SCREECHING WEASEL – First World Manifesto (www.fatwreck.com)
Old, Loud & Snotty
 by
Paul Silver
Need I elucidate? It’s Screeching Weasel! You know
what this is! It’s fast, snotty pop-punk. It’s
fun. It’s funny. It’s ironic. It’s Ramones
influenced. Ben and company are back with their first album
in a decade, and it’s almost like they were never
gone. These guys didn’t invent pop-punk, but they’ve
been the standard-bearers of the genre for a long time.
There are fourteen anthem-worthy tracks on this disc, and
not a clunker in the bunch. It’s fast and bouncy,
it’s melodic and hook laden. OK, so let’s take
a look at some of the songs. The opener, “Follow Your
Leaders,” is fucking unbelievable, and I love it.
It’s a slap in the face (and a kick in the balls)
toward the current crop of “punk kids” in the
scene. It basically throws out every (true) stereotype,
from mentioning PBR T-shirts to supposed politics that doesn’t
rise above “vote Democrat.” It calls these kids
“frat boys with sillier haircuts.” Doh! The
kids probably won’t even notice the irony. “Beginningless
Vacation” is all about someone trapped in the rut
called life, stuck with a crappy job, loaded down with debt,
a family, etc. who dreams of getting away from it all. But
it’s the same guy most of us are – one who does
nothing more than dream, who never chucks it all and goes
after what we really want. “Totem Pole” is about
someone who is kept on a string by another – pulled
up when no one better is around, dropped when someone else
comes along. OK, show of hands, who’s been there?
“Fortune Cookie” is a song sung by a person
who is always behind the 8-ball, making mistakes, never
getting it right, but has decided to accept his fate. These
are not happy songs, Ben. “Come and See the Violence
Inherent in the System” is about the masses of clueless
people that populate this nation of ours, as well as those
who think they’re better than the masses and try to
tell everyone else what to do and what’s good for
them. The lyrics are dark, but the music is bright –
a perfect combination. Another winner from Ben Weasel and
company.
Ben Weasel Hates You
by
Jim Testa
It's accurate but a bit misleading to refer to First World
Manifesto as the first Screeching Weasel record since
2000's Teen Punks In Heat. There were a couple of
Ben Weasel solo albums in there (including 2007's comeback
album These Ones Are Bitter, produced like FWM
by All-American Reject Mike Kennerty), a live Ben Weasel album
of Screeching Weasel songs, and two new Riverdales discs (the
latter three releases all featuring Dan "Vapid"
Schafer.) I mention all that because it all connects; the
production here definitely sounds like TOAB, with
relatively clean guitars, a few of those classic one-string
Weasel riffs but also several bona fide guitar solos, and
Ben's vocals high in the mix. A few tracks ("Dry Is The
Desert," "Three Lonely Days," "Fortune
Cookie") could easily be TOAB outtakes, while
the pinched, nasal vocals and Ramonesy chug of "Baby
Talk" would fit on a Riverdales album. Vapid contributes
his trademark melodic backup vocals throughout; the newest
Weasel, Drew Fredrichsen, adds considerably more guitar muscle
than we're used to. Even Joe Queer shows up to sing along
on one track.
The twice-married, father-of-two, fortyish Ben Foster can
still write about girls from the same point of view as the
20-something Ben Weasel, as found on the delightful "Frankengirl"
(with a guest vocal by Dr. Frank.) But tracks like "Creepy
Crawl," "Friday Night Nation," "Bite Marks,"
"Totem Pole," and "All Over Town mingle self-loathing
with self-pity, often to the threshold of misogyny. The women
in these songs often act despicably, breaking the hearts and
crushing the spirits of their male protagonists. By and large,
the humor of "girl" songs like "Kamala"
or "Cindy's On Methadone" is nowhere to be found;
the battle of the sexes has become a war. But that older and
wiser perspective does provide one brilliant dose of levity
on the outstanding "Beginningless Vacation," in
which Ben dreams that he's trapped in a 9-to-5 job. "In
another life and time I dreamed that life was beautiful,"
he sings, "now I'm in a jacket and a tie and I'm sitting
in a cubicle." Oh the horror!
"Come And See The Violence Inherent In The System,"
meanwhile, stands proudly alongside other SW state-of-the-nation
diatribes ("we live in a Christian police state, a nation
of fat NASCAR fans,") from "Nicaragua" to "What
We Hate" to "A New Tomorrow" to "The Scene,"
dripping with satire and that old Weasel wit.
But the songs that will surely draw the most attention (and
Internet debate) bookend the album with commentary on the
punk scene itself. "Follow Your Leaders" and "Little
Big Man" both come off as as blustering, bitter put-downs
of the very people who are most likely to buy this album;
it's the Ben Weasel we all love to hate. Weasel Radio and
the Riverdales Message Board may have replaced Maximumrocknroll
as Ben's bully pulpit, but he's still stirring the shit and
pissing people off (which, let's face it, has always been
what he does best.) "It seems I've neglected to mention
that punk used to be so dangerous," he rails on "Follow
Your Leaders." "Fall into line like you do all the
time and whatever you do, don't grow up." (Sage words
indeed from the guy who's still singing in the band he formed
in high school.) "Little Big Man" pokes a finger
in the eye of pretentious scenesters who hitch their wagons
to their more successful drinking buddies (biting the hand
that's currently feeding his family, NoFX gets a jab here;)
"and while my band might be subpar and I'm stuck here
tending bar, I hold my own with all the punk rock stars,"
Ben sings, and a hundred message-board threads light up wondering
who he's talking about.
I've refrained so far from using the word "catchy"
but that's the bottom line here; whether he's being satiric
or resentful or dumped on or hateful, Ben Weasel knows catchy.
So you'll be singing along even if you're also punching your
fist through the wall.
Just remember, never grow up. Because grown-ups don't listen
to Screeching Weasel. Or do they?
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