WEEN

[walterfredo]

I've heard the same. He's def very serious about his fishing.

[wolof7]

This is exciting news! Aaron Freeman - Marvelous clouds, April 10th. Fingers crossed for more Ween related music this yr 

Marvelous Clouds

On April 10, the artist also known as Gene Ween will release Marvelous Clouds, a tribute album to the songwriter and poet Rod McKuen, whose songs have been recorded by everyone from Waylon Jennings to Perry Como to Madonna. Released under Gene's non-Boognish-sanctioned name Aaron Freeman, Marvelous Clouds was produced by Ben Vaughn, who last worked with Freeman on Ween's classic 1996 country excursion, 12 Golden Country Greats.

[el_chode]

Ween just released a semi-useful app for your idevices

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ween/id380613886?mt=8

It's only useful feature is the ween radio stream. but it's free, so all is brown

[woodnymph]

Super excited about the new solo deal for the Genester coming out in April!!!  But I only have fire, and wheel.  No idevices here yet

[walterfredo]

Fishing in Key West!  (I'm in the neon hat....safety first).

[Fully]

Fishing in Key West!  (I'm in the neon hat....safety first).

Sweeeeet! :D

[Penny Lane]

Fishing in Key West!  (I'm in the neon hat....safety first).

Awesome, Walt!

[wolof7]

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeetttttttttttt, I'm gonna need a full report on this when you get a chance WF!!

[woodnymph]

What Deaner was talkin about?!??   :D :D  How awesome!!!  Definitely need a full recap!!!

[br00ke]

badassery 

[zanjam]

Fishing in Key West!  (I'm in the neon hat....safety first).

That is fucking awesome.  I get seasick and I don't like fishing at all, but I want to go on one of Deaner's expeditions!

Are you fb friends with him?  I don't know him at all, but he commented on my kid's super cute letter to Santa that I posted.  I was DYING!  Deaner thought my kid's letter was adorable!  It was awesome.

[walterfredo]

http://aaronfreeman.bandcamp.com/

starting to think we really have seen the end of ween.  So f'n depressing.

[ItBeats4Jew]

http://aaronfreeman.bandcamp.com/

starting to think we really have seen the end of ween.  So f'n depressing.

I got that email too.  But I'm not so sure that we won't see them together again one day.  Probably not on a permanent basis, but Aaron mentions his dire financial situation.  I'd easily pay $100 or more to see Ween right now.  Going to see Aaron Freeman won't even get me off the couch. 

[walterfredo]

apparently this was posted on Mickey's facebook page today...

My Best Ween Story (4 photos)
me and carlos sort of collaborate-------I think enough time has passed where I can finally tell my favorite Ween story of all-time.
The businesses and the people involved have long since closed their doors and moved onfor good and hopefully the people involved (and Carlos himself, if it comes to that) will have a good sense of humor about this story.

In 2003 Ween released our album "quebec" on Sanctuary Records. We worked on the album for 2 years in our beach house in Holgate,NJ, a rented house in the Pocono Mountains of PA, the garage behind Aaron's house in Pt. Pleasant, PA, my upstairs guest room, and finally Andrew Weiss's living room in NJ. We also worked at Water Music in Hoboken, NJ and Graphic Sound Studios in Ringoes, NJ. It was not a great period in our personal lives, Aaron was going thru a divorce and I was partying way too hard myself—it was some dark shit. The record is mone of my favorites, but it is a depressing album lyrically. It was not an easy record to make either, as evidenced by the amount of places we worked, trying to find the right environment. There are demos available online that I posted where you can hear the process at work, we racked up our normal batch of like 6 dozen songs or more before whittling it down to what was finally released, 15 tunes.

I am a huge fan of Carlos Santana. He is one of my favorite guitarists of all-time. He is playing better these days than ever before in my opinion. His music is more radio friendly, for sure, but as a guitarist he has aged like a fine wine. Only Neil Young, Prince, and a small handful of others can make that claim as they become members of the AARP.

We were working in Andrew's living room on the song "Transdermal Celebration", our drummer Claude Coleman had just gotten into a horrific car crash and left us w/o a drummer for the recording and ensuing tour. Eventually it worked itself out where the record took so long to complete that Claude made enough of a recovery to do the world tour with us supporting "quebec." In the meantime though, even though Claude had played on some of the demos, drumming on the album was left up to me, Josh Freese, and Sim Cain. "Transdermal Celebration" had been recorded 3 times by this point, with a drum machine, with Claude playing drums, and the final take on the album which features Josh Freese. It was the eventual single from the album. So, we're in the middle of this session and I get a phone call from my roadie (nameless) who also worked for a backline company (nameless) that supplied amps, drums, lights, etc. to bands touring in the Northeast. My roadie told me that Carlos Santana's equipment (including his guitars) had arrived via a trucking company that night at their depot. Carlos was recording an appearance on "Good Morning America" the next morning and his equipment was to be delivered to the set in NYC in a few hours.

