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Ween

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For other uses, see Ween (disambiguation).
Ween

Ween is an American alternative rock group formed in 1984 in New Hope, Pennsylvania when Aaron Freeman (Gene Ween) and Mickey Melchiondo (Dean Ween) met in an eighth grade typing class. Ween has a large underground fanbase despite being generally unknown in American pop music. The band's style is hard to pin down, as they are known for using several music styles, sometimes even combining contrasting styles.

Early years

Their earliest home recordings were anarchic and free-spirited, drawing on influences as far-reaching as Syd Barrett, The Beatles, Queen, Frank Zappa, Prince, Butthole Surfers, The Residents, and the lo-fi punk movement. They self-released six cassettes in the late eighties: Mrs. Slack, 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 Tom Waits, though they would eschew such comparisons. Ween's public debut was a "Purple Haze" cover closing a 1987 talent show; the piece featured a solo, stand-up, acoustic bass and Lauren "Rainbow" Fihe, from Elwood, Indiana, on drums. Ween gained local recognition by playing some now-legendary bars in New Hope, PA such as John & Peter's on Main Street, and still frequent the establishment to this day.

Major releases

Ween was signed to Twin/Tone Records in 1989 and released their first album GodWeenSatan: The Oneness in the following year, made up of an eclectic 26 tracks.

The band recorded a second album on a four-track cassette recorder from January to October 1990, in an apartment called the Pod, located in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania. This album, The Pod, was released in 1991, named after the apartment where it was recorded. The duo's use of drum machines, pitch-tweaked guitars and vocals and drug-laced humor became a trademark part of their sound. The cover of The Pod was a parody of the cover of the 1975 Leonard Cohen album, The Best of Leonard Cohen, but with the head of Mean Ween (sometime bassist Chris Williams) in place of Cohen's.

Pure Guava, the first of a series of releases on the Elektra label, featured their highest charting single, the atonal and screechy "Push th' Little Daisies" (1992) which gained them media and MTV attention, as the video was a highlighted target on MTV's Beavis and Butt-headreflecting the poor quality but high popularity of the song.

Chocolate and Cheese followed in 1994, featuring tracks influenced by 70s pop/rock and soul, such as "Freedom of '76" and "Voodoo Lady," the latter of which appeared on the Road Trip and Dude Where's My Car soundtracks. 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 studio musicians for the recording of 12 Golden Country Greats (1996) which only contained ten tracks. According to Aaron, "That's why it's called 12 Golden Country Greats, even though there's only 10 songs on there. The 'greats' are those Nashville session guys."

The nautically-themed album The Mollusk followed in 1997. Some fans and critics consider the album to be a culmination of Ween's penchant for satire, deconstruction, and their appreciative mastery of genres, including 1960's Brit-pop, sea shanties, Broadway show tunes, and especially progressive rock. In 2007, Melchiondo himself named The Mollusk his favorite among Ween's oeuvre.[1]

The band's 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.

This was 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.

The two signed to Sanctuary Records in 2003 and released Quebec, their first studio set in three years.

In 2004, they released Live in Chicago, a DVD and CD set that compiled tracks from two energetic live performances.

In February 2006, Dean and Gene, along with their band, rented an old farmhouse and converted it into a working studio. After writing over 50 songs and recording rough versions through 2006, they picked through them and, with Andrew Weiss as producer, re-recorded album versions for what would become The Friends EP and the full-length La Cucaracha which was released October 23, 2007 on Rounder Records.

Ween formed their own label in 2001, Chocodog Records, which oversaw the release of several self-produced live sets. 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. Later, Ween released the first official Chocodog album, Live in Toronto (a live recording from the 1996 tour, in which Ween performed with Bobby Ogdin & The Shit Creek Boys). The limited-pressing CD, available exclusively through the band website, 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 installment of a rarity compilation series entitled Shinola, and announced plans to re-release the 1987 cassette tape by Gene, Synthetic Socks.

