Boognish Transmissions

From Nude as the News ,  written by Jonathan Cohen. Their rabid fanbase is second to none in its zest, their musicianship boggles the mind, and they get to release their wacky albums on a major label. Ween are a real music phenomenon, and on the duo's latest Elektra album, White Pepper , a whole new host of genres are sliced and diced in typically proficient fashion. From the narcotic-tinged tropical fantasy "Bananas And Blow," the lumbering prog-rock of "The Grobe," the tart, jazzy "Pandy Fackler," and the lighter-waving anthem "Exactly Where I'm At," the new album is another welcome helping of Ween-ness. Dean and Gene Ween, or Mickey Melchiondo and Aaron Freeman to their families, recently chatted track-by-track about White Pepper with NATN Associate Editor Jonathan Cohen. "Exactly Where I’m At": Gene: Well, that song is kinda, I don’t know. That song is kind of incomplete. You’ll notice it just has the two verses, and the dr...

From Guitar World , written by Alan Paul. "Dude, are you ready for some Whiffle?" Mickey Melchiondo, a.k.a. Dean Ween, turns the steering wheel a hard left and his black Suburban veers off the blacktop and onto a bumpy dirt road that cuts through head-high cornfields. We ramble down the road, Willie Nelson blasting from the tape deck, faithful mutt Jim breathing hard in the back seat. Suddenly, the fields give way to an ancient, crumbling farmhouse, behind which sits a Whiffle Ball field cut out of the weeds, complete with chalked lines. Seven or eight bare-chested slacker dudes stand around sipping beers and playing a somewhat dispirited game of Whiffle Ball. Dispirited, that is, until we arrive. I have journeyed here, to the quaint burg of New Hope, PA, and to this makeshift ballfield, to gain insight into one of the under-appreciated geniuses of modern guitar. Dean Ween and his partner in crime, Aaron Freeman—a.k.a. Gene Ween—have been hard at work on White Pepper, Ween...