JODY MACGREGOR manages to get off on entirely the wrong foot with GENE WEEN of the undefinable WEEN.

Ween are a contrary band. Most of their albums sound like the results of an explosion at the genre factory. You'll never be able to fit them into a category that isn't either hopelessly vague ('post-ironic stoner pop') or pointlessly reductionist ('weird funny shit') and that's the way they like it. Many of their songs are dedicated to recreating a specific style or mood with a meticulous craftsman's attention to detail, then undercutting that by adding strangely goofy lyrics.

Their 2007 album, La Cucaracha, contains a song that's a perfect example of this approach. Your Party is a spot-on and note-perfect example of '70s yacht rock with the obligatory saxophone solo courtesy of David Sanborn and the highly specific air of champagne and smooth-sailing, hairy-chested Southern California yuppiedom. Lyrically, it's a letter written by one such yuppie to another thanking him for throwing the perfect party with compliments directed at the food served on platters of purest gold and a breathy moan, "I could have danced... all night." At first listen, these tongue-in-cheek elements are disguised by the straight-faced approach to the music.

Gene Ween is less enthusiastic about this reading of Your Party and their music in general when I bring it up. "We always get slapped with that tongue-in-cheek thing," he complains. "I always had a love for that kind of music, Al Stewart, whatever, so that song was written. It sounded radically different when it was first written. When we started getting into the song and recording it we decided to get Dave Sanborn and make it what it was, but the premise of the song is pretty much: Went to a party and had a good time and nothing more to report."

Does he think that maybe the earnest nature of their love for the musical styles they approach can sometimes get obscured by the fact that so many of the songs are funny or ironic in some way? Certainly, some of their fans miss half of the point and talk about Ween as if they're just a parody band.

"I don't think that real fans feel that way anymore, people that really have followed us. I think that to your average interviewer who doesn't listen to Ween at all, it's easy [to think that]. If you actually listen to our music we're not Weird Al Yankovic; a little deeper than that."

Burn. His point is made, though. Chocolate And Cheese, their 1994 album dedicated to John Candy, featured a musically upbeat number that you might think was a novelty song if you didn't get past the title. Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down), however, is actually a song so existentially bleak that its childlike lines, "Am I gonna see God, mommy? / Am I gonna die?" make strong men turn the stereo down with shaky hands if you ever slip up and let it play at a party.

Gene explains their eclectic approach to finding subject matter for their songs like this: "Ween's just our lives. Our fears, things that we find funny or scary, songs about love or songs about hating somebody; we'll address all that stuff in our music."

Songs about love that are actual sweet-natured love songs pop up on most Ween albums. La Cucaracha lacked such an example of their crooning ability, however. Is it something they've gone out of their way to add to the mix before? "That is something that naturally happens. That is something that didn't happen on this record and our producer Andrew was actually saying that same thing. 'Dude, you gotta write this sweet love song. Where is it?' I was like, 'Well, I just don't have it right now.'"

Their live sets won't feel the lack of one more love song in the set-list. Famously, Ween spoil their audience with two-to-three-hour epics whenever they perform, covering material from all over their discography. "I think we just started doing two-hour sets, long sets, and at this point it's too late to turn back. I think if we did an hour-long set people would riot at our show.

"Right now I'm sitting in a hotel-room in Vancouver and I feel like absolute shit from playing three hours a night, but the thing about it is, when you get on stage it makes the whole day worth it. Touring is really tough, but it builds up to that performance. When you finally do get on stage and you finally do get a guitar in your hand, the mic in your hand, you wanna do it. You wanna work it out. The rest of it's leading up to that. I think that's kinda why we play for so long. Our fans are pretty passionate, they want to hear a lot of stuff and we like to give it to 'em."

Pretty passionate is an understatement. Ween are the kind of love them/hate them band that inspires an extra-devoted following. "Ween is our lives" is a line you could just as easily hear from their more eccentric fans. The current tour has had its share of eccentric-fan moments. "Generally our fans are pretty respectable. The other night though, somebody jumped on stage. Some dude came running at me full-force with his arms up like it was a football move, like he was gonna fuckin' tackle me over. I went into defensive mood, put up my arm, blocked him. But he came up to me to give me a hug."

On tour excitable fans are everywhere, while the band members are showing up for another night's hard work. "When you're on tour, every night is Saturday night. Everybody's been waiting for the show, getting fucked up since three o'clock in the afternoon, so when they finally get to the show and get to meet you they're ready. Whereas we maybe don't feel that good 'cause we're on tour. You have to take that into account."

The American leg of the tour that precedes their visit to Australia sounds like it's going well overall. Gene's especially impressed with the venues they've managed to book. "We seem to be following Kelly Clarkson around on tour. We've achieved Kelly Clarkson status where we play all the same places that Kelly Clarkson's playing." Has he noticed a difference in their show because of it? Maybe a little Kelly-Clarkson-esque quality that's crept in? "I like Kelly Clarkson," he admits. "I like to think that some of her scent's still lingering."

Perhaps they'll bring that with them when they play here. It's been ten years between Australian visits for them, but Gene remembers their very first trip here vividly. It happened at the height of their fame, while Push Th' Little Daisies bizarrely spent 13 weeks in our charts.

"I remember the first time we came there, we played in some sort of auditorium at four in the afternoon for what seemed like school-kids. For two stoner dudes from Pennsylvania that's pretty wild. Kids screaming, 'Push the little daisies!' It was amazing. I'll never forget that."

WEEN play the Tivoli on Friday February 29. LA CUCARACHA is out now through Shock.