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THE OVER/UNDER

The Over/Under: Ween

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Even as teenagers spazzing around in their suburban Philadelphia homes, Dean Ween (Mickey Melchiondo) and Gene Ween (Aaron Freeman) offered a giddily irresponsible, snot-fueled antidote to the tiresome PC earnestness that characterized popular music throughout the 1990s. Ween began in the mid-’80s as a lo-fi bedroom act, producing a handful of unhinged four-track cassette releases and rapidly moved up the indie-label chain—first Twin/Tone, then Shimmy-Disc—to land an inexplicable major-label contract with Elektra for the group’s third “official” album, 1992’s remarkable Pure Guava. Since then, on both label-attached records and a dizzying stream of self-released recordings, Ween has delighted in nothing more than vivisecting pop music forms and twisting them into new shapes—or pushing them far beyond their logical endpoints. In addition to their astonishing talent for mimicry and parody, however, Freeman and Melchiondo are also (and this is a point that’s rarely been made with sufficient emphasis) musicians—and students of pop music—of the very first order. Anyone who’s heard the group tackle note-perfect readings of ’70s sap rock with a straight face (such as Billy Joel’s “Honesty” or Wings’ “Band On The Run”) has to recognize that for all its smartass, for two decades Ween has been one of the smartest, most exceptionally gifted bands in rock. That may seem an odd claim to make about a group so energetically dedicated to absurdist goofing, but to sink into Ween’s catalog is to nuzzle the brown underbelly of pop-music history and hear what the top-40 hit parade might have sounded like after a steady diet of whippets, Ballantine’s scotch and carry-out chimichangas. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of debut GodWeenSatan: The Oneness, here’s our take on the most overrated and underrated songs in Ween’s catalog. Hail the Boognish, mang.

:: The Five Most Overrated Ween Songs
1. “Piss Up A Rope” (1996)

The idea behind 12 Golden Country Greats, Ween’s honky-tonk record, is unalloyed genius. The band recorded the album—10 songs total—in Nashville, with a staggering roster of Music City session legends, including the Jordanaires and Charlie McCoy. To date, it’s Ween’s only album-length genre exercise, and though it wisely runs shorter than most of its other records, there are a couple of moments where the joke wears thin. “Piss Up A Rope,” one of the straighter chuckles on the record, is one. The punch line here is a send-up of the macho swagger of he-man, my-woman-done-me-wrong braggadocio, but after the cheeky first verse, the rest of the song falls a little flat. Unlike other tracks on the record—the equally bratty but smarter “Mr. Richard Smoker,” for instance—the song doesn’t do much to unpack the genre other than stretch its conventions to the limit. At its best, 12 Golden Country Greats pushes country forms into uneasy territory. Though it’s a good joke, “Piss Up A Rope” is one that passes quickly.

2. “Ocean Man” (1997)
The slower demo version of “Ocean Man,” heard here, is actually a little more interesting than the album cut, heard on aquatic concept record The Mollusk. Sluggish and watery, the vocals seem to burble up from the sea floor, coating the track with a brackish slime that’s missing from the final, cleaner version. The Mollusk is filled with excellent songs, as are all of Ween’s albums, but especially if you hear it in sequence, “Ocean Man” doesn’t quite meet the standards of the best work on the record. That it’s become one of the album’s better-known songs, overshadowing more interesting moments like “I’m Dancing In The Show Tonight” and “The Golden Eel,” is something of a mystery.

3. “Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down)” (1994)
Chocolate And Cheese contains three of the most profoundly upsetting rock songs ever recorded: “The HIV Song,” “Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?” and “Spinal Meningitis.” By any standard of measurement, that’s an incredible hat trick—and one no other band could pull off, in my estimation. “Spinal Meningitis” gets nosed out by the other two, but mainly on style points. The lyrics of “Mister” paint as disturbing a picture as you’ll ever want to imagine in pop music, while the happy carnival music of “HIV” initially makes the jaw drop in disbelief. If your reaction moves to laughter, even on multiple hearings of the song, it’s an uneasy, shaky laughter. The silly “smile on, mighty Jesus” pun in “Spinal Meningitis” blunts the force of the song more fully than the others, and on multiple listenings, it’s the only one of the three that doesn’t get uglier the more you hear it. Granted, that’s like sporting the least horrifying medical abnormality in the sideshow, but who puts these three deranged songs on a single record and doesn’t expect us to rank them?

