Live Shellfish

Another oddity from the brothers boognish, a live jam from July 15, 1991 playing as the Green Lipped Mussels. There seems to be some ambiguity between Ween fans as to the true moniker of the band; what little info I did find seems to suggest there already existed a jam band called the Green Lipped Mussels (composed of Dreiwitz, Guzda, Di Gesu and Harford) and the addition of Gene and Dean technically morphed the whole thing into the Jimmy Wilson Group (supported by the fact that everyone calls each other "Jim" during the gig). Regardless of what you want to call them, the guys on stage that hot Monday night two decades ago were Gene and Dean playing with Dave Dreiwitz (bass, duh), Matt Guzda (drums), Greg Di Gesu (guitar) and Chris Harford (guitar, vocals). Bassosaurus Andrew Weiss guest stars during Ween's "The Stallion Pt. 3". Recorded at New Brunswick, NJ's famous Court Tavern, the Mussels rip through a bunch of covers, Ween tunes, Harford tunes and Mussel originals with the same tenacity and humor you'd find in any Aaron and Mickey performance. My guess behind their pseudonym is this was some unannounced/surprise/private show for friends and for whatever reason (record label) they couldn't advertise themselves as "Ween". Deaner called the band "a white version of Kool And The Gang" and they supposedly reunited in 2009 for a couple shows with Harford (whether they actually played as the 'Mussels is anyone's guess though). With all that being said, my only gripe with this recording is the crappy mp3s. I originally pulled them from some random FTP site nearly a decade ago so the fact they are 128kbps isn't all that surprising but there is a LOT of hiss and compression noise, even for a bootleg. It doesn't take that much away from the performance but fair warning. I also discovered a CD cover I created way back in the day that I think looks pretty cool. It's included in PDF format with the music file.

8/20/14 update: A solid reupload with the most complete recording of the show I could find - culled from old Lostwave mp3's, FLACs from archive.org and a few other sources. Sadly the lossy limitations are still evident but it sounds as good as it probably ever will. I also updated the above post with some more factual info. Enjoy.

Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim and Jim

Currently watching: Redacted
Currently listening to: Electric Wizard Black Masses