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super_charger · 02.09.2011, 08:37 PM

Oscar Nom Jesse Eisenberg on His Fave Band: Ween!
SPIN InterviewBy Spin Staff on February 7, 2011 3:25 PM

If you call Jesse Eisenberg a Weenie, he'll have no choice but to agree with you.

The 27-year-old actor, who recently nabbed an Oscar nod for his rapid-fire portrayal of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, told SPIN in 2009: "My favorite band is Ween. I know every lyric."

So while doing research for an upcoming book on Ween's 1994 album Chocolate and Cheese for Continuum's 33 1/3 series, author Hank Shteamer caught up with Eisenberg and asked the talented New York City native to elaborate on his enthusiasm for all things Ween. Here's what Shteamer learned:

How did you get into Ween?
Jesse Eisenberg: It was really strange and related to [Chocolate and Cheese], actually. Like, ten years ago I was acting on a television show [short-lived FOX series Get Real], and every week, something very, very dramatic had to happen, because it was an hour-long drama. So for one week, my character got spinal meningitis, which did not carry over from the previous week or to the subsequent week. So the guy who was my stand-in, who's still one of my best friends, gave me this album, Chocolate and Cheese, because the second track is "Spinal Meningitis." We were listening to it as a way to just bring some levity to the episode, which was a little overdramatic. I also thought the song was really great, and I started playing it at my mom's house and she got pissed-off every time that song came on 'cause she thought it was disgusting.

But the album was incredible; I'd never heard music like this before. I never really liked comedy songs, and Ween has a great way of never making specific jokes -- you can't really tell where the joke is lying. But beyond that, musically they were just fantastic. And since then, I have gotten every album that they've made. It's the only band whose albums I buy. I'm not into music -- the only music I like is musical theater, but I have every Ween album.

Do you have a sense of what it is you're responding to in Ween that you're not finding elsewhere?
They don't appease the audience. Also, when you write a musical, all the songs have to have something a little different, because you have to hear them in one night, in one experience, so you try to change it up. You have a song that's like a rag song; you have a song that's a little more jazzy; you try to do some different time signatures in songs. But most albums don't do that. Well, I don't really know -- I don't know enough about music, but it seems to me like Ween basically does that to the extreme. They have songs that come from so many different genres and they're only held together by their personality, because the songs don't reflect each other musically; they don't reflect each other in theme or lyric, and it doesn't even sound like the same instruments or vocalists, even though they are. And yet, they're held together by something else, by some kind of broader spirit or something: a feeling.

Would you mind going through Chocolate and Cheese song-by-song?
Sure -- I looked it up and I've got it right here.

"Buenas Tardes Amigo"
My girlfriend's boyfriend prior to me, he made a short film in college using "Buenas Tardes Amigo," and he shot it in black-and-white, and she showed it to me three years after we were dating and I remember I was very threatened; I thought it was so cool. And she was in it -- it was just, like, her walking somewhere, in Indiana.

"Roses Are Free"
Someone once told me that Phish covered "Roses Are Free" and that Ween stopped playing it on tour as a protest.

It was kind of the other way around. Ween was not previously playing it, and when Phish started covering it, Ween started playing it almost to reclaim the song.
[Laughs] Wow, that's pretty funny.

"A Tear for Eddie"
Because it's an instrumental, I recorded my own version to learn how to use GarageBand a long time ago. I tried to do every track: the guitar and the drums and the bass, so I had a really bad version of "A Tear for Eddie" on my computer.

Do you still have that around?
No, it was on my old computer and everything crashed -- this was probably, like, six years ago.

That's too bad.
Yeah. [Laughs] Well, not really -- it was terrible.

"What Deaner Was Talkin' About" / "Freedom of '76" / "Baby Bitch"
"What Deaner Was Talkin' About" was the only song I was allowed to play for my little sister, and she loved it. She was, like, seven years old, and she would sing "What Deaner Was Talking About," 'cause it was pretty much the nicest song with the least profanity on the album, in addition to "Freedom of '76," which is maybe the best song on the album. I don't know -- what do you think?