4. “Bananas And Blow” (2000)
White Pepper is Ween’s least perverse record, which may be the reason “Bananas And Blow” comes off less successfully than it might. On any other album, the song would have been a light entry, a straightforward Jimmy Buffett take (Freeman has called it a Bob Weir riff), but on White Pepper, nestled among distinctly milder genre-twisting tunes, the easy parody is made to carry more weight than it’s able to support.

5. “You Fucked Up” (1990)
Here’s the starting gun, according to the “official” discography: the opening shot on GodWeenSatan. At just more than 90 seconds, “You Fucked Up” is beloved by fans of Ween’s rawer, punkier side, and it’s a great leadoff track. But what was remarkable even about Ween’s earliest recordings was the band’s deconstruction of genres. In that context, “You Fucked Up” isn’t the most creatively grating cut on the album. I’d rate “Papa Zit” or the second half of “Birthday Boy” above it.

:: The Five Most Underrated Ween Songs
1. “So Long, Jerry” (1996)

Recorded during the 12 Golden Country Greats sessions and originally released as the b-side of “Piss Up A Rope,” “So Long, Jerry” is one of Ween’s most moving performances, another aspect of the band’s art that rarely gets the mention it deserves. As much as they love exploding genres, they’re fans of the genres they explode (the joke wouldn’t work otherwise), and “So Long, Jerry” is as heartfelt a song as they’ve ever recorded. Reportedly a tribute to Jerry Garcia, who died the year before the release of the album, “So Long, Jerry” is a criminal omission from its final track list. And while I’m yapping about it, so is “I Got No Darkside,” which also dates from these sessions and is available on several unofficial compilations.

2. “With My Own Bare Hands” (2007)
You could flog a thesaurus for a solid hour and never come up with enough adjectives for this cut from La Cucaracha, one of the most punishing tracks in the Ween repertoire. The song hits like a car crusher right out of the gate. There are several wonderful things about “With My Own Bare Hands,” but among my favorites are the way Melchiondo bum rushes the line “I’m gonna be your lawnmower/And cut your fuckin’ grass” and the liberated cock-rock nonsense lyric breakdown that occurs in the fourth verse. It’s a rare song that can send up its genre with equal parts love and smartass. Every time I hear Melchiondo break forth with “take a shit on the bitch and fuck hooba-jooba,” I weep with happiness. That’s just me. Oh, and also: The guitar solo sticks it in and breaks it off.

3. “Pollo Asado” (1991)
Full disclosure: I’m one of those Scotchgard-heads who finds The Pod to be Ween’s career high point, no pun intended. I love everything about that goddamn record, from the snotty ripoff of Leonard Cohen’s The Best Of cover art to the murky aura of the music, which sounds like it’s been coated in cough syrup. When I’m laid up on the couch with a high fever, this is my go-to album, and nothing on it sets me to laughing harder than “Pollo Asado,” a stoned-out sendup of a Mexican fast-food order set to a faux-Muzak score. Without giving anything away, the foozle-headed character voices and the senseless transaction they’re embarked on elevate the song from stoner skit into absurdist gibberish. It’s a hysterical performance and one that reveals why producer Kramer latched onto Ween the moment he saw them play live.

4. “Cover It With Gas And Set It On Fire” (1993)
Remember up there in the overrated section, when I talked about disturbing pop songs? I forgot to mention “Cover It With Gas,” which I first heard on double-disc live release Paintin’ The Town Brown, but which is heard in its studio version (from the Skycruiser EP) here. I haven’t the foggiest notion what this track is about, but it sums up Ween’s penchant for terror rock better than any other song I can think of. The repeated shriek of the title, the siren that wails throughout the song’s three minutes, the squalling car-crash sound effects—this is one of the most upsetting soundscapes in all of alt-rock.

5. “What Deaner Was Talkin’ About” (1994)
After the squeal and throttle of “Cover It With Gas,” how about one of the shiniest, poppiest songs in the band’s playbook? “Pork Roll Egg And Cheese” from The Pod runs a tight second, but “What Deaner Was Talkin’ About” is likely the band’s most Beatlesesque moment; Dean Ween has identified the Beatles as his favorite band (just ahead of the Butthole Surfers), and you can hear that love in the song’s bright melody and sweetly sung vocals. And in a songbook filled with snark and darkness, “What Deaner Was Talkin’ About” stands out as a charming, affable moment—not the only one in the band’s catalog, certainly, but one of its friendliest and most congenial.

