I feel like writing anything in this space is always pretentious so I understand if you feel the same way.

Practically no one reads these, at least all the way through, and I know this is a lot of words and so it’s mainly for me to remember as my memory is not so great.

In 2019 we originally all agreed to do Ween a setlist, but ultimately it caused half the band to leave, and after they left it took two years to get a full band again. The impetus for doing Ween was this:

Band attendance was at an all time low for the first time in years. Band attendance is never great, but it was often just me and one other person at rehearsal and almost everyone was joining other bands, which always meant less focus on mB.

But at one point we had a rehearsal and all seven members were there - zapp’s other awesome band had recently covered a couple of Ween songs and we were talking about how fun that was.

That brought about the discussion of the recent and excellent Ween show that a few bandmates went to. It was the first time in years that folks in the band seemed excited about music, or even excited in general at a rehearsal.

So I stupidly suggested we do this Ween thing soon after.

I really like Ween a lot, and although I personally don’t take influence from them I do think that if we had to choose a popular band that we were most similar to (not talent wise, but in approach and style and all), that Ween would be the closest.

(I think zapp takes some influence from them though and in my opinion you can hear it in the mB songs he’s made.)

The humor, variety of genres, not taking things too seriously, the dark and or “offensive” content, I think we as a band could relate to all of that.

I listen to a stupid amount of music but for Ween I mainly just liked their first three albums and the country album, and those are still my preference.

Beyond that I had listened to the other albums but only was into a few other songs. I hadn’t heard the live stuff and didn’t know every single song by name.

And I still don’t know all the songs by name, but at this point besides John Prine I’ve probably listened to Ween more than any other band the last five years.

I love so many bands. There’s probably 100-200 bands/performers I’d personally rather cover first, but it was obvious to me that Ween was something we all had in common.

And I’ve always loved finding that common denominator. Isn’t it great enjoying the same band with a group of friends. I enjoy bonding that way!

For the first three years after we started doing Ween songs I spent about 2 hours a week (not including rehearsals) practicing the songs. By the time we had mostly forgotten our originals and were just doing Ween we basically fell apart.

Starting from scratch after starting from scratch. And then I realized at some point that half our setlist was songs chosen by bandmates that weren’t around anymore. Great songs mind you, but not our personal favorites.

I’m a slow learner and I took a lot of time learning the songs so we kept them and tried to make it fun.

I was also in a terrible spot with my day job and attempting this whole new setlist at once along with struggles at work, made for some frustrating times. There were a lot of thoughts of quitting music altogether.

I regretted doing Ween songs for those first two years (because of losing bandmates), and felt like a huge failure and idiot for even attempting it, but it finally paid off and surprisingly it was actually worth it.

We had some really fun performances and met new fans of the band, and met another Ween cover band too.

We aren’t even locally popular but our online presence got a tad better too. Before COVID, our posts got no response, so it was nice to finally meet some like minded folks online that have been very supportive, so we can thank Ween for that.

I met a new set of great and fun musicians too who really worked hard to make this album.

And not just that, from the beginning of this period to the end, the musicians involved were quite swell and talented, and I feel very lucky for that.

That being said I don’t think I’ll ever let molly BANG cover one band like this again… (with maybe a few exceptions)… Now the recording process:

The original idea was practice for six months, perform for a year while recording and then another six months to finish recording and mixing. So two years total. But those two years turned into almost five. 
After about a year or two of rehearsing and having recording sessions (mostly during the beginning of COVID) I practically had a full album of songs that I was really pleased with.

At some point, and slowly and randomly, almost every music file became corrupted in some way. So I basically spent two years recording an album that would end up being trash and then starting almost from scratch and re-recording the album.

Though I prefer the version available here, it was very sad and time consuming to practically start over. This album was basically a four year project of mostly pure frustration, just one obstacle after the next.

I was able to salvage a few tracks but had to re-record certain parts and honestly it would’ve been easier to not try and salvage them and just start over. On the positive side all the time spent helped me get better at recording and mixing.

I have a big problem with not quitting things and just plowing ahead until things get better. It’s a weakness of mine. But in the last five years I’ve gotten better about just giving up and not trying to force things.

Looking back now as someone too tired to not give up, I’m shocked that I kept going. I’m very proud of this album and pleased with it but it wasn’t worth the stress it caused me. Gosh I'm a dummy.
molly BANG is running out of steam...

What’s the saying? “It takes a village of idiots to help this idiot make an album…?”

All Songs Written by Ween
Performed by molly BANG
Mostly Recorded and Mixed by joe FITZ (2019-2023)