Yesterday, Les Claypool used his Facebook Page to offer up a chance for his followers to join in on the reality show he’s making with Ween guitarist Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo. If you recall, we’ve been tracking the progress of the show which is currently in production and will feature Les’s fishing and musical hi-jinks with Deaner.

[Photo via Larry Ferrari of Ween Forum]

Here’s how you can get involved with the reality show…

Do you wanna fish with Claypool and Deaner? If so, use your smartphone/Iphone and send us a close up video saying so, “I wanna fish with Claypool and Deaner!” is the phrase we are looking for. Be creative but try to keep it head or face shot and 5 seconds MAX. Email submission to ClaypoolDeanerFish@lesclaypool.com

This mission has Vine written all over it. We can’t wait to see what people come up with.

Primus front man Les Claypool brought his Duo De Twang acoustic duo to New York City last night for a gig at the Gramercy Theatre. Claypool welcomed his friend and reality TV show co-star Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo out for a cover of Battle of New Orleans.

[Photo via Larry Ferrari of Ween Forum]

Deaner returned later to provide backing vocals during a raucous version of Pipeline and finished the night by adding some solos to the Duo’s take on Cocaine Blues. Lo-res videos of Battle of New Orleans and Pipeline have already surfaced thanks to ZumicNews…

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New Hope, Pennsylvania night club John & Peter’s has hosted many Ween and Ween-related performances over the past 30 years, so it’s the fitting that the closest thing we’ve gotten to a Ween reunion since the band broke up last May took place there on Sunday night. What was supposed to be a set from Ween bassist Dave Dreiwitz and Ween drummer Claude Coleman Jr. turned into a mini-reunion when Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo and keyboardist Glenn McClelland joined their old mates.

[All Photos By Beta Klein]

The band rifled through a set that mainly consisted of Ween classics which Deaner sings as well as some choice covers such as an aborted take on Blue Moon. Matt Setzer sang a pair of Queen hits backed by Mickey, Dave, Glenn and Claude towards the middle of the set. Melchiondo shared photos of the shows with his Facebook followers and weighed in with this account of how it happened, “The way this gig came together was so organic and made it so much fun. Dave got offered a slot on the bill, he asked Claude, then they asked me, and then I asked Glenn and there we were all of the sudden.”

Here’s the setlist via mn_laker of the Ween Forum…

Setlist: Final Alarm, Sorry Charlie, Wild Ride!, A Tear for Eddie, With My Own Bare Hands, Pandy Fackler, Blue Moon, The Enabler, Piss Up a Rope, Find Me Somebody to Love*, Bohemian Rhapsody*, Put the Coke on my Dick, Little Sisters of the Poor, Superstar, God Loves You (but I hate you), Awesome Sound, Ace of Spades

w/ Guest Vocals by Matt Setzer

As for the artist formerly known as Gene Ween, Aaron Freeman and touring partner Joe Young will perform with Dave Dreiwitz at Freeman’s May 9th and 10th gigs at The Sinclair in Cambridge, Mass. and Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg respectively.

Check out more of Beta Klein’s photos from Sunday night…

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A few years ago a page appeared on Facebook for “Boognish Rising,” a Ween documentary that’s “in the works but the release date is uncertain at this point.” Recently the page’s owner has been sharing incredible audio, photographic and video gems from Ween’s near 30-year history.

Yesterday, an eight-minute clip from 1987 surfaced showing Deaner and Gener walking around their hometown of New Hope, Pennsylvania and explaining their band. Here’s more info…

In the summer of 1987 Ween filmed a short movie with friend and director Tom Nichols. They were planning on releasing it alongside Axis: Bold As Boognish, but it never happened. Here is a little preview. Big thanks to Gene Ween for the footage! The song is Opus 51 Fugue Trilogy in A.

Now, feast your eyes on the clip…

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We’ve got lots of news to report from the Aaron Freeman camp this morning, the most important bit of which is that the artist formerly known as Gene Ween is happy and healthy. Congrats go out to Aaron for passing the 15 month mark in his sobriety, an accomplishment he wisely calls “the most important thing I’ve ever done.” Now that Freeman’s back in “fighting shape,” there’s lots of music on the horizon for the singer-songwriter who co-founded Ween with Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo.

Even in Ween’s earliest days Freeman and Melchiondo were known for their experimental recording efforts using four-track cassette recorders. Aaron will pass the lessons he learned from those days and beyond to future musicians taking part in his Experimental Analog Recording summer workshop at The Paul Green Rock Academy in Woodstock, New York. Here’s the description of what participants will learn at the workshop, which takes place from July 15 – 19 and is open to those ages 8 – 18…

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Earlier this year we reported on a reality show starring Les Claypool and Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo that will “fuse sportfishing with music and comedy.” It’s now been over two months since the news broke about the project, so we did a little digging to see where we’re at.

