News

Eclectic rock heroes Ween are currently on a touring hiatus, but the children of founding members Dean Ween (aka Mickey Melchiondo) and Gene Ween (aka Aaron Freeman) are set to play a gig together this Saturday (March 29th) in New Jersey.

Michael Melchiondo and Ashton Freeman will perform together at the The Soupcon Gallery (located in the back of Bucks on Bridge coffee shop) in Lambertville, New Jersey.

The news was revealed by Michael in an Instagram post, writing the following message: “My good friend Ashton Freeman has asked me to join them in playing a show this Saturday in Lambertville. We’ve come up with a very unique collaborative set. So come and witness the genetic duo merge our sounds… We are Not Ween.”

He also shared an image of the show flyer, which lists Ashton Freeman on the bill along with Hover and Rubix Pube.

As Live for Live Music points out,...

Ween have announced they are stepping away from touring “for the foreseeable future” due to Michael “Dean Ween” Melchiondo’s continued mental health struggles. The impacted dates include the special Chocolate and Cheese anniversary show in Philadelphia that was scheduled for September 27th.

“It is with sincere regret and heavy hearts that Ween must make the decision to step away from the stage for the foreseeable future,” reads a social media statement. “Despite three great shows this summer, it’s become clear that touring and performing is too taxing on Deaner’s mental health to continue.”

Earlier this year, the group canceled the spring dates on their 40th anniversary tour and cut short their summer run. Back in March, Dean Ween shared a statement reading, “I need to step away from performing live in order to preserve my mental and spiritual well being, and instead focus on myself and loved ones.

After launching their 40th anniversary tour with shows in Bonner, Montana and Spokane, Washington last week, Ween are pulling the plug on their final three dates in Seattle, Portland, and Eugene.

“We regret to announce that we will have to cancel our shows this week in Seattle, Portland and Eugene,” reads a statement from the band posted to social media. “We love performing for the best fans in the world, and we are beyond disappointed we won’t be able to do these shows. All tickets will be refunded at point of purchase. Thanks as always for the love and support.”

Though the Pacific Northwest tour was intended to be brief, it was also meant to be a celebration of 40 years of Ween. It’s unknown whether they will still play their hometown show at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia celebrating their 1994 album Chocolate and Cheese. Ween was also...

Ween have released a deluxe edition of their 1994 album, Chocolate and Cheese, with 15 previously unreleased outtakes and demos.

Available today, August 2nd, the 3xLP set features remastered version of the beloved alternative rock band’s fourth album, which served as Ween’s first in a professional recording studio. Order the vinyl here or stream the digital version below.

Get Ween Tickets Here

Ween’s Mickey Melchiondo sifted through the band’s vast collection of outtakes to make up Chocolate and Cheese’s deluxe edition, and decided his favorites with Aaron Freeman. “Keeping with Ween tradition, Aaron and I probably picked all the wrong songs, mixed them, and now here they are,” Melchiondo said in a press release.

He elaborated further in the new album’s liner notes, writing, “When I hear it, I feel like I’m listening to an autobiography of our lives in the early to mid-’90s…...

Ween have canceled their April tour dates so frontman Dean Ween can “preserve [his] mental and spiritual wellbeing,” according to a statement he posted to social media. Ticket holders will receive refunds automatically, and Ween will get back on the road this summer for North American dates in August and September.

“For the majority of my life I have been blessed enough to have a career doing the thing that I love the most,” Dean Ween wrote. “This privilege has never been lost on me. The fact that the music reaches...

Ween have canceled the April dates of their 40th anniversary US tour as Michael “Dean Ween” Melchiondo temporarily steps away from performing live to work on his mental health.

“At this moment in time… I need to step away from performing live in order to preserve my mental and spiritual well being, and instead focus on myself and loved ones,” the band’s co-founder and lead guitarist wrote in a social media statement. “I know this will come as a disappointment and with great inconvenience to many people who bought tickets and made travel plans, and for this I sincerely apologize.”

