Ween's Chocolate and Cheese (33 1/3) (16 page)

This evolution has served the band well. Since
Chocolate and Cheese
, some fans have grumbled at their heroes’ increasingly hi-fi production — recall the snide “Did they hire a producer or something?” YouTube comment regarding a
Quebec
track — but on the whole, Melchiondo’s concern that the post-
Pure Guava
material
just wasn’t “gnarly enough” compared to their previous work proved to be unfounded. After
Chocolate and Cheese
, Ween’s following continued to snowball, eventually growing to the point where they didn’t really need the clout of a major label anymore.

In the years since 1994, Ween has kept busy recording, touring, refining their sound and cultivating their fan base. Meanwhile, many of the forces that helped to propel Ween into their own version of the limelight have gone extinct:
Beavis and Butthead
and Elektra Records — both have since been revived, though with severely reduced pop-cultural capital — as well as the thriving major-label record business at large, an MTV that catered in any way to offbeat musical tastes and an “alternative” genre that received strong radio support and presented a meaningful response to classic rock.

In fact, it now seems miraculous that a band as strange as Ween persisted on a major label for the better part of a decade and garnered such a devoted following. Ween signifies a time when homegrown idiosyncrasy — specifically, a project that started simply because two eighth-grade pals discovered that they loved to hear themselves on tape — could flourish in close proximity to the mainstream. To Melchiondo, this early-’90s utopia seems like an eternity ago:

It was the only period of time where a band like Ween could have gotten signed to a label like Elektra. Then, Ween was still having a chance of being played on the radio and played on MTV. We don’t have that chance
anymore. To hear Ween on the radio when that record came out wasn’t any different than hearing Nirvana or the Pixies or the Breeders. That kind of shit wasn’t on the radio a few years before that and not much longer after. Now alternative rock is a joke; it’s a sound. There was a lot of shit that was popular, which up until that point would’ve been very weird.

Yet Melchiondo doesn’t regret the passing of the era in the slightest. After the Elektra years, Ween had the good sense to pull up stakes:

We got rid of our lawyer, got rid of our publishing and we started working with what we had. Ween has always had the one thing that’s the hardest thing to get: a legion of die-hard fans that come to every single show, know every single word, buy every single shirt. It’s more important than having one record that sells a million copies and then another one that sells 70. We’ll always have a career if we want. No one ever focused on that. “You gotta get us a single.” “This shitty band wants you to open for them, and you should do it because it’s a lot of exposure for you guys.” I was like, “Well, fuck that. We’ll go play for three and a half hours to our fans.”

He’s speaking of an artistic ideal, the freedom to secede from the music industry at large, and commune directly with one’s supporters. As labels and corporations fall all over themselves to sew up the digital music market,
contemporary artists would do well to strive for this kind of autonomy.

As for
Chocolate and Cheese
itself, it’s not the type of record that spawns legions of imitators. Its importance lies in its essential lesson: Be as weird as you want, but work hard and make the final product presentable. Any artist in any medium operating at the purely recreational, anything-goes level at which Freeman and Melchiondo began could benefit from this wisdom. Taken as a whole, Ween’s discography proves that you can evolve without selling out. The trick is to build a bridge from your own insular playhouse to the world at large, to groom your work just enough that it translates — in short, to make a
Chocolate and Cheese
.

Unless otherwise specified, all interviews were conducted by the author between June 2009 and August 2010.

Mickey Melchiondo — Dean Ween: in person, phone

Aaron Freeman — Gene Ween: e-mail, phone
¹²

Andrew Weiss — Ween’s longtime producer: in person

Steve Ralbovsky — Elektra A&R representative, responsible for Ween’s signing: phone

Greg Frey — Ween’s current manager, engineer for two
Chocolate and Cheese
tracks: phone

Dave Ayers — Ween’s manager before, during and after
Chocolate and Cheese
: in person

Claude Coleman, Jr. — drummer on
Chocolate and Cheese
and in Ween’s current live band: phone

Stephan Said — auxiliary musician on
Chocolate and Cheese
: phone

Mean Ween — childhood friend of Freeman and Melchiondo, vocalist and lyricist on “Candi”: e-mail

Pat Frey — drummer on “Baby Bitch” and current director of Ween’s merchandising and online message board: phone

Ed Wilson — Freeman and Melchiondo’s informal guitar teacher
during
Chocolate and Cheese
era, cowriter of “Freedom of ’76”: phone

