Mickey Melchiondo adopted the name Dean Ween when he was a teenager in New Hope, Pennsylvania. He and friend Aaron Freeman -- who called himself Gene Ween -- formed Ween when they were just 14 years old, never imagining that they'd be saddled with those monikers for the rest of their lives. Ween, a post-punk prank infatuated with Prince, turned into a cult phenomenon in the '90s, gathering momentum as the band jumped from independents to the majors, earning a reputation as a killer live band along the way. Melchiondo started to moonlight in the '90s, mainly with the hardcore band Moistboyz but also appearing on records by Yoko Ono, Ben Vaughn, Pigface, and Queens of the Stone Age. Ween kept going until 2012, when Freeman left the band. After a few years, Melchiondo regrouped with the Dean Ween Band, who released their first album in the fall of 2016, several months after he reunited with Freeman for several concerts.

That reunion helped seal the bond between Melchiondo and Freeman, but no matter how compatible the two have been -- there's a reason why they passed themselves off as brothers; it seemed as if they shared DNA -- they also were distinct personalities. As Ween's guitarist, Melchiondo has been a forceful presence in Ween, particularly as he honed his chops during the '90s. These skills weren't heard in the Moistboyz, the duo he formed with old friend Guy Heller in 1994. That band kept releasing records every few years -- the first came in 1994, the fifth in 2013 -- becoming Melchiondo's primary artistic outlet outside of Ween, but he'd also guest on records from friends and idols: he showed up on a remix album from Yoko Ono in 1996, the same year he showed up on Instrumental Stylings by Ben Vaughn, who produced Ween's 12 Golden Country Greats. His next big cameos were Pigface's 2001 Preaching to the Perverted and Queens of the Stone Age's 2002's Songs for the Deaf, then he poured himself back into Ween until the band split in 2012. By that point, Melchiondo had launched a side project called Mickey's Guide Service, captaining a fishing boat off the Jersey Shore, a project that kept him busy as he sorted out his future after Ween. He played on Low Cut Connie's 2015 album Hi Honey, then started the Dean Ween Group, recruiting Ween road band members Claude Coleman, Glenn McClelland, and Dave Dreiwitz to play residencies in New Hope, then they cut the record that became The Deaner Album, which was released in October of 2016, several months after Melchiondo reunited with Freeman for live dates by Ween. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi