Album Review: WEEED’s final three releases

Band: WEEED | Albums: Green Roses Vol. II, Mushroom, WEEED | Genre: Psychedelic rock, Psychedelic folk, Krautrock | Year: 2025

From: Portland, USA | Label: Photon Records

For fans of: King Gizzard, Mondo Drag, Weedpecker

Bandcamp (Green Roses Vol. II) | Bandcamp (Mushroom) | Bandcamp (WEEED)

WEEED, a favorite local band of mine, recently decided to call it quits. I’d featured them on this site at least three times before, with two of those reviews being quite positive. Originally based on Bainbridge Island, I saw them play in and around Seattle a number of times, and they always put on a killer show, blending smart psych rock with improvisational freak-outs. They relocated to Portland a few years ago, and they’d been largely quiet since the pandemic.

In announcing their dissolution, they also announced a farewell show (which I sadly missed, due to a scheduling conflict) and a trio of records they’d been sitting on. I’m going to take this opportunity to cover these three releases as a send-off to this band. This won’t be quite as in-depth as my full-length reviews, but it will cover more than a typical Odds & Ends.

I wasn’t nuts about Green Roses Vol. 1. All the songs were written, rehearsed, and recorded in one day, and it sounded like it. There were good ideas, but a lot of them were half-formed or underbaked. They needed to gestate a bit more.

My feelings are pretty similar here. “Karma Falls Apart” has some promising moments, but it’s ultimately too long and meandering. “Dread” successfully plays around with some wonky tunings, but it also ultimately succumbs to aimlessness and longwindedness. “Crystal Secret” is a fun and groovy jam, and the title track has some great, folky warmth. Overall, though, these ideas needed some more refining and direction.

Mushroom consists of just its 29-minute title track and nothing else. The band leans heavily into drone and ambient influences here, stretching out and building a meditative air. There’s a vague, ethereal drone quietly swelling and ebbing for the first four minutes, and the first bit of melody comes with a gentle, breathy flute. Saxophone eventually wanders in, along with some odd, electronic effects.

Not quite halfway through, a twangy but muted guitar pattern emerges from the void, soon joined by some powerful drumming. Country elements are obvious, but it’s still cloaked in swirling psychedelia.The intensity waxes and wanes, but the focus remains on the overall atmosphere. I could easily see this passage being the soundtrack to a Western film.

When the vocals finally emerge, we’re brought to familiar territory for WEEED. The rhythm varies from slinky and galloping to deliberate and plodding. When the flute reenters over doomy riffs, it makes for a haunting atmosphere. Flashes of black metal, late ‘60s acid rock, and krautrock make appearances in the final minutes, too. Overall, the music is fantastic, but the first 12 minutes don’t really add much. Had this been a 20-minute single instead of a 30-minute one, I probably would have rated this much higher.

WEEED’s self-titled record kicks off with the three-part, 16-minute “New Country”, which fuses country and Americana influences with their base of krauty psych-rock. It’s jittery and jumpy, with frequent dynamic contrasts. The band dips into some airy and atmospheric moments, and at other points, this epic becomes a motorik-fueled hoedown.

Elsewhere on the album, WEEED dials things back with relaxed folk and then lays down scorching semi-metallic riffs woven in with sunny psychedelic vocal melodies.”Live” features some of their best instrumental freakouts, and “Reprise I” is both sprightly and acidic.

The closing epic “Göbekli Tepe” channels some fitting Anatolian touches. It’s a strong end to the band’s legacy, channeling all their krautrock and psychedelic strengths into one engrossingly hypnotic piece

It’s a bummer that WEEED had to come to an end, but I get it. Life happens, and maintaining something like this band takes a lot of time that people simply often don’t have. I’m grateful for the music we did get, though, and I’m glad the band was able to go out on such a strong note.

Green Roses Vol. II Score: 57/100

Mushroom Score: 70/100

WEEED Score: 90/100