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Weasel Mania
Screeching Weasel
Reviewed by: John-Michael Bond [Tue, October 25, 2005 @ 2:01:22 PM]
When I was in high school there was this girl I really liked who didn’t like me at all but liked the fact that I knew about a lot of music. She figured out that if she led me along without crushing my hopes I’d keep making her mix tapes. This illustrates two things: 1st that I’m a moron when it comes to the ladies and 2nd that mix tapes are so cool that good ones will make you act like a bitch. Luckily for us Ben Weasel has made us a mix tape of his favorite Screeching Weasel songs, giving new fans a stellar introduction to the band, and keeping old fans from getting bitchy about having to carry around 13 Screeching Weasel CD’s.
Weasel Mania is the story of Screeching Weasel told in chronological order album by album. Over the course of 34(!) tracks, Ben and company address such important issues as homophobia (I Wanna Be a Homosexual), drug abuse (Cindy’s On Methadone), elitist punks (Cool Kids) and woman’s rights (Jeannies’s Got a Problem With Her Uterus). Ok, so maybe not that last one. The broad range of topics that the band wrote about over the course of their career is often over shadowed by their main lyrical muse- the ladies! Yes, if you were scorned by a girl who chose some meathead jock over you, Screeching Weasel feels your pain.
One of the nice things about this comp, other than having a killer Screeching Weasel mix for the car, is how it covers each album almost equally. Sure, fan favorites Boogadaboogadaboogada, My Brain Hurts, and Anthem For a New Tomorrow typically have a few more tracks than, say, Emo or Thank You Very Little; but those albums are still represented. It gives the Screeching Weasel fans who only own the classics a chance to hear some of the bands later work.
The package is rounded out but a booklet full of photos and fliers from each album era, as well as band commentary from Ben Weasel, Danny Vapid and John Jughead. Super-fan Jim Testa of Jersey Beat fanzine also throws in his two cents on the bands history. It’s a pleasant read, and while I doubt you’ll devote much more than a cursory read to it, its nice to see the bands thoughts on their history. Ben even says in his closing that he,
“wouldn’t be surprised if [we] see the band rise from the dead one more time like some horrible low-budget midnight-movie sequel.”
What more reason do you need to buy this record than the knowledge that it doing well might bring the Weasel’s out of their holes and back into a van!?!
Weasel Mania can be found in any store across the country for $10.99. That’s dirt cheap for an hour and fourteen minutes of pure punk rock history. Screeching Weasel are probably the reason half of your favorite bands are playing music right now, and while Green Day may get the credit in the mainstream for pop punk’s explosion, think about this. Screeching Weasel made it cool for hardcore kids to use melody and sing about their dick burning. For better or worse they opened the door for everyone from Blink 182 and Green Day to Fallout Boy and All American Rejects. They played romantic melodic skate punk at a time when it wasn’t cool to sing about anything but politics and the man. And then they found a way to still be political while making you laugh your ass off. Weasel Mania is a testament to one of punk rocks most important and nasally voices. As Ben said himself on My Brain Hurts
If I wanna do something right
I gotta do it myself or someone
else will fuck it up
Well kids other people have fucked it up; here is your chance to hear it done right.
9.5 out 10
RIYL: Screeching Weasel, older Blink 182 and any band on Fat Wreck or Drive Thru in the 90’s
screechingweasel.com
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