WEEN Vinyl Records and CDs Dean and Gene Ween's eclectic Post-Modern Pop defies categorization. With a wry sense of humor, in the spirit of the Dead Milkmen's 'Bitchin' Camaro' or Tenacious D's 'Kyle Took a Bullet for Me,' Ween have thumbed their noses at any serious concept of popular music. Discography, line-up, biography, interviews, photos.
Hyperlink denotes full review
| GodWeenSatan: The Oneness (1990) | — | — |
| The Pod (1991) | — | — |
| Pure Guava (1992) | The culmination of early weirdness that sometimes has a Beefheart-like effect, but otherwise can be pretty arid. | C+ |
| Chocolate and Cheese (1994) | Their satire is always hilarious, and can result in legitimately good songs (“What Deaner Was Talking About”). Other times, it feels too cartoonish (“Voodoo Lady”). I know that’s the point, but after an hour it starts to wear. | C+ |
| 12 Golden Country Greats (1996) | A semi-serious album that hits the mark, but doesn’t really transcend its trappings. It wasn’t meant to, but there it is. | B- |
| The Mollusk (1997) | The original concept strengthens even the parodies. Could use better sequencing (I made my own, if you’d like to hear it). | B+ |
| White Pepper (2000) | Sometimes shunned by Ween diehards. Don’t be that way; this is a great album, limited only by its reach. | B+ |
| Quebec (2003) | In a way, something feels lost. Certain songs sound like rehashes. Others, like “Transdermal Celebration,” have power that Ween never could bottle before. | — |
| La Cucaracha (2007) | — | — |
| Ween discography | |
|---|---|
| Studio albums | 9 |
| Live albums | 7 |
| Compilation albums | 2 |
| Video albums | 1 |
| Music videos | 7 |
| EPs | 8 |
| Singles | 18 |
| Demo tapes | 15 |
The following is the discography of Ween, a Pennsylvania-based experimental alternative band formed by childhood friends Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo, better known by their respective stage names, Gene Ween and Dean Ween. Starting out with a few locally released demo tapes, including The Crucial Squeegie Lip, AXIS: Bold as Boognish, and The Live Brain Wedgie / WAD Excerpts, the band was picked up by independent label Twin/Tone Records in 1990 and released their debut GodWeenSatan: The Oneness. In 1991 they signed with another independent label, Shimmy-Disc, and released The Pod. After this, Ween signed with Elektra Records and released their major label debut Pure Guava in 1992. It features their highest-charting single to date, 'Push th' Little Daisies'. While touring for this album, they played at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which would later be released as a CD/DVD live album in 2008 titled At the Cat's Cradle, 1992.
In 1994 Chocolate and Cheese was released, which spawned the singles 'Voodoo Lady', 'Freedom of '76', and 'I Can't Put My Finger on It'. Ween's next album, released in 1996, was titled 12 Golden Country Greats and was recorded with several prominent Nashville musicians, featuring a distinct country sound. It gave way to the singles 'Piss Up a Rope' and 'You Were the Fool'. The nautically-themed album The Mollusk followed in 1997. It is considered a prog rock concept album, and featured the singles 'Mutilated Lips' and 'Ocean Man', the latter gaining a significant following after being a song on the SpongeBob SquarePants Moviesoundtrack. The band's desire to pursue alternate forms of media led to the MP3-only release Craters of the Sac, presented by Melchiondo for online download and free trade. The same year the band had planned to release a live album compilation spanning their entire career up to that point, titled Paintin' the Town Brown: Ween Live 1990-1998. However, according to Melchiondo, once the album was completed, Elektra realized the sales potential of the CD and denied Ween the right to release it through their independent label. Ween's sixth studio album, White Pepper, was the band's final studio release for Elektra and was released in 2000. The pop-themed, Lennon-McCartney-inspired album produced two singles: 'Even If You Don't', which was made into a music video directed by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and 'Stay Forever'.
