Classic or Dud: "Ladies and Gentlemen..WEEN!"

solo Gene Ween coming soon...

http://www.aaronfreeman.net/

If I'm reading this correctly, it's produced by the same guy who did 12 Golden Country Greats...

this is actually pretty good. completely dissimilar to Ween outside of maybe a few tracks on White Pepper. just kind of a lush, upbeat pop album, kinda of intentionally campy, but really catchy and fun

a lush, upbeat pop album, kinda of intentionally campy...

It's an album of Rod McKuen covers. So there you go.

classic Deaner:

me and carlos sort of collaborate-------I think enough time has passed where I can finally tell my favorite Ween story of all-time.
The businesses and the people involved have long since closed their doors and moved on for good and hopefully the people involved (and Carlos himself, if it comes to that) will have a good sense of humor about this story.

In 2003 Ween released our album “quebec” on Sanctuary Records. We worked on the album for 2 years in our beach house in Holgate,NJ, a rented house in the Pocono Mountains of PA, the garage behind Aaron’s house in Pt. Pleasant, PA, my upstairs guest room, and finally Andrew Weiss’s living room in NJ. We also worked at Water Music in Hoboken, NJ and Graphic Sound Studios in Ringoes, NJ. It was not a great period in our personal lives, Aaron was going thru a divorce and I was partying way too hard myself—it was some dark shit. The record is one of my favorites, but it is a depressing album lyrically. It was not an easy record to make either, as evidenced by the amount of places we worked, trying to find the right environment. There are demos available online that I posted where you can hear the process at work, we racked up our normal batch of like 6 dozen songs or more before whittling it down to what was finally released, 15 tunes.

I am a huge fan of Carlos Santana. He is one of my favorite guitarists of all-time. He is playing better these days than ever before in my opinion. His music is more radio friendly, for sure, but as a guitarist he has aged like a fine wine. Only Neil Young, Prince, and a small handful of others can make that claim as they become members of the AARP.

We were working in Andrew’s living room on the song “Transdermal Celebration”, our drummer Claude Coleman had just gotten into a horrific car crash and left us w/o a drummer for the recording and ensuing tour. Eventually it worked itself out where the record took so long to complete that Claude made enough of a recovery to do the world tour with us supporting “quebec.” In the meantime though, even though Claude had played on some of the demos, drumming on the album was left up to me, Josh Freese, and Sim Cain. “Transdermal Celebration” had been recorded 3 times by this point, with a drum machine, with Claude playing drums, and the final take on the album which features Josh Freese. It was the eventual single from the album. So, we’re in the middle of this session and I get a phone call from my roadie (nameless) who also worked for a backline company (nameless) that supplied amps, drums, lights, etc. to bands touring in the Northeast. My roadie told me that Carlos Santana’s equipment (including his guitars) had arrived via a trucking company that night at their depot. Carlos was recording an appearance on “Good Morning America” the next morning and his equipment was to be delivered to the set in NYC in a few hours.

What needed to be done was immediately clear to me, I had an opportunity to play the solo on “Transdermal Celebration” through Carlos Santana’s amplifier and guitar. I had one shot at it, it meant taking a hard disk recorder to a storage space where all of Carlos’ stuff was sitting in transit. I arrived at 2am. We (very carefully) unpacked his equipment and set up his stage gear and in one take I recorded the guitar solo for “Transdermal Celebration” (the one that appears on the album, playing thru Carlos Santana’s guitar, pedalboard, and amplifier. The whole thing took 10 minutes and we were terrified we were going to get caught. A lot of people would have lost their jobs. We got the fuck outta there really fast after that. So the solo on “Transdermal Celebration” was played thru all of Santana’s shit in what resembled an early morning bank heist or something……….

Of course a story like this requires visual proof, so here it is. Don’t tell anyone about these please.

-Dean Ween 6/14

an afterthought: regarding the Carlos post, i'd like to add that we handled his equipment as if it were the Mona Lisa. We photographed the way his roadie had his cables wrapped and positioned and put everything back exactly as it was found. The whole process was over as quickly as it happened. Also, the respect that I have for Carlos and the depth, spirituality and stamina of his playing is held by me in the highest regard. I am not just a fan of Carlos, I am a believer and follower of everything he has done, and yes that includes the pop singles. I felt it was important to have this be known, there is no one I hold in a higher regard. Also, I have a lifetime of experience of handling equipment, as did the other person involved, it wasn't two drunk buffoons manhandling a legend's gear, the furthest thing from it. I think it's important to clarify that. -DW

http://i.imgur.com/RhJNhiY.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/85V2fsv.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/UyUfy1F.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/OY1ppaX.jpg

haha that's incredible.

Classic.

Amazing. I'm calling the cops

new freeman album is vintage

It's definitely at least rather good, possibly moreso.

yeah I guess I better order a copy

didnt know he had a new album out.

