Ween - The Band

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Ween is a Rock and Roll party band from New Hope, Pennsylvania. Since their formation in 1984, they've gathered quite the following of fans throughout the world. Ween are known and loved for their humorous and odd variety of music, and for their powerful live concerts which can last up to 4 hours.



Ween's first three studio albums were recorded at their homes on a simple four track recorder. These albums achieved a unique and inventive sound without the use a top quality recording studio, which is one of their many wonders. When they actually went into a real studio for their later albums, their sound blossomed in a magnificently noticeable way.



The Lineup:
Gene Ween: Vocals, Guitar
Dean Ween: Guitar, Vocals

These are the founding fathers, or brothers of Ween. Ween was formed in 1984, when Aaron Freeman and Michael Melchiondo met in high school and assumed the monikers Gene and Dean Ween respectively. A preprogrammed DAT machine supplied the drums and bass for the duo's early live and recorded performances.



Today, Ween is much bigger. There is a whole brigade of contributing artist, which this research will not list in this breif entry, because the line up is always changing. I will say, however, that Ween is big. The first time that I saw them live, there was seven men on stage.



The Material:



Here are the major studio albums in chronological order.

God Ween Satan: the oneness (1990)

The Pod ( 1991)

Pure Guava ( 1992 )

Chocolate and Cheese (1994 )

12 Golden Country Greats (1996)

The Mollusk (1997)

Painting the Town Brown: Ween Live '90 - '98(1999)

White Pepper (2000)


Other Material:

There are other hard to find EP's, singles, B-sides, experiments and guest appearances. For example, Ween has a song on the South Park Chef Aid CD. For a dedicated fan, it would be a worthwhile venture to seek out these rarities.

Z-Rock Hawaii is a collaboration between Ween and asian punk band, The Boredoms. They have released one album called Z-Rock Hawaii, and it's typical Ween music with an asian twang. Eye, from The Boredoms, adds outrageous vocals to nearly every track on the album.

The Moistboyz are Guy Heller and Dean Ween (aka Dickie and Mickey Moist). They release albums that contain hard rocking heavy metal music. Warning: Not for the weak of heart.

"We've always had an open tape trading policy at our shows." --Dean Ween

This is true. Fans are allowed to tape live concerts, which they then trade with fellow fans*. Tape trading sites for Ween and other bands are available all over the Internet. Ween fans are a friendly lot and will trade their Ween tapes for more Ween tapes or for blanks and postage*. So if you'd like some live Ween music, search the Internet. For instance, here is a Ween fan's webpage where they list all their tapes available for trade:
Janney's live Ween archive



The Ween Sound:

As one fan puts it:
"Sometimes all I need is Ween cause they play so many different types of music I never hafta to change cd's"

The Ween sound is known to be unpredictable and covers a wide variety of music styles. It really is undescribeable, on their latest album, White Pepper, a song with calypso melodies and back beats is followed immediatley by a heavy metal song about auto racing. The album, 12 Golden Country Greats is geniune country and western music, backed by 12 musicians from Nashville, Tennesse. The Mollusk was written and recorded in a beach house, and is full of sea shanties in 3/4 time and songs about sea creatures. Here, sing along with the band on the title track:


"Hey little boy, whatcha got there?
Kind sir, it's a Mollusk I've found.

Did you find it in the sand ground?

Does it emulate the ocean's sound?
Yes I found it on the ground, emulating ocean sounds.

Bring forth the mollusk, cast unto me
Let's be forever, Let's forever be free."
-from The Mollusk by Ween

Ween in concert also gives the audience a wide variety of genres. Heavy metal, French lounge music, chanting, you name it.

Ween on the Internet:

If this entry leaves you with any unanswered questions, then worry not. Answers are only a short search or click away, as there are many Ween resources readily available on the Internet. A great place to start would be here: www.chocodog.com/ween. This is a Ween site maintained and updated by the real McCoy: Dean Ween.



WeenRadio.Com is a site that plays Ween songs 24 hours a day. The songs are in MP3 format and use a technology called Shoutcast to directly stream the MP3 files from one computer to an other. Pretty cool stuff. Directions for use can be found at the site.


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