Ween discography explained

Artist:Ween
Studio:9
Live:7
Compilation:2
Video:1
Ep:8
Singles:18
Music Videos:10
1Option:15
1Option Name:Demo tapes

The following is the discography of Ween, a Pennsylvania-based experimental alternative band formed by childhood friends Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo, better known by their respective stage names, Gene Ween and Dean Ween. Starting out with a few locally released demo tapes, including The Crucial Squeegie Lip, AXIS: Bold as Boognish, and The Live Brain Wedgie / WAD Excerpts, the band was picked up by independent label Twin/Tone Records in 1990 and released their debut . In 1991 they signed with another independent label, Shimmy-Disc, and released The Pod. Later, Ween signed with Elektra Records and released their major label debut Pure Guava in 1992. It features their highest-charting single to date, "Push th' Little Daisies". While touring for this album, they played at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which would later be released as a CD/DVD live album in 2008 titled At the Cat's Cradle, 1992.

In 1994 Chocolate and Cheese was released, which spawned the singles "Voodoo Lady", "Freedom of '76", and "I Can't Put My Finger on It". Ween's next album, released in 1996, was titled 12 Golden Country Greats and was recorded with several prominent Nashville musicians, featuring a distinct country sound. It gave way to the singles "Piss Up a Rope" and "You Were the Fool". The nautically-themed album The Mollusk followed in 1997. It is considered a prog rock concept album, and featured the singles "Mutilated Lips" and "Ocean Man", the latter gaining a significant following after being a song on the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie soundtrack. The band's desire to pursue alternate forms of media led to the MP3-only release Craters of the Sac, presented by Melchiondo for online download and free trade. The same year the band had planned to release a live album compilation spanning their entire career up to that point, titled . However, according to Melchiondo, once the album was completed, Elektra realized the sales potential of the CD and denied Ween the right to release it through their independent label. Ween's sixth studio album, White Pepper, was the band's final studio release for Elektra and was released in 2000. The pop-themed, Lennon-McCartney-inspired album produced two singles: "Even If You Don't", which was made into a music video directed by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and "Stay Forever".

Ween formed their own label in 2001, Chocodog Records, the label Ween originally planned to release Paintin' the Town Brown on. Later, Ween released the first official Chocodog album, Live in Toronto, Canada. The limited-pressing CD, available exclusively through the band website, became an instant collector's item. Subsequent Chocodog releases were produced in higher volumes to meet demand. Ween signed to Sanctuary Records and released Quebec, their first studio release in three years, in 2003. Later that year, the band held a poll on their official message boards to select songs for the band to play on their forthcoming live-in-studio album All Request Live. Released on November 22, the album would be the first time Ween would play all five parts of "The Stallion" (Parts 1 & 2 from The Pod, Part 3 from Pure Guava, the unreleased Part 4, and Part 5 from Craters of the Sac). The performance also included rarely-played early Ween tracks such as "Pollo Asado", "Mononucleosis" and "Cover it with Gas and Set it in Fire", as well as Ween's rejected Pizza Hut jingle, "Where'd the Cheese Go?". In 2004, Ween released Live in Chicago, a DVD and CD set that compiled tracks from two live performances from the Quebec tour at Chicago's Vic Theatre in November 2003.

In 2005, Ween hit the studio to record better quality versions of previously-unreleased songs for the compilation Shinola, Vol. 1. The twelve tracks were all, according to Melchiondo, "songs we regretted not putting on other records". The tracks spanned the band's career, from "Tastes Good on th' Bun", a Pod outtake, to "Someday", a Quebec outtake. Different versions of three of the songs, "Big Fat Fuck", "How High Can You Fly?" and "Monique the Freak" had previously appeared on Craters of the Sac.

In 2006, Ween rented an old farmhouse and converted it into a working studio. After writing over 50 songs and recording rough versions through 2006, they picked through them and, with Andrew Weiss as producer, re-recorded album versions for what would become The Friends EP and the full-length La Cucaracha which were both released in 2007 on Rounder Records. La Cucaracha, which would prove to be Ween's final album, would later be called a "big piece of shit" by Freeman, adding, "I think the songs on it were good, or a bunch of songs, but overall that was a big clue Mickey and I were finito".