—Eric Waggoner

126 replies on “The Over/Under: Ween”

Freeman doesn’t do the vocals for the epic song, With My Own Bare Hands. That is all Melchiondo! I agree with most of what you’ve said, but this little error ruins your credibility.

someone who can’t tell the difference between Gener & Deaner’s singing has *NO BUSINESS* even pretending to know ANYTHING about which of their songs are over/under rated.

and by the way… Ween’s most everrated song?
ROSES ARE FREE
dumbass.

Heavens, people. Heartfelt apologies for the Freeman/Melchiondo brainfart in the “Bare Hands” entry–my fault entirely, but a simple mistake, and easily corrected. That aside, I stand by the evaluation.

I also stand by the claim that discourteous factual correction used in place of cogent expression of differences of critical opinion is the mark of the cloven hoof of the fanboy.

Still: How nice to see some true vitriol again!

@Ween Forum: Oh, yeah? Well, so’s your Aunt Tilly.

Big wet sloppies,
Eric W.

Your list is totally RANDOM, you moron!

WEEN FORUM officially HATES YOU!!

Go fuck yourself!

– Fuckhead!

What happened to the twin ad jingles for a national pizza chain — “Where’s the Cheese?” — likely the most under-rated Ween song(s) ever, unless you are standing next to someone at a show who shouts the title all night long. I won’t give away the punchlines — go seek it out RIGHT NOW it will make your day

I came in here looking for methods to wean my calf and am horribly offended. Perhaps the ween forum will have the answers I need, and be much less offensive in offering advice.

Eric Waggoner wrote: “discourteous factual correction used in place of cogent expression of differences of critical opinion is the mark of the cloven hoof of the fanboy.”

um, actually, no…
*posting ‘over/under-rated’ songlists on a blog* is the mark of the “cloven hoof of the fanboy.”

FANBOY.

The hostility here is hilarious.
Loved the whole feature. I haven’t listened to my Ween records in a couple years but this has reminded me of how much I love Ween. The band will appreciate the fact that I’m going to pull out all my old ween records this weekend and look into some of their more recent releases I’ve missed.

Eric, consider your article a huge success. Now all you Ween forum people can get back to your self righteous sniveling.

Wow, I didn’t realize how much hostility coursed through the veins of weenboys. Coed much?

I consider Pollo Asado a “song,” personally. Why not? What’s the distinction? A lot of real, actual songs sample other songs, recontextualize muzak, appropriate radio and TV voiceovers, include recordings of dogs, cats, crickets, farts. How is Pollo Asado not a real song?

I agree with your assessment of The Pod- unstoppable, untoppable, bone-fide art damaged genius.

Thanks very much, folks, for clearing up my nagging suspicion that most Ween fans are just a bunch of gas-huffing, mushroom-eating, inbred halfwits. This had troubled me for quite some time.

oh cool the ween forum gonads are at it again.. good job comment bombing guys, you’re a really articulate bunch. fortunately, these deluded fanboys represent less than 1% of ween fans the world over. i think the article is pretty decent, though the over/underrated thing is pretty mystifying. i’ve seen a TON of shitty articles about ween though and this really isn’t one of them.

@OceanMan: Use of the “I’m rubber/you’re glue” riposte is the mark of the _other_ cloven hoof.

No, seriously, come on, now: Who’s posting these foul-mouthed comments, really? Matt Fritch, is that you? Geno? Emily Tartanella? These are too hysterical to be anything but a put-on.

No, Waggoner, these are posts from people who actually know the band and are sick of these bullshit “Ween makes joke songs” articles people with no talent like yourself love to write.

Foolish douche sack. Being the place where as for us the song where certain Ween where thing is found entirely is too small appraised goes, or does the cheese. When being pleasant, pass the fact that the blotch of the blood is obtained from the suit of your buffoonery teacher separated.

I actually enjoy these Over/Under features, but I am always amazed at how many people read them and then complain about the concept. It’s pretty simple to understand: it is, in fact, all in the name. Why do those of you who hate this format continue to read it? One definition of insanity is engaging in the same situation over and over but expecting different results, or something like that. I’m just sayin’.

So in the spirit of this vitriolic comment thread: iwhoever you are, and whatever your opinion, you’re still a fucktard. But I still love you.

