Screeching Weasel – Television City Dreams (Re-Issue)

When you do a review, you often try and compare that band to other bands as a benchmark so people know what it is that you’re talking about. The problem comes then when you’re trying to review one of those bands that you normally use as a benchmark. I mean, they’re legendary. Everyone knows the name and what they sound like. Their name depicts a crystal clear sound before you even press play. So what do you say about them?

That’s the problem I’m faced with here. I mean, it’s Screeching Weasel for god’s sake. You know who they are, what they sound like and there’s really no surprises here. It’s even harder here because Television City Dream is the newly remixed and mastered release of the same 1998 album (only with five bonus songs putting the total track count up to twenty). Therefore, chances are that Screeching Weasel fans will already know it.

Although, that’s not necessarily a certainty. I mean, I’m a fan but haven’t heard all of Television City Dream before and therein lays another problem: I can’t compare this to the original release because I don’t know it.

What I can clearly, confidently and conclusively state though is that no matter what – whether you’ve heard the album before or not – Screeching Weasel have delivered a solid gem here. It’s not an instant classic as, say, My Brain Hurts but everything is still here. This is a collection of fast, snotty, pop-punk tunes by one of the pop-punk geniuses of our time. Ben Weasel knows how to write a solid pop-punk riff and deliver a snarly, nasally lyric with pizzazz.

Despite being twenty songs long, the album clocks in at just over thirty five minutes. This means the band doesn’t hold anything back or drag anything on. They pummel through everything at breakneck speed and deliver their fair share of minute-and-a-half pop-punk tunage.  Weasel’s vocals are his perfect signature style with some fantastic “woahs” in the background. Even for the casual Weasel fan, there’s plenty of songs from here that will be familiar as the fan favourites Dummy Up, Dirty Needles, I Don’t Give A Fuck and Pervert at Large can all be found here.

For those of you who are wondering, the five bonus songs on here don’t detract from the album at all. Being outtakes from the original session, they fit seamlessly into the flow of the album as they’re scattered throughout the track list. Oddly enough, a lot of them end up being highlights of the album. Video, Punk Rock Explained and Shut The Hell Up all ride the gamut of Screeching Weasel sound. Shut The Hell Up is fast and angry at thirty seconds long, Punk Rock Explained is a catchy, sarcastic look at the punk world in just over two minutes while Video breaks down the pointlessness of music videos in a minute and a half; and all three become standouts even though they never made the original cut.

Now, this was re-mixed and re-mastered and having never heard the original in its entirety, I can’t compare the two. However, this sounds fantastic and would be impossible to complain about.

As a whole, this is just a Screeching Weasel album. Fast, snotty, sarcastic pop-punk from the legendary band and fans will like it, haters won’t. It’s just that simple. They’re a benchmark band for a reason.