We recorded this album eleven years ago. Combined with BoogadaBoogadaBoogada, it paints an accurate picture of our development. That's about the nicest thing I can say about it, other than the cover finally looks decent. We don't play any of the tunes from the record anymore, and we haven't since 1988. And I've resisted re-releasing the album for so many years because it's just not representative of the band. The only reason you're holding it now is because we figured it'd be better for us to make the money from it than the bootleggers, or pirates, or whatever the thieves are called these days.

In 1991, when Lookout Records insisted that we call ourselves Screeching Weasel if we wanted them to release our record, we caved in, even though the band had died in 1989; the band that recorded My Brain Hurts had little in common with the "original" Screeching Weasel except for a couple of the same members. That Screeching Weasel lasted for three years, and while there are tunes (on Boogadax3) (and really, much of what we recorded in 1989) from that period that provide clues as to where we were headed, SW circa 1986-1989 was completely different from SW circa 1991-present. In fact, the bands were different enough that they literally only share a name due solely to circumstances that were as close to being out of our control as you can get without actually being there.

Having said that, I don't wanna distance myself from the album; I'm just attempting to clarify things. Well, and maybe distance myself just a little bit. But I'll tell you this: Alone in my apartment, I still play the record every couple of years, and while I cringe a lot, I also get a bang out of what I was doing when I was a teenager. I actually like a decent number of the tunes on the album. But that's on a personal level, and it's for reasons that no fan or critic can understand. You had to be there. So, in trying to take an objective look at the thing, I long ago came to the following conclusions:

The album is amateurish, but not in a charming way. It's just annoying. The bands we were listening to at the time - Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Angry Samoans, A.O.D., M.D.C., Minor Threat and D.O.A. for instance - were not so much influences as they were blueprints from which we learned how to be a punk band. Since only two of us had been in bands prior to Screeching Weasel (Vinnie - in a heavy metal basement band and Steve in some Wisconsin band whose name slips my mind at the moment), we did what bands were supposed to do we wrote fuck you songs, sorta-political songs, and filled in the blanks with a bunch of know-it-all social commentary. The end result was about what you would expect from a just-turned-19 year-old lyricist in 1987. It doesn't stand the test of time for shit.

Still, upon its release in September of 1987 (originally on Underdog Records), it received almost unanimously good press. And not just from the fanzines. NME gave it 10 out of 10. Sounds (NME's main competition - now defunct) raved as well. We were told that John Peel played the record on his radio show relentlessly. The fact that the notoriously cranky and jaded British press liked us was probably mostly due to the fact that they were very hot on Chicago underground music at the time (this is evidenced by the fact that they've totally ignored us ever since then...). But I like to think that it also had something to do with us coming along at a time when nobody was playing punk rock. Yeah, the Circle Jerks and 7 Seconds were still playing it live, but their studio efforts had become labored attempts to expand their horizons, or else simply joyless slabs of wax devoid of the spirit that made them popular in the first place. We were welcomed with open arms despite our clumsiness and lack of direction (or apparent purpose) because we were a new band and we played punk rock and people simply didn't do that in 1987. People played in bands like Sonic Youth, Dinosaur and Das Damen. Or else they were in bands like Suicidal Tendencies or Napalm Death. Hardcore was commonplace, as was speedmetal and all of its irritating variations. But three chord punk - even done in the guise of a hardcore band - was rare enough that it resulted in a decent number of people falling in love with what they perceived as being the record's goofy charm. They ignored the massive weaknesses and numerous shortcomings of the record and thanked the gods that somebody still cared enough to say "Fuck you." 

We were lucky then, that our spirit wasn't crushed, as it probably deserved to be, because we redeemed ourselves with Boogadax3 which, while certainly not a masterpiece, is what I've long considered to be our first "real" record; yeah, there are too many songs, and too many of them suck, but it's a funny, goofy, smart-ass record made in the spirit of fun, and I think it shows. But everything on this CD happened prior to the October, 1988 recording of that album.

The first album, by the way, appears here in its entirety, a decision with which I'm still not totally comfortable (okay, I can live with everything else, but I'll always have a burning desire to destroy the masters for "Clean-Cut Asshole" and banish them to the pits of hell for reasons which really should be obvious) (and "entirety" means the music - not the art. There's no room for the lyrics, and the back cover had to be redone to accommodate the extra tracks. Any photos included here are ones that haven't been printed before - at least not to my knowledge - and the weird little alcohol-induced "story" that came with the Underdog release on a separate sheet of paper isn't in here because - uh, y'know, the room thing). I hadn't learned how to write a decent lyric with any consistency yet (which is why others were allowed to pen three of the tunes) (and Steve Cheese sang lead vocals on "K-Mart Blues" because I couldn't bear to - besides, it had deep, personal meaning for him) and my voice was like an alien creature of which I was terrified; to say I didn't know how to control my voice would be a major understatement.

