Boognish Transmissions

From   Port land Press Herald , written by Jonathan Cohen. The duo has built a solid following with a range of music so wide and unpredictable that even they don't know what they'll do next. Every Ween album seems calculated to be a little different, to make people take notice and say, "That's odd." "Chocolate & Cheese" (1994) paid its homage to 1970s funk and soul. The 10-song album "12 Golden Country Greats" (1996) is stacked with profanity-laced hillbilly music. And Ween's seventh studio al bum "White Pepper," due in stores Tuesday is a Beatles-esque tribute to flowery pop. So, can we assume that the two men behind Ween Mickey Melchiondo and Aaron Freeman, who perform under the stage names Dean Ween and Gene Ween - work hard at redefining their sound with each new album and plotting new ways to catch listeners off-guard? "No, I can't stress enough that we have no idea what we're doing, ever," said Melchion...

From The Morning Call  ( page one , page two ), written by John Terlesky. After well over a decade of cult-band status, Ween seems to be opening the door of it's dark, smoke-filled room to admit a wider audience. The avant-pop duo that started in New Hope, Bucks County, back in 1984 will offer up it's most accessible work yet, "White Pepper" (Elektra Records), in May, followed by a nationwide tour. They're playing Allentown's Sterling Hotel on Saturday night. The show at the Sterling, a venue that mainly features cover bands and more main-stream local acts, is less an attempt to reach Valley music fans than a familial convenience, according to Aaron Freeman - aka Gene Ween - in a recent telephone interview from his home in Lamberton, N.J. "My father-in-law works [at the Sterling]," explains Freeman, 30, "so I've been there a bunch of times and like the place. It's part of a kind of warm-up thing we're doing before the big tour that s...

From CMJ Online  (exact publishing date unknown), written by Ron Hart. "It's all bullshit," proclaims Gene Ween, referring to the long-standing rumor that he and his partner Dean Ween persevered through the recording of their 1991 drug-rock classic The Pod by huffing cans of Scotchgard. "We thought it sounded really funny at the time. I'm surprised we're not in jail for that. I've seen kids come up on the side of the stage with their cans of Scotchgard, and I see 'em huffin' it and you see the checkerboard come across their face when they pass out. It's really fucked up." Whether or not the dispelling of this Ween myth is legit may only be known by Dean, Gene and the elite few who were present in the tiny apartment on a Pennsylvania horse farm where The Pod (its namesake) was made. But that's the thing about Ween, it always keeps you guessing, whether in magazine interviews or in its bevy of twisted ditties generated over the past d...