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Anybody who’s read this blog, had a chance to look through my music, or even talked to me for more than an hour, knows that I’m a huge fan of punk rock. I’ve been into it for as long as I can remember, and I’m sure I’ll be jamming to Dillinger Four and the Minutemen until I die. I’m not going to go into the sanctimonious speech about how “it’s a lifestyle and belief system, man! Not just about the music!” I, unfortunately, agree with that preachy thought system, but the overarching subculture of “punk” wouldn’t exist without the awesome, awesome music, so here we go.



So, over the past week, the internet has been on fire over an incident in Austin where punk legend Ben “Weasel” Foster went berserk and acted completely inappropriately at his band’s set at the South by Southwest Festival. I’m linking to the video just to catch anybody up who hasn’t seen it. I’m going to warn you that it’s not pretty at all.

Shudder. Anyway, I had trouble believing my eyes when I watched it, but getting a variety of accounts on the incident, Weasel had spent most of Screeching Weasel’s set complaining ad nauseum about the festival itself, the organizers, the club they were playing in, the amount they were being paid, and the music press on board. Tempers flared worst at the very end when certain audience members were antagonizing him and one spat ice on him. Within days, the internet was alight and Weasel’s career was going down in flames. The upcoming Screeching Weasel 25th-anniversary festival in Chicago started to crumble, as some of the most beloved bands slated to play publicly dropped out, including Teenage Bottlerocket, the Soviettes, Chinese Telephones, and most sadly on a personal note, the Calgary-based, very-tough-to-see Chixdiggit!. Certain bands, in particular the Queers, stayed on board, creating a wave of backlash to the backlash (more on that in a second). Then, last night, I got a text from my friend in North Carolina saying that Ben Weasel no longer had a band. All four of the innocent bystanders to Weasel’s SXSW tirade, including Danny Vapid (more on him in a second, too) were out, and as of this writing, the state of Weaselfest is uncertain. I should have been shocked, though, considering the position that Weasel put them all in last Friday night.

Everybody aware of Ben Foster’s existence has weighed in with their opinion on this matter, and now it’s my turn. I know this may come off sounding like Michael Moore’s defense of OJ Simpson's unguilt in Stupid White Men, but it applies. Yes, I do think that Ben Weasel is less-than-stellar human being for a variety of reasons. No, I don’t consider him a “woman-beater” or even a “woman-hater.” He hit those women by pure chance during that one incident when he lost his temper. There is a difference between overreacting like a shithead and being someone who hits women for fun. We're talking about a dude has a wife and little twin daughters. I’m sure that if anyone hit his wife or one of his girls, he would kill them. I am not saying that it’s EVER cool to hit a woman, but we also need to remember that some of the most beloved pop musicians of all time like Rick James and Ike Turner have done unspeakably horrible things to women and remain celebrated for their art.

But I need to rewind here, because this exodus of sorts from Weaselfest is about much more than just those frantic punches he threw in the midst of a hissyfit last Friday. This general self-destruction runs much deeper than just one terrible night. Weasel has all but vanished from public life since the incident, and issued what punknews.org called "an apology of sorts" on his website. Whether or not Weasel truly regretted what happened on the basis of guilt (as opposed to losing his fucking band), this begs the question of why aren't people accepting his apology?

For the past few years, I have been paying attention to Ben Weasel’s pretty closely ever since he emerged from his self-imposed exile from the spotlight. On the music front, he released a decent solo album in 2007 and made an effort to reissue some of his classic Screeching Weasel material. As his personal life became increasingly public, he began blogging, left Chicago for Madison, started co-hosting a radio show, and became a dad. Hell, he even merited an appearance on Carson Daly’s show, which is about as mainstream as you can get if your repertoire includes songs like “Jeannie’s Got a Problem with her Uterus.” The blog and the radio show gave Weasel a platform to both trash great bands like DC's own The Max Levine Ensemble and expound his profoundly retarded political views. While he repeatedly claims to be a hardcore independent, his completely off-base and antagonistic opinions of Obama and support of Sarah Palin in general lead me to believe otherwise. Still, I did my best to separate the man from the art. The fact that he angrily defends and reconstructs his own past lyrics to support his born-again Catholicism takes a backseat behind to the timeless pop perfection of songs like “Veronica Hates Me” and “Like a Parasite.”

 

I’m sure I would disagree politically with many of my favorite musical, literary, and cinematic favorites. But considering how Weasel has done nearly everything he could to alienate millions of fans like yours truly, I am having trouble living with the knowledge that I spent money for a 3-day pass for his music festival in May. I wasn’t the only one; the 3-day Weaselfest has been sold out for months now, many people bought international plane tickets to be there. To be perfectly honest, the other bands on the bill, many of whom backed out over this past week, especially Chixdiggit! and Chinese Telephones, were the selling point for me. Regardless, Screeching Weasel have still been on my “need-to-see” list for years now. I finally had that opportunity, and Ben Weasel ruined it. Like I said, he’s pissed off many people in his time, most more personally and worse than me. Hell, Ben has no idea that I exist, and I really couldn't care less.

