"Surprise success for Ween debut"

DEAN Ween is eating his very healthy tortellini and spinach dinner while speaking to The Good Times. Strange really, considering Dean, half of the perverse Ween duo, admits to being the most politically incorrect pop star there is — he smokes Malboro Reds, drinks heavily and loves red meat.

Dean and Gene Ween (aka Mickey Melchiondo and Aaron Freeman) are a little amazed that their single, Push Th' Little Daisies, has done well in Australia, so well that they have had to forfeit a much-needed holiday to tour the land Down Under. And by the way, they were not inhaling helium during that song — the production is, apparently,

a trade secret but we do know it is difficult to reproduce live.

"We usually don't even play that song, ever," Dean said.

"We have a billion other songs that are better and a lot of the other songs just work better live.

"We're not comfortable with the fact we have a single — the whole record could be bullshit but if you have a hit single, you're going to sell a million copies."

Ween started playing together when they were 14, using a name which is an insult in American playgrounds.

With their live show, Dean and Gene are on stage with their guitars, "A bit like Simon and Garfunkel, only better", Dean said.

"Ween is much better than most people think." Dean said Canberra was fortunate to be getting one of the early shows in the tour because: "If we haven't had a day off for 10 days we start to lose our self-respect ... we're eating and drinking to a point where we realise we can't keep going any longer — it's pretty cool."

He also admitted to lying a little in media interviews. "You become a jerk at about the sixth interview in a row.

"Gene told some Australian journalist that Push Th' Little Daisies was about woman's nipples and suddenly all these Australians are asking us if that's true. It's actually just a plain old love song."

Supporting Ween in Canberra will be the Kiwi band The Headless Chickens and Sydney's own Caligula. The Headless Chickens album, Body Blow, won album of the year at the New Zealand Music Awards and the band has gone on to become a trans-Tasman success.

Caligula is also gaining a strong following throughout the country.

The ANU has four double passes to Ween, Headless Chickens and Caligula to give away. Please telephone 249 5010 between 12.30pm and 12.45pm today.

The three bands play at the ANU Bar on October 7.