Ween has penciled in an Oct. 23 release date for “La Cucaracha,” its first studio album in four years and its debut for Rounder Records. The set will be supported by an extensive fall tour, beginning Oct. 16 in Bloomington, Ind., and running into December.
“La Cucaracha” was recorded with longtime producer Andrew Weiss at a converted farmhouse in Pennsylvania. It opens with the horn-heavy instrumental “Fiesta,” which has been a part of Ween’s recent live shows, and closes with another road-tested track, “Your Party,” which boasts a guest turn by jazz saxophonist David Sanborn.
“I love David Sanborn,” guitarist Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo tells Billboard.com. “We always said, we’re never going to have horns on a Ween record, unless we can get David Sanborn. That has been the thing for 15 years. So we called him, and his people told us, ‘David is too busy.’ But then we get a call back saying, ‘David is a really big fan of the band.’ We were like, ‘F*ck yeah, that’s amazing.’ So we sent it to him and he did it and it rules.”
Other album tracks include the back-porch country jam “Learnin to Love,” the gruff, Melchiondo-sung “My Own Bare Hands,” the nearly 11-minute rocker “Woman and Man” and “Spirit Walker,” a prog-rock homage with disorienting vocal effects and noises. The set also sports a different version of “Friends” than the techno-fueled take which appeared on the recent EP of the same name.
Here is the track list for “La Cucaracha”:
“Fiesta”
“Blue Balloon”
“Friends”
“Object”
“Learnin To Love”
“My Own Bare Hands”
“The Fruit Man”
“Spirit Walker”
“Shamemaker”
“Sweetheart”
“Lullabye”
“Woman and Man”
“Your Party”
