OFFTHE RECORD
Dean Ween Group overflows with songs, ideas
Dean Ween isn't precious about his songs. Oh, he'll work for ages getting the right keyboard sound or the perfect guitar solo. But the man born Mickey Melchiondo and one-half of legendary experimental rock band Ween cranks out material. “Some bands come into the studio with 13 songs, maybe cut 12 and then nine end up on the record,” Ween said from his studio in rural Pennsylvania. “That's not how the Dean Ween Group works.” For his first solo album, “The Deaner Album,” the singer-songwriter-guitarist worked through dozens and dozens of ideas to land at the 14 tracks on the wax — many of which will get their Boston debut tomorrow at the Sinclair. “You'll probably hear 70 percent of the songs that are on the record, but also stuff that could have been written that day,” he said. “What I like about this Dean Ween Group is we can pull that off. Sometimes I'm finishing verses in the dressing room or at sound check.”
If you're a Ween fan, diverse compositions crowded together don't scare you. But if you're just tuning in, this LP will make your head spin. It jumps from Southern rock (“Dickie Betts”) to trippy funk (“Garry”) to ugly, messy booming cuts (“Charlie Brown”).
Ween might like to make a record focusing on a single genre, but he can't.
“I only know how to do it this way,” he said. “I write a hundred songs, choose the best ones, and the chips fall as they may. Sometimes I think, `Oh, this other song would give it some continuity.' But I can't help myself. The best songs make it on whatever the sound.”
Unlike hipper artists (or is that hipster artists?), Ween's influences are both obvious and strange. He loves Dickie Betts so he wrote a song Betts might have written. He loves P-Funk in all of its manifestations so he tore the roof off the mother with “Garry.”
For so many fans, the peak of the album will be “Nightcrawler,” specifically the freaky guitar work. “It's not the best on the album, but it's a great song, and it might be my favorite solo,” he said. “Look at me, I sound like Nigel in `Spinal Tap,' `My solos are so amazing!' But I do like that one. I like it because I wrote it out with dramatic parts and not just improvised.”
For those who can't get enough of a prolific artist, there will more from Ween soon.
“We work fast and often, every day and night,” he said. “We have a lot of touring to do, then it's festival season, and you don't want to miss that because they pay well and you can reach so many people, but we'll get out the second one fast.”
The Dean Ween Group, with Mike Dylan, at the Sinclair, Cambridge, tomorrow. Tickets: $20; sinclaircambridge.com.