Even Weasel’s most devoted fans need to face certain facts about Ben “Weasel” Foster the artist as much as the man. Obviously, Screeching Weasel is more of an institution than a band. The Wikipedia page lists twenty past members, and I’m sure that’s a conservative estimate considering the transient nature of punk bands and the monetary dearth inherent in the scene prior to Green Day’s breakthrough success in 1994 (Ironically, Mike Dirnt did play bass on a few Screeching Weasel releases in the mid-90’s). They broke up once in the late 80’s after putting out the record that “those type of fans” consider the best SW release, Boogadaboogadaboogada.

ROUGH around the edges, but adorable. They were barely old enough to drink when they recorded this.


Foster and co-founder John “Jughead” Pierson formed a new band (keeping the name Screeching Weasel at their label’s behest) with new guitarist Danny "Vapid" Schafer, bassist Dave Naked, and drummer Dan Panic before putting out Weasel’s erstwhile masterpiece My Brain Hurts. They broke up again after releasing a couple more albums, reformed to put out some more music in the late 90’s, then broke up “for good” (for the 5th time or whatever…nobody’s really kept track) in 2004. But of course, when Weasel was faced with the specter of fatherhood, the only way he could conceivably earn enough as a musician was to reform the band he was best-known for and capitalize as much as he possibly could. I don’t begrudge him of that, and would disagree strongly with anyone that did. People can’t buy houses using indie-cred. He has dependents now; the responsible thing to do was sell out and tour again, despite saying repeatedly in interviews that “that part of my life is over.”

The way that Foster resurged the Screeching Weasel b®and was what highlights the overarching problem. Jughead, whose guitar playing was as essential to the b®and’s legacy as Ben’s lyrics and vocals, co-founded the band in 1986 and played on every Screeching Weasel record short of the one just released last week. I didn’t realize how much screwing-over was involved until my friend emailed me this quote, which Jughead posted on his Myspace page.

“If it weren’t for the fact that I actually enjoy conversing with the fans of my prior bands, I would never have found out about a new band called Screeching Weasel beginning to tour. “This can’t be the band I was in.” I say to myself. “I would have been preparing.” My mind would much prefer going to a place of calm contemplation than into a dark cold room filled with anger and the emotions associated with betrayal. So to avoid painful emoting I first took the facts that Ben and I started a band together called Screeching Weasel, we both spent all our days making that band a home for ourselves, and 18 years later we put it to rest. This, along with the statement made by both me and Ben on many occasions that the band wouldn’t be Screeching Weasel without either of us, makes me assume that this band playing isn’t Screeching Weasel, because I don’t recall having kicked myself out of the band.”

It’s always disheartening to hear about this much bad blood behind an otherwise very exciting development, especially within the context of a scene that relies so much on mutual support and goodwill. The financial rewards sure as hell weren’t rolling in for Foster or Pierson for years. However, I wasn’t really a “long-time” fan or enough of a purist snob to prevent me from watching and enjoying Weasel perform without Jughead if that was my only option. Honestly, though, without Danny Vapid, Ben’s pretty mediocre. In fact, many would argue (myself included) that none of Weasel’s music really hit that plateau until Dan Schafer entered the fold. Sure, Boogadaboogadaboogada had plenty of great songs on it, but My Brain Hurts and Vapid’s subsequent work with Screeching Weasel, the Riverdales (a side project he's done with Ben that’s an even mushier love letter to the Ramones), and his own bands like the Methadones and Noise by Numbers reveal who the secret weapon is. Schafer, unlike his (former?) bandmate, also happens to be a genuinely solid musician and not an asshole (ahem..7:50 mark or so).

The Riverdales – “Homesick” (Danny Vapid on vocals)

Because I wasn't in Austin and I'm little more than a faithful fan of the music and scene before either side of this whole mess, I decided to withhold harsh judgement (at least publicly) until weighing various opinion. I was heavily influenced by comments from both Joe King of The Queers (in staunch support of Weasel), and Teenage Bottlerocket (explaining how, like I mentioned earlier, their backing out was about more than just Ben’s fisticuffs). Here are relevant chunks of each.

From Joe Queer:

And after all Ben has done for the scene out there everyone jumps ship on him and all of a sudden he's persona non grata. I'm ashamed at all you people who could at least show him some support instead of acting all high and mighty and bailing out acting like you're some saint. Playing Weaselfest doesn't mean you condone hitting chicks for crying out loud. Talk about adding 2+2 and getting 5. Christ if Ben didn't start SW half you fuckers wouldn't even have a band. Ben's been around the scene for years-has he ever hit a chick before-no. Is he a guy who hates girls and beats on them-no. And you all fucking know it!@!Fuck you assholes who throw him under the bus like you're some righteous motherfuckers. Hey we've all fucked up-Ben has too. That doesn't mean he isn't my friend. I'm just glad it didn't happen to me-I honestly don't know how I'd react.

