Tuesday Screeching Weasel Blogging
The Punk President
I was looking at the archives of Ben Weasel’s blog earlier today for no particularly good reason and came across this September 2006 post about his desire to write a song called “The Surrender Hymn of the Republic” that would be about “giving up on a relationship” and take “the form of a series of sarcastic little barbs designed to mock the standard Leftist line on 9/11, the Iraq War and pretty much anything Bush says or does.” He also explains that he’s “actually written several songs on the theme of modern Leftist idiocy since 9/11 but they were all pretty straightforward attacks on dumb-bell ideology” and he’s very interested in “the notion that Islamic fundamentalist terrorism wouldn’t be a problem if we’d simply sit down and talk with the terrorists.”
At any rate, this struck me as an interesting sign of political change in the United States. Back in 1995’s “I Wanna Be a Homosexual”, being gay was posited as a way to “shock the middle class.” But eleven years later, it was probably the case that espousing a pro-Bush ideology and support for the Iraq War would be a much better way to épater le bourgeois than coming out of the closet.
31 Responses to “Tuesday Screeching Weasel Blogging”
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July 28th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Sub-Title: A Blog Post Written While Doing Something Else
July 28th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
i c wat u did thar
July 28th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Shit, the new Riverdales album came out on 7/14. Ben Weasel is essentially a bitter, asshole…i think that is all you need to read into it.
July 28th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Jeez, what’s with all my 90s pop-punk heroes turning into fascist blowhards. Does anyone know if Joe Queer is a birther?
July 28th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Or maybe Ben Weasel is one of those people who never quite snapped back from the psychic blow they took on 9/11.
A lot of people went a bit nuts for a little while after 9/11, but most of us managed to gather our wits in relatively short order. Some people, on the other hand, just never snapped out of it.
July 28th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Wow, sorry to see that Weasel has joined the late Johnny Ramone on the lonely far-right fringe of punkdom. It’s true that onetime scenesters espousing Bushism is, particularly by 2006, somewhat more shocking than beating off to Skrewdriver albums.
Also, funny that I never read I Wanna Be a Homosexual that way — always thought it was a piss-take on macho hardcore meatheadism of the sort that predominated in the Upper Midwestern scenes of that era. Damn.
July 28th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
I don’t think my folks would blink if I told them I was gay. But if I told them I was gay for George W Bush . . .
July 28th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
On thing to remember is that Punk has always been anti-liberal in an important sense. This is partly why skins have been closely tied to punk, and the Dead Kennedies could sing about how Jerry Brown was going to bring fascism to California. I like lots of Punk music, but most of it isn’t that smart and isn’t very thoughtful. (There are, of course, honorable exceptions.)
July 28th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Ben Weasel hasn’t changed. I’ve known him since the early 90’s and he’s always been a stupid prick.
July 28th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Also, funny that I never read I Wanna Be a Homosexual that way — always thought it was a piss-take on macho hardcore meatheadism of the sort that predominated in the Upper Midwestern scenes of that era. Damn.
Yeah. from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screeching_Weasel
Through his writings in Maximum RocknRoll, fanzines, and lyrics, Ben Weasel established himself as one of the most pungent internal critics of the punk scene. As an example, in the 1999 song “Tightrope”, Weasel launched a rather pointed attack on the glorification of violence and chauvinism by what he termed “tough-guy, so-called working class or street punk bands”. Later, punk band Rancid referred briefly to this song in the liner notes of their 2003 album, Indestructible.
Doesn’t really chime with Matt’s thesis.