To close out the note, Dean Ween promised to return to the stage with the “enthusiasm, joy, and renewed sense of inspiration that our fans deserve, and that I require of myself when we play live.” Ticketholders will automatically receive a refund from the original point of purchase.

As of publishing,...

Ween have mapped out a 2023 US tour marking their first national headlining run since reuniting in 2016.

The newly announced 14-show trek follows a brief string of April dates and kicks off on July 28th in Los Angeles. After that, Ween will head to Kansas City, Chicago, New York, and the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado before wrapping on September 16th in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. See their full tour schedule below.

Tickets to the new dates go on sale Friday, March 24th at 10:00 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster, with a Live Nation pre-sale occurring one day earlier on March 23rd (use access code Opener).

Once tickets are on sale, you can also find them at StubHub, where orders are 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s FanProtect program. StubHub is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.

Gene...

Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme has recruited Primus bassist Les Claypool, Zz Top guitarist Billy Gibbons and more for the latest all-star installment of The Desert Sessions, his long-running stoner/hard-rock collective series. Volumes 11 and 12, Arrivederci Despair and Tightwads & Nitwits & Critics & Heels, are out October 25th via Matador Records.

The album, which arrives 16 years after Volume 10: I Heart Disco, also features contributions from Scissor Sisters singer Jake Shears, Warpaint drummer Stella Mozgawa, Royal Blood singer-bassist Mike Kerr, Autolux drummer Carla Azar, guitarist Matt Sweeney, actor-comedian Matt Berry,...

Before Wheeler Walker Jr. was melding raunchy lyrics with expert country instrumentation, there was Ween’s 1996 cult classic 12 Golden Country Greats. A collection of 10 songs — even the misnumbered title is a gag — the album finds the Nineties weird-rock duo parodying country clichés in tracks like “I Don’t Wanna Leave You on the Farm,” “Japanese Cowboy” and the ultimate kiss-off “Piss Up a Rope.” But the record wasn’t completely a lark: musically, it was superb, with Nashville aces like harmonica player Charlie McCoy, fiddler Buddy Spicher and the vocal...

These are the Eyes that Satirize! Everybody's seen their imagery but few know the story of these anonymous performance artists and their avant-garde music. Their highly creative songs and videos satirize the commercialization of art and music, and they've chosen a real 'you'll never get rich' way to stay clear of the commercial undertow. Theory of Obscurity: A Film About The Residents Blu-ray Film Movement 2015 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date April 19, 2016 / 34.95 Starring Jerry Casale, Les Claypool, Chris Combs, Jon Fishman, Matt Groening, Jerry Harrison, Penn Jillette, Jim Knipfel, Gary Panter, The Residents, Steve Seid. Cinematography Barton Bishoff, Don Hardy, Josh Keppel Produced by Barton Bishoff, Don Hardy, Josh Keppel Written and Directed by Don Hardy

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

We've all seen the image: four tuxedoed men in eyeball masks with top hats and canes. These masked men are the avant-garde band and multimedia performance artists known as The Residents.

Dean Ween (a.k.a. Mickey Melchiondo) and former Ween-mate Gene Ween (a.k.a. Aaron Freeman) didn't end things on the best of terms—mainly due to the fact that, this past May, Freeman neglected to tell his partner that the band had broken up. But in a post on his official website over the weekend, Melchiondo announced that he's already looking to the future with a new solo album produced by Josh Homme. Melchiondo has been in the studio since August working on the record and says that he and the other artists on the ...

'My decision to leave Ween .... was absolutely not made in haste,' Aaron Freeman tells Rolling Stone.

By James Montgomery

Aaron Freeman

Photo:

Last month, much to the consternation of those who worship at the altar of the Boognish, Ween's Aaron Freeman announced — rather matter-of-factly — that he was ending Ween, telling Rolling Stone "It was a good run."That was apparently a surprise to Freeman's longtime musical partner, Mickey "Dean Ween" Melchiondo, who wrote on his Facebook page that the breakup "is news to me, all I can say for now I guess."But now, in a new statement to Rolling Stone, Freeman addressed the split — and Ween's fans — letting it be known that his decision was not a rash one."I want to thank each and every one of you all for your kind words and support. It means a lot. My decision to leave Ween, however interpreted, was absolutely not made in haste,...

