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Ween is an alternative 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.
Early yearsTheir earliest home recordings were anarchic and free-spirited, drawing on influences as far-reaching as Syd Barrett, 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 Primus though they would always 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 Chrissy Serino on drums. Major releases
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 and 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.
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 2005 they released Shinola, Vol. 1 a collection of outtakes which received some positive press, especially in Europe, which was followed up by two singles taken from the album, Monique The Freak and Gabrielle (2006) In February of '06, they began renting an old farmhouse and converted it into a functioning studio. After writing over 50 songs and recording rough versions through 2006, they began picking through them, and, with Andrew Weiss once again producing, re-recording album versions. As of March 2007, they are in the midst of recording final versions of what they have said to be about 20 songs. Miscellaneous worksWeen 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, Dude, Where's My Car? and Road Trip, and on television they have contributed to SpongeBob SquarePants ('Ocean Man' and a song about tying shoes "Loop de Loop") and Grounded for Life (the theme song). The team recorded The Shot Heard 'Round the World for a 1996 tribute album of classic School House Rock ditties with the likes of Better than Ezra, Blind Melon, and Moby. 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", "Gonna Leave You", and "Six Shooter". In 2002, the duo were approached by Pizza Hut's ad-agency to record a promotion jingle, which resulted in a thirty second recording by Ween titled "Where'd the Cheese Go?". The jingle epitomized Ween's normally irreverent musical flair but WEEN's penchant for eccentricity did not appeal to the advertising agency in charge and Pizza Hut rejected several versions of the song 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?". You can hear both versions here. In 2003, Ocean Man from The Mollusk could once again be found on television airwaves when Honda used the song in an advertisement to promote its 2004 Civic Coupe. In 2005, "Oh My Dear (Falling in Love)", from The Pod, appeared in the film The Motel as the title song. It also became the DVD Menu song for the film once it was released on DVD MembersCurrent members
Past members
DiscographyEarly independent releases (1986-1989)
Studio albums (1990-present)
Live albumsEPs and singlesAppearances
See also
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