Screeching Weasel

A lot has been made of the 2009 reunion of pop-punk legend Screeching Weasel — but the fact is, the band has broken up and reformed numerous times since starting in suburban Chicago in 1986. Snotty, catchy and just sloppy enough to keep it real, the group became a beloved...

By Jason Heller

August 12, 2010

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A lot has been made of the 2009 reunion of pop-punk legend Screeching Weasel — but the fact is, the band has broken up and reformed numerous times since starting in suburban Chicago in 1986. Snotty, catchy and just sloppy enough to keep it real, the group became a beloved staple of the '90s punk scene — with everyone from Green Day's Mike Dirnt to Jawbreaker's Blake Schwarzenbach making guest appearances on Weasel albums — even as frontman Ben Weasel became one of the punk scene's most infamous curmudgeons. The group's current lineup is its first minus founding guitarist John Jughead, which doesn't bode as well for this reunion as it could; on the upside, Weasel's long-running, Ramones-aping side project, the Riverdales, is jointly touring with Screeching Weasel and will headline the Gothic the night after his main band takes the stage.
Wed., Aug. 18, 7 p.m., 2010

Jason Heller is a staff writer at Westword. He's the author of the book Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded (Melville House/Penguin Random House), and has contributed to the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and NPR.org. His work has won a Hugo Award and a Colorado Press Association Award.

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