Music
Freeman – Freeman
Freeman – Freeman
2014 – Partisan
You may have to be invested in Gener to fully appreciate this one. And I was. Am. Have been since my Ween obsessed twenties – fueled by transfixing live shows at Tramps, Bowery and Irving Plaza. They were visceral, clever, irreverent, over-the-top with serious musical and technical chops. All without becoming stereotypically psychedelic – even during long-ass bloozey jams exposing Dean Ween as the Mileâs-Fuckin-Davis guitarist he is.
By the time I got into Gene and Dean Ween, they were making progress along Malcolm Gladwell’s ten-thousand hours with a laser focus on putting original music onto tape. While I was aware of their MTV hit “Push th’ Little Daisies,” I didn’t hop aboard until ’94’s Chocolate and Cheese. By that point, they were making music together ten years and hit a real stride artistically, amassing something of a cult following of those in the know.
Gene and Dean Ween, 1984
During their 25 years, Ween/Ween wrote songs as trippy as Lennon/McCartney, as poppy as Tilbrook/Difford and even more punk than Rotten/Vicious. Funk and country? These two are made of music – but they add a lot of fuel on the fire to keep the engine hot and are quite used to playing to crowds twice as high as fuck. Ween fans make Phish fans look like Bronies. Sucking whippets out of balloons? What the what?
After too many blackouts, and a very public meltdown onstage in Vancouver, Gener pulled the plug in 2012. He got sober and released a straight-faced album of Rod McKuen covers under his real name Aaron Freeman, then the EP Generâs Gone to raise some cash. Meanwhile, Dean (Mickey Melchiondo, aka Mickey Moist) played guitar and drums on another Moistboyz album, jammed, and started touring in advance of the debut from The Dean Ween Group.
Freeman finds Freeman in some familiar territory, if you paid attention to the two or three tracks per Ween record where playing it straight was its own version of brown. The tracks have more in common with the sensible pop of Chocolate Town and Stay Forever than to the more challenging Let Me Lick Your Pussy or Reggaejunkiejew.
âCovert Discretionâ opens, sounding something like James Taylor from the neck down. Uncharacteristically literal, it recounts Gener’s meltdown on stage from a victimâs perspective.
“Another chance now,
I’m on the stage again
but this time I don’t fly.
You all just left me, just walked away,
alone up there to die.”
Ultimately blossoming into the Queen-esque crescendo “Fuck you all, I’ve got a reason to live and Iâm never gonna die.â Its one of my favorite moments on record this year.
Otherwise, aggression is  in short supply. Geners gone granola and it suits him. He seems more interested in beautifully engineered tracks like âDelicate Greenâ and âFor A While I Couldn’t Play My Guitar Like a Manâ than in raising hell. The later could fit nicely on Dire Strait’s ’78 debut. As usual, Aaron’s vocals inhabit the character of the song from way inside it. Ween fans looking for familiar weirdness may only find it in these type of vocal choices – and in Seussian lyrics to songs like “Black Bush” and “Golden Monkey.”
If you look hard enough, you may spot ol’ Gener in the plodding “Give Me One More” and  the Hill Street Blues-flavored “English and Western Stallion.” Like Waters without Gilmour, there’s an expectation that couldn’t possibly be met but the future looks clean and bright for Freeman. And if both Aaron and Mickey can keep themselves alive, I have no doubt the gravity of their partnership will pull them back together one day. My money is on 2018. I look forward to lots of music from both camps in the meantime.
Fav Tracks
El Shaddai
Delicate Green
The English and Western Stallion
All the Way to China
Janita’s newest album Here Be Dragons is another in a progression of finely crafted hymns for the empowered. Whether by love, as in the silky “I Do,” or by subverting expectations, in the Beatlesesque “Not What You’re Used To,” Janita draws on lessons learned during a positively unique career that spans decades and continents. We caught up with Janita on the heels of her latest single “When It’s All Up To You” to find out three songs she’d love to have written.
