Screeching Weasel
Television City Dream
Fat Wreck Chords
Now here’s a punk rock band I’ve heard so much about for the last couple of years, but never heard (no, that’s not true, now that I think of it, I heard their name mentioned on the radio once). And after listening to Television City Dream, all I want to do is give a big middle finger to frontman Ben Weasel and say “FUCK YOU” to this band.
‘Cos that’s what they deserve.
They deserve it because, on the one hand, half the album is some of the tightest, slam-inducing, stage-diving-est melodic punk rock ever recorded. The other half of the album is their insipid lyrics and ridiculous songs. Like “Pervert At Large” and “Burn It Down,” which are straight out of the Ramones’ Vault of Horror, but force a political philosophy of debauched collectivism on the listener. Really! All their songs are pro-drug, pro-deviance, pro-public defecation… Plus they steal: The Dickies released a song called “Dummy Up” already, dudes! My reaction to “Dirty Needles,” the song that says “… If you’re gonna shoot up please don’t use somebody else’s needles… “ Excuse me?! “Please don’t use somebody else’s needles”? Hey! This is white suburban punk music; what’s next? Instead of asking for Grey Poupon, it’s going to be “pardon me, but have you any Chinese rocks?” That’s the whole album, but the music is great, so I have an inner conflict, kind of like when I used to have fantasies about Hillary Clinton when she had her best hairdo, circa October 1992.
Fifteen songs in all, and a must have if you’re a fan of Ben Weasel’s MRR column. Fat Wreck Chords, P.O. Box 193690, San Francisco, CA 94119-3690
