Disco de Screeching Weasel: “Weasel Mania”

Although a slew of other bands found greater mass exposure via MTV or the Warped Tour, make no mistake, Screeching Weasel was as important to the 90's punk boom as any band. If one needs proof, this is a great place to start. These 34 tracks cover nine albums, two non-album song compilations, and an ep, along with another compilation track. More importantly, they show a band that shined through simplicity. Great songs were always more important than self-indulgent musicianship. They had the fun that stupid little punk songs should. Still, years after most of these songs were released they really hold up well. A few interesting omissions aside, the track list of Weasel Mania is amazing. This release is essential for both new listeners and longtime fans in search of a cheap disc with lots of longtime favorites.

During my high school years, the soundtrack to my life consisted of very heavy doses of Chicago-based pop-punk band Screeching Weasel.

Albums like "My Brain Hurts" and "Anthem for a New Tomorrow" were staples of my adolesence. Many of frontman Ben Foster's (aka Ben Weasel) songs guided me through the toughest times of my young adult life.

The band never really broke any new ground musically, drawing most of their influence from The Ramones and other simple three-chord punk rock bands like The Descendents and the Angry Samoans.

Screeching Weasel has broken-up and reformed more times that I could keep track of. They rarely play shows and they have not toured the U.S. in well over a decade. Despite this, they have a huge cult following and have released over 10 albums, including a handful of EPs and b-side compilations.

Their line-up has been a revolving door, aside from Foster, featuring a veritable "who's who" of punk rock musicians. For example, Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt stepped up and took on the bass duties for the "How to Make Enemies and Irritate People" record.

After nearly two decades, Screeching Weasel finally has a greatest hits album thanks to the folks at Fat Wreck Chords.

"Weasel Mania," a clever take on The Ramones' best-of title, crams 34 songs onto one disc, each tune hand picked by Foster himself.

The songs span the band's entire career, from early tracks like "My Right," which kicks off the compilation, to "Bottom of the 9th" from the band's final studio release.

I was pleased to hear that some Weasel classics like "She's Giving Me the Creeps" and "Joanie Loves Johnny" made their way onto the tracklist.

Some of the bands later songs, like "Speed of Mutation," which may be my all-time favorite Weasel tune, stand up quite well against their older tracks. I t would have nice to hear more from 1998's awesome "Television City Dream" record and less from weaker albums like "Emo" and "Teen Punks in Heat."

In total, two or three songs from each release made it onto "Weasel Mania."

The CD booklet features some nifty goodies for the fans, including new photos and stories from the band members, along with the typical rambling essay by Foster that has become pretty much expected on any Weasel compilation.

If you're not familiar with Screeching Weasel this would be a solid place to start, but there really is not much incentive for a hardcore fan to pick it up. There are no new songs and everything sounds just as it did on the original releases.

As cool as some of the stuff in the booklet is, it's not worth the price for that alone. Some sort of extra like enchanced capabilities or a bonus DVD would have made this a much more tempting purchase for Weasel completists.

Regardless, if your idea of pop-punk is bands like Good Charlotte and Simple Plan, pick this up and prepare yourself for a brash history lesson in what the genre is truly all about.

I'm very new to Screeching Weasel. The only two songs I heard from them prior to buying this CD were "Cool Kids" and "I can see clearly now", both of which are really good songs. They made me want to look into the band, and realizing that they had so many albums out I didn't want to go out buying all of them. So naturally, I started looking into compilations, and Weasel Mania happened to be the latest compilation.

I've also recently gotten into punk music, so don't think that I can compare this band to others. But what I can do is say that this CD was not wasted money. 90% of the tracks are REALLY catchy, and the rest are still listenable. The benefit of buying a compilation is that it has (mostly) the best tracks a band ever made, all in one album. Of course I'm probably missing out on a lot of great songs by not buying complete albums, but hey, this is a much bigger bang for your buck.

I've only listened to these songs since yesterday but I've already made favorites: My Right, Supermarket Fantasy, Hey Suburbia, What we hate, Joanie loves Johny, Totally, Every Night, AHHH there's too many!!! Oh and She's Giving me the Creeps is probably the one I'm addicted to at this point.

Unlike songs of other genres, I've noticed that punk rock songs are short and meant to be listened over and over. And Screeching Weasel, it seems, has really perfected that strategy. Take "Hey Suburbia", for example, which is one of the catchiest tunes in the album. The song only lasts 1:57, however, and I would actually hope that the song could be longer. But I still like the fact that most of the songs are around 2 minutes, because that's the point when most people get tired of listening to the song anyway. At least that's how it is for me in other genres, I usually skip a song after about 2 minutes cause its tune starts dying out either because of a chorus or a bridge. Punk music relies much on shortness and sweetness, and I actually like that concept.

Overall, I think this is a great buy. If you're not familiar with Screeching Weasel, but like punk (or don't), listen to some of their songs on youtube and buy this to get some of their best work!

I'm a huge Screeching Weasel fan, and this compilation sums up what I love most about the band. Sure, some of my favorite songs are missing, but most of them are right here. A great summation of the 10+ years in which this group wrote the rules for all other punk/ pop bands to follow. Remember to say thank you, Green Day.