July 28th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
“While in Berkeley, we recorded three songs at Sergay’s Recording Emporium: “I Wanna Be Homosexual” and “Kamala’s Too Nice” (later re-recorded for “My Brain Hurts” with slightly different lyrics) for Very Small Records’ What Are You Pointing At? 10″ compilation and “Slogans” for an all-Chicago bands 7″ compilation entitled There’s A Fungus Amongus. “Homosexual” was written at the suggestion of Homocore pioneer/fanzine editor/film maker Bruce LaBruce who had heard about Sloppy Seconds’ “I Don’t Want to Be Homosexual” and thought we should respond (and for the record-we never felt that the Sloppys’ tune was homophobic, nor did we ever have any animosity toward the band-we just thought it would be funny).” – ‘Kill The Musicians’ liner notes
http://weasels.littletype.com/docs.ktm-liner-notes.php
July 28th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Not surprisingly, he is also a Cubs fan.
July 28th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
As someone old/young enough to have periodically checked on what Ben Weasel was up to on the internet for several years now, back in the ” I don’t trust any motherfucker with an E-Mail address” days, this is perfectly consistent of him, although perhaps with a tinge of more old foginess. Ben Weasel is kind of like the New Republic; they may not agree with the right-wing/conservatives but their real enemies have always been other “liberals”/people on the left. For Ben Weasel it’s always been piss takes & contrarian takes against what he considered the more naive aspects of his music scene. He’s simply taken his smug outlook toward outfits like “Food Not Bombs” & weekend Anarchists & applied it to the world at large. Hence, another asshole.
July 28th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Not that I live & die on what Ben Weasel has to say or that I was a huuuge fan. But the person he’s turned into post 9/11 makes me envy the kids who are growing up listening to disco & dance music. I suspect such people will be a lot less reactionary when they grow up. Can’t say the same about “punk”.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Ben Weasel, really? Damn. I had no idea.
Who was the other 90’s punk rocker/war blogger that Matt linked to a few months back?
July 28th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
On thing to remember is that Punk has always been anti-liberal in an important sense. This is partly why …the Dead Kennedies (sic) could sing about how Jerry Brown was going to bring fascism to California.
Dude. Describing the Dead Kennedys were “anti-liberal” suggests that you really might want to listen to Fresh Fruit again. With your irony detector set to “on” this time.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Eh, I don’t know about that. Not in the sense that they were conservative, but in the radical sense. The “liberals say that’s it’s Ok” line in “Kill the poor” was a real sneer it wasn’t irony.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
James Gary, I’d say the Kennedys were “anti-liberal”…but on the radical side, not the conservative side. “California Über Alles” is a critique of 70’s feel-good, trendy liberalism, not a pro-Reagan rant or something.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Wow, Ed Marshall beat me by two minutes.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Dude. Describing the Dead Kennedys were “anti-liberal” suggests that you really might want to listen to Fresh Fruit again. With your irony detector set to “on” this time.
No, actually they really weren’t liberals. They were Justin Raimondo types if anything.
I concur with Ed Marshall about Ben Weasel, by the way. He’s actually a stupid person, not in an “I disagree with him about things so I’ll call him a moron” way but in an “actually appallingly ignorant and dim” way. He’s actually less smart than you’d expect from someone whose life work is a band called Screeching Weasel.
I think the other neo-fascist Lookout! recording artist was Dr. Frank from Mr. T Experience. Lookout! honcho Larry Livermore actually has a very nice blog and he is not a neo-fascist.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Wasn’t Ben Weasel the guy who got booted from Maximumrocknroll by Tim Yo for being a right-wing, sexist stooge and then went on to write for HeartAttack? It might have been another “I’m gonna be right wing to piss of punk orthodoxy” type of guy. Anyway Screeching Weasel is another example of a ’90s pop-punk band that thoroughly sucked.
If you want authentic queer rock instead of straight wannabe’s, try Tribe 8 or Pansy Division.
n thing to remember is that Punk has always been anti-liberal in an important sense. This is partly why …the Dead Kennedies (sic) could sing about how Jerry Brown was going to bring fascism to California.
lolololol. Please stick to topics you actually know something about.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
“Jeez, what’s with all my 90s pop-punk heroes turning into fascist blowhards.”
