Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo met in a junior high school typing class in 1984, and despite not really liking each other they sat next to each other in typing class and both realized we were into music. The decided to form a band and called themselves Ween, which was a made-up word by combining the words wuss and penis. Their earliest home recordings were drug-fuelled and free-spirited, and deliberately designed to be obnoxious. From 1984 until 1994, Ween's live line-up consisted of Freeman on lead vocals and occasional rhythm guitar, Melchiondo on lead guitar and backing vocals, and a Digital Audio Tape (DAT) machine providing the pre-recorded backing tracks. They self-released several cassettes in the late eighties including 'Mrs. Slack' (1984), 'Erica Peterson's Flaming Crib Death' (1986), 'The Crucial Squeegie Lip' (1987), 'Axis: Bold as Boognish' (1988), and 'Prime 5' (1988). In the late 80's, Dave Ayers, working in A&R for Minneapolis-based record label Twin/Tone, went to see a live performance by alt-rock band Skunk, whose friends Ween were opening for them, and Ayers signed Ween to Twin/Tone that night, and would soon become the band's manager. Ween's debut album for Twin/Tone, 'GodWeenSatan: The Oneness', was released on in November 1990, and consisted of 26 tracks that were written during their first six years, and can be thought of as a "best of" this era.
The band released their second full-length album, 'The Pod', in 1991 on the Shimmy-Disc label, which was recorded on a four-track cassette recorder from January to October 1990. The album borrows its title from the Solebury Township, Pennsylvania apartment in which it was recorded. The duo's use of drum machines, pitch-shifted guitars/vocals and drug-laced humour became a trademark part of their sound, while 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 Chris "Mean Ween" Williams (who played bass on the Pod track 'Alone') in place of Cohen's. Following the release of 'The Pod', Ween embarked on their first extensive U.S. tour, as well as a week-long U.K. tour that included a recording with John Peel in the BBC studio. In 1992 Ween signed with Elektra Records and released their major label debut 'Pure Guava' in November. This included their highest charting single, 'Push Th' Little Daisies', which gained them media and MTV attention, as the video was a highlighted target on MTV's Beavis and Butt-Head. Following the release of 'Pure Guava', Ween began to expand their live and studio line-up, providing both a crisper production sound in the studio and an easier live setup. Claude Coleman Jr. officially joined the band as drummer in March 1994, while Ween's long-time producer Andrew Weiss picked up the bass duties.
The Weiss-produced 'Chocolate And Cheese' was released in 1994, featuring tracks influenced by '70s pop/rock and soul, such as 'Voodoo Lady', which also appeared on the 'Road Trip' and 'Dude, Where's My Car?' soundtracks. In 1995 Ween turned to Nashville studio musicians and producer Ben Vaughn for the November recording of '12 Golden Country Greats', which was released the following year, and which contained only ten tracks. There are two theories regarding the title of the album; that it refers to the dozen veteran musicians, known as The Shit Creek Boys, who played on the album, or that the band did record twelve songs during the sessions for the album, but chose not to use 'I Got No Darkside' and 'So Long, Jerry', but kept the album title. The nautically themed album 'The Mollusk' followed in 1997, and was another eclectic set showing Ween's penchant for satire, deconstruction, and pastiche, including 1960s Brit-pop, sea shanties, Broadway show tunes, and especially progressive rock. Following the release of 'The Mollusk', Ween contributed two songs to two different Trey Parker/Matt Stone projects, with 'Love' appearing in the film 'Orgazmo' in September 1997, and 'The Rainbow', as well as Freeman and Melchiondo themselves, featuring in a season 2 episode of South Park, titled 'Chef Aid', in October 1998. Their final soundtrack project of 1998 was contributing 'Beacon Light' to 'The X-Files: The Album', which was also released as a split single with Foo Fighters.
Ween's sixth studio album, 2000's 'White Pepper', was the band's final studio release for Elektra, and was a pop-themed, Lennon-McCartney–inspired album, which produced two singles: 'Even If You Don't' and 'Stay Forever'. 'White Pepper' is the only Ween album that I own, and I can't even remember why I bought it, as all I knew about the band was that they made lo-fi music about sex, drugs and bodily functions, although they toned this down for their 1983 John Peel session. Having recently heard that session again, I wondered if they'd recorded any more songs that were more mainstream pop-orientated, and it turns out that they did slip the odd pop song onto their albums now and then. This collection is therefore Ween's 'pop' album, including two tracks from the Peel session - 'What Deaner What Talkin' About' and 'Buckingham Green' - as well as the '12 Golden Country Greats' reject 'So Long, Jerry', which is a heartfelt tribute to the recently departed Jerry Garcia. If you don't already know the band and find that you like this album, then do be warned that most of their other stuff can be something of an acquired taste.
Track listing
01 What Deaner Was Talkin' About
02 Even If You Don't
03 Tried And True
04 So Long, Jerry
05 The Argus
06 Buckingham Green
07 A Tear For Eddie
08 Chocolate Town
09 It's Gonna Be (Alright)
10 Beacon Light
11 Don't Want It
12 If You Could Save Yourself (You'd Save Us All)
13 Slow Down Boy
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