Review Summary: This album is perfect for any fan of hardcore punk, and there really isn't anything bad i can say about it. The vocals are amazing and the instruments are fast and intense. Definitely check this album out.
“That’s right, your stereo is ***ed up” says Ben Weasel, at the beginning of Say No! To Authority, the opening track on the album. This is the perfect way to open the album, because Screeching Weasel’s 1987 self titled album is HARDCORE. With the average track length being about a minute, Screeching Weasel rip through 39 intense songs in just about 34 minutes.
The guitar and bass playing is just what you would expect from a hardcore punk band, fast and sloppy, which may sound bad to some people, but if you listen to hardcore punk, then you know that is the kind of sound most bands have, and the sound most punks love. The bass has some especially cool intro riffs such as the beginning of Cows, Wanna Die, and Hardcore Hippie. The drumming is definitely a high point. It is very fast and intense, and has a lot of the hardcore punk beats that you know and love.
The vocals are probably the best part of the entire album; Ben Weasel is one hell a vocalist. Throughout the album he uses a number of different vocal techniques. He does some clean singing in Don’t Touch My Car, a strange type of yelling in OMW (I’m not sure how else to describe it but listen for yourself.) and he does the usual hardcore punk yelling in tracks such as Wanna Die, Say No! To Authority, and 7-11. Also, in songs like March of the Lawnmowers and Work, he basically just talks, and it sounds great with the whole band playing.
There are a variety of different topics used in the lyrics, which are mostly written by Ben Weasel. The lyrics in Wanna Die talk about how they teach you a bunch of stuff in school that you don’t want to know, and basically how the world is all ***ed up. A lot of the lyrics are meant to be comical. Wavin’ Gerbs is about putting a gerbil in a microwave, March of the Lawnmowers is about a lawnmower that explodes because someone put Draino in the tank, Bates Motel is a reference to the movie Psycho, and I’m pretty sure you can figure out what Murder in the Brady House is about.
