"Ween to whirl into Detroit"

One generally doesn't think of jitter-bugging and songs titled "Waving My Dick In The Wind" at the same time.

But, in the wonderful world of Ween, anything can happen. While performing at the tender age of 18 in Budapest, Dean and Gene Ween (born as Mickey Melchiondo and Aaron Freeman, in 1970) felt as though they were in a time warp.

"In Budapest, they had just opened the borders to the free world. Western civilization was just sweeping in upon them like a hurricane and our first record was just out over there. So, our tour was a little bit out of time. Even when we played in Berlin and major cities, people didn't know who we were," Melchiondo said.

"Furthermore, disco was huge in Budapest, so a band like Ween that's so severe and totally American was pretty strange. We played in this bar with old people, babies, little kids and pseudo-writers that were trying to get hip to something, he continued. And no one spoke a word of English. I don't think we got paid; they gave us vodka and food instead."

And the '50s dances? "There were people doing interpretive dances and jitterbugging while we were playing. They wanted to react, but they didn't know what the proper reaction was. So, after a while we just started playing anything. We could play Bad Company and they'd love it."

To any Ween devotees, this story should be no surprise. To many, Ween is the complete mistake of the alternative rock period, a tremendously talented and pleasantly odd duo whose work has surpassed the confines of parody and novelty and instead delves into sheer surrealism, not unlike the atmosphere in Budapest.

Though Ween is the master of nearly every kind of musical genre ranging from country (the whole album of "Twelve Golden Country Greats") to Beatles pop ("Pork Roll Egg and Cheese"), it chooses instead to be wacky, kicking sand in the face of the pop world with lunatic joy.

Not only are the boys of Ween proficient in the different musical genres, they are fluent with the instruments as well. "I'll play anything, but the only thing I really play well is guitar," Melchiondo said. "I do play drums on our records though. Both Aaron and I can fake our way on keyboards, enough to throw down tracks on our own songs, but we've got a killer keyboard player that plays live with us. But, guitar is the only thing I know what I'm talking about when I talk about musical instruments."

Ween's latest combination instruments of and quirky songs takes the shape of 1997's "The Mollusk," another collection of weirdness featuring songs like the aforementioned two-minute riot, "Waving My Dick In The Wind."

Overall, Melchiondo was pleased with the way the rather unconventional album turned out. "When we work on records, it's not really like working on a proper album. We just get together and we record. It's our own equipment and our own makeshift studio. We just get together and work on it. We try not to look at it like we're working on a record, but it's cool and time consuming.

"But, for the most part, it was pretty smooth," the guitarist said. "I'm totally happy with the way it came out. It's got my favorite songs on it of any of our songs, so that's cool. That in itself is something. I like playing it live too."

Live, Ween is yet another story. Described in the past as "entering an alternate universe;" Dean and Gene prance across club stages as though St. Andrew's is Madison Square Gardens. But, as always, touring and live performances have both up and downsides.

"We're a really good live band and it's a lot of fun for a while. But when it blows, there's nothing that blows worse," Melchiondo said. "When you're having fun and riding high, it's a really incredible thing. You're out there making music every single day in front of crowds of people. After a while though, you just want to go home and not do anything. You're in demand every single second of every day for months and months. There's no days where you can just sit and watch cable and go to the bar or rent a movie. You're just denied that. But eventually you're home again and bored out of your mind. And you want to go back out. You just can't win."

But, Ween are winners. They've been playing together for 13 years, they've had walk ons in movies (namely the smash-hit "It's Pat") and they've had the opportunity to record with several country music legends, most notably Charlie McCoy and Russ Hicks who gave songs like "Help Me Scrape The Mucus Off My Brain" a tastefulness it surely would never have had.

For Melchiondo, playing with these country stars was an amazing experience. "It was awesome. It was a really tiny chapter in Ween... just three days out of one week a couple of years ago. We usually put a lot of time into making our records, like a couple of years, but that one was real quick. It was over and done as quick as it started. We wrote the songs and then went down there and in five days it was recorded and mixed and mastered. It was more of a session to me than an album. I almost forget that it happened until I see the CD."

Despite Ween's current standing in the world of alternative rock, a quick look at the band's history will give hope to even the most underground of college bands. After meeting in a typing class in junior high school, they realized that they shared a common musical interest.

"We were both doing bedroom recording made at home. Really terrible music," Melchiondo said. "And then we started doing it together and calling it Ween almost immediately. We still kind of do things the same way, to tell you the truth."

So, all you struggling musicians, take note: If Ween can make songs about spinal meningitis and succeed, there's hope for you yet.