On September 21, 2008, Dean Ween announced on the official Ween website that they planned to release a CD-DVD combo before Christmas of that year. He stated, "This time we’re going to be going all the way back to the days when we were still a duo with a cassette deck in the early 90’s. It’s probably the brownest CD on the Chocodog label yet." That CD was titled At the Cat's Cradle and was recorded live at the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on December 9, 1992. The duo emulated their early performances, using only a Digital Audio Tape (DAT) player for their backing tracks. The package also included a DVD featuring some video of performances from the same era.[2]

On March 10, 2009, Dean Ween announced on the official Ween website that he and Gene had started to rehearse once again. He added that fans should expect to see a "new look" Ween soon.[3] A potential new album was most likely postponed, as no further news about it surfaced.

On February 3, 2010, Ween released a new song, "DC Won't Do You No Good", that became available through a Target Cancer website.

On July 28, 2010, the National Post featured an article with an interview with Dean Ween, in which it was stated that the band is due in the studio this winter to start work on its 12th album.

Miscellaneous works and pop culture references

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 hardcore band Moistboyz. Ween's songs are used in several film soundtracks, including The X-Files; Beautiful Girls; Dude, Where's My Car?; Road Trip; U Turn and Herr Lehmann, and on television they have contributed to MTV's mid-1990s show The State ("Voodoo Lady"), SpongeBob SquarePants ("Ocean Man" and a song about tying shoes "Loop de Loop"), Weeds ("You Fucked Up"), Nitro Circus ("Stroker Ace") and Grounded for Life (the theme song and background music). The team recorded "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" for a 1996 tribute album Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks, covering Schoolhouse Rock! songs with the likes of Better Than Ezra, Blind Melon, and Moby. Ween had been asked to write a theme song for Greg the Bunny which was rejected.

"Piss up a Rope" can be heard playing in the garage near the start of the 1997 movie U Turn. It can also be heard in the background in a scene in the cafe from a May 2008 episode of English soap Eastenders.

"Buenos Tardes Amigo" is in the 2006 Russian film Zhest (English title 'Junk')during the body dumping of the bride scene.

Ween's music has been used for several snowboard video parts, including the notable use of "Johnny on the Spot" during snowboarding legend Peter Line's part in the 2000 Mack Dawg film, "The Resistance".

Shortly after the release of White Pepper Ween started the Internet radio station WeenRadio, which was awarded third best Internet music site by Rolling Stone.[4]

Dean made significant contributions to two projects by his friend Josh Homme: The Desert Sessions and Queens of the Stone Age. On the critically successful 2002 Queens of the Stone Age album Songs for the Deaf, Dean played guitar on "Mosquito Song", "Gonna Leave You", and "Six Shooter".

In 2002, the advertising agency for Pizza Hut approached the duo to record a promotional jingle, which resulted in a 30-second recording of "Where'd the Cheese Go?". It epitomized Ween-style irreverence but did not appeal to the agency, and Pizza Hut rejected several versions of the song outright. True to form (and somewhat indignant), Ween re-recorded the same song with new lyrics as "Where'd the Motherfuckin' Cheese Go At?". Both versions are available at sliceny.com.

On Australia Day, 2009, 'Your Party' was named as No. 55 in Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2008.[5] This was the band's fourth Hottest 100 appearance, previously charting in 1993 at No. 40 with 'Push Th' Little Daisies', twice in 1997 with 'Mutilated Lips' at No. 36 and 'Waving My Dick In the Wind' at No. 97, and 'Gabrielle' at No. 66 in 2005.[6]

On September 6, 2009, Ween played Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado. The concert was filmed and iClips.net released the performance on their streaming pay-per-view service.

On March 3, 2010, Ween announced that the band would be performing at Camp Bisco 9 in Mariaville, NY to be held between July 15–17. The next day, Ween announced their participation at Bonnaroo in Manchester, TN between June 10–13. The band has listed several other tour dates on their website, including stops in Chicago, Minneapolis, and Indianapolis.

Gene Ween performed solo at the Maison De Musique in New Orleans on April 30, 2010, during Jazzfest.

