Artist bio

Any goofball with a few guitar lessons under his belt and a few more bong hits in his lungs can blather away into a four-track, but it’d be next to impossible to equal the fucked-up genius that is Ween.

With their twisted sense of humor (borderline offensive songs about AIDS, homosexuals, and the mentally ill are the norm) and ability to seemingly master any genre of music (hard rock, country & western, psychedelic pop), Aaron “Gene Ween” Freeman and Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo have carved out a singularly amusing career over the past 15 years. Crude, narcotics-addled early albums such as 1990’s God Ween Satan and 1991’s The Pod set the table with songs that ranged from alternate-universe masterworks or listener-baiting mindfucks (the latter’s “Pollo Asado” is the band ordering a meal from a Mexican restaurant). Ween somehow got signed to Elektra in time for 1992’s Pure Guava, highlighted by the insanity inducing “Little Birdy” and the helium-voiced “Push Th' Little Daisies.”

From there, it was one triumph after another: 1994’s pop/soul plate of Chocolate And Cheese, 1996’s straight-up Nashville romp 12 Golden Country Greats, 1997’s nautical-themed, pomp rock powerhouse The Mollusk, and 2000’s mature but masterful White Pepper, the group’s final Elektra album. Ween is also a notoriously must-see live act, a fact documented by 1999’s double-disc Paintin’ The Town Brown and a series of self-released concert sets.

Albums by this artist

Quebec (2003)

Live In Toronto Canada (2001)

White Pepper (2000)

Paintin' The Town Brown (1999)

The Mollusk (Recommended) (1997)

Chocolate And Cheese (1994)

The Pod (Recommended) (1991)

Concerts

May 12, 2000
The Riviera, Chicago, Ill.

Interviews

Ween Wonderland
August 25, 2003

White Pepper Time!
September 1, 2000

Ween

White Pepper

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» TROY CARPENTER | CO-DIRECTOR

Ween White Pepper Elektra, 2000 RiYL: They Might Be Giants, Meat Puppets, Guided By Voices, Robyn Hitchcock

Few events in today's rock music biz are as gratifying as the release of a new Ween album.

One of the most outrageously unconventional, loony, and inebriated bands in recent memory, Ween have also proven themselves incredibly proficient instrumentalists and adept genre-hoppers over the course of a wacky 16-year career. White Pepper, the veteran duo's seventh studio album, once again defiantly demonstrates Ween's talent and versatility.

Dean and Gene Ween have created an art out of stylistic inconsistency, and White Pepper is no exception. The band touches on lighter-waving anthemic rock, Caribbean fantasy soul, stock-car speed metal, dive-bar swing, and brooding lullabies over the course of Pepper's 12 songs.

Like 1997's The Mollusk before it, White Pepper features a polished and delicate production contrasting with the Scotchguard-bongs-and-DAT-tape recording ethic of the band's earliest work. But in many other aspects -- song forms, range, lyrical quirkiness, attitude -- this is not far from being the first "typical" Ween album.

That kind of statement, however, can't be taken lightly: a typical Ween album is still an amazing aural experience. Pleasures abound on Pepper, from the boisterous, uplifting melody of "Flutes Of Chi" to the entrancing flamenco guitar solo on "Bananas And Blow" to the regal ferocity of "Stroker Ace" and the infectious tingle of piano-and-guitar stomp "Even If You Don't."

The warped-Casio instrumental "Ice Castles" slows things down in the album's middle, giving way to the otherwordly ballad "Back To Basom." Though it's never quite clear what "Basom" actually is, the nonsense factor of the song is nothing compared to its plodding, distorted successor "The Grobe," which features lyrical revelations about pointed pencils and monkeys wearing ties.

The beauty of the record is that even though listeners already expect Ween to be peculiar, the band's versatility and the strength of their songwriting keeps White Pepper intriguing through dozens of spins.

Read Dean and Gene Ween's personal thoughts on White Pepper in an NATN interview.

TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.