What needed to be done was immediately clear to me, I had an opportunity to play the solo on "Transdermal Celebration" through Carlos Santana's amplifier and guitar. I had one shot at it, it meant taking a hard disk recorder to a storage space where all of Carlos' stuff was sitting in transit. I arrived at 2am. We (very carefully) unpacked his equipment and set up his stage gear and in one take I recorded the guitar solo for "Transdermal Celebration" (the one that appears on the album, playing thru Carlos Santana's guitar, pedalboard, and amplifier. The whole think took 10 minutes and we were terrified we were going to get caught. A lot of people would have lost their jobs. We got the fuck outta there relly fast after that. So the solo on "Transdermal Celebration" was played thru all of Sanatana's shit in what resembled an early morning bank heist or something..........

Of course a story like this requires visual proof, so here it is. Don't tell anyone about these please.

-Dean Ween 6/14

an afterthought: regarding the carols post, i'd like to add that we handled his equipment as if it were the Mona Lisa. We photographed the way his roadie had his cables wrapped and positioned and put everything back exactly as it was found. The whole process was over as quickly as it happened. Also, the respect that I have for Carlos and the depth, spirituality and stamina of his playing is held by me in the highest regard. I am not just a fan of Carlos, I am a believer and follower of everything he has done, and yes that includes the pop singles. I felt it was important to have this be known, there is no one I hold in a higher regard. Also, I have a lifetime of experience of handling equipment, as did the other person involved, it wasn't two drunk buffoons manhandling a legend's gear, the furthest thing from it. I wanted to put that out there. -DW

[Crispy]

Is this for real? I guess this makes me a real milk-drinking rule-follower, but that seems like an extremely sketchy, disrespectful, and stupid thing to do, especially with gear belonging to an artist that he "holds in the highest regard." To me, that would mean that they would not fuck with that gear under any circumstance, no matter how much experience one has handling equipment and how careful they were.

[walterfredo]

Is this for real? I guess this makes me a real milk-drinking rule-follower, but that seems like an extremely sketchy, disrespectful, and stupid thing to do, especially with gear belonging to an artist that he "holds in the highest regard." To me, that would mean that they would not fuck with that gear under any circumstance, no matter how much experience one has handling equipment and how careful they were.

oh I'm sure it's for real.  And I can see what you're saying, and in my book very few people would get a pass for pulling off such a stunt, Deaner gets a pass.  Without a doubt one of the most overlooked/underrated guitar players of this generation, but that's not necessarily why I think he gets a pass in my book.  He has the much respect for music, it's history, it's legends.  I think he couldn't resist the opportunity, and as he mentioned in the story he, and the band, were in a bad space at that time.

I'm sure he feels like he probably did something wrong too on some level.  Surprised he actually posted the story.   

[Crispy]

I agree completely with your assessment of Dean's legendary skill and status in the music biz, and I would have had plenty of confidence in his ability not to mistreat the gear or fuck anything up, but accidents happen. If Carlos would have given Deaner a pass, then yeah, no problem, but I highly doubt that would have been the case. And I'll bet he's plenty pissed about it now. Anyhow, not that big a deal, I'm just an old fuddy duddy.

[walterfredo]

http://youtu.be/leHNxAyLBK4

[woodnymph]

Nice one, wf.  Hahaha I watched this some time ago but forgot about it

I just saw Gener in Pittsburgh on 10/1-- he looked great and sounded excellent!  (Oh god, this video is cracking me up again!  Wish I had Ween fan parents-- OH MAN I forgot he does the Stallion bit at the end too!)  We yelled out for Gener to play Pollo Asado, and he said, "Oh man... yeah, can you tell me the lyrics again?? Actually, I have them in my green backpack-- if you get them for me I'll play it."  I thought he was just making shit up, but when he came back for the encore, he was wearing a green backpack, and he was holding a lyric sheet!  And he read all the words to Pollo Asado off of it, with his band holding down the tune.  Surprise!     I got to see Deaner in Asheville in April and Gener in Oct, so the year feels more "complete" now, I'd say.  He has some REALLY GOOD NEW TUNES, too.  Not sure what you've heard already.  I haven't heard a whole lot, myself.  After he played one called "Golden Monkey," someone yelled out to hear Mutilated Lips; and he says, "That was pretty much Mutilated Lips right there, man.... like Mutilated Lips Pt. II or something...."  Definitely a gorgeous tune. They made it ultra psychedelic live.  Glad the boys are still creating.   

[walterfredo]

announcement coming soon!