* En anglais uniquement
The
Dean Ween Group is the first project Mickey Melchiondo launched during the four years
Ween was inactive in the 2010s. 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.
By that point, Melchiondo 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