Early last month Deaner posted a report on his MickeysFishing.com site in which he reveals that he spent three days filming the pilot with Claypool in Fort Lauderdale…

From Austin I went to Fort Lauderdale, FL to do a week of charters, followed by three days of filming a pilot episode of a new fishing show with Les Claypool. We had some issues with bad weather but we did get some fishing in and shot some great footage of us hanging out on the boat jamming as well. Les is an avid fisherman and a great guy and I had a great time jamming with him, we hit a groove immediately and he is one of the most talented musicians I’ve ever played with.

We can’t wait to hear some of these on-boat jams between Claypool and Melchiondo.

SouthFlorida.com’s Go Guide went into specifics about where Les and Mickey fished, reporting that the pair were seen fishing in Pompano Beach’s Lake Santa Barbara and Dumbfounding Bay near Aventura.  The report goes on to say that Claypool and Melchiondo expect to film many episodes of the show in Fort Lauderdale, though they are still in the process of shopping it to “cable TV networks.” The bad weather Deaner mentioned on his website led to “intermittent battles with  sailfish and free-jumping kingfish, some mahi and jacks, plus an accidental snagging of a sea turtle (quickly released).”

What can we expect from the show? One Ween Forum user has shared his vision…

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HT faves RAQ returned to the stage last night to kickoff their first run of headlining shows in years. The mini-tour started at The Paradise in Boston, Mass.; where the quartet treated fans to a mix of classic RAQ originals and covers by the likes of Ween and the Allman Brothers Band.

Here’s the setlist from RAQ @ The Paradise…

Set: Welcome To The Donkey Show > Hannah Can, Will Run, Stuck In A Big Hole > Tumbling Down, Bootch Magoo > Late Night > Push Th’ Little Daisies > Late Night, Shirley Be A Drooler

Encore: Forget Me Not > Whipping Post, Bootch Magoo

You can check out streaming audio or download the entire performance from a SBD Matrix source at the Live Music Archive thanks to taper Ted Gakidis. We’ve uploaded the band’s covers of Whipping Post and Push Th’ Little Daisies to SoundCloud for your listening pleasure…

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One of the many reasons Ween ruled was that they let audience members freely videotape their shows. While many acts allow audiotaping, only a handful allow videotaping and Ween was one of them. This led fans to organize themselves in filming many gigs with multiple cameras and then editing the resulting footage into what would often be killer DVDs/Blu-Rays. Many of these vids are available for download through the Brown Tracker.

For today’s Full Show Friday selection we’re going with a classic Ween show from May 3rd, 2007 at The Library in Oxford, Mississippi. The gig was shot by three members of the JimboFilmsInc. crew and lovingly edited together. Ween reels off some of their best-known songs such as Voodoo Lady, Push Th’ Little Daisies and Piss Up A Rope as well as a few rarities such as Gabrielle and Poopship Destroyers. The footage looks amazing and it features audio dubbed in by a taper. Take a look…

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Singer/songwriter Chris Harford will bring his Band of Changes project to the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn on March 8th. Backing Harford will be frequent collaborators Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo on guitar, Joe Russo on drums and Matt Kohut on bass. Tickets are available now for $10.

• List Time: 11 Best Songs by Ben Harper…And Someone Else
• Radiohead to head into to studio to record their next album at the end of the summer
• Cover Alert: The So So Glos tackle The Clash
• David Lee Roth told Rolling Stone that he wants bassist Michael Anthony back in Van Halen
• Download This: Levon & The Hawks – Pop Ivy’s – Port Dover, Ontario, CAN – 1964
• Sigur Ros are selling their own scented candles that smell like “driftwood campfire”

Finally, while it took roughly five years between The Strokes third and fourth studio albums, the New York City-based band won’t be keeping fans waiting quite as long this time around, as they will release their next full-length effort Comedown Machine on March 29. Late last month Julian Casablancas & Co. gave us our first taste of what’s to come with the synth-laden, disco-esque track One Way Trigger, that sounded more like Blondie than Velvet Underground. Yesterday, the band released the record’s second single, All The Time, which is very much vintage Strokes sounding.

Less than a year after Gene Ween unceremoniously brought Ween’s career to an end (for now), we still can’t believe the “Purveyors of Brown” are done. Not only was every show a blast, but they brought humor and a dose of weirdness to our musical world that won’t even be replaced. This morning, with the help of Chris B., we came across a clip of Ween’s first visit to Late Night with Conan O’Brien that shows both of those elements and we just had to share it with our readers.

For their visit to Conan on January 18th, 1995 Aaron “Gene Ween” Freeman dressed the role of an Arabic singer to lead the band through the Chocolate and Cheese classic I Can’t Put My Finger On It. Not only that, Gener and Deaner brought out a belly dancer to accompany them as well as drummer Claude Coleman, Jr. and bassist Andrew Weiss for the surreal performance. Check this shit out…

Ween – I Can’t Put My Finger On It (Live on Conan)

And here’s the deliciously brown video Ween created for the tune…

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We’ve run a number of stories over the years about Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo’s love of fishing and second career as a charter boat captain. Today, comes word that Deaner will be teaming up with Les Claypool of Primus soon to shoot a reality show that will “fuse sportfishing with music and comedy.”