The personnel problems which have plagued us for eleven years started with Vince Vogel, who was called Vinnie Bovine for the record. Vinnie had joined the band in December of 1986, a couple of weeks before we were to record our first demo tape. He was a friend of a friend and was asked to join because I was beginning to realize that bass guitar was not an easy instrument to play. We were a little worried about the metalhead image he so proudly projected, but he turned out to be remarkably open-minded about playing our stuff. He learned the tunes fairly quickly and once we had recorded, was firmly entrenched in the band. He would be asked to leave 13 months later primarily due to severe personality conflicts - the likes of which were never seen in the band again - as well as our desire to find someone who wouldn't constantly be pushing for the band to be playing harder and faster (though "Stoned And Stupid" - sloppy as it may be - is a pretty good tune in the vein of D.R.I.). Vinnie took his sacking like he took everything else - he flew into a petulant rage - and I'm told that to this day (maybe as a matter of honor) he loudly proclaims the assholery of myself and Juggy to anyone who cares to listen.

The recording of the first album was paid for by myself and Jughead - the other two couldn't be bothered to contribute. It was recorded in one long, hot summer night at Solid Sound by Phil Bonnet, who had recorded our demo tape and would record Boogadax3 in 1988. A couple of the songs were co-written by Vinnie, a couple by Steve and the words for two of the songs ("Wavin' Gerbs" and "Raining Needles") were written by the guy who had hooked us up with Vinnie. Underdog released the album in the summer of 1987, pressing 1,000 LP's. They sold out in three months and Underdog never re-pressed it. It was licensed to Shigaku Trading/What Goes On in England, who supposedly pressed 2,000 LP's. They soon went out of business and neglected to pay us, or to return our copies of the masters. Luckily, I held on to the original masters, which were transferred to DAT for this release.

The other material on this CD includes two songs from our first demo tape, "In The Hospital" and "I Feel Like Shit". I have no idea why we didn't re-record those songs for the album, as we did with so many of the songs from the original demo. "In The Hospital" appeared on a 7" compilation from 1989 or so entitled "Blame and Burn". We never kept the reels for the demo, so those songs have been taken from an 11 year-old cassette and cleaned up as well as we could clean 'em up (and they sound pretty good). The songs were recorded at Solid Sound in late December of 1986 and produced by myself, Jughead and Phil Bonnet

"I Hate Led-Zeppelin," "American Suicide," "A Political Song For Screeching Weasel To Sing," Twinkie Warfare," and "Stoned And Stupid" were the last songs we recorded with Vinnie. "Political Song" and "Twinkie Warfare" were intended to be on a split 7" with local heroes The Ozzfish Experience (the Fish half of Ozzfish would be Vinnie's replacement), about whom we'd written a song which ended up on the first album. The circumstances surrounding that recording session are detailed on the Kill The Musicians insert. The songs were recorded at the same studio as the demo, with the same production team. The recording took place in late summer or early fall of 1987. These songs came from the original 1/4" master tape.

One of the first things we recorded with Fish - this would've been around the spring of 1988 - was "Life Sucks (And So Do You)" which I'd entirely forgotten about until Juggy mentioned it last week. Recorded at the same studio as everything else on here, with the same production team, the song was supposed to be on a CD-only compilation to be released by a New Jersey label, the name of which I simply can't remember. I do remember that "CD-only" was practically unheard of ten years ago, and I also remember that the guy who ran the label never returned our reel, which is why we had to take it from a cassette in order to put it on this CD.

The most recent material on here was recorded in the summer of 1988, just after we'd gotten back from our first trip to California and our first time playing Gilman. Again, Fish was the bassist. As was the case with "Led-Zeppelin" and "American Suicide," these tunes would all be re-recorded for the Boogadax3 album. These songs also came from a crappy old beat up cassette. And I believe that covers all 39 songs.

This is not our finest moment. This is, in fact, our Heaven's Gate, our Ishtar, if you will. Every band's got one. But it still smarts. So if I've ever knocked your band, and it ever pissed you off, this CD ought to make you feel a lot better. But I gotta tell you - my mother still thinks it's the best album we've ever done.

Ok,
Ben Weasel
9/10/97