Ween. Are they great or what?

I'd love to see them live again, but they don't appear to be venturing to New England any time soon. Best Ween live experience: Burlington, VT, Halloween 2003. During "LMLYP" some crazed hippie on stilts in a gigantic cat costume, complete with huge papier mache head, came out on stage. Plus, viking helmets and wizard hats and extremely short loincloth-esque thing on Deaner. And three people in an actual Poop Ship Destroyer costume.

Also, I seem to be one of the few female Ween fans. I've only known one personally, and I'm not sure that I've seen too many at shows. Girl Ween fans hollah at me?

Apparently Ween and the creators of Spongebob Squarepants have a pretty good relationship...not only was "Ocean Man" in the movie OST (in the coveted as-the-credits-begin-to-roll spot), but they did a song about HOW TO TIE YOUR SHOES for one episode that totally owns! Also, Spongebob once said something about his pet snail Gary's "wandering eye...you little mollusk, you!".

Man, I fucking LOVE Ween! I was at a show years ago and it was ex-cel... Well, uh, excellent. I remember they did this jam thing while a woman was dancing. I think they just stretched for a good twenty minutes just to have a laugh at her expense. Great show.

FWIW I know shit tons of female Ween fans...not quite as rare as female PRIMUS fans.

i also like primus. if you come buy a copy of les claypool's new album at my record store in bangor, and we sell more than anyone else in any of the stores participating in this little contest, les will come eat pizza and drink beer with us. no foolin'! i know you won't!

-- J
Mark feels the same way. This does not compute.

"Bananas and Blow" so real

"fluffy, my furry buddy, chewed his leg on the porch"

I saw them on the tour for that country album, and ... okay, you know a regular Ween crowd? Which is already like a Noah's Ark of different varieties of drug-addled weirdos? Add to that country weirdos. Seriously the strangest crowd I have ever stood in.

they're my favorite band. but la cucaracha was a huge letdown.

no way. "woman and man" is their epic -- it's worth it just for that

La Cucaracha was a huge comeback.

broke up.

found out via el-p's twitter

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/aaron-freeman-closes-the-book-on-ween-20120529

no one cares

*drops bong*

I care, this is a huge bummer.

As a sidenote, has anyone heard that Aaron Freeman record of Rod McKuen covers? Wondered if that was worth checking out.

I mean, it's sad in the same way hearing that a couple you were friends with but haven't talked to in over a decade broke up is sad. Honestly, though, if this is what Aaron Freeman needs to stay clean and sober, I couldn't be happier.

DWH otm. Sounds like he just needs to make the split to keep himself in a place where he can stay clean.

xp otm

I'd love for them to make more albums as strong as latter-day shit like La Cucaracha & Quebec, but they had a great run & I'm perfectly comfortable with the (frankly incredible) range of material they've released over the past 20+ years. Their live shows were legendary & I will definitely miss those, but I have to imagine that this is the kind of 'breakup' which can easily be dusted off when for the occasional one-off or small tour whenever they get the urge.

I don't know about this. It just seemed like an off-the-cuff remark and the journalist totally ran with it.

Naw, there's plenty of "this is the end" type verbiage in the interview.

"or what"

I know, I know. I'm just in denial. (x-post)

Can I just point out how many amazing headlines the author of that piece totally missed out on?

Aaron Freeman Cuts Ween Short
Ween: Aaron Freeman Pulls Out
Happy Trails To Aaron Freeman's Ween

Although the headline isn't bad, as is.

Whoops, sleeve posted it already, whoops

ha no prob

also frogbs u should sell that shit ASAP lol

― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Thursday, August 8, 2024 3:56 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've got a White Pepper which is also apparently worth over 100 (bought for $19.99 a couple years ago, lol), maybe I'll offer them up in the Ween FB group for $80 apiece or something. you'd think they'd get a repress given The Pod and C&C did but god, you never fuckin know with these guys. I mean look what's going on with them now, seems like all is not right in the Ween camp, hard to tell if it's just someone getting Covid or some real shit (it's been rumored that Dean is battling the same demons Gene was) but the fact that they aren't saying anything does make me worry

Ugh, yeah, hope they are doing alright.

Aaron posted a message somewhere saying that he’s gotten a lot of concerned messages and he wants people to know that he is okay and also very disappointed in the cancelled shows.

I picked up the C&C reissue but haven’t spent time with it yet. They were cranking out so much gold at this point, any unreleased stuff is great.

that whole 94-03 run really, I mean imagine reissues of Mollusk or Quebec with 40 minutes of bonus material

There is a ton of stuff out there, circulating. It would be great to have some of it curated and cleaned up.

A b-sides collection would be great. Maybe that’s why that sort of stuff wasn’t included with the reissue.