Hugs and kisses for all.

ive read better music reviews on the bathroom stall at ihop, where today they have free pancakes. maybe you should go in there and get yourself a short stack, go home, quit writing forever, and then kill yourself. or least cut off your arms.

good day,

toolie

I thought the musicianship of “My Own Bare Hands” was just incredible. It seems like everyone’s fighting to play behind the beat, a classic blues style that you can’t teach, but sure sounds intense when it’s pulled off. That entire La Cucaracha album is just ridiculously great, so I’d vote for any track off of it being underrated.

Ummm…. I wish Mr. Waggoner et all would refrain from posting in defense of their columns, as it’s just plain wimpy. You had your chance, and this is ours.

it’s amazing still to this day how little people know of this band and blow them off as a “joke” band…. pathetic.

ah, cover it with gas and set it on fire refers to a gang rape and the decision by the rapists to “cover it (the female body) with gas and set it on fire”. isn’t obvious what one is suppose to do with a gang rape victim? just listen to the lyrics, douche bag.

Eric,

Thank you for your review of ween. We greatly appreciate your enthusiasm for ween’s music. Perhaps, you would consider writing the liner notes for the upcoming album.

Pat Frey

Cover it with gas is about a gang rape and the decision of the rapists to cover the female body with gas and set it on fire to remove all evidence. But since you are a moron who thinks he is a writer, you’ve overlooked the obvious.

I HIGHLY disagree that these songs are over-rated! However, I do think that “So Long, Jerry” is one of the best Ween songs ever and I think that it deserves to be put on an album. Thank you for all the great music throughout the years! Jerry R.I.P.

okay, first off why are you all over their nuts when everyone has labeled ween a not so serious band, when all the suden in the last 3 or 5 years ween has pick’d up more followers and more types of fans,,now everyone Is on the ween band wagon. And your article suck’d ass. Ween Is better left alone and not mainstream material.

It’s so weird. At ween shows most everyone is friendly and laid back, then on the forum they are all hostile assclowns. I bet they give the guys the creeps. The list was one person’s opinion, why can’t anyone add to it and post their over/underrated songs and just deal with the fact some people like songs others don’t.

this guy sucks. anyone can say any ween song is underrated or overrated. and why put ‘with my own bare hands’ on this list, he doesn’t even know ‘leave deaner alone.’ pathetic.

to the author:

by writing this article, did you actually think you were doing a service to the reader? who was your supposed target audience anyway? i think it is your attempt at being a writer that is in question. the way you describe the band and their songs, one would think that you were writing for yourself. what makes you a credible interpreter of music?

some of your word choices are a sign of an amateur writer.
examples “giddily irresponsible” “vivisecting” “nuzzle the brown underbelly”
“macho swagger” “i weep with happiness” “murky aura”

i could go on but im nausea.

basically, you couldnt write you way out of a paper bag

trust me, youre no scotchguard head. youre overrated, but a scotchguard head (whatever that is) wouldnt write the shit you did.

I stopped humoring you when you said that bannanas and blow was an overrated song. The guitar solo in that song is rad as my the hand that slaps the taste out of your mouth. I wouldnt dare trust your opinion or trust you as a person, that is why I am using the fake e-mail that I use for spamjammers.
good day sir

Other than your mix up on Bare Hands your article isn’t bad, but we at the forum love to bust balls.

Sincerely yours, Guy Fieri

I think we can all agree that “el scorcho” and “The sweater song” are WEEN’s most over-rated songs.

well then….

maybe if you called the article – top 5 most liked and disliked ween songs in my own persoanl opinion – this would not have happened. Saying rated/ overrated suggests you have worked out true statistics of more popular and less popular ween songs. But this is only my opinion.

ocean man is awesome. why? because it is. Overrated? nah, its just a good song. Banana’s and blow is stranger to you on white pepper than ice castles?
No song carries any weight of any album. Again, this is only my opinion.

Becasue my favourite beatles song is hello goodbye, but ‘everyone’ loves i am the walrus, does that mean i am the walrus is overrated to me and hello goodbye is heavily underated? No, it does not.