In 2011, Melchiondo quietly released an MP3-only collection of songs called The Caesar Demos, named after the band's original working title for Quebec, to friends on his Facebook page. In his comment, he stated the songs were all recorded between 2001 and 2003 while Claude Coleman was recovering from injuries sustained in a car accident, and that many of the tracks featured only himself and Freeman. In addition to a handful of tracks that eventually made Quebec, Caesar Demos would also feature several previously unreleased tracks.

The band broke up in 2012, after Freeman commented in a Rolling Stone interview that it was time to pursue solo projects. The manager for the band, Greg Frey, later confirmed he had decided to 'end his musical relationship' with Ween. Melchiondo was unaware of this until it was public information. In 2015, Freeman began using the Gene Ween moniker again for live performances, and later that year they announced their first shows in years for 2016. A sequel to the first outtakes collection, Shinola vol. 1, was confirmed to be in the works by Melchiondo on Facebook in 2016. A live album containing a 2001 performance of every song from their first album was released in 2016, entitled GodWeenSatan Live.

Studio albums

YearTitleLabelPeak chart positions
US
[1]
US
Heat.

[2]
AUS
1990Twin/Tone
1991The PodShimmy Disc
1992Pure GuavaElektra93
1994Chocolate and Cheese1080
199612 Golden Country Greats2372
1997The Mollusk159569
2000White Pepper1212
2003QuebecSanctuary81
2007La CucarachaRounder/Schnitzel6984

Live albums

YearTitleLabelPeak chart positions
US
Heat.

1999Elektra37
2001Live in Toronto CanadaChocodog/Schnitzel
2002Live at Stubb's 7/2000Chocodog
2003All Request Live
2004Live in ChicagoSanctuary
2008At the Cat's Cradle, 1992Chocodog/Schnitzel
2016GodWeenSatan Live

Compilation albums

EPs

YearTitleLabel
1992Sky Cruiser EPWhite
1994I Can't Put My Finger On It EPElektra
Freedom of '76 EPFlying Nun Records
Voodoo Lady EPFlying Nun
1996Piss Up a Rope/You Were the Fool EPFlying Nun
2000Stay Forever Promo EPMushroom
Stay Forever Red Vinyl EPMushroom
2007The Friends EP CD and limited edition picture disc 12"Chocodog/Schnitzel

Singles

YearTitleUS
Alt.

[3]
AUS
[4]
UK
[5]
Album
1992"I'm Fat"
"Push th' Little Daisies"2118Pure Guava
"Sky Cruiser"
1994"I Can't Put My Finger on It"Chocolate and Cheese
"Freedom of '76'"152
"Voodoo Lady"325897
1996"Piss Up a Rope"11612 Golden Country Greats
"You Were the Fool"98
1997"Mutilated Lips"The Mollusk
"Ocean Man"
2000"Even If You Don't"135White Pepper
"Stay Forever"138
2003"Tried and True/Mountains and Buffalo"Quebec
"Transdermal Celebration"
2005"Monique the Freak"Shinola, Vol. 1
"Gabrielle"
2007"Your Party"La Cucaracha
2010"DC Won't Do You No Good"
2024"Junkie Boy"Chocolate and Cheese (Deluxe Edition)
"Voodoo Lady (Demo)"

Music videos

Early independent releases

YearTitleLabelNotes
1985We Broke Up (Unreleased)[6]
Ween/SmershJoint cassette between Ween and Smersh, side one is the Ween side which features the song "Fred" and side two is the Smersh side which features the song "Edgar"
1985Mrs. SlackYucasettesEP, partially lost
Chris Hoecke
Mike Banks
Kim Tulio
John Ward
1986Erica Peterson's Flaming Crib Death[7]
1987The Crucial Squeegie Lip[8] Bird O’ Pray
1988Ween II Axis: Bold as Boognish[9]
The Live Brain Wedgie! / Wad Excerpts[10] 12" EP
1989Prime 5[11] Compilation

