# The Pod

The Pod is the second studio album by American rock band Ween. It was released on September 20, 1991, by Shimmy-Disc.

## Production

The album was recorded from January to October 1990, at the Pod on Van Sant Road in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania. Recording concluded one month prior to the release of their debut on November 16. The album was derived from two tapes titled the Bilboa tape and the Big Timmy Wasserman tape. Both tapes contain not only demo versions of songs on the album, but many outtakes not used on any album or tracks used on future albums. All of the songs have a muddy quality to them, due to being recorded on a Tascam four-track cassette recorder, and many of the vocals are manipulated in strange ways.

## Composition

The album contains bizarre lyrical content, often attributed to the fact that Dean and Gene both came down with cases of mononucleosis during the recording of the album, as well as their alleged relationship with huffing Scotchgard. However, when their fans began huffing Scotchgard, it was refuted by Gene Ween and Dean Ween themselves as being "the most slime-bag thing we could think of."
Robyn Hitchcock is credited with "musical inspiration" for the track "Alone", which borrows elements from his song "Bones in the Ground".
The track "Pollo Asado" is a comedic skit with a man ordering a taco over music. The song was inspired by Gene Ween's time briefly working at a Mexican restaurant in New Hope, Pennsylvania. In 1995, Sugar Ray released a similar skit on their debut Lemonade and Brownies, titled "Drive By". It featured the band ordering a taco at a drive through, with a drumbeat playing in the background.

## Title and album cover

The album takes its name from the band's apartment where the album was recorded, which the band nicknamed "The Pod". The album's cover art is a takeoff of the 1975 The Best of Leonard Cohen cover; Ween simply positioned a photo of part-time bassist Mean Ween's head (wearing a "Scotchgard powered bong") over Cohen's cover art, and altered the title text and other graphics. The copy of the Leonard Cohen record that Ween used had purportedly belonged to Deaner's mother.

## Liner notes

From the Shimmy-Disc CD:
    "Recorded by Dean and Gene Ween on a Tascam four-track cassette recorder between January and October 1990. All songs recorded at the Pod, where we lived for a year and 10 months (with our cat Mandee). The Pod was scenically located on Van Sant Road in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania. Our apartment was a haven for flies because it sits in the middle of a horse farm. In the time this album was completed, we filled up 3,600 hours of tape, and inhaled 5 cans of Scotchgard. This album was then produced and mixed by Andrew Weiss (our pal) at the Zion House of Flesh, Hopewell, New Jersey. Straight to DAT Mang. Mean Ween played the bass on "Alone" and that's him on the cover doin' up some Scotchguard powered bongs. We got evicted on October 1, 1991. But Dave Ayers says he's gonna help us out. Cover and art designs by Logarithms."

## Promotion

The Pod produced three music videos. "Pollo Asado", "Captain Fantasy", and "Pork Roll Egg and Cheese" were included on a VHS music video compilation titled Shimmy-Disc Video Volume 3. Shimmy-Disc Video was a series of VHS tapes created by Shimmy Disc containing music videos from artists who were signed to the label. These tapes were never remastered or re-released, nor were the music videos.
Shimmy-Disc released a vinyl version of The Pod in 1991. It was also remastered and reissued by Elektra Records in 1995, after the relative success of Ween albums such as Pure Guava (1992) and Chocolate and Cheese (1994).

## Reception

Professional ratings :
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Robert Christgau | |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
| MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide | |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 5/10 |
In 1993, the album was named one of the 20 best albums of 1992 by Spin. Trouser Press wrote: "Less inflamed and inspired than the first album (blame, perhaps, the five cans of Scotchguard the band claims to have inhaled), The Pod lurches, howls, fuzzes and strums through sloppy creations that are mostly one hit short of a high." Aphex Twin named it one of his 10 favorite albums of all time (making it one of two Ween albums on the list, the other being Pure Guava). In a 1999 review of the album, The Stranger called it "excellent" and wrote that "someday, classical music students will write dissertations on The Pod." Kerrang! wrote that "the electrified production on tracks like 'Dr. Rock' and 'Sketches of Winkle' is utterly unhinged, while the barking, aimless pace of 'The Stallion' (either part, really) feels like the sweaty blatherings of the most poisonous of drunks."