I do not have the statistical data to prove either party wrong. What i do have is a remarkable amount of great songwriting and musical genius in the form of ween in my possession, and i love it. Thats all that matters really. My opinion doesnt really ‘carry the weight’ of everyone else’s. I feel that all music reviews in some degree will never capture what it’s all about, but the music will. The downfall of any music critic, in any form. But arent we all critics? Critic would be short for criticise. Not opinionate.

underrated top 5 or songs that need to be played live and/or re-recorded for the unwashed masses
1. opus 51 fugue trilogy in a / axis : bold as boognish
2. vallejo / voodoo lady ep
3. mourning glory / pure guava
4. red as satan / crucial squeegie lip
5. alone / the pod

overrated top 5 or songs to get a beer when they start playin them live
1. roses are free / chocolate and cheese
2. voodoo lady / chocolate and cheese
3. push the little daisies / pure guava
4. even if you dont / white pepper
5. baby bitch / chocolate and cheese

I personally love ween more than anything on earth. Their music changed my life. I’m not going to lose my shit on the guy who wrote this, nor am i going to lose it on the people commenting. rock n roll ( . Y . )

Honestly, I loved the way the article opened, mang. Really. What you said about the band moved me, and it was well put. But I do disagree with most of the list for the simple reason that Ween, as a band, is generally underrated. I have a visible Boognish tatoo and ever person who sees it asks about it and has never heard of Ween. For you to dog such classics as Bananas and Blow, You Fucked Up (the first track on the first album! Come on, maybe you just overplayed it.), or the lyrically genius Ocean Man, it sounds like you don’t really even like Ween. I mean, I want to believe you do, but to write this sort of list as a fan, you’ve really gotta do the band justice. You shoulda nailed the top 5 most popular songs that non fanatics would know and hate the band for. Or you could have chosen those that people who just like ween a little would know too well and ignore other songs because they couldn’t get past the songs on the list. Wouldn’t that serve your purpose more? And if your motivation wasn’t to let people in on secret treasures of the ween archive that they might otherwise ignore, and you were just blogging your thoughts for other Ween geeks to read and comment on, then you should have done it in a Ween forum, not a fucking article for Magnet. The problem there, though, is that you clearly aren’t as much of a Ween fan as the forum folks, which is why you’re being attacked. Kudos for giving the band some credit, but your choices were poorly done. Maybe you shouldn’t write articles while drinking because it seemed to start out great and end badly.

The price Ween pay for having humor in their music is they are labelled parody or a joke and not taken seriously. Listening closer, you realize Piss Up A Rope is not a “send-up” of macho country, it’s a sincere song about living with a significant other and what that does to you. Ween are not a novelty act.

Overrated? Every other band on the planet (apart from Rush, of course).
Underrated? Sorry Charlie.

I disagree with a lot of the comments that were in the songs selected, but there’s one thing that it seems a LOT of OPINIONATED people have forgotten….ITS THE WRITER’S OPINIONS, YOU JACKASSES!!! We all know what the lyrics say, we all know how we interpret the lyrics in our own way….soooooooooo….Remember to look in the mirror before you start pointing fingers at someone else because of their opinion….You obviously have one, too, that DIFFERS from that of the writer so just chill out and calmly discuss why you think differently or don’t write anything at all…namecalling is just stupid….

A note to remember: Opinions are like assholes….EVERYONE HAS ONE!!!

What pissed me off the most about this pretentious dribble is the use of the adjective “brown” in such a trite, simplified manner: “to sink into Ween’s catalog is to nuzzle the brown underbelly of pop-music history.”

I’ve never heard the brownness so concisely put, and now I am worse off for it.

The bottom line is, Ween has no overrated or underrated songs. Their fans tend to like their more absurd tracks. The highest rated song from their latest album on the Ween Forum was “With My Own Bare Hands.” Not accounting that fact is almost as bad as thinking that could possibly be Aaron’s voice.

Lesson learned: don’t try and quantify the unquantifiable.

it has been scientifically proven that Ocean Man is the greatest 2 minute, seven second song ever written.

I took a shit today. I threw it against a wall. It was still better than this article.
I suggest you guys liquidate all your office supplies on ebay, Burn down the office,(provided there is one) and then sign a murder/suicide pact. COMMIT COMMIT COMMIT. Lick my ball shitheads,
V . O . T . D.

I’ve only heard one Ween album, and it’s the Mollusk. Here are my over/under from that album.

Over:
Cold Blows the Wind – It BLOWS all right. Actually I just think it’s kind of formalist and boring.
Waving My Dick in the Wind – 7th grade dick joke with sub-They Might Be Giants novelty rock arrangement.
Pink Eye (On My Leg) – Instrumental filler.
Ocean Man – An ok song, not great though.
It’s Gonna Be (Alright) – 80’s soft rock ballad. MOR-alicious.