Ween formed their own label in 2001, Chocodog Records, the label Ween originally planned to release Paintin' the Town Brown on. Later, Ween released the first official Chocodog album, Live in Toronto, Canada. The limited-pressing CD, available exclusively through the band website, became an instant collector's item. Subsequent Chocodog releases were produced in higher volumes to meet demand. Ween signed to Sanctuary Records and released Quebec, their first studio release in three years, in 2003. Later that year, the band held a poll on their official message boards to select songs for the band to play on their forthcoming live-in-studio album All Request Live. Released on November 22, the album would be the first time Ween would play all five parts of 'The Stallion' (Parts 1 & 2 from The Pod, Part 3 from Pure Guava, the unreleased Part 4, and Part 5 from Craters of the Sac). The performance also included rarely-played early Ween tracks such as 'Pollo Asado', 'Mononucleosis' and 'Cover it with Gas and Set it in Fire', as well as Ween's rejected Pizza Hut jingle, 'Where'd the Cheese Go?'. In 2004, Ween released Live in Chicago, a DVD and CD set that compiled tracks from two live performances from the Quebec tour at Chicago's Vic Theatre in November 2003.
In 2005, Ween hit the studio to record better quality versions of previously-unreleased songs for the compilation Shinola, Vol. 1. The twelve tracks were all, according to Melchiondo, 'songs we regretted not putting on other records'. The tracks spanned the band's career, from 'Tastes Good on th' Bun', a Pod outtake, to 'Someday', a Quebec outtake. Different versions of three of the songs, 'Big Fat Fuck', 'How High Can You Fly?' and 'Monique the Freak' had previously appeared on Craters of the Sac.
In 2006, Ween 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 were both released in 2007 on Rounder Records. La Cucaracha, which would prove to be Ween's final album, would later be called a 'big piece of shit' by Freeman, adding, 'I think the songs on it were good, or a bunch of songs, but overall that was a big clue Mickey and I were finito'.
In 2011, Melchiondo quietly released an MP3-only collection of songs called The Caesar Demos, named after the band's original working title for Quebec, to friends on his Facebook page. In his comment, he stated the songs were all recorded between 2001 and 2003 while Claude Coleman was recovering from injuries sustained in a car accident, and that many of the tracks featured only himself and Freeman. In addition to a handful of tracks that eventually made Quebec, Caesar Demos would also feature several previously unreleased tracks.
The band broke up in 2012, after Freeman commented in a Rolling Stone interview that it was time to pursue solo projects. The manager for the band, Greg Frey, later confirmed he had decided to 'end his musical relationship' with Ween. Melchiondo was unaware of this until it was public information. In 2015, Freeman began using the Gene Ween moniker again for live performances, and later that year they announced their first shows in years for 2016. A sequel to the first outtakes collection, Shinola vol. 1, was confirmed to be in the works by Melchiondo on Facebook in 2016. A live album containing a 2001 performance of every song from their first album was released in 2016, entitled GodWeenSatan Live.
