Weeed Call it Quits With Three Album Releases
There’s all kinds of ways to not be a band anymore. Some play a last show. Some don’t. Some put out a last release. Some fade out quietly and never say a word about it. Some explode in resentments and interpersonal dramas. Like any relationship, the ending is as unique as the dynamics of the people involved, and since everybody’s different, well, you get the idea.
I’ve seen a fair number of bands come and go, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a band call it a day by releasing three new albums. And you know what? Thinking of the above, it makes total sense.
Portland, Oregon’s Weeed are the kind of band that, 20 years from now, some soul will reissue their LPs and people will punch themselves at having missed. A well kept secret, for the duration, but able to channel an organic, pastoral stonerism that at times could be crushingly heavy but that still felt like being outside in the warmth. Songs you could listen to with a complement of insects in the evening.
But weird and variably structured as well, unpredictable. Stoner-adjacent in sound, and well stoned existentially, but not beholden to the chestbeating dudery of riff-measuring, and all the more flexible for that. I liked this band. I hope I get to hear any portion of these three new releases — I’ll stream them on Bandcamp, naturally, but oddly enough bands who are breaking up don’t usually prioritize sending stuff out for reviews — and I’m glad to have gotten the chance to engage with at least some of the studio progression they took on during their time, because it was an odd fit for the genre and that was one of the most admirable things about it.
Their announcement follows, as culled from social media. Note they’re “laying the name to rest” here, which doesn’t necessarily preclude working together in some other context. In the meantime, the last show is Aug. 8 at Mississippi Studios in Portland.
Here’s what they had to say:
To our families, friends, fans, and freaks,
It’s with ache and awe alike that we announce the end of WEEED.
In the spring of 2008 in a basement, this project formed with a simple vision: “play stoner rock”. Our teenage selves couldn’t have guessed we’d spend the next 17 years refining that vision into something as deep, dense, instructive, intense, and wildly gratifying as what this band came to be.
The music itself, along with our strivings to transform it ever anew, often served at once as grail and guide. But it was our bonds with each other and with the communities that nourished our creative efforts which felt more true north than anything. Relationship and connection were the real yolk and source, reflected in every sound we made.
In the past five years, amidst powerful liminalities both planetary and personal, it became increasingly less clear how to continue to channel our collaborative methods in a way that accommodated our changing lives and honored the unquantifiable sums of energy we’ve dedicated to WEEED. We’ve now decided that the best way to bridge that gap is to, finally, lay the name to rest. Though there is indeed a sense of loss involved in this choice, we are all buoyed up by an equal sense of expansion and possibility.
Words fail to capture how grateful we are for everyone who’s taken part in our path. Wherever you are, we hope you might join us for one more ride at @mississippistudios on August 8th in Portland, OR. There and then we’ll play our last show alongside dear friends @ohroseh . We’ve planned a set that celebrates over a decade’s worth of our music.
With all this in mind, we are also announcing the release of three albums, written and recorded over the past 8 years and, until now, kept in the dark. Given the lengths of time lapsed between their respective completions and release, it’s difficult to speak to the exact nature of the songs contained in each one, save to say that they truly harness the democratic and communal energetics that brought this band to bear in the first place. All three records will be released simultaneously this Friday, August 1st. Stay tuned.
We love you all,
🫶- WEEED
https://weeed.bandcamp.com/
https://linktr.ee/weeedband
https://www.instagram.com/weeedband/
https://www.facebook.com/WEEEDBAND
Fucking bummer.
Never heard of them until I saw them on the Monolith on the Mesa bill, and they blew me away. Wish I could have seen them more than just that one time. Do You Fall was a great album.
They’ll be missed (at least by me).
Listening to their albums now, forgot to mention You Are The Sky above. That was my favorite of their, also my intro to them.