Underrated:
Dancing in the Show Tonight
The Mollusk
I’ll Be Your Johnny on the Spot
Polka Dot Tail
Buckingham Green – All of these are pretty epic.

mmmmmm…article clung to klingon encrusted hole too fast.Found aftertaste like that one produced by injesting fetid turd biscuit deep fried in Ron Jeremy’s lipo-drain off…
..need more time to recovery now.

-chorglagrortborg

Quite obviously all ween songs are underrated. Eveybody knows that.
Ever since that stupid phish band started covering roses are free, that song lost its luster.
So if u see any neo-hippies at the show cover em with beer and kick’em in the nuts.

peace and love

ween fanboys are a bunch of hide behind their computer geeks. that’s all.
their bark is worse than their bite, just ask my girlfriend. anyways, eric your article doesnt move anything forward and therefore is not important. youve said very little beyond giving us your opinion. do you really think anyone cares, in this day and age, about your opinion? this is just an opportunity for you to express your creativity. but in fact, you are not a very good writer. your topic is boring, the way you attempt to discern ween’s music isnt very interesting, your facts are off, your word choice makes you sound like youre trying very hard to sound intelligent as a writer. you should just keep your beliefs to yourself. your opinion in the grand scheme of things, doesnt mean much, except to you.

its funny how ween cant shake off the “joke band” association. thanks to guys like the author of the article, it continues to persist, one reason ween hasnt gone beyond where they are. poor gener wanted more fame, but the origins of ween, the jokiness has held them hostage. this article attempts to cast a light on both, why the band is overrated and why they are underrated, both ideas cancel each other out and one is left with the same ween, and the same lame article info about the band as a one time joke in rock music….this has tarnished the genuis behind the band

im sorry this article got the attention it did. its just a lame article…too bad you excited so many people with your opinions. youre lame and so are everyone who responded to this article. everyone is trying to express their feelings and it has become a giant trainwreck. its just music, ween is laughing all the way to the cleaners, and the rest of you are a bunch of slaves who follow. goodbye

its unfortunate that ween has attracted guys like Eric. this is what makes the band what they are. Writers like eric. ween’s problem is they attract listeners like all the fanboys and the author of this article. this is why ween is both underrated and overrated. like a wheel stuck in a ditch. Ween will NEVER be the Beatles.

this article should be left to die. who brought this article to the attention of the ween forum should die. it doesnt deserve this much attention. everyone who writes has given the author justification to continue to write lame articles. eric, find a new career. your online magazine sucks, you suck, all the ween fans suck.

Ween is one of my 3 favorite bands. [a tie between Ween, The Misfits, and Atari Teenage Riot, if you must know.]

I have no problem with this article. No 2 Ween fans are going to arrange every Ween song in the same order. He shared his opinions. While I may not agree completely, he had his own reasons, and, as OPINIONS go, they are valid reasons.

Give the man a break, Ween forum.

Hey Eric Waggoner…where did you go to college?? I think we were classmates. And I love Ween but could easily go the rest of my life without hearing Roses Are Free. But that’s just my opinion.

this poor excuse of a man doesnt deserve a break. he deserves a swift kick in the ass, and deserves to be fired from his post. he got paid to share his ideas, no one asked for his ideas to be expressed. you snivelling weasel, goto hell. i hope this eric guy gets fired. his work sucks and you suck for thinking he deserves a chance. oh and by the way, even the photo of ween is lame. just face it, the only one who should write about ween is ween, everyone else should mind their own business.

xoxo

please remove this article from the magazine, its horrible. by the way, whoever brought this article to the attention of the ween forum should kill hemselves.

Ween Forum fans should know that Magnet had “La Cucaracha” at #1 on their Best of 2007 list. Pretty high praise from on of the few remaining music magazines.
Over/under’s always good fun.
Thanks Eric!

Wow. Ween fans have possibly proven themselves douchier than Marilyn Manson fans. Didn’t know that was possible. Nobody else can write about Ween but Ween? You guys sound like fundamental Muslims. Wow. So much for the good vibe I get at concerts — I see everyone is really just hostile inside, but too stoned to express it except online.

