Boognish preserve us!

>> Everybody loves Ween, except maybe Ween

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Just as their latest album White Pepper hits the racks, Ween (Gene, Dean and co.) prep to hit the Soda stage--and this time, it's for the duration. Their show, usually a good three hours long, got hacked off by the midnight disco policy at Foufounes last time around, and the Deanster's still smarting over it.

Mirror: Was getting cut short a bummer for you guys? Does this happen a lot?

Dean Ween: It was a big bummer, and no, it doesn't happen--ever. I was super pissed off. There is a point on every tour, after a few shows, where everything comes together. The band suddenly just gels, and it stays that way for the rest of the tour. That was the point that we hit in Montreal. It was a week into the tour, and we came out ready to kill, ready to stay on stage all night long, but we didn't know about this policy. I guess it was a big deal after the show, because everyone keeps asking about it.

M: Let's talk about the new album. Some tracks, like the first one and "Back to Basom," sound like a continuation of your last album, The Mollusk.

DW: Yeah, and probably even "Flutes of Chi," a little bit. "Flutes of Chi," we recorded for The Mollusk--and even Chocolate and Cheese. It has the distinct honour of being the most failed Ween song ever. We did it on my four-track in 1994, and it was incomplete. We did it again for Chocolate and Cheese, and we didn't even finish it, it sounded so bad. Then we did it again for The Mollusk--twice, actually. With a full band, and another version where it sounds more like it does on the new one. Then we took elements of that and said, "Fuck it, let's just get it, y'know." And we got it.

Coke in the Caribbean

M: Hey, "Bananas and Blow." That's the best Jimmy Buffett steelband C&W song ever!

DW: That was kinda the idea with it--a concept we had for a few years at least. We had the idea for a whole EP called Bananas and Blow, and we were gonna record it in the Caribbean, in Bermuda or the Bahamas or somewhere, and make it a five-song EP. Just one of those ideas that you know will never happen, but are funny to talk about. "Yeah, yeah, we'll just do coke the whole time and eat nothing but bananas." You know, ha ha ha, funny, funny. Then it goes away for years. But then Gene got this new keyboard that had this bad steel drum sound on it. He wrote that melody line, I wrote the chorus--it was a concept that had taken years to come to fruition, and it just kept getting worse. "We gotta get these black girls to sing backups on it, and we gotta have a flamenco guitar solo." It just got worse and worse as it went along. It's probably the most complete song on the album--fully realized.

M: There's a lyric in the song "Pandy Fackler" that mentions "funky cold medina," from that Tone-Loc song. I need your help--what's a "funky cold medina?"

DW: I don't know what it means, either! I was really fucked up one night, and I passed out and had this dream, where I was with this retarded prostitute named Pandy Fackler. It was the most stupid name I'd ever thought of, so when I woke up I had to write it down right away. Then the music came along, sort of inspired by Steely Dan. Anyway, I couldn't think of this one line, and a friend had written a line in my notebook with "funky cold medina" in it, so I extracted it and put it in. I don't think he knows what it means, either!

M: Are you happy with White Pepper, as a whole?

DW: (Pause) I fuckin' hate it! But that's how I feel about all of our albums! Naw, I'm just kidding. I wouldn't listen to it, though, if you sat me down right now and put it on. It's the only music I've heard lately, listening to the same goddamn songs. We liked it enough to put it out, y'know. I don't think it's a piece if shit--although it might be. :

At Club Soda on Sunday, May 7, 9pm, $17.50+taxes