"Ween wends its way upwards"

W hen Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo were 13-year-old schoolmates in New Hope, Pa., they spent their free time writing songs inspired by their parents' collections of Beatles and Frank Zappa records.

Seven years later the pair, who call themselves Ween, have penned 1,500 tunes, recorded a double LP on the label that launched the Replacements, and developed a cult following in the Northeast.

Two days before leaving on a recent European tour, Freeman and Melchiondo - a.k.a. Gene and Dean Ween - discussed their odyssey from performing at friends' houses to being featured on Dutch TV.

To hear them tell it, it was pretty simple.

IN 1986, after hanging out at City Gardens in Trenton, they were asked to perform at the club. The response from the crowd was good, and Ween was asked back, again and again, each time attracting a larger audience.

In 1988, they released a 10-song LP on a small independent label and began playing at other clubs in the area, including CBGB's in New York. A year later, a representative from the Minneapolis-based Twin Tone record company heard Ween at a party in Maplewood and signed them.

Andrew Weiss, a Hopewell resident and bassist for the Henry Rollins Band, was recruited to produce, and three months ago "God Satan," a collection of 26 songs, was available in record stores around the world.

While Ween's history is pretty straight-forward, their music is difficult to pigeonhole.

Gene and Dean compare it to "running over a hornet's nest with your lawnmower and getting at-tacked by bees."

Translated, that means listening to the band is like listening to - scratched Jethro Tull and Black Flag records play simultaneously through a squeaky fan.

In sum: Ween's music is chaotic.

LEAD SINGER Freeman, who

says that for him "playing music is just a release," alternately whispers

and screams over Melchiondo's screeching guitar, while recorded drums thump in the background.

The band's lyrics range from the oddly amusing ("I feel a tick in my head, and he's sucking on my head In the morning I'll be dead if he doesn't leave my head") to the nonsensical ("Old man thunder Old man thunder sound of thunder broan sh brozh daunn oh") to the unprintable.

On stage, Freeman, who until recently managed a Mexican restaurant in New Hope, moves around in a deranged frenzy, shouting profanities.

But offstage he and Melchiondo are softspoken and unfailingly polite.

During the interview, the pair talked about their families (Free-man's father is a psychoanalyst, his mother a counselor; Melchiondo's father shapes Bonsai trees and his mother is a homemaker) and down-played their achievements.

BEING ON Dutch television - Ween was interviewed on a program that also featured rappers Public Enemy - was "cool" but not as big a deal as some people at home made it out to be, they said.

They were looking forward to their most recent European tour, but were anxious to get back to the United States, where "the people are much cooler."

There are no plans for the band to tour in this country, but they said they expect to eventually cross the country in support of "God Satan."

Freeman said he hopes the album does well so he can support himself as a musician. Melchiondo also wants commercial success, but said if it eludes him, he'd be happy to go back to his job pumping gas in New Hope.

Ween will open for Fugazi on March 19 at 7:30 at City Gardens in Trenton. Tickets are $5, and are available at Now & Then in New Hope, the Record Collector in Trenton and at TicketMaster outlets. Call City Gardens at (609) 392-8887.