ben weasel. i remember being in high school and utterly worshipping anything with his name attached to it. hearing about screeching weasel via green day at age 13 opened me up to the world of pop punk, and i felt no one did it quite like ben and his band. in some ways, i still find this to be true. screeching weasel, though not being as heavily played as they once were, have remarkably stood the test of time much better than anything else i was listening to at that point in time. nofx grew too juvenile (even for myself), less than jake was just too silly, i realized what poor musicians operation ivy really were, and i generally moved on to discover… whatever it is my tastes have developed into. screeching weasel remained one of the bands i took from that time in my life, and continually listened to. in the present day, when a screeching weasel song pops onto my ipod in shuffle mode, i don’t find myself immediately hitting the “next track” button (unless it’s one of their few songs that is, in fact, really bad). which brings me to this record, and the time leading up to it’s release. in 2000, screeching weasel released “teen punks in heat”, which was, in my opinion, one of the weaker records they put out (with the exception of a few tracks). i didn’t pay it very much attention. in 2002, ben put out his first solo effort “fidatevi”. i listened to a few tracks, and didn’t mind it, but it wasn’t what i had come to expect and enjoy. i still read ben’s blog, and always looked for updates on what was happening, but had, in my mind, written him off musically, which was definitely a mistake. i heard about this record being released a few months ago, and showed minimal interest. when i happened upon one of the songs (i think it was “let freedom ring” but i’m not sure), i listened to it, liked it, but still wasn’t too impressed. i’m not sure what made me download the full album, but i am seriously happy that i did. the record features dan andriano from alkaline trio, and a few guys from the all-american rejects (who i don’t particularly care for, but they do an amazing job on this record), but it is unmistakably written by weasel. at this point, his songwriting, vocal ability, and musicianship are really in a better place than they have ever been. everything i loved about screeching weasel is here, and most of what i didn’t enjoy is gone. keep in mind that this is a very “produced” record compared to what people are probably used to, but i don’t see that as a bad thing in this case. it sounds polished, but not so much that it’s “perfect” in a negative sense. it just sounds tight. anyway, i would reccommend this for anyone who is a fan of real “pop punk”, so-called “pop punk”, pop rock, and pretty much anyone who has good taste. this really has something for everyone.
