WeenWeen is an American alternative rock group formed in 1984 in New Hope New Hope, Pennsylvania , Pennsylvania when Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo met in an eighth grade typing class. The pair became known respectively as Gene Ween and Dean Ween. Ween has a large underground fanbase despite being generally unknown in American pop music. Pure Guava, the first of a series of releases on the Elektra Elektra Records label, featured their highest charting single, "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-head. Chocolate and Cheese followed in 1994, heralding 70s pop/rock and soul influenced tracks such as "Freedom of '76" and "Voodoo Lady," which appeared on the Road Trip soundtrack. 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 Digital Audio Tape to provide backings for their songs). Ween turned to Nashville Nashville, Tennessee studio musicians for the recording of the authentically-spirited 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 masterpiece The Mollusk followed in 1997, demonstrating Ween's satirization, deconstruction, and appreciative mastery of genres, including 1960's Brit-pop, sea shanties Sea shanty , Broadway Broadway theatre show tunes, and especially progressive rock. Fans, critics and the band themselves have since considered the album to be their definite opus. 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, followed by White Pepper (2000), their pop pop music -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 (now a spyware-installing site), which was awarded third 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. Later, Ween released the first official Chocodog album, Live in Toronto Live In Toronto Canada (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 Live at Stubb's (Ween album) 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 Shinola, Vol. 1 , and announced plans to re-release the 1987 cassette tape by Gene, Synthetic Socks. The two signed to Sanctuary Records in 2003 and released Quebec Quebec (album) , their first studio set in three years. In 2004, they released Live in Chicago Live in Chicago (Ween album) , 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 Andrew Weiss (guitarist) as producer, re-recorded album versions for what would become The Friends EP and the full-length La Cucaracha La Cucaracha (album) which was released October 23, 2007 on Rounder Records. On September 21, 2008, Dean Ween announced on the official Ween website that they plan to release a CD-DVD combo for this Christmas. He states "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 is titled At the Cat's Cradle and was recorded live at the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on December 9, 1992. This showcases a typical early performance by the duo, with just a Digital Audio Tape (DAT) player as backing tracks. The package also includes a DVD featuring some video of performances from the same era. On March 10, 2009, Dean Ween announced on the official Ween website that he and Gene have started to rehearse once again. Most likely (although not confirmed) for a new album in 2009, as Dean mentioned that we will see a "new look" Ween soon.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 The X-Files: The Album ; Beautiful Girls Beautiful Girls (film) ; Dude, Where's My Car?; Road Trip 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 Weeds (TV series) ("You ***ed 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 of classic Schoolhouse Rock! ditties 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 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. 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". The band has made several on-screen appearances, including performing on Letterman 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. Dean made significant contributions to two projects by his friend Josh Homme Joshua 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 Mother***in' Cheese Go At?". Both versions are available . On Australia Day, 2009, 'Your Party' was named as No. 55 in Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2008. 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. 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 February 3, 2010, Ween released a new song to support TargetCancer available on their website. The song enitled "DC Won't Do You No Good" has been highly anticipated by some, as Deaner mentioned in March 2009 that a "new look" Ween was coming. 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. Current members * Dean Ween, pseudonym for Mickey Melchiondo – lead guitar, vocals, etc. * Gene Ween, pseudonym for Aaron Freeman – lead vocal, guitar, etc. * Dave Dreiwitz – bass * Claude Coleman, Jr. – drums * Glenn McClelland – keyboards Past members * Andrew Weiss Andrew Weiss (guitarist) – producer, bass, etc. * Jason Fuller – keyboards in touring band 2001 * Mean Ween (Chris Williams) – bass on "Alone" (The Pod), second vocals on "Little Birdy Little Birdy (song) " (Pure Guava), bass (The Mollusk), live * Scott Lowe – second vocal and whistling solo on "Don't Get Too Close" (Pure Guava), various backing vocals (Chocolate and Cheese), second vocal on "Rift" (Shinola, Vol. 1) * Pat Frey – drums on "Baby Bitch", "Mango Woman" , "I'll Miss You" , "Shot Heard 'Round the World" * Guy Heller – vocals on "Flies on My Dick" (Pure Guava) * Bobby Ogdin, piano; Charlie McCoy, harmonica/trumpet/tuba; Pete Wade, guitar; Buddy Harman, drums; Russ Hicks, steel guitar; Bob Wray, bass; Kip Paxton, bass; Buddy Blackman, banjo; Buddy Spicher, fiddle; Hargus Robbins, piano; Dennis Solee, clarinet; Gene Chrisman, drum – musicians on 12 Golden Country Greats * Bobby Ogdin & The Shit Creek Boys – Bobby Ogdin, piano; Danny Parks, guitar; Stu Basore, steel guitar; Matt Kohut, bass; Hank Singer, fiddle - touring band 1996/Live In Toronto Canada/Paintin' the Town Brown: Ween Live 1990–1998 Organization * Management – Greg Frey Greg Frey (musician) Management * Booking – High Road Touring * Legal – George Regis * Business Manager – RZO, LLC Instruments *Dean Ween – Fender Stratocaster, Fender Musicmaster *Gene Ween – Gibson Les Paul, Martin D28 *Dave Dreiwitz – Rickenbacker bass, Fender precision *Claude Coleman, Jr. – DW Drum Workshop drums, Bosphorus Cymbals 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 Twin Tone Records , reissued 2001 Restless Restless Records 1991 The Pod Shimmy Disc, reissued 1995 Elektra Elektra Records 1992 Pure Guava Elektra 1994 Chocolate & Cheese Chocolate and 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 Quebec (album) Sanctuary Sanctuary Records 2005 Shinola, Vol. 1 Chocodog 2007 La Cucaracha La Cucaracha (album) Rounder Records Live albums Year Title Label 1999 Paintin' the Town Brown: Ween Live 1990–1998 Elektra Elektra Records 2001 Live In Toronto Canada Chocodog Chocodog Records /Schnitzel Records Ltd. 2002 Live at Stubb's 7/2000 Live at Stubb's (Ween album) Chocodog 2003 All Request Live Chocodog 2004 Live in Chicago Live in Chicago (Ween album) Sanctuary Sanctuary Records 2008 At The Cat's Cradle, 1992 At The Cat's Cradle, 1992 (album) 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 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! - Lonley Mushroom Records 1994 A Merry Little Christmas : A Holiday Sampler from Elektra & EastWest Elektra Elektra Records /EastWest EastWest Records 1995 Kostars - Klassics With a K Grand Royal 1995 Used & Recorded by 3RRR Vol.2 Radio Release 1996 Ben Vaughn - Instrumental Stylings Bar None Records 1996 Yoko Ono-Rising Mixes Rising (Yoko Ono album) Capitol Records 1996 Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks Atlantic Records 1998 Hub Hub (bassist) - Hub SLASH RECORDS 1998 Chef Aid: The South Park Album Columbia Columbia Records 1998 The X-Files: The Album WEA Elektra Records 1999 Ben - Wool Ben Chatrer
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