Axis of Weasel
Like the Beatles after Revolver, XTC after English Settlement and Steely Dan after Pretzel Logic (but before their 1990s renaissance), the Weasels have existed as a studio-based creative entity alone since 2000. The first fruits of this era in the band’s history saw light in January 2006, when Axis of Weasel was released. Produced and engineered by Graf at Big Saucy Sound, the album’s 12 songs feature Fun, Weasell, Graf, Jon Cohen (bass and Chapman Stick), Adrian Cohen (keyboards), Appicelli (drums), and new guitarist Matt Pirog. Guests on the record include stalwart guitarist Maynard on lead and slide guitars, Rena Graf and Mike Pauley (backing vocals), Dud Hennessey (mouth harp), Nathaniel Ward (guitar) and J. Eric Smith (theremin).
Axis of Weasel was originally titled It Takes A Village to Raise a Village Idiot and is referenced as such in news articles and reviews from this period. The Larry Trilogy concludes here, a decade after it began, with closing track “Everything’s Fine.” Although it appears that no Infamous Killers explicitly appear on this record, the songs “Under a Cheddar Moon” and “Where Cheese Is King” continue a new Weasels' lyrical obsession: dairy and seafood products from Vermont, a story line that had been launched with “Rachel,” the hidden track from Uranus Or Bust. Album opener “Hey Joey Doyle” takes film masterpiece On the Waterfront as its launching point. An edit from “Dirtnap” was broadcast nationally in January 2006 as part of National Public Radio’s “A Word to the Wise” segment, dealing with coffins, caskets and undertakers.
Axis of Weasel includes the following tracks:
- "Hey Joey Doyle”
- “Where Cheese Is King”
- “Flergen, A Swede”
- “Suckling”
- “Transparent”
- “Whither Goest the Waitress”
- “1973”
- “Officer Gerbils”
- "Cosmic Rays”
- “Under A Cheddar Moon”
- “Dirtnap”
- “Everything’s Fine”
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