God Ween Satan - The Onenes

A gloriously ramshackle exploration of basement-rock excess, God Ween Satan has endured because it's as skillful as it is sidesplitting. Emerging after a string of self-released underground cassettes cemented the artistic partnership of high school pals Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo (a.k.a. Gene and Dean Ween), this double-LP opus was first released on the Minneapolis-based Twin/Tone label, best known for the reckless bar rock of The Replacements and Soul Asylum. Though Ween's often written off as a joke project, the band respected a certain kind of classic rock majesty—just approaching it from a different angle. With its gargantuan double-gatefold presentation and panoply of genre experiments, God Ween Satan is at once a satire and celebration of pop music in all its trashiest and most colorful forms. While the word “satire” might reek of intellectual elitism, Ween was just the opposite. Its debut succeeded because its mirth was genuine. Despite many cacophonous moments, the sentiment here isn't of bitterness but of pure unadulterated glee.