Giving a good name to bands named after novelty T-shirts everywhere, Screeching Weasel was formed by bassist and singer Benjamin Foster and guitarist John Pierson, who originally met while at junior high, and then re-connected after working at the same movie theatre. Once they formed the band, Foster took on the stage name Ben Weasel, Pierson renamed himself Jughead after the Archie character, and they recruited a drummer in the form of Steve Cheese. Shortly after their live debut, Weasel found that it's actually really hard to sing and play bass guitar at the same time, so he switched to rhythm guitar while Vince Vogel was tapped to play bass for them. The band had finally found its first proper line-up, and it was this line up that recorded their self-titled debut album for Underdog Records in one night for a flat fee of $200, that was released in September 1987.
The album made a name for the band in punk scene's the world over, but Cheese wasn't willing to tour outside of Chicago. The band chose to kick him out and by 1988, the band replaced him with Warren Fischer. Clearly this was the right idea, as soon after Fischer joined, the band played a hugely acclaimed support slot at the Berkeley, California punk rock hot spot 924 Gilman Street to the legendary Operation Ivy. Unfortunately, there was still tension within the band and it got too much for them in 1989, when they broke up for the first time. However, in true punk rock fashion, the band were forced to get back together in 1991 to pay off the debts they'd accumulated while recording their second album “Boogadaboogadaboogada!” in 1988.
While the original idea was for a one-off show, the band enjoyed it so much that they got back together full time, just as the pop-punk sound that they'd inspired started to become a world-wide sensation thanks to Green Day and The Offspring. Ever since then, the band have remained a hugely respected cult act, chiefly for inspiring nearly every pop-punk band that's ever gone on to take on the world since the mid 90's, from Blink-182 to All Time Low. The band spent most of the 2000's split up (for the third time), but they came back with style in 2009, releasing “First World Manifesto”, their first album in 11 years, in 2011. For being the kind of cult band that any group would kill to be, Screeching Weasel come highly recommended.
Screeching Weasel is a pop-punk band from the Chicago area. They have had a large amount of members over the years, often changing lineups between albums, with the only constant being front man, guitarist, and songwriter Ben Weasel. Because of their lineup instability, you never know what lineup of the band you might see during any given show, although the lineups have gotten more consistent in the past few years. Live, Screeching Weasel delivers a typical performance you’d expect from a punk band. Songs are played quickly, sometimes faster than their album version, with little improvisation and few major differences in lyrics and song structures from their respective studio versions. Weasel is known for his alternatively acerbic and humorous stage banter, and, as is typical in a punk show, there is a fair amount of typical audience participation in the form of finger-pointing, circle pitting, stage diving, and light-hearted heckling. The audience tends to be slightly older, as the band’s height of popularity came in the 90’s, but some younger fans attend, as quite a few younger bands cite Screeching Weasel as a major influence on their sound. Fans of energetic, well-written pop punk should definitely not pass up the chance to see Screeching Weasel, as their passion and drive have not diminished with age.
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