Scott Lowe — childhood friend of Freeman and Melchiondo, background vocalist and vocal arranger on
Chocolate and Cheese
: e-mail, phone

John Kuczala —
Chocolate and Cheese
cover photographer: phone

Roger Gorman —
Chocolate and Cheese
cover designer: phone

Rick Patrick —
Chocolate and Cheese
cover designer: phone

Marty Sarandria — metalwork on Boognish belt: phone

Danny Clinch —
Chocolate and Cheese
inside-cover photographer: phone

Mark Hamilton — member of the band Ash, which has covered “What Deaner Was Talkin’ About”: phone

Josh Homme — friend, Ween label- and tourmate during
Chocolate and Cheese
era: phone

Matt Sweeney — friend, Ween label- and billmate during the
God Ween Satan
era: e-mail

Spike Jonze — “Freedom of ’76” video director: phone

Chris Applebaum — “I Can’t Put My Finger On It” video director: phone

Roman Coppola — “Voodoo Lady” video director: phone

Ankeny, Jason. “Ween: Biography.” AllMusic.com. Online:
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:09foxqe5ldse~T1

De Luca, Dan. “Cock(Roach) Rock.”
Harp
; December, 2007.

Edmondson, Jennifer. “In My Room: Ween.”
Spin
; January, 2008. Online:
http://www.spin.com/articles/my-room-ween
Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. “
12 Golden Country Greats
: Review.” AllMusic.com. Online:
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:fzfuxqyhldte

Gonzales, Matt. “Taste the Waste: A Conversation with Gene

Ween.” PopMatters; August 19, 2003. Online:
http://www.popmatters.com/music/interviews/ween-030819.shtml

Joost, Wesley. “Shit Howdy Stranger, Mosey On Down An’ Chaw Some Ween.”
Goblin Magazine
, Issue 8;
12 Golden Country Greats
era. Online:
http://sonic.net/~goblin/8ween.html

Kenny, Glenn.
Pure Guava
review.
Spin
; December, 1992.

Lingan, John. “Ween Is No Joke.” Splice Today; July 21, 2009. Online:
http://www.splicetoday.com/music/ween-is-no-joke

McLeod, Kembrew.
White Pepper
review.
Rolling Stone
; May 11, 2000.

Melchiondo, Mickey. “The
Mollusk
Sessions.” Ween.com. Online:
http://bbs.bunglefever.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=45561

Pareles, Jon. “Grinning Mischief-Makers Breaking Country Rules.”
New York Times
; July 23, 1996. Online:
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/23/arts/pop-review-grinning-mischeif-makers-breaking-country-rules.html

Pareles, Jon. “Low-Fi Rockers.”
New York Times
; April 11, 1993. Online:
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/11/style/low-fi-rockers.html

Sanneh, Kelefa. “Long Night for Swashbucklers in Uncharted Territory.”
New York Times
; December 3, 2007. Online:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/arts/music/03ween.html

Smith, Andrew. “Cover Story: Trey Anastasio.” Big Heavy World; March 1, 1998. Online:
http://bigheavyworld.com/tunk/?p=863

SongMeanings.net Sutton, Terri.
Chocolate and Cheese
review.
Spin
; October, 1994.

Testa, Jim. “Mickey Ween Goes Fishing.”
Jersey Beat
; December 3, 2009.

Valania, Jonathan. “Family Ties.”
Magnet Magazine
; August/September, 2000. Online [excerpt]:
http://www.drzoltan.com/ween-signed-to-elektra-records

Walters, Barry.
White Pepper
review.
Entertainment Weekly
; June 2, 2000. Online:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20233168,00.html

Ween forum (
http://weendotnetforum16662.yuku.com)

Ween Machine forum (
http://weenmachine.tribe.net)

“Peter Austin Noto Seinfeld Spoof on SNL”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXGZe0Ydsr4

“Ween — ‘Freedom of ’76,’
Jane Pratt Show
, 1993”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzYykIA1xVg

“Ween on
The Week in Rock
(Feb 1993)”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqzCT5pzBRA

Above
: On the set of the “Push th’ Little Daisies” video. Freeman: far right; Melchiondo: second from right.

Right and below
: Ween in the duo years, maximizing their brownness.

Above
: “Spinal Meningitis” lyric sheet.

Below
: “Baby Bitch” lyric sheet.