Frank & Earthy

"I Get A Little Taste of You" - Z-Rock Hawaii (download here)
from Z-Rock Hawaii (1997)
released by Nipp Guitar (buy)

(file expires March 7th)

Even now, some 10 years after they recorded, Z-Rock Hawaii -- a one-time collaboration between Ween and The Boredoms -- seems like an impossible supergroup, both in theory and practice. But I guess weirdness crosses international boundaries. Hey, those post-Nirvana alt-rock years were heady times, nyet? Z-Rock Hawaii fares better in the accessibility department than TV Shit, the yowl-happy 1993 crossing of The Boredoms and Sonic Youth. But so would most free jazz.

That said, the good parts of "I Get A Little Taste of You" seem to be all classic Ween -- which is to say, except for Yamantaka Eye's bug-outs during the middle eight, it's just a great semi-lost brown nugget. "Sometimes I feel so good, sometimes I feel so bad," Gener rhymes in a infectious sing-song. "Often I get mad, even when I'm glad," he croons, in a 20th century love ode that's so right that it (almost) doesn't matter when some dude starts tweaking for no apparent reason. (Eye makes much better contributions elsewhere, like the orchestral noise of "The Meadow" and the gas fumes electronics of "Hexagon.") For the bottom of your iTunes library, Z-Rock Hawaii.