Join us, Weenheads, as we rundown our episodes from 2020! 2020 has been one upside down year for sure, with the pandemic, election anxieties, racial injustice and civil unrest, and so a third of the way through the year, we had no idea what to expect out of the podcast. Well, we both were fortunate to not get laid off or out of work as a result of the pandemic, and it turned out being stuck at home all this time provided plenty of time for remote podcasters such as ourselves to practice their craft. So we are happy to look back, and see that we pulled off a hell of a year. We produced more episodes in a year than ever before, had several amazingly awesome and unforeseen interviews, expanded our Patreon offerings patreon.com/weencastpodcast ,and had our highest listenership ever. If 2020 was a bronco buck at a Wyoming rodeo, then we took the bull by the horns and rode it for all it was worth!
First and foremost, we want to say thank you to all our fans, patrons, and contributors. And thank you to Ween, without whom we wouldn’t be doing this podcast at all. Extra super duper thank yous to: Claude Coleman, Mike Maronna, Fred Moore aka August Forming, The Reverend B’ill, Tomato Eleven, Kenny from Earfloss, Brian for the awesome digital artwork, and Travis at West Brandywine WoodWorks. Also, huge shoutouts and thank yous to the following patrons and contest participants: Mike, Miles, Daniel, Spencer, Dan, Corrine (Rin) aka Rin the Red, Cody, Michelle, Rich, Ben, Andre/Matter, Laura, Helen, Shawn, Rick, Sonya, Eli, and Jim. Thank you and dog bless!
In 2020, we covered four ween shows: 5/27/2000, The Electric Factory, Philadelphia, PA; 7/21/2000, Metropol, Pittsburgh, PA; 03/23/2001, The Tradewinds, Sea Bright, NJ, and 04/06/2001, The Norva, Norfolk, VA. The first two were from a post White Pepper spring tour in 2000 featuring the quintet at the height of their powers, while the latter two were from a brief Glenn-free tour in 2000 that showcased the hard rocking, heavy metal side of Ween.
In the category of rockumentary, we put out a double episode of our interview for the podcast Earfloss by Kenny, and as 2020 was the 20th anniversary of White Pepper, we also rocked out an episode covering the story of its creation, behind the scenes, influences, discussions of the songs, and the albums place in the annals of Ween.
We rarely actually plan interviews, but in 2020, interviews kind of fell in our lap. We interviewed Fred Moore, aka August Forming, taper legend and member of Bill and Fred’s Excellent Adventure, Claude Coleman, who needs no introduction www.soundspaceavl.com, and Michael C. Maronna, former actor and huge Ween fan. We are incredibly honored to have interviewed these guys. Check them out, the episodes speak for themselves!
For the first time ever, we ran a contest and it concluded in our Summer Spectacular Fan Story Contest episode in September. What a blast! It was gratifying to have so many submissions that we actually had to be selective. And it was awesome collaborating with West Brandywine WoodWorks to offer an amazing handcrafted, Boognish emblazoned cutting board to the winner. Congratulations Helen, aka Ween Lebowski!
In 2020, we also ramped up on Patreon. We started producing episodes and other content exclusively for Patreon. We plan to use Patreon to put out special kinds of content, side project episodes, behind the scenes style material, and anything else that is just a little bit extra special to us. We put out the following episodes on Patreon: The Jimmy Wilson Group side project show, 06/30/2001, John and Peter’s, New Hope, PA; The Gopper Taping Chat (behind the scenes prep for our Fred Moore interview); The Claude Coleman Interview Part 2, and Ween on Vinyl. The Jimmy Wilson Group was such a rare iteration of Ween and friends and Shane was lucky enough to be there, so we thought that would be perfect for a Patreon episode. I chatted with my friend Gopper, semi-legendary taper in the Disco Biscuit community, to prepare for our interview with Fred Moore. We saved the juiciest, Ween-related bits of the Claude Coleman interview for our Patrons. And Shane is big into vinyl and has a huge Ween vinyl collection, so we had to talk about that! On Patreon, you’ll also find some extra interviews with Tomato Eleven, as well as bonus songs from Fred’s taper vault.
I guess that just about covers it. What a crazy year. Thanks again for listening. Here’s to a great new year! Stay brown my friends!