Albums[edit]
Studio albums[edit]
| Year | Title | Label | Peak chart positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [1] | US Heat. [2] | AUS [3] | |||
| 1990 | GodWeenSatan: The Oneness | Twin/Tone | — | — | — |
| 1991 | The Pod | Shimmy Disc | — | — | — |
| 1992 | Pure Guava | Elektra | — | — | 93 |
| 1994 | Chocolate and Cheese | — | 10 | 80 | |
| 1996 | 12 Golden Country Greats | — | 23 | 72 | |
| 1997 | The Mollusk | 159 | 5 | 69 | |
| 2000 | White Pepper | 121 | 2 | — | |
| 2003 | Quebec | Sanctuary | 81 | — | — |
| 2007 | La Cucaracha | Rounder/Schnitzel | 69 | — | 84 |
Live albums[edit]
| Year | Title | Label | Peak chart positions |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Heat. [2] | |||
| 1999 | Paintin' the Town Brown: Ween Live 1990–1998 | Elektra | 37 |
| 2001 | Live in Toronto Canada | Chocodog/Schnitzel | — |
| 2002 | Live at Stubb's 7/2000 | Chocodog | — |
| 2003 | All Request Live | — | |
| 2004 | Live in Chicago | Sanctuary | — |
| 2008 | At the Cat's Cradle, 1992 | Chocodog/Schnitzel | — |
| 2016 | GodWeenSatan Live | — |
Compilation albums[edit]
- Craters of the Sac (1999)
- Shinola, Vol. 1 (2005)
- Bananas and Blow (2018) - Unauthorized Warner release
EPs[edit]
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Sky Cruiser EP | White |
| 1994 | I Can't Put My Finger On It EP | Elektra |
| Freedom of '76 EP | Flying Nun Records | |
| Voodoo Lady EP | Flying Nun | |
| 1996 | Piss Up a Rope/You Were the Fool EP | Flying Nun |
| 2000 | Stay Forever Promo EP | Mushroom |
| Stay Forever Red Vinyl EP | Mushroom | |
| 2007 | The Friends EP CD and limited edition picture disc 12' | Chocodog/Schnitzel |
Singles[edit]
| Year | Title | US Alt. [4] | AUS [3] | UK [5] | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 'I'm Fat' | — | — | — | Non album single |
| 'Push th' Little Daisies' | 21 | 18 | — | Pure Guava | |
| 'Sky Cruiser' | — | — | — | Non album single | |
| 1994 | 'I Can't Put My Finger on It' | — | — | — | Chocolate and Cheese |
| 'Freedom of '76' | — | — | 152 | ||
| 'Voodoo Lady' | 32 | 58 | 97 | ||
| 1996 | 'Piss Up a Rope' | — | — | 116 | 12 Golden Country Greats |
| 'You Were the Fool' | — | — | 98 | ||
| 1997 | 'Mutilated Lips' | — | — | — | The Mollusk |
| 'Ocean Man' | — | — | — | ||
| 2000 | 'Even If You Don't' | — | — | 135 | White Pepper |
| 'Stay Forever' | — | — | 138 | ||
| 2003 | 'Tried and True/Mountains and Buffalo' | — | — | — | Quebec |
| 'Transdermal Celebration' | — | — | — | ||
| 2005 | 'Monique the Freak' | — | — | — | Shinola, Vol. 1 |
| 'Gabrielle' | — | — | — | ||
| 2007 | 'Your Party' | — | — | — | La Cucaracha |
| 2010 | 'DC Won't Do You No Good' | — | — | — | Non album single |
Music videos[edit]
- 'Push th' Little Daisies'
- 'Freedom of '76'
- 'I Can't Put My Finger on It'
- 'Roses Are Free'
- 'Voodoo Lady'
- 'Even If You Don't'
- 'Transdermal Celebration'
Early independent releases[edit]
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Mrs. Slack | Self-released |
| Ween WAD[6] | ||
| 1987 | The Crucial Squeegie Lip[7] | Bird O’ Pray |
| Erica Peterson's Flaming Crib Death | ||
| 1988 | Ween II Axis: Bold as Boognish[8] | |
| The Live Brain Wedgie! / Wad Excerpts[9] | ||
| 1989 | Prime 5[10] |
Notable demo tapes[edit]
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 1987 | We Broke Up – (Unreleased)[11] |
| Ween/Smersh – (Unreleased)[12] | |
| 1988 | The Scraping the Palm for Guava Tape – (Unofficially released) |
| 1989 | The Focus Tape – (Unreleased) |
| 1990 | The Pod Demos – (The Big Timmy Wasserman Tape, Bilboa, and The Stallion, unofficially released) |
| Pandy Fackler Tape – (Unofficially released) | |
| Eindhoven EP – (Unreleased)[13] | |
| Weed Whore – (Unreleased)[14] | |
| 1991 | Pure Guava Demos – (Caprice Classic and Springstuff, unreleased)[15] |
| 1992 | Chocolate & Cheese Taster – Demos Summer 1992 |
| The Freedom Tape – (Unreleased) | |
