"Ween divulges dirt on fieldhouse show"

In light of the mistreatment of Ween during the fall concert at the fieldhouse, Cardinal Points managed to talk with guitarist Mickey Melchiondo (Dean Ween) about the show, music and Ween's influences. Here are some excerpts:

Dean: So happened with that sh*t the other night? No never mind, I shouldn't ever say anything. We've been in that spot, I should first say that it doesn't bother us at all. That's how it always used to be with us. We used to be a duo with a tape deck, obviously we weren't very popular, and we were always opening for other bands, Fugazi, Ramones...

CP: Yeah, I read an article from back then where the Fugazi fans were booing you off the stage...

Dean: Well, booing you off the stage is a mis-whatever, nothing will get us off the stage. We don't get booed off the stage, if anything we stay on longer we intended, to make our point. It was funny, because we have a mutual hatred for them. Those people were a bunch of punks. They're just stupid, like a bunch of cattle, that was my analysis of them. They can go listen to whatever the hell is on MTV. They're so stupid. I'd like to kill them. I'm serious, after it was over we laughed for a little while we were sitting there drinking in the locker room or where ever the f*ck they put us and I was trying figure out of way I could kill the entire crowd. The only thing I could really think of to do was to start a fire and burn the building down and char all the bodies. There was a funny end to the story.

CP: I heard you played pool with Busta?

Dean: Those guys are a really nice bunch of guys. We're on the same record label. We sat around the hotel and got thoroughly inebriated and Busta showed up with his whole posse we just sat there with Busta and bought him drinks and talked a while and just played pool all night. Actually, I would like to state that we love Busta Rhymes. I mean it, we really do. It has nothing to do with him or them. We have his records. I was down with Busta Rhymes way back in the beginning.

CP: So how's the new album coming along?

Dean: It's going great. It's pretty much done. We are done recording it, I finish this tour (this week) then we'll go into the studio to mix it all the way until it's done. At that point, by Christmas, our record will be finished and it should be out by February.

CP: How's it sound?

Dean: It's good, it sounds like Wings, the whole record sounds like a Paul McCartney/Wings record from 1975, that's my analysis.

CP: I noticed there were some members of Phish in the audience at the Higher Ground show, what do you think of their version of "Roses are Free?"

Dean: Yeah, it sounds good. The funny thing was that we never played that song, we just never did it, even when Chocolate and Cheese came out and it was on there. We played almost every song on the record and we never even bothered to attempt it and then someone sent me an MP3 of it on my computer first and I listened to it and when I heard them do it I was like, 'Jesus, it's not a very difficult song to play.' So then we started playing it. They actually played it live before we did. It's one of my favorite to play because it's one we just started doing fourth months ago so its like playing a new song.

CP: What are some of your other favorite songs to play?

Dean: They rotate, because some are played out, the songs off our first record which came out 10 years ago and we wrote them three years before, those I don't enjoy playing as mush now because we've been playing them 13 years. Generally the newer stuff is more fun to play because its newer (laughs) and it more inspired, you know.

CP: Yeah, I've been reading some articles in which you're compared to a lot of different bands. How do you feel about being likened to bands such as They Might Be Giants and the other bands you're compared to?

Dean: Well whatever, I don't want to rag on other bands that we get compared to cuz I don't like them, I try not to pay too much attention because nobody ever writes anything accurate about Ween. As far as I'm concerned 99.9 percent of everything that has ever been written about us is written by people who have no f*ckin clue as to what time it is or what's going on where our band is concerned. Every night when we roll onto town I read the same article... Those crazy wacky Ween guys, it's like whatever. We're not on a quest to be taken seriously. The comparison thing is inevitable. People have to be able to do that, it's the nature of it. If I told you I got a record yesterday that I liked and you asked me what it sounded like, the only reference point I could give you is other bands. So that's what people try and do with us and most of the time it's bands I don't know their music at all and I've never heard them.

CP: Where do you get your influences?

Dean: Our influence I can tell you is for me personally very limited to the stuff (listened to) during that melding phase. I was taking it all in when I was 13 till 19-20 years old, still discovering music all the time and I was listening to all the old rock and roll records, soul music and jazz. I have no idea what's going on new music at all. As far as our influences you have to go far back to when I was in high school.

CP: I'm curious to know how you would describe a typical Ween fan.

Dean: While I don't think there is a typical fan, I think the initial attraction to Ween I think is it's kind of like a drug culture thing. I'm sorry to say.

CP: To what extent are drugs a part of your music now?

Dean: It's hard to say because it's like a permanent thing. I'm not going to deny what a huge influence drugs have had on music but it's not entirely about drugs. I've said this before because we get asked this a lot, it shouldn't be essential to enjoying music, but on the same hand if you've never smoked a big fat joint and listened to Bob Marley and the Wailers, you're missing out on a definite thing that you can touch. The two go together very well and it enhances music enhances the listening and creation of music... There's also a dark side to it. All the textbook shit they teach you in health class in high school is true. There's a definite line between drug use and drug abuse. If you're all strung out on coke and smack, it's hard to argue the validity of how that's enhancing your music. You're just killing yourself.

CP: What are the most creative drugs you've experimented with?

Dean: The most productive tool is probably smoking marijuana. I'm not an advocate, Ween doesn't stand for anything, we not actively involved in the legalization. We don't care, Ween doesn't have a message as far as this is concerned but the most productive drug I guess I've gotten anything out of is marijuana. And then LSD as a teenager, first getting into taking that opens your mind up to things you didn't know you were capable of. But I'm not really about that anymore to tell you the truth. I don't sit at home and drop acid and watch TV all day and smoke weed. But there was a time.