## Track listing

All tracks are written by Ween

## Tour
### Dates

From Brownbase :
| Date | Venue | Notes |
| Leg One |||
| September 7, 1991 | Mill Hill Park, Trenton, NJ, USA | Trenton Avant Garde Festival |
| September 16, 1991 | The Space at Chase, New York, NY, USA | |
| October 4, 1991 | City Gardens, Trenton, NJ, USA | With Claude Coleman Jr and Kramer as backing. |
| October 12, 1991 | Wetlands Preserve, New York, NY, USA | |
| October 30, 1991 | VPRO Radio Studio, Hilversum, Netherlands | |
| October 30, 1991 | Melkweg, Amsterdam, Netherlands | |
| October 31, 1991 | Vera, Groningen, Netherlands | |
| November 1, 1991 | Effenaar, Eindhoven, Netherlands | |
| Leg Two |||
| December 6, 1991 | Eisner and Lubin Auditorium, New York, NY, USA | |
| December 31, 1991 | City Gardens, Trenton, NJ, USA | |
| January 8, 1992 | Kendall Hall, Trenton, NJ, USA | WTSR Radio Session. Ed Wilson on guitar |
| January 17, 1992 | Court Tavern, New Brunswick, NJ, USA | |
| February 15, 1992 | The Underworld, London, England | With Claude Coleman Jr and Kramer as backing. |
| February 16, 1992 | The Princess Charlotte, Leicester, England | With Claude Coleman Jr and Kramer as backing. |
| February 17, 1992 | Riverside, Newcastle, England | With Claude Coleman Jr and Kramer as backing. |
| February 18, 1992 | Edwards No 8, Birmingham, England | With Claude Coleman Jr and Kramer as backing. |
| February 19, 1992 | Duchess of York Pub, Leeds, England | With Claude Coleman Jr and Kramer as backing. |
| February 20, 1992 | Maida Vale Studios, London, England | John Peel session. Claude Coleman Jr on drums and Kramer on bass |
| February 20, 1992 | The Cathouse, Glasgow, Scotland | With Claude Coleman Jr and Kramer as backing. |
| February 21, 1992 | The Venue, London, England | With Claude Coleman Jr and Kramer as backing. |
| March 1, 1992 | The Middle East, Cambridge, MA, USA | |
| March 4, 1992 | Euclid Tavern, Cleveland, OH, USA | |
| March 5, 1992 | The Blind Pig, Ann Arbor, MI, USA | |
| March 6, 1992 | Staches, Columbus, OH, USA | Excerpts released on Ween At The Cat's Cradle DVD. |
| March 7, 1992 | Lounge Ax, Chicago, IL, USA | |
| March 8, 1992 | Uptown Lounge, Minneapolis, MN, USA | |
| March 11, 1992 | Jelly Club, Austin, TX, USA | |
| March 12, 1992 | Club Clearview, Dallas, TX, USA | |
| March 14, 1992 | Cicero's, St. Louis, MO, USA | Excerpt released on Paintin' The Town Brown. |
| March 16, 1992 | Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill, NC, USA | |
| March 17, 1992 | Twisters, Richmond, VA, USA | |
| March 18, 1992 | JC Dobbs, Philadelphia, PA, USA | |
| Leg Three |||
| May 1, 1992 | Commons Cafe, Portland, OR, USA | |
| May 2, 1992 | Off Ramp, Seattle, WA, USA | |
| May 4, 1992 | Kennel Club, San Francisco, CA, USA | |
| May 6, 1992 | The Shark Club, Las Vegas, NV, USA | |
| May 7, 1992 | Club Lingerie, Los Angeles, CA, USA | |
| May 8, 1992 | Jabberjaw, Los Angeles, CA, USA | |
| May 9, 1992 | Winter's, San Diego, CA, USA | |
| May 21, 1992 | Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ, USA | |
| May 22, 1992 | 9:30 Club, Washington, DC, USA | |
| May 23, 1992 | City Gardens, Trenton, NJ, USA | |
| June 18, 1992 | Marquee Nightclub, New York, NY, USA | |

## Personnel
### Ween

* Dean Ween - lead guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, backing vocals
* Gene Ween - lead vocals, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboard, drum machine

### Additional musicians

* Mean Ween – bass on "Alone"

### Technical

* Dean Ween – engineer, art direction
* Gene Ween – engineer, art direction
* Andrew Weiss – producer, mixing
* Michael McGrath – art direction
* Logorythms – cover art, design
* Howie Weinberg – remastering