Ween have reportedly split up after 25 years together. The cult rock band's frontman Aaron Freeman - also known as Gene Ween - confirmed the break-up in an interview with Rolling Stone. He said: "It's time to move on. I'm retiring Gene Ween... It's been a long time, 25 years. It was a good run." However, bandmate Mickey Melchiondo, aka Dean Ween, later appeared to be unaware of the split on their Facebook page. He said that the break-up was "news to me, all I can say for now I guess", before the post was removed. Of the (more)...

Ween, the alternative rock band formed by Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo, will stop producing music, says Freeman in a new interview with Rolling Stone.

"It's time to move on," Freeman said. "I'm retiring Gene Ween."

Gene Ween was Freeman's alter ego, while Dean Ween was Melchiondo's stage name. The pair formed Ween together in high school after meeting in an eighth-grade typing class. While Rolling Stone stipulates that Freeman and Melchiondo are still friends and that the split was harmonious, Melchiondo seemed taken aback by the news.

"This is news to me," he wrote on Facebook, "all I can say for now I guess."

Ween released 17 combined studio and independent albums between 1985 and 2007, as well as six live recordings. The band was known for its eclectic mix of sounds, from rock to pop to heavy metal to prog rock and electronic. For non-fans, they might be best known as...

With the band (apparently) calling it quits after 25 years, Bigger Than the Sound offers a eulogy.

By James Montgomery

Dean Ween

Photo: Chris McKay/ WireImage

In my review of Ween's 2007 album La Cucaracha (which also happens to be the last time they were mentioned on this website), I referred to them as "musical cockroaches," the kind of scurrying, scrounging band that — much like the titular (and totally gross) arthropod on the record's cover — was capable of surviving nuclear holocausts and subsisting on a bar of soap for weeks at a time.

"In essence, Ween are indestructible," I wrote. "They will be here long after you and I are gone."

It turns out, I was wrong about that last point. Because on Tuesday, Aaron Freeman, better known to bong-rippers and Scotchgard-huffers everywhere as Gene Ween, told Rolling Stone that he was retiring the mantle and ending Ween, saying, simply, "It's been a long time; 25 years.

Mickey Melchiondo—better known as Dean Ween, lead guitarist and co-founder of the bizarre psychedelic rock duo Ween—announced Sunday that he plans to host a special charity baseball game. More specifically, the game will benefit the American Cancer Society: All related proceeds and donations will go directly to the foundation. The game is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 2 at 1 p.m. and will take place at New Hope High School in Melchiondo’s hometown of New Hope, Pa. Deaner has made specific note that the game is “baseball, not softball” and that only one game will be played. In the short period...

Portrait of the Boognish as a young spaz

“We must’ve been really good last time we were here,” Dean Ween cracks as he and brother Gener take the stage. “Half as many people here.” Perhaps audiences just didn’t know what to make of Aaron Freeman, Mickey Melchiondo Jr., their funny voices, stage names, and drum-playing Dat machine. Over 75 minutes, the duo pops between contemporaneous undergrounds: thrashing grunge (“Tick”), jam-bandy teases of Hendrix (“You Fucked Up”), lo-fi sludge (“Demon Sweat”) and The Jerky Boys. Predominant, though, are Gene/Freeman’s winning melodies: glam falsettos (“Captain Fantasy”), good-natured surrealism (“Marble Tulip Juicy Tree”) and naked hurt (“Birthday Boy”). Deaner/Melchiondo shreds, too. Nearly a decade old by the time of this recording, this diverse foundation of influences and styles helped Ween become one of the most consistently underrated cult acts of the ’90s. No need for multiple camera angles on...