Clint,
You’re right bout some of these fan replies, they are ridiculous, especially the comment “the only one who should write about ween is ween”. I dont even know what the fuc that person is thinking. But you do seem to be the real “douche” [man I hate to use that word]

only ween can comment about themselves, everything else is pure subjective shit. talk about yourself but dont try to explain how you interpret ween and their music. just listen to the music, and shut the fuck up. enjoy the music, but dont comment about it, youll just look really stupid like eric.

your opinion is not worth what you think it is. any comparison between ween fans and marilyn manson fans is perpetuating your ignorance, again.

i suggest you dont go to anymore ween concerts. youre the type who discusses ween at a ween concert. listen to the music, enjoy it, BUT stop thinking about it and commenting about it…..keep it to yourself.

oh eric and clint, you guys are classic idiots. hostility has nothing to do with it, your cognitive dissonance is attributing your failure as our hostility. you write what you think is an apprporiate and valid opinion. opinions are never valid, they just are opinions that can never be validated.

just admit that you are a loser who assumes that his critics are stoned and can only express their hostility online,…what other recourse is their?? agree with you? provide a alternative to online.

Maybe, just maybe, you could just admit you are a douchebag, without trying to defend your position. had you not made such silly defenses, id be enjoying ween…but youve come along and hoped that your brilliant insight will catapult ween intelligence to a new level.

wow, youre the only one who took the time to create an actual avatar (of yourself of course). youre not as important as you think you are. your mom is wrong.

if you stopped to understand the statement, which your narrow mind is obviously unable to do, youd realize that ween can criticize itself, everyone else can just make comments. you dont have enough credibility to make a formal criticism. writing about ween is like commenting on wine without tasting it…..

you critics are failed artists….all you can do is write about artists..and try to make an art out of your writing..but you’ve really just failed..you just havent realize it

who cares what Magnet rated La cucharacha (sp)?? does their rating make the album any better?? thats the problem..you douchebags writers think that what you say validates the object of your commentary..but la cucharaca doesnt need you to determine its validity.

all you do is perhaps help sell more copies of the album, if you say it is a good album. youre a commercial entity that helps the band ween make money..but dont give yourself too much credit.
by the way, la cucaracha is about illegal immigration and the infestation of mexicans in N, america……..now go support that, jackass

I for one, think Eric did an outstanding job writing this article.

just kidding,, you suck.

now that i read who your favorite 3 bands are..you have no credibility, at all!!! what a joke, you are an embarassment to ween fans…never go to a ween show, or wear a ween shirt or write a ween review……you failure…misfits are lame, and atari teenage riot…..just by name alone…….suck.

i hope you get hit by a bus soon

Im not hostile, you just gave me a good reason to explain to you why your writing fails on so many level, but yes its my opinion, and when the same opinion is held by the majority of the response, its indicates some legitimacy, whereas you and your friends article are independent opinions that apparently, no one except yourselves, “buys”.

just face it, youre wrong. just admit it.

o.k., im wrong. i suck, and me and eric dont deserve to have the freedom to state our opinions because we are invalid…..

sorry ween forum, we are wrong.

I for one am not too stoned to express it. and at a concert, you arent writing an article that states what eric wrote, so why would someone spew hate at a concert if there was no reason to. now if you acted like a moron, which im assuming youd probably do, id let you know that you are lame and you are ruining my high.

Dont discredit the criticism due to being high, you just simply suck, just face it.

dont abuse your freedom to state an opinion, if the opinion is invalide, keep it to yourself. bu them again, you wou you dnt know wahats valid..so just keep quiet, youve demonstrated that your unqualified to write an educated opinion.

dont do it again. dont listen to ween, stop writing, kill youself. you failed.

Everyone here is a total d bag. A real Ween fan wouldn’t even be trolling this crap site….I just stumbled upon it while looking for magnets for my fridge. Boosh

This is totally out of control. Fire the guy cause you don’t agree with him, are you kidding? Kill themselves? Are they a real Magazine?

If you’ve never read Magnet, I’d suggest you educate yourself before flying off the handle. The article called the Over/Under is actually fairly clever. In addition to the somewhat obscure reference to either an over/under shotgun or the Over/Under in sports wagering (both of which are probably a coincidence), it allows one journalist to give his opinion of a band or singer.

It’s always interesting. I don’t care if it’s your favorite band or a group you hate. Most of the time, the article imparts you with a perspective of the way the rest of the society of music nerds perceives your precious gem of an artist. If you don’t agree then so be it. If that’s an emotional issue for you, you might consider getting some therapy.

Most of the world has never heard of Ween and since they started as a gag band for stoners most people never will. Sorry, it takes a lot of PR to get around your lineage. Also having purchased three Ween albums in my life the only thing that I can tell is that they’re talented, interesting but in the end treat music as a gimmick that must be sold rather than sincerely shared.

