Morning Wood: WEEN

As you may have heard on this week’s Brown Hour…and last week’s Brown Hour…and probably read in a few of our posts…the brothers Brahsome are taking a field trip tomorrow for an evening with the brothers Ween at the Carolina Theater in Durham, NC. And we’re pretty fucking stoked about it.

As a brahsome.com reader you’re probably familiar with the duo from New Hope, Pa…and if you’re not, you should be. Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo (Gene and Dean, respectively) formed the band in 1984 and have been freaking people out ever since. After five or six self-released recordings, they were signed by Twin/Tone Records in 1989 and shortly thereafter brought us the epic, major label debut GodWeenSatan: The Oneness. Fan favorite, The Pod, was released about a year later.

In 1992 they moved to Electra Records…where they released Pure Guava, Chocolate and Cheese, 12 Golden Country Greats (which only has 10 songs), The Mollusk, a live compilation Paintin’ The Town Brown: Ween Live 1990-1998, and finally White Pepper.

Like any good business men, the brothers Ween realized that once they had the money for their own record label they could cut out the middle man…so after their contract with Electra expired in 2001 they started Chocodog Records and began releasing live albums, such as Live In Toronto (2001) and Live at Stubbs (2003), as well as Shinola (2005), which was a compilation of old, unused studio recordings. Chocodog also produces albums for Moistboyz, Instant Death and Chris Harford (all three are various Ween side projects). The most recent release, La Cucaracha, was released on Rounder Records.

In 2002 Pizza Hut contacted them about writing a little jingle. Ween responded with a 30-second number called “Where’d the Cheese Go?” Pizza Hut didn’t like and chose not to use it. Ween then decided to change up the lyrics and re-record it, calling it “Where’d the Motherfuckin’ Cheese Go?”. . .both are available for your listening pleasure.

So there you have it…a brief history of Ween. Now that we’ve got that out of the way…let’s talk about LIVE Ween.

They opened the current tour last night at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. in standard fashion…which means laying down about 30 songs…a lot of the old favorites and most of the new tracks from La Cucaracha. Live Ween shows can often be a test of endurance, with the band playing for over 2.5 hours, sometimes three, and covering their full catalogue.

The unofficial setlists from last night looks like this:

Exactly Where I’m At
Pork Roll Egg & Cheese
Spinal Meningitis
Bananas & Blow
Learning to Love
Voodoo Lady
Back to Basom
With My Own Bare Hands
Take Me Away
Transdermal Celebration
Waving My Dick in the Wind
Nan
Touch My Tooter
I’ve Got to Put the Hammer Down
Object
Buckingham Green
Your Party
Beacon Light
Johnny on the Spot
Zoloft
Roses are Free
Spiritwalker
The Mollusk
Did You See Me?
Ocean Man
Doctor Rock
Shamemaker
Fiesta

Encore:
Mr. Richard Smoker
Mister Would You Please Help My Pony
Stroker Ace
You Fucked Up

Pretty salty, but nothing eye popping…let’s hope they’re saving that for the Friday show.

It’s unfair to discuss the greatness of a band without offering up some evidence. The best way to know a band is to hear them live (and offering up some studio tracks would probably result in a call from Ween’s legal team), so below you will find a few youtubes of Ween tearing it up. If you’re not yet a Ween fan, perhaps this will pique your interest…if you are a Ween fan, well, then I hope you enjoy the songs we picked.

Fear the Boognish.

All of My Love (Zep cover – Chicago 2003)

Voodoo Lady (Buffalo 2006)

Baby Bitch (Acoustic – 9:30 Club, Washington DC 2000)

Even If You Don’t (not live..music video…directed by Matt Stone and Trey Parker)

Where I’m At (Letterman)

Tagged as: Ween