| 1993 | The Crème de Menthe Tape – (Unreleased) |
| 1994 | 12 Golden Country Greats Demos – (Unofficially released) |
| 1995 | Mollusk Sessions – (Released 2007) |
| Music for Drunk Irish Homos – (Unreleased) | |
| 1997 | White Pepper Demos – (Unofficially released) |
| 1999 | Long Beach Island Tapes – (Unofficially released) |
| 2001–2003 | The Caesar Demos – (Released 2011) |
| 1985-1994 | Boognish Rising Thanksgiving Sampler 2014 – (Released 2014) |
| 2006 | La Cucaracha demos – (Unofficially released) |
Appearances[edit]
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1993 | En Esch - Cheesy | TVT Records |
| Freedom of '76: The Jane Pratt Show | Lifetime Entertainment | |
| 1994 | Frente! - Lonely | Mushroom Records |
| A Merry Little Christmas : A Holiday Sampler from Elektra & EastWest | Elektra/EastWest | |
| 1995 | Kostars - Klassics With a K | Grand Royal |
| Used & Recorded by 3RRR Vol.2 | Radio Release | |
| 1996 | Beautiful Girls | Miramax / Elektra |
| Ben Vaughn - Instrumental Stylings | Bar None Records | |
| Yoko Ono-Rising Mixes | Capitol Records | |
| Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks | Atlantic Records | |
| 1997 | Wah² | German TV Show |
| Orgazmo - Unrated Version | N/A | |
| 1998 | Hub - Hub | SLASH RECORDS |
| Chef Aid: The South Park Album | Columbia | |
| The X-Files: The Album | WEA | |
| Magna Plasm: Volcom Stone Surf Movie | Veeco Productions | |
| 2002 | Run Ronnie Run soundtrack | New Line Productions Inc. |
| Morvern Callar | Warp Records | |
| Crank Yankers | Comedy Central | |
| 2000 | SpongeBob SquarePants (Season 2, Episode 1 'Your Shoes United) | Sire/London/Rhino |
| 2004 | The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie – Music from the Movie and More... | Sire/London/Rhino |
| Tony Hawk's Underground 2 soundtrack | Activision/Neversoft | |
| 2008 | Weeds: Music from the Original Series, Volume 3 | N/A |
| 2009 | G.N.A.R (ski film) | N/A |
References[edit]
Ween Discography - Listchallenges.com
- ^'Ween Chart History: Billboard 200'. Billboard. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
- ^ ab'Ween Chart History: Heatseekers Albums'. Billboard. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
- ^ abAustralian (ARIA) chart peaks:
- Top 50 peaks: 'australian-charts.com > Ween in Australian Charts'. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2017-04-25.
- Top 100 peaks to December 2010: Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
- 'Voodoo Lady': 'The ARIA Australian Top 100 Singles Chart – Week Ending 30 Apr 1995'. Imgur.com (original document published by ARIA). Retrieved 2017-04-25.
- ^'Ween Chart History: Alternative Songs'. Billboard. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
- ^UK chart peaks:
- Top 100 peaks: 'Official Charts > Ween'. The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved 2017-04-25. N.B. This site displays compressed chart (exclusion rules applied) peaks below number 75.
- Top 200 peaks from November 1994 to December 2010: 'Chart Log UK 1994–2010 > Kristine W – Tammy Wynette'. zobbel.de. Retrieved 2017-04-25. N.B. This site displays uncompressed chart (no exclusion rules applied) peaks below number 75, between November 1994 and May 2001.
- ^'Ween - Ween WAD'. Discogs. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
- ^'Ween - The Crucial Squeegie Lip'. Discogs. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
- ^'Ween - Ween II (Axis: Bold as Boognish)'. Discogs. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
- ^'Ween - The Live Brain Wedgie! / Wad Excerpts'. Discogs. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
- ^'Ween - Prime 5'. Discogs. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
- ^https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sdWVYUewPMU/maxresdefault.jpg
- ^https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sdWVYUewPMU/maxresdefault.jpg
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