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Ween is a rock group formed in 1984 in New Hope, Pennsylvania when Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo met in a junior high school typing class. The pair became known as Gene and Dean Ween. Thousands of home recordings later, Ween collected a large underground fanbase despite being generally unknown in pop music.

Contents

Early years

Their earliest home recordings were anarchic and free-spirited, drawing on influences as far-reaching as the Beatles, Queen, Prince, Butthole Surfers, The Residents and the lo-fi punk movement. They self-released 5 cassettes in the late eighties; The Crucial Squeegie Lip, [[Axis: Bold As Boognish]], Erica Peterson's Flaming Crib Death, The Live Brain Wedgie/WAD, and Prime 5. Around this time, Gene also released his own tape, Synthetic Socks, which featured Dean on a few songs. Ween was often compared in their early years to other offbeat artists such as Frank Zappa and They Might Be Giants and would always eschew such comparisons.

Major releases

Ween was signed to Twin/Tone Records in 1989 and released their first album [[GodWeenSatan: The Oneness]] in the following year, a 26-track smorgasbord of genre jumping and wild, silly eclecticism. 1991's The Pod became a fast fan favorite, as the duo's use of drum machines, pitch-tweaked guitars & vocals and drug-laced humor became a trademark part of their sound. The Pod, according to Ween-lore, was written under the influence of Scotchgard, but this was later disproven by Gene and Dean themselves as being "the most slime-bag thing we could think of". The contraption on the album cover is not a Scotchgard inhalation device, but a bong-like device used to send Marijuana directly to the brain by use of nitrous oxide, which was said to leave the user intoxicated for days, but nauseated. The cover of The Pod resembles the cover of the 1988 Leonard Cohen album, The Best of Leonard Cohen, but with Mean Ween wearing the aformentioned gas mask bong in place of Cohen.

Pure Guava, the first of a series of releases on the Elektra label, featured their highest charting single, "Push Th' Little Daisies" (1992) which gained them media & MTV attention, as the video was a highlighted target on MTV's Beavis & Butt-head. Chocolate & Cheese followed in 1994, heralding 70s pop/rock & soul sendups such as "Freedom of '76" and "Voodoo Lady". The "Freedom of '76" music video was directed by Spike Jonze. At this time, Ween began to expand their live and studio line-up, providing both a crisper production sound in the studio and an easier live setup (up until this time, Ween had been using DAT tapes to provide backings for their songs).

Ween turned to Nashville, Tennessee studio musicians for the recording of the authentically-spirited 12 Golden Country Greats (1996) which only contained ten tracks. There are two theories regarding the title of the album. The first claim is that it refers to the dozen veteran musicians, known as The Shit Creek Boys, who played on the album. The second claim refers to the fact that the band did indeed record twelve songs during the demo sessions for the album. When it came time to record the actual album, the band chose not to use two of the songs but also decided not to change the album title. The two removed songs were titled "I Got No Darkside" and "So Long, Jerry." "So Long, Jerry" did wind up as a B-Side on the "Piss Up A Rope" single.

In 1997 the nautically-themed The Mollusk followed, featuring Ween's simultaneous satirization, deconstruction, and appreciative mastery of genres including 1960's Brit-pop, sea shanties, Broadway show tunes, and most especially, progressive rock. Their desire to pursue alternate forms of media led to the MP3-only release Craters of the Sac (1999), presented by Dean for online download and free trade. Elektra Records released a live compilation entitled [[Paintin' The Town Brown: Ween Live 1990-1998]] in 1999, followed by White Pepper (2000), their pop-themed album and final studio set for Elektra. The track "Even If You Don't" was made into a music video directed by the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Shortly after White Pepper Ween started the internet radiostation [WeenRadio], which was awarded 3rd best internet music site by Rolling Stone.

Ween also formed their own label at this time, Chocodog Records, which oversaw the release of several self-produced live sets. The aforementioned Paintin' the Town Brown, which was compiled and mastered by the band, was meant to be the first Chocodog release. According to Dean Ween, once the album was completed, Elektra realized the sales potential of the CD and denied Ween the right to release it through Chocodog, much to the band's chagrin. Later, Ween released the first official Chocodog album, Live in Toronto (a live recording from the 1996 tour, in which Ween performed with The Shit Creek Boys). Short in pressing and available exclusively through the band's website, the CD became an instant collector's item. Subsequent Chocodog releases (Live at Stubb's and All Request Live) were produced in higher volumes to meet demand. In 2005, the label released the first instalment of a rarity compilation series entitled Shinola, and announced plans to re-release Gene's 1987 cassette tape, Synthetic Socks.

