just spaced out for awhile listening to this new record from the Weird Weeds. When I got back up to drive, my head was clear and it took about five minutes to get unlost. So basically you could say the Weird Weeds saved my life.

It's a unique record from a unique group. People generally agree the Weird Weeds are in a place of their own; nobody sounds quite like them, and the album captures that. I was pleased to find out Nick is from San Diego and was influenced by a lot of the same groups growing up. The San Diego-ness of his approach comes through at times in occasional outright beats (end of "Hold Me/Popcorn Trees," for example,) but is always fragmented or in some way disrupted by his uncanny ability to break apart a beat into fractal-like dissolution. You'd have to hear it to really get that; words don't do it justice.

The opening track, "Paratrooper Seed" begins with what sounds like mellotron flutes looping in small cells for a minute and a half, and ultimately Nick and Sandy sing in unison, "...where the wind will take you somewhere to grow." The unusual lead guitar lines of Kurt Newman, who has since parted with the group, provided an unexpected counterpoint to a lot of the songs, but the group's unity as a three-peice in recent performances may be even stronger.

Listen to Weird Weeds on our compilation.

Four of the ten songs on this recording were written by the Weird Weeds and Steve Gigante (of W-S Burn.) "Holy Train Wrecks" is one such song, and it's featured on our compilation as a good example of Weird Weed-ness. It has more of a groove than many of their songs, great for driving, and features the trademark high-ass scream of Sandy Ewen over the whale-screeching sounds of Hennies bowing some part of his drumset that most would never dare bow.

The Weird Weeds will perform with Xiu Xiu, Deerhoof, and Jana Hunter in November and they'll be on tour in January 2006, see their website for details. Hold Me is available thru Nick Hennies' Edition Manifold site as well. Interestingly, the recording is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 license and says, "We welcome non-commercial copying & distribution of this music," which I thought was a pretty cool thing to include on a CD.

* * *