Many musicians have passed through the turnstile of membership in Screeching Weasel. Over the lifespan of this skate punk combo from Ferris Bueller suburbia there’s Aaron Cometbus, Mike Dirnt, John Jughead and Joe Queer, among others with jokey surnames who either came aboard from, or went on to, other noteworthy gigs.
The one constant is singer and guitarist Ben Weasel, nee Ben Foster. Screeching Weasel is Ben’s baby, the offspring of his own experience growing up in the ’80s in a Chicagoland bedroom community on a diet of the Ramones.
Screeching Weasel are often linked to the pop-punk scene we now associate with the likes of Good Charlotte. And while there is some resemblance pioneered by the former — speedy tempos, buzzing guitars and catchy melodies — Screeching Weasel come out of a more hardcore tradition with more antagonism and caustic lyrics. Whereas pop punk moons over girls and high school, and has very little Black Flag, DOA, Circle Jerks or Fear in its DNA, Screeching Weasel have no intention of being nostalgic or nice.
It is hard work being both prolific and good, but Ben Weasel doesn’t appear to mind putting in the time and the labor. Alongside 15 full length albums, the most recent being 2022’s The Awful Disclosures of Screeching Weasel, there is a library’s worth of singles, EPs, splits and compilation tracks. Brief sabbaticals in the form of the Vindictives, the Riverdales and the Shotdowns have proved that while collaborators helped along the sound, the basic ideas are all Ben’s.
In a culture that promotes adoration of an elevated few who get to call themselves “rock stars” of their professions, people like Ben Weasel are the stick in the spokes of wealth-abetted fakery. People call him cantankerous, controversial, abrasive. But he would never, say, buy up music publications for clout only to gut them later. (We’re looking at you Benji and Joel Madden.) Besides, who has that kind of money? Reckless abandon and a thicker skin are recommended instead.
Screeching Weasel, with special guests The Queers, and Billy Batts & The Made Men, play 7:30 pm Saturday October 3 at Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale. screechingweasel.com ~ Tim Moffatt