The band has made several on-screen appearances, including performing on The Late Show with David Letterman, on MTV's Oddville, in puppet form on Crank Yankers, as part of "Chef Aid" in South Park, and on film as themselves in It's Pat.

British electropop band Hot Chip makes a reference to the band members in the lyrics of the song 'Keep Fallin' on the album Coming On Strong, ”Me and Ulysses / We’re like Gene and Dean Ween / We’re like brothers making records who can’t play things.”. Hot Chip themselves sometimes refer to each other using fictional monikers.

Members

Current members

Past members

Organization

  • Management – Greg Frey Management
  • Booking – High Road Touring
  • Legal – George Regis
  • Business Manager – RZO, LLC

Instruments

Discography

Early independent releases (1986–1989)

Year Title
1986 The Crucial Squeegie Lip
1987 Mrs. Slack
1987 Axis: Bold as Boognish
1987 Erica Peterson's Flaming Crib Death
1988 The Live Brain Wedgie/WAD
1989 Prime 5

Studio albums (1990–present)

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
2007 La Cucaracha Rounder Records

Live albums

Year Title Label
1999 Paintin' the Town Brown: Ween Live 1990–1998 Elektra
2001 Live In Toronto Canada Chocodog/Schnitzel Records Ltd.
2002 Live at Stubb's 7/2000 Chocodog
2003 All Request Live Chocodog
2004 Live in Chicago Sanctuary
2008 At The Cat's Cradle, 1992 Chocodog/Schnitzel Records Ltd.

EPs and singles

Year Title Label
1992 I'm Fat Vital Music
1992 Push th' Little Daisies Elektra Records
1992 Sky Cruiser Sub Pop
1992 Sky Cruiser EP White Records
1993 Push th' Little Daisies Elektra Records
1994 I Can't Put My Finger On It EP Elektra Records
1994 Freedom of '76 EP Flying Nun Records
1994 Voodoo Lady EP Flying Nun Records
1996 Piss Up a Rope/You Were the Fool EP Flying Nun Records
1996 Piss Up a Rope Diesel Only Records
1997 Mutilated Lips Elektra Records
1997 Ocean Man Elektra Records
2000 Even If You Don't Mushroom Records
2000 Stay Forever Promo EP Mushroom Records
2000 Stay Forever Red Vinyl EP Mushroom Records
2003 Tried and True/Mountains and Buffalo Sanctuary Records
2005 "Monique The Freak" limited edition one sided etched 12" Chocodog/Schnitzel Records Ltd.
2005 "Gabrielle" limited edition one sided brown 7" Chocodog//Schnitzel Records Ltd.
2007 The Friends EP CD and limited edition picture disc 12" Chocodog//Schnitzel Records Ltd.
2010 DC Won't Do You No Good Web release

Appearances

Year Title Label
1993 En Esch - Cheesy TVT Records
1994 Frente! - Lonely Mushroom Records
1994 A Merry Little Christmas : A Holiday Sampler from Elektra & EastWest Elektra/EastWest
1995 Kostars - Klassics With a K Grand Royal
1995 Used & Recorded by 3RRR Vol.2 Radio Release
1996 Beautiful Girls Miramax / Elektra
1996 Ben Vaughn - Instrumental Stylings Bar None Records
1996 Yoko Ono-Rising Mixes Capitol Records
1996 Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks Atlantic Records
1998 Hub - Hub SLASH RECORDS
1998 Chef Aid: The South Park Album Columbia
1998 The X-Files: The Album WEA
1999 Ben - Wool Ben Chatrer

References

  1. ^ Dean Ween picks his favourite Ween disc, gives the back story on La Cucaracha
  2. ^ http://www.chocodog.com/chocodog/ween/ween_new/news_fr.html
  3. ^ http://www.ween.com
  4. ^ David Kushner, The Top Ten Best Digital Music Entities of 2000, Rolling Stone, December 28, 2000, retrieved October 2, 2007.
  5. ^ The Hottest 100 songs in Australia right now are… MusicRadar.com
  6. ^ triple j Hottest 100 Archive triplej.net.au
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