News

Chocolate and Cheese, arguably the most famous album from irreverent, eclectic rockers Ween, is getting revisited this year by Rhino for its 30th anniversary. Available August 2 as a triple vinyl or digital set, this new deluxe edition features the original remastered album from 1994 and a collection of 15 unreleased demos and outtakes.

The New Hope, PA rockers earned a considerable cult following in the ’80s for their lo-fi cassette releases and unique live shows: Mickey Melchiondo and Aaron Freeman, friends since junior high and going under the pseudonyms Dean and Gene Ween, performed to DAT backing tracks and sang inscrutable songs about food, friends and fucked-up situations. Amazingly, they’d attracted label attention for their work, first on the Minneapolis indie Twin/Tone and then signing to Elektra for their third album, 1992’s Pure Guava. With Chocolate and Cheese, the duo found themselves in a professional studio for the first time after years of four-track recordings; they later recruited in-studio drummer Claude Coleman Jr. to support them on tour. Just missing the Billboard 200 (instead reaching the magazine’s Heatseekers chart at No. 10), the album was lauded by critics as one of the year’s more out-there releases in an evolving modern rock scene and further established the group as one of America’s finest cult rock acts (a mantle they still honor, after ending a three-year hiatus in 2015).

The deluxe album features 15 unearthed outtakes and demos, sourced by Melchiondo from cassettes and DATs in the band’s archive and selected by himself and Freeman (who also contribute to the package’s liner notes). All the audio material has been newly remastered for vinyl by Bernie Grundman, who utilized the original flat master tapes of the original album for this new set. (You can hear one of the outtakes, “Junkie Boy,” below.)

Ween will promote the reissue with a string of dates in the Pacific Northwest in August, followed by a sold-out full album performance at the Mann Center in Philadelphia. You can order your copy of the vinyl below and check out the track list as well. (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases at the below links.)

Chocolate and Cheese (Deluxe Edition) (Elektra/Rhino, 2024) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

LP 1-2: Remastered album (released as Elektra 61639, 1994)

1. Take Me Away
2. Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down)
3. Freedom of ’76
4. I Can’t Put My Finger on It
5. A Tear for Eddie
6. Roses Are Free
7. Baby Bitch
8. Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?

1. Drifter in the Dark
2. Voodoo Lady
3. Joppa Road
4. Candi
5. Buenas Tardes Amigo
6. The HIV Song
7. What Deaner Was Talkin’ About
8. Don’t Shit Where You Eat

LP 3: Bonus material (previously unreleased)

1. Crappy Anniversary Jimmy
2. Warm Socks
3. Stop, Look, Listen (and Learn)
4. Dirty Money
5. I Got It
6. Belgian Stew
7. Voodoo Lady (Demo)
8. Junkie Boy
9. Smooth Mover
10. Church Fire
11. Take Me Away (Demo)
12. Sasha
13. Roses Are Free (Demo)
14. Candi (Demo)
15. I Really Miss You (and I’m All Alone)