Free Ween's Chocolate and Cheese (33 1/3) by Hank Shteamer Page A

overseas:
    We always go for the cheesy Mexican-American thing, not the true Mexican thing. But that’s what we know, so that’s what you get. But people in other countries don’t have that point of reference. They don’t know Mexicans like we know Mexicans. Like someone who lives in San Diego has a completely different view of Mexicans than somebody in Canada. So that song has become definitely our most popular song overseas. When we play that shit for, like, Germans or Dutch people or Swedes, or something, they go totally fucking batshit because they think you’re tapped into something really authentic that they don’t know about, when it fact, it’s like, I’ve never even fucking been to Mexico. I have no idea what they actually eat in Mexico. It’s not Doritos, but as far as I’m concerned, it might as well be, ’cause I don’t know. They don’t have Taco Bell, but Ween’s version of all that shit is always like that. But like I said, they don’t have those points of reference in England or whatever. Like how many British people have even met a Mexican? How many Mexicans are even living in London? So when we play that song overseas, we can stop playing and there will be like 5,000 Germans singing it. And it never gets less funny. It’s funnier every year.
    Perhaps the meticulous arrangement of “Buenas Tardes Amigo” has had something to do with the song’s ability to deceive so many foreign fans. At any rate, Melchiondo’s claim is supported by the use of “Buenas Tardes Amigo” in two German films — 2001’s
Lammbock
and 2003’s
Herr
Lehmann
— as well as an excess of German comments on a YouTube version of the song.
“Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down)” (Track 2 of 16)
    I used to really love “Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down).” Then one of my friends contracted it and almost died. She now has MS as a direct result of her illness, which will probably kill her.
    —Comment from Tribe.net Ween forum
    “Buenas Tardes Amigo,” with its hammy ethnic caricature, may register as a blip on the questionable-taste scale. But “Spinal Meningitis” takes things a good deal further: As illustrated by the comment above, the song — an “Am I gonna die?” lament from a sick child to its mother — has considerable off-putting potential. It’s not surprising to hear that it has elicited a variety of strong reactions.
    Production-wise, the track serves as the perfect bridge between early and late Ween. The song’s spare verses combine synthesized chimes and bass drum with staccato guitar and two overlaid vocal tracks, one at normal pitch and one that’s sped up to simulate a child’s voice, creating a feel that’s very similar to eerier, more minimal
Pure Guava
tracks such as “I Play It Off Legit.” The chorus, on the other hand, sounds vivid and full. A hazy drone hangs over an intricate drum-machine groove, providing the backdrop for a chantlike refrain: “Smile on mightyJesus / Spinal meningitis got me down.” It’s a classic Ween chorus, trippy yet danceable, and it has helped make “Spinal Meningitis” a live favorite. Overall, “Spinal Meningitis” feels like a subtle overhaul of
Pure Guava
aesthetics — the template is the same, but the execution is more ambitious and evocative.
    The song’s pervasively creepy mood seems to be a point of pride for the band. During a 2003 interview for PopMatters, writer Matt Gonzales informed Freeman that one of his friends, “an otherwise thick-skinned grown man, [refused] to stay in the room whenever someone plays ‘Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down).’” Freeman responded with perverse relish. “That’s good, and that’s what I want, because it’s fucked up for us, too,” he said. “That’s why we do it. That song didn’t come out of any kind of making fun of. That song came out of fear of death, fear of needles in the spine, and that’s not cool at all. That’s really bad news. There is a lot of psychological terror going on in