Ween: Chocolate And Cheese : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Terminally flip, gene and Dean Ween (not really brothers! not their real last names!) think everything is a giggle. Musical maestros of the free-floating irony that signifies slacker humor, Ween spoof disco, folk, '70s funk and even bathetic college-radio earnestness (the priceless "What Deaner Was Talkin' About"). They also assay ludicrous spaghetti-western balladry ("Buenas Tardes Amigo") and extend cautionary advice ("Don't Shit Where You Eat"). Zappa is their ultimate papa, and while they can't match his virtuoso chops, Ween's loopy smarts and the dizzying variety of their parodic targets make Chocolate and Cheese the rare joke album that repays repeated listens.

Loads nuttier and more beguiling, however, is Daniel Johnston's Fun. Recalling the spirit of the prelapsarian Pee-wee Herman, it's an aural dada playhouse wherein "Kool-Aid flows like wine." In a daffy lisp, Johnston spins crazy tales – "Sad Sac + Tarzan," "Circus Man," "Psycho Nightmare" – his persona a cross between Chaplin's Little Tramp and every weirdo 8-year-old. Parlaying fake blooze, snappy '50s kitsch rock and sugar-shock ballads, Johnston and his motley playmates (Butthole Surfer Paul Leary on guitar, Willie Nelson's sister Bobbie on piano) are the cat's pajamas in some surreal cartoon.

PAUL EVANS

(Posted: Feb 2, 1998)

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5of 5 Stars

"Chocolate and Cheese" was the first WEEN album I got from my mom's ex-boy friend (Crack Head Eli)!!!!! I listened to "Paint The Town Brown" also around the same time and I really enjoyed the live sound, but I'd still say "Chocolate and Cheese" is exquisite!!! I'd say "Freedom of 76" was my favorite, it's silly and I like the high pitched sound, I sang this song walking every where during spring break.

Sep 13, 2007 08:42:08

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