I think Deaner once said he wasn't open to doing a Shinola Vol. 2 because the first one was a lot more labor intensive than he thought and he's not a fan of mining his own archives and instead likes to move forward. wonder if that's changed now that they aren't really making new music anymore. would be nice, I know "how on Earth did this song not make the cut while that one is" is a question you ask of a lot of bands but it especially applies to Ween

Best thing about this anniversary reissue is that in my country it has finally unblocked C&C to stream on spotify.

haven't relistened to it in a while but I remember last time I did I was blown away by how slow Take Me Away seemed after being so used to the Live in Chicago version. if it was on vinyl I probably would have gotten up to check the pitch slider. similar thing happened with King Crimson's Elephant Talk

Ugh, hoping for the best for Deaner.

It is with sincere regret and heavy hearts that Ween must make the decision to step away from the stage for the foreseeable future. This includes next month’s sold-out Chocolate and Cheese 25th Anniversary show at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia. Despite three great shows this summer, it’s become clear that touring and performing is too taxing on Deaner’s mental health to continue. As always, we thank you for the love, dedication and ongoing support.

- Ween

yeah i had a feeling something bad was going on behind the scenes. kinda passive-aggressive wording there too. hope he's gonna be alright. fwiw I do know Deaner's talked many times in the past about how he never wanted to just be some touring act but that's exactly what they are now. like I'm pretty sure there's an interview where he once said he'd rather the band break up than do these kinds of anniversary shows.

which is totally fair, and I know it brings another set of stressors and challenges and is easier said than done, but there is one weird trick to not just be a touring anniversary show, which would be to also make a new Ween record!

yeah the fact that they haven't recorded anything at all suggests their relationship is kinda shit. I mean the long and short of it is Gene/Dean solo shows would get like 100 people while Ween still draws a huge crowd

Ween draws a much bigger crowd now than they ever have -- they were still playing 1500-2000 capacity venues a couple years before the hiatus, but now they're more like a 5k-10k band (and will sell out!).

the local record store dude remarks on it a lot, a ton of young folks come in asking for Ween records, he apparently sold all 6 copies of the C&C reissue in 30 minutes despite the high price point. I'm not sure why that is either. Ween rule of course but so do a lot of bands. must be the Spongebob effect.

Gener and Deaner are the proto-memers. If ever there was a band for teenage Gen Z'ers, Ween is it (but yes spongebob helps)

It did seem a bit pricey but even the Plain reissues were going for a grip, this has a whole album of "studio" outtakes (they haven't really done that ever, just live right?) and much more legit mastering (which like who cares right, but a lot of people are down on Plain reissues generally speaking).

"or what"

― some dude, Tuesday, May 29, 2012 6:56 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol i came in here to post this again

― some dude, Monday, February 15, 2016 10:49 PM (eight years ago) bookmarkflaglink

THREEPEAT

hopefully the other LPs get deluxe reissues too, there's just so much great non album material out there, probably a bunch we don't even know about.

absolutely, would love a Pure Guava deluxe. also, glad that the bonus stuff is on the streaming version.

just got the White Pepper reissue. if you have the Plain Records one you know how bad it sucks. it's flat, lifeless, and kinda noisy to boot. this one cranks the bass levels up to a kinda absurd degree..."Pandy Fackler" for instance doesn't really need to sound like that...but it's miles ahead of the Plain. "Stay Forever"...what a tune

(also, as someone who watches a lot of Spongebob with my daughter...there are definitely some Spongebob vibes on this album...obviously not as much as The Mollusk...but it's there)

sad lol: looks like another live set called "Bad Day in Brownsville" was just released on YouTube, and then suddenly pulled, possibly because of this:

https://www.actionnews5.com/2026/05/11/not-satisfied-until-people-who-did-this-are-brought-justice-brownsville-mayor-responds-mass-shooting/

That's not a live set. Appears to be an expanded reissue of 12 Golden Country greats!

https://glidemagazine.com/325555/weens-12-golden-country-greats-gets-30th-anniversary-3-lp-reissue-with-previously-unreleased-material/

Oh man, I hope they do this with all of their albums. They have so much good stuff in the can.

I have the White Pepper reissue but I haven't had a chance to listen to it. It's a pretty bass heavy album to begin with, especially on "Exactly Where I'm At."

It's a good time to be a Ween fan! There's also the Ween in Europe rsd thing that came out.

I'd like to see the pod and pure guava get the deluxe treatment.

Apropos of nothing, "Fluffy" is my favorite Ween song right now.

yea it's crazy they probably could've done 3 more great albums between '95 and '03 with the amount of material they have, so much of that deserves to see the light of day. apparently the recent reissues of White Pepper and quebec were just to get them out there at affordable prices, so there may be a deluxe of those coming at some point. the fact that Mollusk was not included hints that that'll be the next one.

also kind of interesting that they've been doing all this archival stuff but thus far I don't think there's a single release from their 2016-2025 'reunion' shows?

I am so glad they are bringing this one out on CD too! was so bummed they didn't for Chocolate and Cheese. I mean, the bonus stuff is cool, but not $70 worth of cool!

Would love a Brown Box style reissue of all the live stuff

^^ otm

Ween Fan Fiction: Deaner got sober after the last cancelled tour and him and Gener are going to lock themselves in a cabin and record a new album and then tour it as a duo with a tape deck and they live happily ever after.