Various Thoughts From Beneath My Screeching Weasel Cap: 20/02/06

There are a couple of videos up on You Tube from a Screeching Weasel concert circa 1993.

The sound and video quality are pretty poor and the setlist seems to be similar to the live set featured on Thank You Very Little. But the highlight of the videos is an impromptu interview with Ben Weasel. For most of the interview, the interviewer rattles off a list of banal questions, to which Mr Weasel replies with terse, usually one word, responses. That is until the interview is hijacked by a pair of greasy weasel fan boys who seem to be milling close by.

A transcript of my favourite exchange reads like this:

Greasy Weasel Fan #1: I mean, you got some songs that are like the boy-girl thing… then you got some deeper stuff like Science of Myth, I mean what are you trying to accomplish man?

Ben Weasel: To get everyone in the world to think like me.

It's witticisms like these that remind me why I love Ben Weasel so much.

Meanwhile Ben Weasel's former colllaborator, Danny Vapid is gearing up for his next outing. Red Scare records, announced via their Myspace page that they’ll be releasing the forthcoming Methadones’ LP. The working title is purportedly 21st Century Power Pop Riot. Now, I grew up on Danny Vapid’s music. Hell, Screeching Weasel were THE BAND for me. They were the soundtrack to my adolescence. I have a Riverdales tattoo. But there’s something about the Methadones that just doesn’t agree with me. Musical gripes aside, I grew up on tunes like ‘High School Psychopath’ and ‘Riverdale Stomp’. Danny’s penchant for social commentary on the Methadones just grates me. Maybe it’s a credential issue. Maybe I’m so used to the cartoony, cyncical, barbed-tongue, dejected adolescent caricature he and Ben Weasel carved out for themselves in Screeching Weasel and the Riverdales. I just find it difficult to take him seriously when I’m used to songs he penned about girls and some drug addict he used to know.

It’s been reported that the Falcon have finished recording their new LP. If you haven’t checked out the Falcon already, I suggest you do so. Their EP God Don’t Make No Trash on Red Scare was one of the wittiest and catchiest pieces of punk rock I’ve heard in a while. Anyway, in case you don’t know, the Falcon consist of two members from the Lawrence Arms, one from Alkaline Trio and a former member of Rise Against. Just by looking at their pedigree, you should be able to estimate what they sound like. They come highly recommended.

Speaking of the Lawrence Arms, they've been streaming songs off their new LP 'Oh! Calcutta!' on their MySpace page. If you’re partial to bands like Pegboy, Alkaline Trio, Leatherface, Hot Water Music and Dillinger Four, I suggest you check them out. If these songs are anything to go by, 'Oh! Calcutta!' could be an early contender for album of the year.

Speaking of possible albums of the year, the Queers have updated details about their forthcoming album via their MySpace page blog. Joe also mused about the impending release of their live album, a planned Queers tribute record and a tentative tour with one of Australia’s most seminal, prolific and underated punk bands, the Hard-Ons. Feck! Talk about your wet-dream inducing bills. If you aren't familliar with the Hard Ons' catalogue, I compel you to become so, right now. Most of the later prog-metal shit isn’t useful for much other than preventing your glass from leaving unsightly stains on your coffee table. But their earlier LPs like Yummy are about as tuneful and raw as punk gets.

Thumbs up,
Steve