History Music / Ween

* WordSaladLyrics: Several examples on every album. Would be TrueArtIsIncomprehensible if it weren't so obvious that they were doing it for the humor value.
** "Mutilated [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Lips]]."

+ Music/{{Phish}}, Music/QueensOfTheStoneAge, Creator/StephenHillenburg, Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone, Music/AphexTwin, Music/BoardsOfCanada, Music/ArielPink, Music/HotChip]

+ Music/{{Phish}}, Music/QueensOfTheStoneAge, [[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants Stephen Hillenburg]], Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone, Music/AphexTwin, Music/BoardsOfCanada, Music/ArielPink, Music/HotChip]

+ Music/{{Phish}}, Music/QueensOfTheStoneAge, Music/AphexTwin, Music/BoardsOfCanada, Music/ArielPink, Music/HotChip]

+ Music/QueensOfTheStoneAge, Music/AphexTwin, Music/BoardsOfCanada, Music/ArielPink, Music/HotChip]

+ Music/TheBeatles, Music/GeorgeClinton, Music/{{Prince}}, Music/LedZeppelin, Music/DeadKennedys, Music/BillyJoel, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/TheAllmanBrothersBand, Music/ButtholeSurfers, Music/{{Devo}}, Music/{{Motorhead}}, Music/EarthWindAndFire, Music/TheResidents]

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Both Dean and Gene, and most of the other members in the band's history, during shows.

** Alternatively, this may refer to the twelve golden country greats who form Ween's backing band on the album. Or even the fact that they recorded 12 songs, but two were left off the album and used as {{B Side}}s.

** On top of that, Ween also wrote and recorded "Loop de Loop" for a ''[=SpongeBob=]'' episode.

* AcceptableTargets: [[NewAgeRetroHippie Hippies]] in the early song "Hippie Smell". Interesting in retrospect because 1) their improv-heavy live performances, along with {{Music/Phish}} covering "Roses Are Free", eventually started to make them somewhat popular with fans of jam bands [[note]] which eventually annoyed them to the point that they disowned the jam band scene [[/note]], and 2) they also have "So Long Jerry", a completely sincere tribute to [[Music/TheGratefulDead Jerry Garcia]].

-> ''"Out of nowhere, out of the total musical vacuum, out of total darkness comes one, one, ONE ray of light... and it's fucking Ween."''
-->--'''Music/HenryRollins''', 1990

* NewSoundAlbum: While most of their albums tend to experiment with several different genres, it's fairly easy to tell which album a song is from. ''[=GodWeenSatan=]'' is mainly punk, hard rock, and metal, ''The Pod'' has mostly slow songs with distorted vocals, ''12 Golden Country Greats'' is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin nothing but country music]], ''The Mollusk'' has a nautical theme, etc. The largest change to their sound came with ''Chocolate & Cheese'', where they shifted completely away from the previous releases' lo-fi sound, got a backing band, and increased their GenreRoulette [[UpToEleven to levels even further beyond what they'd already done]], as well as showing far more of Gene's [[VocalEvolution improved vocals]] and ManOfAThousandVoices qualities.

** "[[UpToEleven Mutilated]] [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Lips]]."

* {{Corpsing}}: Happens occasionally on some of their more lo-fi albums. For example, near the beginning of "Dr. Rock," you can hear Gene laughing and saying "Let's do it again."
** Maybe the most noticeable on "Blackjack" and "Right to the Ways and the Rules of the World."

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: But it ''works'', when it's not noise.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Pretty much all of their songs; as one critic put it, it's like every track on ''Chocolate and Cheese'' was recorded by a different band.
** They're typically so eclectic that ''12 Golden Country Greats'' was SomethingCompletelyDifferent by virtue of having stylistic cohesion.

* ContemptibleCover: Zigzagged with ''Chocolate & Cheese''. They originally wanted it to have a "gay sailor theme" but Elektra thought that would be going too far. Yet for a replacement, Elektra suggested a scantily-clad woman in a Ween belt.
** Played straight with the download-only release ''Craters of the Sac'', whose cover art is a closeup of a scrotum.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: [[MathematiciansAnswer Yes.]]
** In all seriousness, they're pretty much all over the scale, sometimes even in the same song. Usually go up to 8 ("You Fucked Up") and as low as a 2 ("It's Gonna Be (Alright)" and "Chocolate Town") individually, or you have songs like "Happy-Colored Marbles", which starts out as a 1 (maybe a 2 if you take the distorted vocals into account) until it [[MoodWhiplash suddenly climaxes at a 10]], with [[NightmareFuel nightmarish instrumentation]] and what sounds like either a siren or [[CarefulWithThatAxe someone screaming their head off.]]

** "My Own Bare Hands" devolves into Dean spewing absolute nonsense constructed only partly out of swears.

Gene announced that he was retiring his "Gene Ween" alter ego and more or less declared the band broken up, much to Dean's surprise, in 2012. However, they reunited for a series of shows in 2016, and have continued to do so throughout 2017.

+ Music/TheBeatles, Music/GeorgeClinton, Music/{{Prince}}, Music/LedZeppelin, Music/DeadKennedys, Music/BillyJoel, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/TheAllmanBrothersBand, Music/ButtholeSurfers, Music/{{Devo}}, Music/{{Motorhead}}, Music/EarthWindAndFire]

* LiveAlbum: The band have released 7 live albums over the course of their career. Three of the more notable releases include ''Paintin' the Town Brown'', a collection of live performances from the band's entire career, ''Live in Toronto Canada'', which features the duo backed by a country band they dubbed The Shit Creek Boys, and ''[=GodWeenSatan=] Live'', a live performance of their debut album in its entirety.