At any rate, It is about the opinion of the writer and not an election or census. GET OVER IT.

The average ween fan is a stoner who works in a kitchen or copy shop. So what it sound like to me is that one of them who can read finally sobered up long enough to read a review. Or maybe they just were cruising the web (the one place they don’t get high) and finally found some press about their precious Ween.

I happen to like the band and think the criticism was fair. The ‘forum’ should be grateful that their little gimmick band is getting any press at all.

“Also having purchased three Ween albums in my life the only thing that I can tell is that they’re talented, interesting but in the end treat music as a gimmick that must be sold rather than sincerely shared. ”

You couldnt POSSIBLY be more wrong. really. For one thing they allow bootlegs of every show to be taped/traded for free. Read ANY interview with Ween and they are not writing parodies, skewering music or making goof-rock gimimick tunes. Their shows are furious rock that would make Eddie Hazel proud. I could go on, but you obviously dont understand them anyway. Its not a coincidence that 95% of ween fans have taken offense to the list. KINDLY FUCK OFF.

I am laughing my ass off right now imagining, for instance, Talking Heads fans coming out of the woodwork giving you the insane reaming Ween fanatics are giving you. “What you mean “Houses in Motion” is overrrated? Would you even know polyrhythm or an oud if you heard one? EH, FUCKTARD????!?!111111″

this is the best fun I’ve had in a comment thread for a long time. Thanks, weeners!

“As much as they love exploding genres, they’re fans of the genres they explode (the joke wouldn’t work otherwise)”

This isn’t true. Some rock critic said something along these lines once and like so many other speculations, it’s become an empty echo, whenever congratulating or excusing a band for doing genre piss-takes. I think it’s most often said with the intent of making the critic feel good about admitting they “enjoy” something that is somehow less than “real” or “authentic.” Which is silly.

I do agree though, that The Pod is the shining light.

Holy crap. I always wondered what band’s Over/Under would cause an invasion of weeping fanboys scattering “Aha!” ‘s and lame insults like handkerchiefs dropping from the hands of 19th-century belles groping for their smelling salts.

And it’s Ween? Really?

thats put this whole thing into perspective. first of all, some idiot posted the link to this article on the ween forum, thinking everyone who enjoy reading the review.

however, the majority felt the article was lousy for x, y, and z reasons. in reality, no one really cares about the author or what he wrote except him.

its fun to get a rise out of people. it was a success. the more you react, the more harassment you will receive. the thing is, when the truth (how much the article sucks) is revealed to those who are deceived (the writer of the article).
They feel forced to defend their position.

in the end, everyone has an opinion. its just best not to voice your opinion because a) stating your opinion is really just an act of selfishness (who really cares about other’s opinions). And when you opinion has alot of misinformation, it makes the writer sound even more lame.

get over it, your article is lame, ween forum are a bunch of conformists, the entire enterprise of writing reviews places the writer on a pedistool, and therefore you deserve all the rebuke you are receiving.

you didnt do a good thing by stating your opinion.

Dude. I was born listening to ween and i will probably play ween at my funeral, but even great bands have their failures… but the fact that most of their failing moments (with the exception of what deaner was talking about) are considered underrated to you still remains a mystery to me. dont get me wrong, Cover it with gas, pollo asado, and with my own bare hands are ok, but they just stand at ok… Havent you ever heard of Mutilated Lips, Exactly WHERE Im At, The Grobe, Marble Tulip Juicy Tree, Dr Rock, or Springtheme? These songs are madly underrated. And I mostly agree with the overrated list, but how bout Push the Lil Daisies? This is just one teenage kids opinion, but the next time you write about Ween. keep this in mind- AK

why would dean and gene pose for such a stupid photograph and what exactly does the photography “say”?

id appreciate your responses

Cerulean, this is the Ween Forum. Please stop posting on me. You are an idiot.

Haha, people tried to pretend they are me. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And wow, are their responses lame. I think Ween fans are more sensitive than Helen Keller’s clitoris!

“in the end, everyone has an opinion. its just best not to voice your opinion because a) stating your opinion is really just an act of selfishness (who really cares about other’s opinions)”

That has to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever read. How was the copy shop today.

Gene doesn’t sing With my own bare hands. Just saying if you’r gonna gush about the vocals you should know it was Deaner, and it’s pretty fucking easy to figure out. You’re a journalist?

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