02.09.2011, 08:37 PM	#21
super_charger bad moon rising Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Toronto Posts: 165	Oscar Nom Jesse Eisenberg on His Fave Band: Ween! SPIN InterviewBy Spin Staff on February 7, 2011 3:25 PM If you call Jesse Eisenberg a Weenie, he'll have no choice but to agree with you. The 27-year-old actor, who recently nabbed an Oscar nod for his rapid-fire portrayal of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, told SPIN in 2009: "My favorite band is Ween. I know every lyric." So while doing research for an upcoming book on Ween's 1994 album Chocolate and Cheese for Continuum's 33 1/3 series, author Hank Shteamer caught up with Eisenberg and asked the talented New York City native to elaborate on his enthusiasm for all things Ween. Here's what Shteamer learned: How did you get into Ween? Jesse Eisenberg: It was really strange and related to [Chocolate and Cheese], actually. Like, ten years ago I was acting on a television show [short-lived FOX series Get Real], and every week, something very, very dramatic had to happen, because it was an hour-long drama. So for one week, my character got spinal meningitis, which did not carry over from the previous week or to the subsequent week. So the guy who was my stand-in, who's still one of my best friends, gave me this album, Chocolate and Cheese, because the second track is "Spinal Meningitis." We were listening to it as a way to just bring some levity to the episode, which was a little overdramatic. I also thought the song was really great, and I started playing it at my mom's house and she got pissed-off every time that song came on 'cause she thought it was disgusting. But the album was incredible; I'd never heard music like this before. I never really liked comedy songs, and Ween has a great way of never making specific jokes -- you can't really tell where the joke is lying. But beyond that, musically they were just fantastic. And since then, I have gotten every album that they've made. It's the only band whose albums I buy. I'm not into music -- the only music I like is musical theater, but I have every Ween album. Do you have a sense of what it is you're responding to in Ween that you're not finding elsewhere? They don't appease the audience. Also, when you write a musical, all the songs have to have something a little different, because you have to hear them in one night, in one experience, so you try to change it up. You have a song that's like a rag song; you have a song that's a little more jazzy; you try to do some different time signatures in songs. But most albums don't do that. Well, I don't really know -- I don't know enough about music, but it seems to me like Ween basically does that to the extreme. They have songs that come from so many different genres and they're only held together by their personality, because the songs don't reflect each other musically; they don't reflect each other in theme or lyric, and it doesn't even sound like the same instruments or vocalists, even though they are. And yet, they're held together by something else, by some kind of broader spirit or something: a feeling. Would you mind going through Chocolate and Cheese song-by-song? Sure -- I looked it up and I've got it right here. "Buenas Tardes Amigo" My girlfriend's boyfriend prior to me, he made a short film in college using "Buenas Tardes Amigo," and he shot it in black-and-white, and she showed it to me three years after we were dating and I remember I was very threatened; I thought it was so cool. And she was in it -- it was just, like, her walking somewhere, in Indiana. "Roses Are Free" Someone once told me that Phish covered "Roses Are Free" and that Ween stopped playing it on tour as a protest. It was kind of the other way around. Ween was not previously playing it, and when Phish started covering it, Ween started playing it almost to reclaim the song. [Laughs] Wow, that's pretty funny. "A Tear for Eddie" Because it's an instrumental, I recorded my own version to learn how to use GarageBand a long time ago. I tried to do every track: the guitar and the drums and the bass, so I had a really bad version of "A Tear for Eddie" on my computer. Do you still have that around? No, it was on my old computer and everything crashed -- this was probably, like, six years ago. That's too bad. Yeah. [Laughs] Well, not really -- it was terrible. "What Deaner Was Talkin' About" / "Freedom of '76" / "Baby Bitch" "What Deaner Was Talkin' About" was the only song I was allowed to play for my little sister, and she loved it. She was, like, seven years old, and she would sing "What Deaner Was Talking About," 'cause it was pretty much the nicest song with the least profanity on the album, in addition to "Freedom of '76," which is maybe the best song on the album. I don't know -- what do you think?
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