The Dean Ween Group Covers All The Eccentric Bases on ‘The Deaner Album’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

[rating=8.00]

When the main group in Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo’s life went on hiatus, he stopped playing his beloved six string for over a year. That period of mourning has now come to an end as the debut from his solo project The Dean Ween Group creatively titled has arrived.

Fans of the cult band Ween will know what is in store for them here; a melange of musical styles, childish jokes, aggressive societal observations, moments of shocking beauty and fucking badass guitar work. What pushed Ween over the top as a group was Melchiondo’s languid, psychedelic yet punk, all-in-one fretboard work which carries over directly into his solo effort; guitar fans take notice, this one’s for you.In interviews for this record Deaner has stated his tastes are very mainstream and that is clear as a love of all things classic rock can be found from the first needle drop when “Dickie Betts” rolls out as an instrumental tribute to The Allman Brothers. A more surprising ode is to Les Paul via “ShwartzPete” another instrumental where Mickey plays all of the strings himself and manages to capture a bygone era via a touching musical greeting card.

The joking and raunchy attitude hasn’t left though as “Exercise Man” takes aim at obnoxious health freaks via a hillbilly punk-ish ditty and “Bundle of Joy” calls out rock star excess in a satirical way. His aggro-side (which flourished in the Moistboyz) gets a spin for “I’ll Take It And Break It” as well as the country death stomp of “Tammy”. Dean Ween’s knack for the tribute ballad shows up again, this time in a P-Funk manner again as in 1994’s nod to Eddie Hazel – “A Tear For Eddie.” This one is titled “Garry” for the late great Garry Shider and drips with gorgeous beauty while the album closing “Doo Doo Chaser” recalls Frank Zappa extended guitar workouts and scatalogical song titles. The childish oddball pop manages to kill that beauty on “Gum” (written by a child perhaps?) while the more successful simple and soulful “Mercedes Benz” should act as the single for the record as it expertly combines all the winning attributes of The Deaner Group.

The album is a long one, even when songs run three minutes they can drag (“Bums”) and there is certainly filler (“Nightcrawler”) but for any fan of Ween’s past work, this is a must own as it ranks with some of the band’s best albums. For the non-boognish this will be a harder sell, but there are enough touch points of beauty, freakout, and just plain rock to make the journey enjoyable