For me, "Baby Bitch" was always the one. It just seemed like such a devastating song -- like it was coming from such a raw place.
Right, yeah, there's anger there, but it's also a really beautiful song, and then they lace in lyrics that are very explicit, and that's them -- they'll do that. I think my favorite song is "Chocolate Town" [from Quebec]. It's so sweet and melodic and then they start cursing in the middle of it, and it's a little jarring, but you don't notice it until a few listens in. It's like with "Baby Bitch" -- you would never notice what they're saying.
"Candi"
That's the only song I never really got into. There's usually, like, one song on each Ween album that I kind of skip, like on their last album, they have "The Fruit Man." Yeah, I don't know -- I can't get into it, but I appreciate that it's there. It's kind of like an intermission, if you want to look at it as a musical.
"Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?"
"Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?" is a perfect example of how you can't really place the joke, and I like that in comedy as well: You can't really place the joke, but you just think the spirit of it is funny. And "Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?" is the perfect example, 'cause it's really not funny; in fact, it's the opposite -- it's pretty depressing. And yet the idea that that's something to sing about is really wonderful because… why not? Why not sing about that? Why sing about losing your girlfriend on the subway? And why isn't this as sad? I mean, it sounds even sadder. And the music is fantastic: Not only don't they emphasize jokes with their music, they're not trying to achieve seemingly one outcome or one reaction. Even the songs that are funny aren't funny in a way that's easily categorized.
"The HIV Song"
That song is almost the definition of irony, but you can't really call it irony, because -- I mean, okay, they're trying to pair circus-like music with, you know, the most frightening thing in our society, at least at that time. It almost reaches the definition of irony, and the description of it would probably sound ironic: this kind of happy, circus-like music. But that's not what they're going for, and that kind of sums up Ween: They're not going for the obvious irony. It's impossible to tell if they're going for any kind of irony, because the music is so odd. It's not just that they decided to pair up circus music with interjections of "AIDS." They're doing something else, and I can't figure out what it is.
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Do you have any thoughts about the album cover?
No, except that the first building I lived in, in New York City, I was in an elevator, and I was wearing a Ween sweatshirt, and the guy in the elevator said, "You know -- I own that belt [from the Chocolate and Cheese cover]." I said, "Really? How?" I think he said he was friends with somebody, friends with the guy who made the belt. But he didn't listen to the album. I was so interested in this, and I remember he didn't really care about the album that much; he just thought the belt was funny and he thought the woman who was naked was funny. Aesthetically on one hand, you think [the cover] is a parody of something, but you can't really place exactly what it's parody-ing, and yet you get the sense that they're joking around, that they're kind of self-aggrandizing, in a knowing way. What do you think?
I guess I viewed it as: "Because we can." Like, "We're on a major label, and if we want a nude woman on our album cover…" -- it's almost like a teenage fantasy. It's so extremely clichéd… And yet at the same time, it's kind of hard to point to exactly what they're mocking, or if they're mocking.
The message really comes through when it's combined with the music. It would be one thing if the music had a machismo to it, but there's nothing on the album that's even remotely --
Misogynistic. Yeah, I was going to say, if you listen to the music, you would think these guys would be feminists, like politically these guys would be so opposed and disgusted by putting that on the album. That's the other thing: You can't ever place their politics. As you attempt to categorize things and put them in their place so they're more digestible, Ween never lets you do that.
You can't parse out a message. Dean Ween told me that an HIV-positive activist who was talking to kids about AIDS told him that she loved "The HIV Song." [See here for an excerpt from the book dealing with this incident.]
Oh, wow…
It's like they leave this blank slate where people can put what they want.
Right, exactly. But it's not a blank slate 'cause there's nothing there. It's a blank slate 'cause it's just theirs.
Do you remember the placid fishing portraits inside and how they contrast with the cover?
They're in, like, small boats, aren't they? I remember those, yeah. They're so incongruous: this ridiculous, misogynistic cover and inside they're like these peaceful guys, and then the music is alternately peaceful and aggressive. Again, by constantly changing their aesthetic, I guess that turns a lot of people off; they're not easily digestible. But it's a constantly changing aesthetic. If you know them and really like them, you can kind of see that the aesthetic is consistent.
One more thing: They dedicated the album to John Candy.
Oh, right, how strange. I don't know. I mean, on one hand, I would think they must be mocking celebrity, but on the other hand, maybe they really liked him? I don't know. They're not from the same area. What did you think?
It's not too much of a stretch to see them enjoying his movies. But I think it's to Ween's credit that you could take something like that about ten different ways.
Yeah, exactly, and the guy is a comedian, so it's not like they're just mocking an empty celebrity. It's really strange. I don't know. His name's "Candy"? Maybe they were doing something about candy. I can't imagine that's what it is. But again, they have an aesthetic you can never predict. It's like the senator talking about porn: I know what it is when I see it. Kind of like Ween: I know what it is when I see it, but I couldn't predict what they're gonna do.
http://www.spin.com/articles/oscar-nom-jesse-eisenberg-his-fave-band-ween