''Synthetic Socks'' is an album by
Aaron Freeman (a.k.a. Gene Ween), released on
TeenBeat Records
Teen Beat is an American independent record label, originally based in Arlington, Virginia, now based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was founded by Mark Robinson (of Unrest) in 1984 at Wakefield High School, along with Phil Krauth (of Unres ...
in 1987. It is almost entirely the product of Freeman making personal recordings in his bedroom. Freeman sent two cassettes of material to TeenBeat over six months. Freeman and
Mark Robinson later went through the tapes and selected songs from them that would later appear on the album.
The cover of the album is a close up of a child (possibly Freeman himself) holding a frog. Alternate versions of the cover crop the image so only the frog and the child's hand can be seen.
Instruments include Synsonic Drums,
Korg Poly-800
The Korg Poly-800 is an 8-voice analog synthesizer released by Korg in 1983. Its initial list price of $795 made it the first fully programmable polyphonic synthesizer that sold for less than $1,000. It was designed for portability, featuring bat ...
, piano, and reel-to-reel. Long time friend of Freeman, Scott Lowe, assisted in post production using delay and additional keyboards.
Credited as Synthetic Sox (not "Socks" as in the album title), three of the TeenBeat tracks; Tree, Sea of Mellichis and Investigating Tornadoes, were released on vinyl as part of Shadow Mouth: Compilation One, released on the Shadow Mouth Record label based in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
''Synthetic Socks'' features a very embryonic version of
Ween's trademark sound. Freeman's later bandmate,
Michael Melchiondo (a.k.a. Dean Ween), appears a few times on the cassette.
Track listing
#"Baked Potatoe"
sic
The Latin adverb ''sic'' (; ''thus'', ''so'', and ''in this manner'') inserted after a quotation indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated as found in the source text, including erroneous, archaic, or unusual spelling ...
#"Cops"
#"Hence It Came" (instrumental)
#"Let's Live Together"
#"Once I Lived"
#"Anything Quickly" (instrumental)
#"Get Out Of Here Son"
#"GI"
#"Ho Ho Ho"
#"Some Weird Shit"
#"Eurphyoosh"
#"Tree" (instrumental)
#"Love"
#"I Hate Snuggles"
#"Style of Carpet" (instrumental)
#"Collectives"
#"Cheese Fries"
#"Weenstock"
#"So Pink"
#"Sea of Mellchis"
#"Investigating Tornadoes"
#"Today It Is My Birthday"
#"Sonata in A#G Overture" (instrumental)
#"Happy Family"
#"School Days"
#"I Wanna Lick It/Can I Speak To Mark With Electricity?"
"I Wanna Lick It/Can I Speak To Mark With Electricity?" features the 1975
Kiss
A kiss is the touching or pressing of one's lips against another person, animal or object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely; depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sex ...
hit "
Rock and Roll All Nite
"Rock and Roll All Nite" is a song by American rock band Kiss, released in 1975 as the first single from their third studio album '' Dressed to Kill''. The studio version of the song peaked at No. 68 on the ''Billboard'' singles chart, besting ...
" in its entirety. This is due to Gene Ween recording the album on old
cassettes with music already on the tape. This effect is also heard on the Ween song "
Birthday Boy", which near the end of the song
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...
's song "
Echoes" kicks in. Other examples of this effect happening in Ween's discography are on "
I Play It Off Legit" and "Flies On My Dick".
References
{{Authority control
1987 albums
TeenBeat Records albums
Ween albums