Review: Screeching Weasel – “Suburban Vermin”

Monona Records, May 15, 2020 

Screeching Weasel revisits the Brian Vermin years

After some fairly hefty gaps between activity, Screeching Weasel has been busy lately, releasing the live document Live 88 and a great record of brand new songs Some Freaks of Atavism.  And with Suburban Vermin, they’ve dug into the archives to put out a collection of demos, first versions, and a live song, all from the Brian Vermin drumming years (1988-1990).  

Screeching Weasel came up in the 1980’s, and if your gateway to their music started with My Brain Hurts or later, you might be surprised to hear some of the rougher/sort-of-hardcore sounding songs from their early period.  And while there’s not much here that I’d describe as straight hardcore, what’s cool with a lot of the stuff on Suburban Vermin is that you can kind of trace some of the steps taken towards the catchy-as-all-get-out punk songs that came later.  The first handful of songs are demos that are blown-out and fuzzy sounding.  “Crawl” in particular carries a real hardcore sound, but the lyrical phrasing and chorus have some hooks that show things to come and the Ben Weasel sneer is already in place.  The demo version of “I Need Therapy” keeps up the raw sound and the super fast music, but the hooks and melodies are even more pronounced.  

After the demos come a handful of “first versions”.  My favorites of these are “Slogans” and “Kamala’s Too Nice”.  Both of these will show up later (and cleaned up) on My Brain Hurts, but the versions on here are raw, fast and loaded with hooks that’ll get you (and the “ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba” part of “Kamala” is one of my favorite moments of any Screeching Weasel song).  I don’t want to say for sure, and I can’t find info one way or another, but I’m pretty confident that “Kamala” is part of a run of songs that we first got on Kill The Musicians way back in 1995 (and maybe one of my favorite demos/b-sides/singles sort of comps ever).  The best of this bunch would again include “Kamala” and the fantastic “Punkhouse”, which brews with angst and pop hooks.  The last real gem on here is “Teenage Slumber Party” (eventually from Wiggle).  This one brings a pronounced pop edge and has a bounce that makes me want to dance.  Even better, the backing vocals have this really fun retro 50’s sound to them (fitting for the song title).  They’re addicting.  And the version here jumps out of the speakers. 

By the time Suburban Vermin wraps, I can’t say this is an absolutely necessary record.  There’s a bunch of stuff I’m pretty sure I’ve heard before (namely the Kill The Musicians stuff) and extra versions of a couple of songs that don’t differ enough to matter.  The live song (“I Love Beer”) sounds like it has some hooks, but the recording quality makes it hard to hear.  And the closer, the piano piece “Eine Kleine Schiessemusic”, does nothing for me.  But if you can’t get your hands on or have never heard Kill The Musicians, this might help fill a bit of that hole.  Plus, judged without that context, Suburban Vermin has lots of good songs and a raw energy that makes it a fun listen.

Why you might like this:

• You like Screeching Weasel’s pop hooks, but want to hear them sounding a bit more ragged
• You’re a completist who wants to get all things Screeching Weasel

Why you might not:

• You already have and love Kill The Musicians
• You don’t like raw recordings