Thumbs Up, Asshole
It seems that Mr Ben Weasel himself has mentioned yours truly on his blog. He posted a picture of himself and the All American Rejects parodying the infamous 'Thumbs Up' photo.
You can view the blog entry here.
For those of you who arrived here because you got linked from Weasel Manor, here's the original photo.
Now, some of you may be wondering how Ben Weasel happened upon the photo and thought enough of it to take the micky. Fair cop. Well both Ben and I post on the Knock Knock Records Pop Punk Bored. It's pretty infamous around those parts and gets bandied around a fair bit. I'd never seen Ben mention or reference it before, but it appears he's a fan.
While I find it questionable who he's associating with these days, I'm pretty stoked right now. You see, during my adolescence, I wanted to BE Ben Weasel. He was everything I wasn't; confident, assertive, confrontational, argumentative, belligerent, antagonistic. In fact, I was fairly meek and timid as a teenager. I took strength from Ben Weasel’s music. Listen, I know it’s hackneyed to say ‘music saved me’ or whatever, and I’ll refrain from romanticizing it all, but I certainly took strength from his music. He taught me that sometimes you have to stand up for yourself, step on a few toes, and that those who do take offence usually aren’t worth your time. While I certainly didn’t model myself on him, as to do so would be self-destructive, I certainly did learn to steel myself against the shitheels of the world. After all, as Aristotle pointed out, virtue lies between two polar extremes.
This isn’t to mention that the man knew how to write a melody or two.
But that's enough introspection and sycophancy for today.
Thumbs Up,
Steve
You can view the blog entry here.
For those of you who arrived here because you got linked from Weasel Manor, here's the original photo.
Now, some of you may be wondering how Ben Weasel happened upon the photo and thought enough of it to take the micky. Fair cop. Well both Ben and I post on the Knock Knock Records Pop Punk Bored. It's pretty infamous around those parts and gets bandied around a fair bit. I'd never seen Ben mention or reference it before, but it appears he's a fan.
While I find it questionable who he's associating with these days, I'm pretty stoked right now. You see, during my adolescence, I wanted to BE Ben Weasel. He was everything I wasn't; confident, assertive, confrontational, argumentative, belligerent, antagonistic. In fact, I was fairly meek and timid as a teenager. I took strength from Ben Weasel’s music. Listen, I know it’s hackneyed to say ‘music saved me’ or whatever, and I’ll refrain from romanticizing it all, but I certainly took strength from his music. He taught me that sometimes you have to stand up for yourself, step on a few toes, and that those who do take offence usually aren’t worth your time. While I certainly didn’t model myself on him, as to do so would be self-destructive, I certainly did learn to steel myself against the shitheels of the world. After all, as Aristotle pointed out, virtue lies between two polar extremes.
This isn’t to mention that the man knew how to write a melody or two.
But that's enough introspection and sycophancy for today.
Thumbs Up,
Steve
posted by Steve at 1:32 PM
4 Comments:
Which one are you on that message board?
Pretty solid thumbs up.
I idolise Ben Weasel alittle too much as well. It sort of dissapoints me that there are twelve-thousand laem Parkway-Drive style metalcore bands in Australia, but not Screeching Weasel\Lookout! style pop-punk bands.
Didja see the Hard-Ons on their last tour? I saw them and it totally ruled.
I sure did catch the Hard Ons, my friend. They were fucking classy, as always. I was rooting for them to get Keish up on stage to sing a few, but to no avail. I’m partial to their old pop punk stuff. Y’know? Stuff like ‘Surf On My Face’, ‘Dull’ and ‘Raining’. I haven’t given their new one a spin yet, but I’m keen to get my greasy mits on it.
As for pop punk in Australia. There are Mach Pelican and the Spazzys, who are both world class. Bar the Queers, I’d go as far as to say they’re the best two Ramones-core bands in the world at the moment. But I have a soft spot for both of them. So take that for what it’s worth.
There are also a fair few decent to good pop punk bands in Australia. The Mervin Gribbs from Victoria impressed me when I saw them last year. There’s the Colytons and Extra Limb in Sydney. Roshambo are a Brisbane institution. Also the Seventeens and the Fancy Boys - both from Brisbane – are both on indefinite hiatuses because band members are overseas.
But it's good to know there are people in this country who love the Weasel et al. I know it's very rare to come across like minded people these days.
Yeah, I've always liked the more poppy hard-ons stuff too. Sometimes the appeal of their angry thrashy songs is lost on me, but it's totally acceptable cause they've put out gems like "I do I do I do", "Where did she come from" n stuff. They played "Raining" when they were here, and it was awesome.
Lots of cool pop-punk bands yeah? I can't think of many from Canberra.
Spazzys are great! I read somewhere that Mach Pelican helped write sunshine drive, and that's why on the EP version of Sunshine Drive they pronounce "Ally" as "Arry" as a nod to them?
I should probably get their releases through mailorder or soemthing.
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