Dean Ween is no stranger to making strange music.





As one-half of beloved cult pranksters Ween, Dean Ween (real name Michael "Mickey" Melchiondo, Jr.) has created songs that run the gamut from foul-mouthed sea shanties to Nashville-tinged country tunes mourning the loss of a pet. Name a genre of music, and Dean Ween has likely already dived headfirst into it with the kind of fearless gusto usually reserved for lifetime devotees of said musical style.





It's hard to tell where Dean's penchant for taking the piss ends and his genuine appreciation for diverging styles begins, which has always been half of the fun of following him. Now on a break from the newly reunited Ween and touring the country with a new album under The Dean Ween Group moniker, we spoke with The Deaner about his least favorite Paul McCartney song, the smell of his grandparent's house, and more.





UPDATE:

Ween are back together and playing two shows at Stubb's on November 2nd and 3rd! Grab tickets here.

























In the future, what can people expect from the Dean Ween & Friends webcast?





Dean Ween: I wanna do it in a different way than other bands. I know Phish streams almost every show, and I don't ever see that happening. Even if I made a lot of money doing it, I wouldn't want to. I would rather have people go to the concerts because there's no replacing that. If I do more webcasts I want them to be creative.





I live right on the Delaware River, and my friend has a pontoon boat that can hold like 25 people. I'd like to anchor it up at 3:00am and have a bunch of freaky musicians out there, you know, famous friends of mine and do a webcast from the middle of the river.





Anyway, if I do webcasts I want them to be punk-rock. I don't want them to be us sitting around in a venue, I think that cheapens it. Imagine us driving down the interstate in the back of a box truck, going 70mph and do the webcast from there, just performing under the worst conditions. Turn up the heat to like 100° so it's like hell!









"The Deaner Album" is filled with great guitar lines from different styles, is there a song in particular that you love playing live the most?





Dean Ween: I hate to say it, but all of them. It's new material, it's very fresh. I play songs with Ween that we wrote thirty years ago, and they're mega fresh too, but this is like mega, mega, mega fresh. Not even just the songs from the record. If you come see us, a third of the songs will be from the new album, and the others will be newly written. Maybe even from that day.









What memory comes to mind when you think about Austin?





Dean Ween: It's the greatest. There's a lot of cities out there that are identified with a lot of different things. Kansas City is associated with steaks. Seattle is food or whatever. There's only a few cities in the world that truly identify with music. Nashville is one of them. New Orleans is one of them. Austin is definitely one of them. Those are the three biggest ones, you know? So you do not want to have a bad gig in Austin. You always want to kick ass in Austin.





We have the best memories of our career from Austin. Back before SXSW was whatever it is now, there was only like six clubs hosting six bands. There wasn't a lot. Ween played Emo's... or maybe The Galaxy Club, or something. We ended up getting signed to Warner Bros. It was major for us.





We released a live album from Stubb's, you know? It's one of the greatest Ween cities in the world. I look forward to coming back. I know the restaurants and promoters and have a ton of friends there.









What are some of the places you like to go eat when you're in town?





Dean Ween: They're all Mexican, I'll tell you that.









Eating Mexican food before a show seems risky.





Dean Ween: Yeah, but I'll probably cave in and do it. At Stubb's I always cave in and eat way too much food and it sucks.





Photo Credit: Jambase









We were all pretty bummed out when the Austin Ween reunion didn't happen because LEVITATION was canceled...





Dean Ween: Oh man, no one was more disappointed than us. Dave, our roadie was at the festival with our gear and sent us pictures of it. I can't believe we didn't play a makeup date, that seems pretty lazy. I'll give you a scoop: I'm pretty sure we are playing in Austin this year. I don't know where, but we haven't forgotten about you guys.









What's the worst song from your favorite album?





Dean Ween: That's kind of easy, actually. I wanna say it's "Hello Goodbye," off Magical Mystery Tour. You gotta understand, I love Paul McCartney. He's written a lot of songs that I love. But once in a while, you go through life and hear stuff like, "I am the Walrus" or "Strawberry Fields Forever" and then... (sings in goofy voice) "You say goodbye, and I say Hello!" It's the whitest shit I've ever heard. What the fuck? In the context of what they were doing, it actually is interesting because of the studio experimentation. But that song is just George Martin sucking Paul's dick going, "Oh yeah, Paul! You're such a genius!" And Paul's like, "Oooh! I hear Oboes! Bring in 20 lute players!" So that's my least favorite song on my favorite album.





"Penny Lane" is another one off that album. You have to put it into context, though. Any other band in the whole world, if they had released "Penny Lane," they would be the greatest band. You have to judge or weigh something based on the context of what the artist has done. I think John even went on the record and stated that after "Penny Lane" he was done. (Sings in mock British voice) "Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs of every head he's had the pleasure to know. And all the people that come and go stop and say, Hello." It's like, how witty and British of you. How absolutely fucking British of you. The cheese factor of that is just... It hurts.





Wait, let me think of more of these... Now you've got me going. "Heal the World," by Michael Jackson. At the time, he was going through all this bad publicity. I don't buy into any of the shit about Michael. I don't think he did any blowing or penetration or anything. I think he did shit that was just out of bounds socially, and we can speculate on what that may or may not have been. It's off topic, but that record is a great album. His other two, Thriller, and Off the Wall are some of the best albums of all time. His other one, Bad, was good. That's funny to say, "Bad is good."





What's another one... The Wall, by Pink Floyd. Animals was great... Very depressing, though. It's like, Jesus Christ, I don't want to hear about your daddy issues. Your father died in the war and you wrote a record about it. Then they wrote nine MORE records about it. Ah, man... I'm going to be calling you back for weeks about this.













What smell reminds you of your childhood?





Dean Ween: My grandparent's house... It smells like a lot of Italian food that's been cooked there over the years. The things are in the same place as they were 42 years ago when I was being babysat there. You know how it is when you're a kid, you know where everything is in the house. They try and hide something and you're going to find it. It could be in a drawer in a box in a bag in an attic under a trap door and you're going to know where it is. I remember spending afternoons at that house, and the smell of the furniture and everything. That and cars. My dad and his dad were car dealers, and so were all my uncles. The smell of a car being detailed - that reminds me of childhood.





If someone was writing the Dean Ween biography, what would the title of this chapter be?





Dean Ween: "Brownout"





It's hard to explain, but it's a perfect description. A brownout is what I am. Not a blackout, a brownout. No matter where my career or life goes, it'll be brown somehow. I'll manage to brown it up. I'll buy a house somewhere on a fault line and it'll fall into a crevice. I'm a brownout.







