Is this the best Ween album ever?

 Ween's Chocolate and Cheese 

by Hank Shteamer

Ween Concert by Claire CJS CC BY NC-SA 2.0

Chocolate and Cheese. Also, Bourbon by Rebecca Wilson CC BY 2.0

I’ve been wanting to read Hank Shteamer’s Ween’s Chocolate and Cheese for some time since this album is one of my favorite albums from one of my favorite bands- Ween. This album came out when I was in high school, and I remember loving Voodoo Lady. It was on 103.9 all the time, and while I didn’t remember seeing the video, I still remember listening to the 45 with the B side “I’m Fat”, which I found to be completely hilarious. I couldn’t believe that a band had recorded a song like that. Although Shteamer, sadly, doesn’t get that deep with Ween’s catalog, this is a great overview of one of Ween’s best albums, and probably the album that signified their movement away from smaller scale, independent recording to bigger production values and Ween’s ability to mirror (and maybe master) nearly any song genre. Shteamer’s book explores the history of Dean and Gene Ween (also known and Mickey Melchiondo and Aarron Freeman). I love New Hope, PA, the hometown of Ween, and I think the book does a good job providing some background about New Hope and how it features into some of Ween’s albums and songs. The book explores a little background about how Dean and Gene met and developed Ween, as well as what kinds of bands and music influenced them. It also explores the bands discography up to Chocolate and Cheese, exploring how the band shifted away from 4 track recordings that are their early discography, but yet maintained some of the subjects and themes in their music leading up to C & C. I also appreciated learning about the creation of the album, including the iconic cover and the videos for some of the songs (I had never seen “I can’t put my finger on it”, but really enjoyed watching it on youtube after reading this book). I also really appreciated learning more about Ween’s thinking about some of the album’s greatest and most mysterious songs—like “Mister, Will You Please Help My Pony” and “Baby Bitch”. These are songs that are beautiful and well written, but somewhat strange, the former just being a weird scenario that the two imagined, while the latter is about a painful breakup, maybe why it resonates with so many. I personally always thought that “Baby Bitch” was a kind of Elliot Smith copy, but I didn’t realize that this album kind of predates Elliot Smith’s popularity. I ended up reading this book on a flight and basically finished it in one setting. I’m sad that this is one of the only books about Ween, such an amazing and important band, a band that not only brings a smile to my face, but also produces incredibly beautiful and complex music. Hopefully there will be more books either about some great Ween albums (The Mollusk anyone?) or books about the band.