Aaron releases 'Freeman' LP July 22 via Partisan Records

After the hoopla that surrounded his increasing onstage meltdowns (in Vancouver for instance) which were excessive by even Ween standards- Aaron Freeman ultimately took shelter from the storm.  Sobriety looks good on Freeman, who gives hope to any hopelessly addled soul if only because the vast majority of his output as Gene Ween is about: 'hope', 'hopelessness' and 'being addled'.

His early four track experiments post-rehab gave some indication as to where he might go with his new material, there was the 4-track gooning, some role-playing crooning, and the occasional ballad in presumably his own voice (like the tender Nature Man which didn't make the cut) represented on the new album FREEMAN by More Than The World.

Aaron is quoted in a sprawling interview with Rolling Stone that the meltdown in Vancouver directly led (perhaps unsurprisingly in hindsight) to the dissolution of Ween.  The lead track on the album Covert Discretion (the full album is currently streaming on Spin) is none-too-subtle about the vapid sadness he was experiencing after playing a great show and then wallowing in his substance abuse later:

It's striking that on "Covert Discretion," the first song on the new album, you sing "Save your judgments for someone else" and "Fuck you all, I got a reason to live." It's easy to read those lyrics as being addressed at fans who wanted you to continue with Ween. Is that an accurate interpretation

Yeah, I think so. That's the only song I wrote after a major breakdown in Vancouver when I couldn't play [with Ween]. I wrote that about a week after that show. It's about addiction and people not recognizing that you're hurting so bad. And yeah, it is clearing the air of the last couple of years, which is why I wanted to put it first. At that point Ween had been over for years and I wanted to put that down in a way. Anytime there's a major change in your life, a lot of people don't embrace that, and it's something that you have to get through on your own. I had some wonderful supportive people with me during that period who helped me through. But it's tough, and it takes a while to turn people around, if I'm making any sense.

In other interviews Freeman is touching when he explains that despite wanting to clear the air on the first cut that he approached this whole record as he would have approached a Ween record.  He wrote the record with Mickey, Claude, Dave and Glenn in mind to play even though he knows they will never play again.  So there is a lovely quality about the record because it evokes so many stylistic touchstones from Ween's whole catalogue.   That said because it was composed in that fashion on numbers like the very Weenish El Shaddai the listener really wants to hear Mickey Melchiondo but instead gets whoever's playing guitar for Freeman.  A number of songs then take on the quality almost of sketches of Ween songs to be, one senses something missing from them- likely collaboration.

FREEMAN available now on Itunes fits into the chronology of Ween's records, the next one most likely won't.  Or perhaps all of the hallmarks that we associate with Ween will always be present in its inimitable songwriters solo output.

Tour Dates

July 22 - New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
July 23 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All RIght
September 4-7 - Arrington, VA @ Lockn' Festival
September 5 - Raleigh, NC @ Hopscotch Festival
September 17 - Boston, MA @ Sinclair
September 18 - Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
September 19 - Rochester, NY @ Lovin' Cup
September 20 - Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
September 24 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
September 25 - Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall
September 26 - Minneapolis. MN @ Turf Club
September 27 - Omaha, NE @ Waiting Room
September 30 - Columbus, OH @ The Basement
October 1 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Brillbox
October 2 - Washington, DC @ Rock N Roll Hotel
October 3 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's
October 4 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
October 23 - Houston, TX @ Fitzgeralds
October 24 - Dallas, TX @ The Loft
October 25 - Austin, TX @ Parish
October 28 - San Diego, CA @ Casbah
October 30 - Los Angeles, CA @ Roxy
October 31 - San Francisco, CA @ Independent
November 1 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
November 2 - Seattle, WA @ Tractor
November 4 - Missoula, MT @ Top Hat
November 5 - Salt Lake City, UT @ State Room
November 6 - Denver, CO @ Bluebird
November 7 - Kansas City, MO @ Riot Room

Aaron Freeman 2012 soundcloud demos (download)

Post Marvelous Clouds (an album of exclusively Rod McKuen covers) Aaron Freeman's first solo effort and first under his own name- having informed his management and fanbase of the demise of Ween and his persona Gene Ween- anyone who has followed his prolific career wants to know what comes next?

Briefly Freeman posted to his soundcloud page a slew of new songs which ranged from (largely) manipulated spoken word samples such as on Rivers where Freeman frames to melancholic effect and entire reading of the Langston Hughes civil war poem Rivers:

I've known rivers:                                                                            I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the                          flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.                            I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep                      I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.                   I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln                            went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy                          bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I've known rivers:                                                                                Ancient, dusty rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Other songs such as Ribbit and most notably on Nature Man (an instant new Freeman classic) we hear the voluminous pop tunesmith singing about a frog and his long tongue and 'nature man' and 'nature girl' in streams of love with their boots on.  Instrumentals like Palmolive and Penny Whissle fizzle a bit but another ES-335 1 sounds reminiscent of something like Ween's Tear For Eddie without of course Dean Ween (Mickey Melchiondo's) sindering guitar line- a common feeling throughout the recordings although not lacking.

Any Ween completist will want to get ahold of these at times truly beautiful songs. A fan has captured the bulk of the songs barring Genene and made them available for download.  Songs like Stay With Me Daddy, More Than The World and the aforemementioned Nature Man fit easily and handily into the Ween/Freeman repertoire as some of his best songs to date.  Clearly sobrietry and fecundity are not mutually exclusive when it comes to the world of Aaron Freeman.

Aaron Freeman 2012 soundcloud demos

God2
Exodus
Ruth
Rivers
Caesar 
Life Force
Ribbit
Penny Whissle
ES 335 1
Palmolive
Stay With Me Daddy
Nature Man 
More Than The World
A Man Alone (home demo)
Mr. Kelly (home demo)
Doesn't Anyone Know My Name (home demo)
Signs Of The Transgression