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Elliott Smith â “L.A.”Â
This is one of my favorite songs by Elliott Smith. I listened to the full album Figure 8 a lot while I was writing the songs on my new album, and it was a huge influence on me both melodically and lyrically. This song in particular has also informed some of the production choices we made later, like the heavier guitars you hear on my song âNot What Youâre Used To.â
“L.A.” is incredibly melodic, but thereâs an elusive, haunting quality to it. It feels like youâre always trying to reach it, catch up to it somehow. The backing vocals accentuate that feeling. In my mind, the song paints such a vivid picture of the ephemeral, fickle nature of L.A., and the similarly transient nature of the main character. Elliott Smith himself? I donât know exactly how he does (did) it, but Iâm certainly in awe of it.
Radiohead â “There There”
So hypnotic. So badass. Could the production possibly be any cooler? The melody is intricate and beautiful, and I can relate to the lyric from every which angle: as the singer, as the one being sung to, and whether in love relationships, friendships, or with total strangers. The subject matter simply comes up in life in so many ways all the time⊠I recently tried to express similar notions as I was writing a song, only to remember that it was already done here perfectly. Goddammit.
Punch Brothers â “Julep”
This song is simply magical to me. Itâs made me bawl my eyes out at a Punch Brothers concert two separate times. Itâs like that viral video that was circulating some years ago of a baby moved to tears when her mom sings a sad tune. Iâm that baby when it comes to this song. It simply hits some sort of primal button in me and keeps pressing it until the very end.
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While you’re at it, check out Janita’s video for “Digging in the Dirt,” a funky and faithful rendition of the Peter Gabriel classic.
Jay Somâs Melina Duterte and Palehoundâs Ellen Kempner join forces as Bachelor – a musical powerhouse whose new record Doominâ Sun drops May 28th on Polyvinyl.
Kemper and Duterter recorded the album during two weeks of mutual appreciation in California. Three visceral singles have been released in the lead-up, including the Pixies-flavored âStay in the Car” and the sprawling âAnything At All.â
Bachelor has also announced the Doomin’ Sun Fest, a one-day livestream featuring Tegan & Sara, Courtney Barnett, Adrianne Lenker, Jeff Tweedy, Japanese Breakfast, Julien Baker, and more.
Two men that look suspiciously alike meet outside a fictitious Brooklyn hot-spot – six feet apart.
MC Krispy E: Very nice to meet you. (squints) Have we met before?
Electronic Device: Maybe?
MC Krispy E: Is the rest of the band joining us?
Electronic Device: (pause) I am the rest of the band.
MC Krispy E: You are Electronic Device? What’s that about?
Electronic Device: Uhm, yeah, it’s like a pen name. You know what that is, right?
MC Krispy E: I have some idea.
Electronic Device: It was actually the name of one of my dad’s companies back in the day before…
MC Krispy E: (looking at his watch) Wonderful. So⊠it says here you have a new single called “All Things Come to an End” inspired by the death of your brother.
Electronic Device: Yeah, after my brother died I recorded songs as a form of therapy in his old bedroom in Staten Island.
MC Krispy E: And now I read that you have cancer. Am I supposed to feel extra sorry for you?
Electronic Device: Uhm…
MC Krispy E: It sounds like this album is going to be super depressing.
Electronic Device: Itâs not, I swear. I was looking for some happiness while recording these songs, thereâs not much of an agenda beyond that.
MC Krispy E: What kind of music is it?
Electronic Device: I wasn’t really thinking about influences while recording, but listening back I hear some Concrete Blonde, some Cracker.
MC Krispy: So bands no one is interested in?
Electronic Device: What the hell, man?
MC Krispy: Sorry, it’s almost like I can’t help it. What’s the single about?
Electronic Device: I hate saying what a song is about because everything is up for interpretation.
MC Krispy E: Humor us.
Electronic Device: I can say that “All Things Come to an End” has multiple narrators, some of which are unreliable.
MC Krispy E: (stares)
Electronic Device: And that one day I was at my Dad’s house and when I turned the corner into the hallway my Dad thought I was my brother for a moment, which was super sad because of course I couldn’t be.
MC Krispy E: And then you wrote a whole song about that.
Electronic Device: I guess so. When you put it that way…
MC Krispy E: (yawning) Tell us when the single come out.
Electronic Device: The single is out now. The album comes out in 2021.
MC Krispy E: Well, good for you. And good luck with that cancer thing.
Electronic Device: Yeah, you too.
MC Krispy E: Thanks. What?