"Ween: Their Favorite DVDs"

One of the two crazy Weeners fills us in on the films that blow his mind.

Ween have come a long way since it was just Gene, Dean, and their drum machine.  In the early days, you could expect half-hour feedback freak-outs like "Poopship Destroyer."  These days the group's song titles are just as filthy, but the Ween live experience is a full-band orgy.  A typical set boasts coked-up country songs, scatological sea shanties, and some of the most over-the-top guitar god posturing this side of Zakk Wylde.

The full misbegotten glory of these crazed brothers has at last been immortalized on Live in Chicago, Ween's new CD/DVD.  Packed with crowd favorites like "Spinal Meningitis Got Me Down" and "Booze Me Up and Get Me High," it's a testament to nearly 20 years of painting the town brown.

"We are actually a rock 'n' roll band that plays for three hours, which I think is unheard of these days," says guitarist/vocalist Gene Ween (a.k.a. Aaron Freeman).  "You can get any jam band to play all night, but we're playing like 35 songs in one night.  People are getting bang for their buck."

In celebration of the new release we asked Gene to talk about the music DVDs that get heavy rotation at Ween Towers.  His picks took in peak period Bowie, the Bee Gees in the '70s, curio Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and a documentary about Tuvan throat singing. 

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1983)

Two years ago, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was playing in this little theatre in New York.  My drummer and bass player took me to see it.  They also got this weed that was - unbeknownst to them - laced with something really awful.  The idea was to smoke a little and go see this movie. I had a panic attack, while watching the most incredible thing I had seen in my entire life. That whole concert is unbelievable from start to finish.  Everything about it is so heavy-duty - it's almost too much.  I had always been a Bowie fan, but that actually kind of f**ked me up.  Later, I would be on stage and think I was Bowie, but I wasn't! 

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)

I am ashamed to say that the first music thing that I saw as a kid was the Sgt. Pepper's remake made by a bunch of coked-out record execs in the 70's with the Bee Gees, George Burns, and Steve Martin.  In 1976 when I went to see that movie, I didn't really know who they were, but those songs were just awesome.  I still sing certain Beatles songs today with the inflection of how they were sung in that movie.  I came out of that theatre with my buddy, at like six or seven years old, loving life.  I thought that was the best movie I had ever seen.  I went back to see it like four times.  It scared me somehow, too.  Perhaps it was the underlying drug/sex thing that was going down, that I was too innocent to understand.  But that was probably the first music movie that hit me really hard.  Pretty uncool, but true.

The Cars: Live - Musikladen 1979 (2000)

It is f**king awesome.  It's them on German TV, and I love it so much because it's right at their peak.  They pretty much started that whole new wave scene and they're sort of ushering you into the '80s.  Those guys always had their sh*t together, the sound and everything.  It's onstage in some German studio somewhere.  There's no Ric Ocasek as the face of a mosquito flying around or anything like that; it is just them bare-bones, which I think was hard for them to do and I don't think they did that very much - they were too self-conscious.  It's ten songs and every single song kicks your ass. 

Neil Young:  Silver and Gold (1999)

It's him on an acoustic tour.  Every song is perfect.  I actually feel like I am sitting there with him, at his house with all of his guitars.  He makes little remarks to the audience, but for the most part they stay quiet and you can hear everything perfectly.  It's something you can watch over and over again.  You never get tired of it.  My father listened to a lot of Neil Young when I was growing up.  He was a big influence on me 'cause his chord progressions were very simple, so it was very easy to teach myself guitar through him.  If you have an E chord, a D chord and a C chord you can play a lot of Neil Young songs.  His voice has got the best pitch, even though it doesn't seem like it at times.  I love all his earlier stuff, and there's stuff I am still discovering that I had never listened to.  I only discovered Tonight's the Night like 8 years ago. 

Led Zeppelin (2003)

You watch it and your jaw drops.  It just kills.  It sounds incredible - I think they did a lot of work re-mastering it, or maybe those guys really did sell their souls to Satan.  The Royal Albert Hall stuff in 1970 is amazing. They were really hungry; they were starving for it; they just wanted to kick ass, and all those road months hadn't caught up with them yet. The thing with that DVD is that the size of the venue never dwarfs the band, which is really cool.  When I watch it, I just want to see the band and hear a really good soundboard recording.  I want to hear everything that they are doing and saying.  I don't want to hear a lot of audience.  I want to feel like I am right there, and they managed to get that.  That solo Page does on the Danelectro guitar, I forget what song it is, but it's like eight minutes long or something - it doesn't really get much better than that. 

Genghis Blues (1999)

If you like Tuvan throat singing, go see Genghis Blues.  It can expand your mind!  I saw it on the Sundance Channel one night and it threw me for a loop. The Tuvan throat singers achieve something like three octaves at once.  It's really neat to try and practice and once you get it, it's beautiful.  It's unearthly and yet the most earthly thing you could ever hear.  The whole documentary of how the American throat singer Paul Pena goes to Tuva and befriends these people is a really neat story.  They just can't believe this guy is actually here: Here is this fat blind guy from San Francisco, in the middle of their Tuvan festival, and he is kicking ass all over the place. He's nervous and they're nervous, but by the end they all get together.  It's a cool DVD to own as well, because if you have friends over and they're in the other room doing something, you can like crank it up right when he is in the middle of doing his thing, and really freak people out. It hits this tone on your speakers that you can't really find anywhere else. For a year after seeing it, you could find me with half a bottle of Scotch trying to Tuvan throat sing.  It wasn't very cool; people got a little bummed out.