For the new show, which will be produced by South Park masterminds Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Deaner and Claypool will bring celebrity guests out on the water for fishing trips. In addition to starring in the program, Melchiondo will also provide the soundtrack.

Deaner explains the concept of the show a little further…

“The show is personality-driven,” says Melchiondo, 42, a Trenton native. “The idea is to get the show on after Anthony Bourdain or ‘Tosh.O.’ It’s a fishing show that you do not have to be into fishing to enjoy.”

Other than mentioning it will be a “cable” show, there’s no word yet on what station Parker and Stone are targeting for the show to air on. That will probably be determined after the pilot is created and offers to broadcast the program are received. We’ll be sure to keep you posted on any more news about this exciting development.

Here’s a look at Deaner and Les fishing off the coast of Northern California…

Here’s another cover of John Lennon’s Happy Xmas (War Is Over), this one features our pal Aaron Freeman, formerly Gene Ween, along with Gregg Cagno and Maggie Anderson and comes courtesy of Punk Rock Meshell. The video was filmed today at God Save The Qweens in New Hope, Penn.

We checked in with Mr. Freeman this morning, who got a laugh out of the reaction to his telling us he was in Belgium undergoing “a transformative procedure.” As you can see, he’s still a man…baby.

2012 has been an insane year for Aaron Freeman as the artist formerly known as Gene Ween has released his first solo album, left Ween after 25 years and most importantly has remained happily sober. Freeman’s solo album, Marvelous Clouds, didn’t contain any of his own tunes as it featured 13 interpretations of songs by poet/songwriter Rod McKuen. Aaron has been writing more original material lately and has started sharing basic versions of his tunes on his SoundCloud channel.

Just today Freeman posted a song called “Genene” and we couldn’t help but notice “Gene” being part of the title. Was it about his leaving Ween or a sex change? We contacted Aaron about Genene at his hospital room in Belgium where he is undergoing “a transformative procedure.” He immediately made sure to tell us, “This song is left to interpretation on purpose. To me it’s just an honest song about where I’m at, creepy, real and pretty, just the way I like it.” Freeman finished our chat by saying, “On one hand it’s about change and acceptance on a personal, spiritual level but can obviously be interpreted literally as a sex change.” We’re sure there will be plenty of interpretations of this one.

Take a listen to Genene by Aaron Freeman…

Freeman couldn’t be happier about exactly where he’s at as 2012 draws to a close, “I’ll be a year sober at the end of December and I’m really feeling great as well.”

• UPDATE: Aaron Sings Lennon Cover, Still A Man

A harp is about the last instrument you’d expect to hear on a Ween cover, yet somehow it works amazingly well. For an example, we came across this amazing video of Australian harpists Kaela and Morgana tackling the White Pepper classic Bananas and Blow using the classical instrument…

Ween’s Bananas and Blow Performed By Harps

The description on YouTube says these talented ladies are students at a performing arts school. Bet their teachers wouldn’t be pleased to see Kaela and Morgana covering a song in part about cocaine but we sure get a kick out of it. Hey, at least it’s not Put The Coke On My Dick.

Since today is essentially Friday for many of our readers, we thought we’d move our Full Show Friday column to Wednesday this week. It didn’t hurt that an amazing fan-shot video turned up thanks in part to our own Parker Harrington. The show in question is from HT faves Ween and took place at The Conduit in Trenton, New Jersey on October 3rd, 2004.

2004 was one of the least active years of Ween’s career as they only played a handful of shows leading up to an appearance at the third Bonnaroo and then took the next few months off before kicking off a nine-show tour at The Conduit that were their last shows of the year. This show is best known for the only time Ween ever covered What A Fool Believes by The Doobie Brothers, Ween’s last-ever version of Puffy Cloud, a gorgeous acoustic Chocolate Town and its relentless setlist. Parker uploaded this entire show in three parts from a three-cam source that used taper audio. The results are fantastic.

Ween @ The Conduit 10-03-04

Part One : Exactly Where I’m At, She Wanted to Leave, Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down), Happy Colored Marbles, She’s Your Baby, Take Me Away, The Grobe, Zoloft, Transdermal Celebration, Falling Out, Buckingham Green, Captain, The Final Alarm, The Argus, The Goin’ Gets Tough From the Getgo, Bananas and Blow,

Part Two: Fat Lenny, Stroker Ace, Chocolate Town*, Tried and True*, I Don’t Want It*, Roses Are Free, The Mollusk, Stay Forever, Demon Sweat, Touch My Tooter, Captain Fantasy, Don’t Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy), What a Fool Believes, Pandy Fackler, You Fucked Up,

Part Three: Homo Rainbow, Buenas Tardes Amigo Encore: Puerto Rican Power, The Stallion pt 5, I’ll Be Your Jonny on the Spot, Puffy Cloud, Mister Would You Please Help My Pony?, Hey There Fancypants, Doctor Rock

*acoustic