You can read his entire piece here. And you should, because it’s not all as vitriolic as this passage here. I don’t really agree that the bands that dropped off the fest were ungrateful or caving to PC pressure, but I do agree that playing the Fest wouldn’t necessarily equal support for violence against women. There are those of us who paid money to see bands other than the headliners. Needless to say, King did attack the bands who dropped, especially Teenage Bottlerocket, who posted a similar reasoning here. Here is one portion of their statement:

Either way, Ben was frustrated, which is his right, but he physically attacked two women. We simply can’t stand for that kind of violence toward anyone. As far as standing behind someone who has stood behind us: Ben Weasel has not only never stood behind TBR, he has gone out of his way to publicly trash our band in the past. He spent a few years having nothing but bad things to say about not only our band, but many of our mutual associates and even close friends. If the tables were turned, Ben would not only abandon us, but go out of his way to trash us further. It wasn’t until recently that efforts were made on both sides to put all of that in the past, which is when we decided to play Weaselfest in the first place. We were doing our best to try and let bygones be bygones, but then the SXSW incident happened and along with it came many other problems… Apologies again to anyone who wanted to see us this weekend; trust us we’re bummed out too, but we promise we will do our best to make it up to all of you.

When TBR drummer Brandon Carlisle called into The Big Takeover in December 2008, he didn’t have much to say about Ben Weasel, other than he grew up a huge fan and still hadn’t gotten the chance to get to know Weasel in person. Obviously, things have soured more even since then.

I think the best reactions I’ve read were written by Larry Livermore, the founder of Lookout! Records and a longtime friend of Ben Weasel until the latter had this psychotic meltdown. I know they’re both lengthy diatribes from one side of the coin, but Ben shouldn’t be upset or surprised that Livermore is easier to take seriously in this scenario. HERE is something he wrote pre-meltdown, and HERE is his reaction to this mess.

So, after weighing and understanding various points made on both sides of this fragile coin, I have to say that this is simply a case of figuring “how low is too low?” Hitting women is obviously unacceptable, so for that outburst, fuck that guy. But zooming out on this entire shit-storm: One doesn’t get much lower in his own right than managing to throw an entire successful comeback to the top of the punk world straight into the wood chipper. My buddy in North Carolina, along with millions of other fans who grew up listening to Weasel’s music , is disillusioned to no end right now, and I don’t blame him. Granted, it’s news to nobody that Ben Weasel is a major asshole; he’s always been that way, with wink/nod laced heart of gold. Now, Ben’s made it impossible for us to see through to that heart, or even believe he has any goodwill left for anything short of the tiny handful of people on this planet he hasn’t pissed off and completely alienated. It seems like he thrives on unpredictability, though, and the worst times of his life were those when he wasn’t recording and performing, so this probably isn’t the end of Ben Weasel. In a perfect world, Ben would admit he’s taken this dick persona to the wrong level, seriously make amends, patch things up with Jughead and Vapid, and stop thriving off acrimony. But it’s not a perfect world. I just want to go to Chicago and see some great music with great people! Is that too much to ask, you prima donnas? As Kurt Baker, bassist/crooner for the Leftovers so eloquently said on his twitter, “Punx + internet = everybody's got an opinion. Let's just get high and listen to some records! It's the reason we’re here in the first place.”

Any way you slice it, the new Weasel record is actually pretty good.

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PODCAST IT HERE

Harry Shearer probably, moreso than any guest we've had on TBT, requires no introduction. He has been working in television and comedy for almost 60 years now. His accomplishments are almost impossible to simplify, but perhaps his two most noteworthy include starring/being Derek Smalls in Spinal Tap, and voicing upward of 17 characters on the Simpsons, including Mr. Burns, Smithers, Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner, and Otto Mann. Now, he's taken a serious turn with a new documentary that uncovers what really happened leading up to the flooding of his beloved New Orleans in 2005. We discover a lot about the man, including his love for the musical work of Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, and XTC. Hope you enjoy!

Also, Jake and I recorded an intro to this episode in the world's most cluttered junk store in Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY. Sorry for the lack of visuals.

Playlist

1. derek smalls lead-in
2. intro (manges song)
3. tyler and jake intro
4. spinal tap - big bottom
5. tyler with harry shearer
6. the radio dept- the worst taste in music
7. closing of shearer's speech to the national press club

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TDC Productions and Champions Productions are proud to present...



So, a tour of sorts is well in the works for this spring (for Tyler, not for "THOR!!!" as much as we would love to sometime in the future). Stay tuned to this site for more information about that. Hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, maybe share it on facebook? Not that difficult, really.

Have a great weekend, everybody. I'm going to be recording a couple of interviews for The Big Takeover that will blow your mind. Not trying to build it up too much, though.

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I have no idea who this guy is and I've never met these people before, but take Super 8 footage from the Vietnam War era and lay it over one of my favorite songs of all time, and I'm sold 110%. I really need my ability to rip VHS back, soon. I should get on that.

By the way, the first two shows at the Electric Maid have been spectacular. Thanks to all of the comics and people who've come out. Next show is March 11th. For now, check out my calendar for my slowly accumulating spring schedule.