Who else do you have in mind? At least Billy Joe Armstrong is still liberal, though Green Day is hardly the Ramones.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Yeah, I think Weasel was booted from MRR when they realized he actually was a dimwitted boor from the Chicago suburbs and not a parody of same. I think he was trying to ape Mykel Board’s schtick, but Board is a legitimately interesting guy with iconoclastic positions and strange stories to tell, whereas Weasel is not.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Kropotkin- what do you think “liberal” means? (I’d assume that someone who calls himself “Kropotkin” is either not a liberal, either- Kropotkin himself certain was not in any plausible sense- or else doesn’t have the slightest idea what he’s talking about.) “Liberal”, if it means anything, doesn’t include anarchist, of either a thoughtful kind or the stupid kind you might find among most Punks.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
tomemos:
James Gary, I’d say the Kennedys were “anti-liberal”…but on the radical side, not the conservative side. “California Über Alles” is a critique of 70’s feel-good, trendy liberalism, not a pro-Reagan rant or something.
P.S. My last post may of been a little too caustic, I apologize to all. But if DK were “anti-liberal”, this post hits the mark. Probably more anti-authoritarian and anti-establishment than anything else,. In California during the early ’80s liberals were the establishment in a big way with their creepy/utopian 1970s liberalism.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Indeed—the mainline punk tradition is certainly left, but it’s not liberal in any sense at all; the politics of the English first wave were in explicit opposition to the failures of liberal government. And for decades now, punk politics in America have been what you’d call Green if there were a real Green Party here, certainly not liberal in any sense that would see Barack Obama as an agent of change.
July 28th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
“Liberal” is a fucked up, abused term but if you are using as an axis against authoritarianism, the syndicalists and anarcho-communists would be liberals and the diametric opposite of the Bolshevics of the day.
July 28th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Kropotkin- what do you think “liberal” means? (I’d assume that someone who calls himself “Kropotkin” is either not a liberal, either- Kropotkin himself certain was not in any plausible sense- or else doesn’t have the slightest idea what he’s talking about.) “Liberal”, if it means anything, doesn’t include anarchist, of either a thoughtful kind or the stupid kind you might find among most Punks.
Did I ever say that Pyotr Kropotkin or myself were any stripe of liberal? I was uncharitable to you in assuming that you were using “liberal” in the “anything left of Hitler” sense that right-wing trolls usually do here. It was reactionary and stupid on my part.
July 29th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
But if DK were “anti-liberal”, this post hits the mark.
Well, Jello did cover “Love me I’m a Liberal” on his wonderful “Prarie Home Invasion” album with Mojo Nixon. I think you could characterize it as an internal critique, though — white middle-class lefties critiquing white middle-class liberals, the main difference between them being the degree of self-awareness.
Punk has always had a humanist strain and a nihilist one — Clash versus Pistols, Dead Kennedys versus Circle Jerks or the Germs, Ramones (Johnny) versus Ramones (Joey). But given the overrepresentation of white dudes (and in the US, particularly a certain type of upper-lower-middle-class white dude), there’s always been this kind of dickish libertarian strain of which Weasel seems a shining example.
Now homophobic “punk” — there’s a massive failure of self-awareness.
July 29th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
I can’t recall the band but I remeber this punk song which had the following chorus:
He don’t like Nirvana
You know he don’t like Prong
and I bet you 5 bucks that he don’t like this song
Ben Weasel – He’s an asshole
Ben Weasel – He’s a jerk
Ben Weasel – You don’t like him cuz he don’t have to work
Turns out they were right. Who knew?
July 30th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
For me this is classic “separate the artist from their art.” Having read a lot of his writing/listened to his radio show, Weasel is clearly one of those “9/11 changed everything” folks. I couldn’t disagree with him more, but at the same time Screeching Weasel is easily the best pop punk band of all time, so I’ll enjoy him on that level. Also, the fact that Weasel wrote the song “Racist Society,” which more accurately deconstructs the uses of racism in modern capitalist culture within two and half minutes than any book I’ve ever read buys him a few points.