Biography
Ben Weasel ranks among the notable personalities who shaped American punk rock beginning in the late 1980s. He founded Screeching Weasel and continues to serve as its lead vocalist and guitarist, yet his activities also encompass work with additional groups, solo releases, and a parallel career as an author that has proven consistently successful. Born Ben Foster in Prospect Heights, IL, outside Chicago, he displayed a pronounced streak of contrarian opinions and defiance throughout adolescence. Expelled from three Chicago-area schools, he was ultimately sent to Maine’s Elan School, which its administrators labeled “a residential school for troubled teens.” At Elan, after earlier immersion in heavy metal, Foster encountered punk rock and developed an intense admiration for the Ramones along with foundational hardcore bands including Black Flag and the Circle Jerks. Upon returning to Illinois he took employment at a movie theater, where he reconnected with former junior-high acquaintance John Pierson, then working as an usher. Their mutual passion for punk prompted them to start a band following a Ramones concert; Foster adopted the name Ben Weasel while Pierson became John Jughead. Originally billed as All-Night Garage Sale, the group adopted the name Screeching Weasel after spotting a frat boy’s T-shirt that read, “I’ve got a screeching otter in my pants.” They quickly gained attention on the Chicago punk circuit through acerbic lyrics and a lean, aggressive sound. Their self-titled debut arrived in 1987, reportedly cut for $200 during overnight sessions, followed a year later by the second album Boogadaboogadaboogada! Extensive touring proved largely unsuccessful aside from one appearance alongside Operation Ivy at Berkeley’s 924 Gilman Street; upon returning home the rhythm section departed, triggering the first of numerous disbandments. Weasel briefly played with the Vindictives and launched the Gore Gore Girls, yet a 1991 one-off Screeching Weasel reunion show intended to cover Boogadaboogadaboogada! recording costs produced a fresh lineup and a contract with Lookout Records, which issued the third album My Brain Hurts that same year. By then Weasel had cultivated a following among punk listeners through his outspoken columns in Maximumrocknroll and his own zine Panic Button, while the reconstituted Screeching Weasel achieved greater visibility and cultivated a devoted West Coast audience. The band exerted considerable influence on the emerging pop-punk acts associated with 924 Gilman, most notably Green Day, whose bassist Mike Dirnt contributed to 1994’s How to Make Enemies and Irritate People. At the close of that year the group dissolved once more, documenting the occasion with the rarities collection Kill the Musicians. Weasel next formed the Riverdales, whose Ramones-centric style yielded two albums—1995’s Riverdales and 1997’s Storm the Streets—before he and Jughead revived Screeching Weasel. Throughout much of the 1990s, however, a severe panic disorder confined Weasel to his apartment and prevented live performances. Therapy eventually brought the condition under control, enabling the band’s 1998 return with Television City Dreams. In 2000 Screeching Weasel resumed live activity and issued Teen Punks in Heat, though Weasel increasingly turned toward outside projects, publishing the novel Like Hell in 2001 and completing his debut solo album Fidatevi in 2002. That year also saw the release of Punk Is a Four Letter Word, a compilation of his magazine writings, while the Riverdales delivered Phase Three in 2003. Weasel’s second solo effort, These Ones Are Bitter, is slated for summer 2007, and he has disclosed plans to establish Medota Recording Company, a label devoted exclusively to digital releases. In addition he regularly co-writes material with Joe Queer for the Queers; Queer reciprocated by composing the song “Ben Weasel,” which contains the lines “He don’t like Nirvana/I know he don’t like Prong/And I’ll bet you five bucks that he don’t like this song.”
Albums