The two signed to Sanctuary Records in 2003 and released quebec, their first studio set in 3 years. In 2004, Ween released Live in Chicago, a DVD and CD set that chronicled one of the energetic live performances for which the group is known.

In addition to a devoted fanbase, Ween has garnered critical acclaim. George Starostin, who has reviewed over 2000 rock albums and nearly 400 artists on [his site], gave Ween the highest ranking of any artist to have emerged since the late 1970s [link] [link].

Miscellaneous Works

Ween has participated in various outside collaborations over the years. The band joined members of Japanese group Boredoms to form noise rock group Z-Rock Hawaii, and Dean is also a member of heavy metal side project Moistboyz. Ween's songs are used in several film soundtracks, including The X-Files, Beautiful Girls and Road Trip, and on television they have contributed to SpongeBob SquarePants (with a song about tying shoelaces) and Grounded for Life (the theme song). The band has also made several on-screen appearances, including performing on Letterman, in puppet form on Crank Yankers, as part of Chef Aid in South Park, and on film as themselves in It's Pat.

Dean has made significant contributions to his friend Josh Homme's projects The Desert Sessions and Queens of the Stone Age. On the latter's critically successful 2002 album Songs for the Deaf, Dean played guitar on "Mosquito Song", "Do It Again", and "Six Shooter".

In 2002, the duo were approached on behalf of Pizza Hut to record a song for a television advertisement, which resulted in a thirty second recording by Ween titled "Where'd the Cheese Go?". The jingle epitomised Ween's normally irreverent musical stylings but their penchant for eccentricity did not appeal to the advertising agency in charge and the song was rejected outright. True to their tongue-in-cheek humour (and somewhat indignant at having their song rejected), Ween set about recording the same version of the song with new lyrics - affectionately referred to as "Where'd the Motherfuckin' Cheese Go At?".

Group members

Current Members: Past members:

Discography

Early demo tapes and self-produced recordings (1986-1989)

Year Title
1987 The Crucial Squeegie Lip
1987 [[Axis: Bold As Boognish]]
1987 Erica Peterson's Flaming Crib Death
1988 The Live Brain Wedgie/WAD
1989 Prime 5

Mixtapes/Private Recordings Given To Friends (after signing to a label) (1990-2000)

Various other tapes were made from 1990 to 2000, but the titles are not known. Very little is known about the tapes we know now. Only one track from The Jug is Quaid (Quid) Tape, and no tracks from The Pork Roll Egg and Cheese Tape, The Stallion Tape, or the Springtape are known, but speculation has it that some of the tracks are on compilations of demos from various albums released around 1990-1992. This is in no way a complete list of tapes. On a German TV Show, Dean brought out 2 garabage bags full of tapes, with each bag probably containing 50 or more tapes.

Studio albums (1990-present)

Year Title
1990 The Jug Is Quaid (Quid) Tape
1991 The Bilboa Tape
1992 The Big Timmy Wasserman Tape
1992 The Pork Roll Egg and Cheese Tape
1992 The Stallion Tape
1992 Springtape
1997 The Pandy (aka Randy) Fackler Tape
2000 Long Beach Island Tape (Stolen From Mickey's Car)
Year Title Label
1990 [[GodWeenSatan: The Oneness]] Twin/Tone, reissued 2001 Restless
1991 The Pod Shimmy Disc, reissued 1995 Elektra
1992 Pure Guava Elektra
1994 Chocolate & Cheese Elektra
1996 12 Golden Country Greats Elektra
1997 The Mollusk Elektra
1999 Craters of the Sac online only MP3 release
2000 White Pepper Elektra
2003 quebec Sanctuary
2005 Shinola, Vol. 1 Chocodog

Live albums

Year Title Label
1999 [[Paintin' The Town Brown: Ween Live 1990-1998]] Elektra
2001 Live In Toronto Canada Chocodog
2002 Live at Stubb's 7/2000 Chocodog
2003 All Request Live Chocodog
2004 Live in Chicago Sanctuary

External links

 

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