Mickey Melchiondo adopted the name
Dean Ween when he was a teenager in New Hope, Pennsylvania. He and friend
Aaron Freeman -- who called himself
Gene Ween -- formed
Ween when they were just 14 years old, never imagining that they'd be saddled with those monikers for the rest of their lives.
Ween, a post-punk prank infatuated with
Prince, turned into a cult phenomenon in the '90s, gathering momentum as the band jumped from independents to the majors, earning a reputation as a killer live band along the way. Melchiondo started to moonlight in the '90s, mainly with the hardcore band
Moistboyz but also appearing on records by
Yoko Ono,
Ben Vaughn,
Pigface, and
Queens of the Stone Age.
Ween kept going until 2012, when
Freeman left the band. After a few years, Melchiondo regrouped with the Dean Ween Band, who released their first album in the fall of 2016, several months after he reunited with
Freeman for several concerts.
That reunion helped seal the bond between Melchiondo and
Freeman, but no matter how compatible the two have been -- there's a reason why they passed themselves off as brothers; it seemed as if they shared DNA -- they also were distinct personalities. As
Ween's guitarist, Melchiondo has been a forceful presence in
Ween, particularly as he honed his chops during the '90s. These skills weren't heard in the
Moistboyz, the duo he formed with old friend Guy Heller in 1994. That band kept releasing records every few years -- the first came in 1994, the fifth in 2013 -- becoming Melchiondo's primary artistic outlet outside of
Ween, but he'd also guest on records from friends and idols: he showed up on a remix album from
Yoko Ono in 1996, the same year he showed up on
Instrumental Stylings by
Ben Vaughn, who produced
Ween's
12 Golden Country Greats. His next big cameos were
Pigface's 2001
Preaching to the Perverted and
Queens of the Stone Age's 2002's
Songs for the Deaf, then he poured himself back into
Ween until the band split in 2012. By that point, Melchiondo had launched a side project called Mickey's Guide Service, captaining a fishing boat off the Jersey Shore, a project that kept him busy as he sorted out his future after
Ween. He played on
Low Cut Connie's 2015 album
Hi Honey, then started the
Dean Ween Group, recruiting
Ween road band members
Claude Coleman, Glenn McClelland, and
Dave Dreiwitz to play residencies in New Hope, then they cut the record that became The Deaner Album, which was released in October of 2016, several months after Melchiondo reunited with
Freeman for live dates by
Ween. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine