Weeed Do You Fall? (Milky Cleeear Orb)

Release Date: 08/30/2019
Format: LP
Label: Halfshell Records
Release type: Milky Cleeear Orb Vinyl LP Pressing

Weeed is an American biocosmic rock n roll band from Portland, Oregon, formed in 2009. The band consists of Gabriel Seaver (guitar, bass, vocals, keyboards), Mitchy Fosnaugh (guitar, vocals, flute), John Goodhue (drums), Evan Franz (drums), and Ian Hartley (percussion). They are known for their cathartic, rhythm-heavy live shows and for blending progressive compositions with improvisation and trance. Do You Fall? is their seventh full-length release.

Fertilized in the rich soil of loss and grief, the sonic blooms of Weeed’s Do You Fall? betoken the transformative potential of impermanence and the medicinal power of trance. Setting aside bass for the first time ever, the band relies on twin electric guitars and a milieu of percussive and acoustic instruments to weave a rich tapestry of songwriting that is arguably tighter and more refined than anything in their catalog. As is the case with most of their discography, the genre is less a bridle than a launching pad— for the attuned listener, hints of lysergic folk pass naturally into and out from hypnotic and energetic jams inspired by North and West African songs and rhythms, all undergirded by the band’s dog’s age dedication to complex time signatures, vocal harmonies, and raw heaviness. Ultimately, though, what sets Weeed’s 7th studio album apart from earlier works is not so much the instrumentation, but rather the cohesion of vision that the songs embody. It is a cinematic and melodic album, a passage through an aural field that asks us, at times gently, in others wildly, to better understand ourselves by letting go.

From the back cover: “Music trance, letting go, relinquishment, releasing, catharsis… these themes are represented in the title. Falling can be seen as a foundational experience of being human and learning to walk on this Earth. It is associated with grief and loss, as well as new love. This theme of falling is deeply tied to the context in which this music came to be. Sometimes songs may serve as the catalyst and the medicine for emotional transformation.”

1. Ontological Register
2. Moment to Moment
3. Rhythm on the Ground 1-4
4. Anicha
5. Something About Having Your Feet in the River
6. Reflection
7. Sun Song
8. Path to Dhamma Khunja