Notable demo tapes

YearTitle
1988Ween WAD (Series of GodWeenSatan: The Oneness demos, various tapes exist with different tracklists)
1988The Scraping the Palm for Guava Tape (Unofficially released, GodWeenSatan: The Oneness era)
1989The Focus Tape (Unofficially released, GodWeenSatan: The Oneness era)
1990The Pork Roll Egg & Cheese (Unreleased, The Pod era)
Eindhoven EP (Only song that has surfaced from this tape is "Albino Sunburned Girl", The Pod era)
The Stallion (Unofficially Released, The Pod era)
Big Timmy Wasserman (Unofficially Released, The Pod era)
Bilboa (Unofficially Released, The Pod era)
1991Springstuff (Unreleased, Pure Guava era)
Caprice Classic (Unofficially Released, Pure Guava era)
Eravis (Unofficially Released, Pure Guava era)
1992Freedom (Unreleased, Chocolate & Cheese era)
Chocolate & Cheese Taster Demos (Unofficially Released, Chocolate & Cheese era)
1993Crème de Menthe (Unreleased, Chocolate & Cheese era)
1994Chocolate & Cheese Tape (Unreleased, Chocolate & Cheese era)
12 Golden Country Greats 4-Track Demos (Unofficially Released, 12 Golden Country Greats era)
1995The Mollusk Sessions (Streamed on the Ween MySpace page in 2007)
1996Music For Drunk Irish Homos (Unreleased, The Mollusk era)
1997White Pepper Demos (Unofficially released)
1997/1998Jug Is Quaid (Unreleased compilation of studio material compiled by the band. Some songs speculated to be included in the tape are Albino Sunburned Girl, Did You See Me (Demo), Koko (Demo), I Still Love You, and Flutes Of Chi (Demo))
1999Pandy Fackler Tape (Unofficially released, compiled by Dean Ween from different Chocolate & Cheese era demo tapes)
2000Long Beach Island (Unofficially released, White Pepper era)
2001-2003Caesar Demos (Released by Dean Ween on his Facebook page in 2011, Quebec era)
2006-2007La Cucaracha Demos & Sessions (Various songs recorded around the La Cucaracha era)
2013Boognish Rising: Christmas 2013 Sampler (Compiled by ChrisB featuring various Pre-1994 Ween songs)
2014Boognish Rising: Thanksgiving 2014 Sampler (Compiled by ChrisB featuring various Pre-1994 Ween songs)
2016Boognish Rising: Summer 2016 Sampler (Compiled by ChrisB featuring various Pre-1994 Ween songs)

Appearances

YearTitleLabel
1992GWAR - The Road Behind EPMetal Blade Records
1993En Esch - CheesyTVT Records
Lifetime Entertainment
1994Frente! - LonelyMushroom Records
A Merry Little Christmas : A Holiday Sampler from Elektra & EastWestElektra/EastWest
1995Kostars - Klassics With a KGrand Royal
Used & Recorded by 3RRR Vol.2Radio Release
1996Beautiful GirlsMiramax / Elektra
Ben Vaughn - Instrumental StylingsBar None Records
Yoko Ono-Rising MixesCapitol Records
Schoolhouse Rock! RocksAtlantic Records
1997Wah²German TV Show
Orgazmo - Unrated VersionN/A
1998Hub - HubSLASH RECORDS
Columbia
WEA
Veeco Productions
2002Run Ronnie Run soundtrackNew Line Productions Inc.
Morvern CallarWarp Records
Crank YankersComedy Central
2000SpongeBob SquarePants (Season 2, Episode 1a "Your Shoe's Untied")Sire/London/Rhino
2004The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie – Music from the Movie and More...Sire/London/Rhino
Tony Hawk's Underground 2 soundtrackActivision/Neversoft
2005Murderball soundtrackCommotion Records
2008Weeds: Music from the Original Series, Volume 3N/A
2009G.N.A.R (ski film)N/A

Notes and References

  1. Ween Chart History: Billboard 200 . . 2020-06-29.
  2. Ween Chart History: Heatseekers Albums . . 2020-06-29.
  3. Ween Chart History: Alternative Songs. Billboard. 2020-06-29.
  4. Australian (ARIA) chart peaks:
  5. UK chart peaks:
  6. Web site: Photographic image. JPG. I.ytimg.com. March 29, 2022.
  7. Web site: Ween - Erica Peterson's Flaming Crib Death. Discogs. en. June 6, 2021.
  8. Web site: Ween - The Crucial Squeegie Lip. Discogs. en. May 16, 2019.
  9. Web site: Ween - Ween II (Axis: Bold as Boognish). Discogs . en. May 16, 2019.
  10. Web site: Ween - The Live Brain Wedgie! / Wad Excerpts. Discogs. en. May 16, 2019.
  11. Web site: Ween - Prime 5. Discogs.com. en. May 16, 2019.