"one more" is genius. wonder if gene's picked up some serious chops?

I think a lot of these songs would be better with Dean on them and I'm kind of surprised how very tame this is (given some of his comments), but there's definitely a high level of craftsmanship here, I think this'll hold up well

They're back

http://ween.com/

will probably just be a one-off thing

hope it's because they want to do it and not because they need the money.

i mean, that's cool too, i just want these guys to be happy

Freeman is still workin on LP2. Hopefully they can continue with both.

Always thought "Your Party" was really funny, doesn't actually make me laugh but the image of a certain type of wealthy adult it paints is so perfect. No idea if there is a genre or band that makes music like that.

When I was first getting into Ween, I was reading that a lot of their lyrics were extremely offensive and I only have 6 albums and I didn't run into much of that.
The only thing I can think of is the "The HIV Song" and "Slow Down Boy" (which sounds like Anthony And The Johnsons and repeats "his love is young")

Mister Richard Smoker, certainly?

yeah given their reputation that's the only song I can really think of that's outwardly offensive. They have a lot of vulgar tunes but I can't imagine people being bothered by them...they're not like Zappa, for instance

even "The HIV Song"...I mean, don't you have to read into that a bit? it has no lyrics!

Piss Up A Rope?

I agree that 'Your Party' is one of their funniest songs. Almost any serious-minded, rapturous embrace of banality is good for a laugh, I find, but the hushed lyrics and decadent music kick it up a notch. You'd think he were singing about a coke-fueled orgy rather than a casual get together where everyone is wearing chinos and eating salmon puffs.

You fucked up, you bitch, you really fucked up
You fucked up, you fuckin' nazi whore
Well, you dicked me over but now you'll pay
You fucked up, ahh!

You fucked up, you bitch, you really fucked up
You fucked up, you sloppy little shit, bitch, ahh
Well, you dicked me over but now you'll pay
You fucked up, ahh!

In "Your Party" it does seem to me as if they are the sort of people who go to upper middle class swinger parties but this is just a nice quiet one for them. Reminds me of that film The New Age starring Peter Weller and Judy Davis, but without the spiritual crisis.

Re: the other topic, I wouldn't waste any time arguing with someone who found Ween offensive. It's a subjective thing but also that's kinda what they were going for at times.

I had read about them being accused of sexism and racism, not just gross stuff.

OK sexism I guess I can understand, but racism?

even sexism is hard to make a strong case for. the point of You Fucked Up is the narrator's inarticulacy in the face of specific emotional hurt, not anything about a gender.

i thought the point was the narrator's "inarticulacy" in the face of being a fucking moron with nothing to say about anything

I seem to recall it was about one of the teachers in their high school who had given them a hard time in class, they were 14/15 when they wrote it; maybe best not to stare too deeply into that particular lyrical pool.
'Don't Get 2 Close 2 My Fantasy' on the other hand...

yeah I honestly can't tell if that one's really sinister or "Buckingham Green"-type lyrical nonsense

It's dark and gross, but it's not sinister.

it's certainly sinister - that's the whole point, really - but i can't imagine many being offended by it

I mean, the narrator is sinister, but Ween aren't trying to promote pedophilia or anything.

Spinal Meningitis is probably the worst one they have along those lines...not offensive but really really bleak. I heard someone try to cast it as them making fun of people with the disease but I can't read it that way at all.

That's the first one that comes to mind when I think 'potentially offensive Ween song'.

it goofs on horror for sickly lols. that solo tho.

^ apt description of every Ween song ever

who is expected to be offended by Spinal Meningitis, very stupid Christians?

Parents of children with spinal meningitis?

People who can't, or at least don't like to, deal with unpleasant subjects bluntly?

social justice worriers?

it's not blunt, though. it's expressing careful, crafted empathy to sufferers of, or adjacent to, the condition.

if parents of children with spinal meningitis were fans enough of Ween to make it to an album track on their fourth LP, they had probably been through enough tough times to find mordant charm and gallows humour in the song

getting xposts on zing but can't see them obv

although I just checked and it was track two side one, they didn't have to make it too far

was thinking it wasn't until side two

That song is really disturbing (regardless of being offensive or not), gets to me in a way that none of that type of music does.

yeah I have a real difficult time listening to it. kinda hate that they perform it live so much.

The 33 1/3 book on Chocolate and Cheese gives a lot of insight to how they think about they're lyrics. Jumps from from the sincere to the stoned through a range of quite personal points of references. It's kind of what makes their lyrics great; once you tune into the language and attitude you start to understand it.

'their lyrics'

yeah I have a real difficult time listening to it. kinda hate that they perform it live so much.

Don't get this tbh.

what part of it? it's a song about a small child going through medical treatment - it disturbs me