The Weasels

The Weasels are an American rock band based in Albany, New York and active since the mid-1980s. Throughout their history, the group's core writers and performers have been Doctor Fun (vocals, saxophones, keyboards, flute, lyrics and songwriting) and Roy Weäsell (electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, keyboards, trombone, roto-vibe, mandolin, lyrics and songwriting). The Weasels have released seven LPs and one EP of original material, along with an early career retrospective compilation, and have played approximately 40 concerts, though they have not performed live since October 2000. They have been compared in reviews to Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention and Steely Dan, based on their melodic jazz and blues based music, elaborate arrangements, deployment of highly regarded session players, open-ended and suspended compositional style, exacting recording standards, and intelligent use of sardonic, sarcastic, historic, political, surrealist and scatological themes in their lyrics. Early history The group was founded after Fun responded to a newspaper advertisement placed by Weäsell and producer-engineer-performer Chris Graf, who were attempting to find a keyboard and saxophone player for a planned live band. For the first several years of their existence, however, the founding trio remained home-bound, writing and recording tracks that would later appear on the discs Meat the Weasels Volume I: Fondue Cabaret and GenerationXcrement. In 1992, The Weasels submitted a tape to the local alternative newsweekly's annual unsigned artists' showcase concert, and were selected as one of four finalists, despite the fact that no live version of the band existed. Fun, Graf and Weäsell quickly assembled and rehearsed a stage presentation of their material, and won generally positive audience and critical reviews for their performance, despite losing the contest to a defunct industrial metal band. Meat the Weasels Volume 1: Fondue Cabaret