Saturday, September 19, 2015

V/A - Ben Weasel Presents" Punk USA (1994, Lookout)

Hearing Screeching Weasel for the first time in 1993 was an absolute revelation for me.  Right around the time I had absorbed just about the entirety of their back catalog, I learned of a new various artists disk that head honcho Ben Weasel himself was curating.  Punk USA was the album in question, and I regarded (and still do) it as nothing short of a knockout.  At the time of it's issue in '94 it boasted exclusive material from (almost) all of it's participants, and given that I was already an established aficionado of melodically-enhanced aggregations like the Queers, Jawbreaker, Face to Face and Sinkhole, this compilation was an absolute must purchase.  Better yet, it put some new faces on the map that I became an instant convert of - The Vindictives, Moral Crux and Beatnik Termites.  On top of that bunch there was a bevy of even more virtual unknowns that left a positive impression on me as well, specifically 8Bark, Scratch Bongowax and Rattail Grenadier.  An embarrassment of power chord riches.

One anomaly to point out.  There's a sixteenth band populating Punk USA, who are not included on the track-list or mentioned anywhere in the credits.  That would be Garden Variety, a coincidental favorite of mine who contribute a not-so-unreleased song, "Pretty Mouth," which originally saw the light of day in 1993 on their first album.  Whether the omission of GV's name was a typo or intentional (as the song technically was already available) is unknown, at least to me anyway. 

01-Scratch Bongowax - Nobody Home
02-Rattail Grenadier - Come On Back
03-Pink Lincolns - Rats
04-Moral Crux - Breakdown
05-Screeching Weasel - My Friends Are Getting Famous
06-Beatnik Termites - How Many Times
07-Thankless Dogs - Stan The Man
08-The Vindictives - I'm In Trouble Now
09-The Queers - Blabbermouth
10-The Pist - Threat
11-Submachine - Diseased
12-8Bark - Give Up
13-Face To Face - Dissension
14-Sinkhole - Casemaker
15-Garden Variety - Pretty Mouth
16-Jawbreaker - Sea Green Foam

Hear

6 comments:

Alex Kreit said...

A true classic! I remember it taking me months to learn that Garden Variety was the and behind that unlisted song.

Adam said...

The members of Rattail Grenadier went on to form Squirtgun with new vocalist Matt Hart. I used to have their full length on CD... but I'm not sure what happened to it. I even had it signed by the band at a show once.

Neal said...

i'm pretty sure ben weasel left garden variety's name off the cd intentionally because he was mad that it wasn't an exclusive song to his compilation.

Yourstruly said...

Link is dead..an update would be awesome..cheers!

quake1200 said...

A re upload would be awesome

quake1200 said...

A re upload would be awesome