Ween: a band that doesn't suck Justin Go, National Post · Wednesday, Jul. 28, 2010 Countless adjectives have been used to try to describe the music of Ween, but when founding member Mickey Melchiondo (a.k.a. Dean Ween) is asked to give his own opinion on the band, the description is simple: “I think of us as new classic rock.†While Melchiondo’s answer might seem too flippant to sum up the many genres Ween’s music has covered, it’s telling of where the band is at these days. Melciondo and co-founder Aaron Freeman, a.k.a. Gene Ween, have been together for 26 years. Formed in their hometown of New Hope, Pa., when the two musicians were still in high school, Ween has remained active throughout the breakups and reunions of contemporaries such as Pavement and the Pixies and weathered all the changes the music industry has undergone during that time. And while the duo’s early oddball, lo-fi albums (God Ween Satan, The Pod, Pure Guava) always seemed like a reaction to the so-called alternative bands that ruled the airwaves in the mid-’90s, Melchiondo comes across as more of a rock ’n’ roll traditionalist when asked about the current state of music. “We’ve been doing festival gigs all summer and the music just sucks so bad,†Melciondo says. “It completely blows my mind just how spineless the music is where there’ll be 115 bands on four stages and there’s not one f--king guy up there playing a guitar solo with distortion.†Asked to name some of the bands he finds most offensive, Melchiondo offers: “All of them.†According to the guitarist, today’s music is so “wimpy†that he’s developed a newfound appreciation for some of the ’90s alt-rock bands Ween initially rebelled against. “I thought Pearl Jam was the wimpiest s--t I ever heard when it came along,†Melciondo says. “But I will eat s--t and say that while I was a total hater then, now it comes on and it sounds amazing.†Apart from the lack of distortion, Melchiondo suggests that his distaste for current rock bands might have something to do with a sense of humour. “There are some people you can tell have a good sense of humour and they would be a lot of fun to hang with. To me, The Beatles are really funny,†Melchiondo says. “And Prince is probably the funniest f--king guy in the whole world. He changes his name to unpronounceable symbols and people get all caught up in it -- he’s probably laughing his ass off about it! … But I’m not so sure that Robert Fripp has any humour at all. That would be the last person I’d ever wanna f--king hang with.†Ironically, it’s Ween’s overt sense of humour that has sometimes overshadowed the quality of their recordings. But while songs that revolve around orders placed at a Mexican restaurant (Pollo Asado), detail a drug binge in the tropics (Bananas and Blow) or employ a vocal resembling a child high on helium (Push th’ Little Daisies) didn’t always garner attention from the mainstream press, it was not lost on what became a legion of devoted followers. Ween’s epic three-hour-plus concerts draw audiences that have filled some of the world’s most prestigious venues, and attracted a fan base that follows the band all over the world, making Ween somewhat of a modern-day Grateful Dead -- or at least a Phish for the indie set. The band’s cult following is so great that the intensity of online discussion regarding the future of Ween and the state of Freeman following his stint in rehab often recalled the rabid nature of the mainstream tabloid press. Online interaction with fans got to be overwhelming to the point where Melciondo had to stop personally running the band’s website. While he acknowledges how the band’s Internet presence has helped Ween gain a lot of fans, Melchiondo is a bit more skeptical how it has changed the consumption of their music. “The part of being in a band that I have enjoyed the most is recording and making full-length albums. But the amount of work we put into our last album (2007’s La Cucaracha) just felt like it was a waste of time,†he says. “It felt like nobody cares as much as we do about. People aren’t buying the albums anymore. They’re just downloading some s--t.†Nonetheless, Ween has chosen to persevere and the band is due in the studio this winter to start work on what will be its 12th album. Melchiondo says that distancing the business side of things and taking time to indulge in other activities -- he now books tours as captain of his own charter fishing boat -- are key to continuing on. “We’re getting older and you can’t rage like you did two years ago,†he says. “But we’re at a point where we can take time off and we don’t have people breathing down our necks. … At this point it should be all fun.†Melchiondo’s more traditionalist stance ends when it comes to any discussion as to what kind of legacy his band might leave behind. “That would be a really vain way to spend your life worrying about something like that. We met all our goals back in 1993!†he says. “Kurt Cobain said when asked what his goals were when he started Nirvana that he wanted to be as big as Sonic Youth, and that always struck me as right on the money. ... Only that wouldn’t be my answer. I like Sonic Youth, but it would be someone like the Butthole Surfers.†• Ween play Kool Haus tonight. For tickets, call 416-870-8000 or visit ticketmaster.ca. Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/Ween+band+that+doesn+suck/3333531/story.html#ixzz0v58n1fLE
