Ben Weasel/ He's an asshole/ Ben Weasel/ He punches Girls

Public celebrity meltdowns sure are fun, aren't they? Listening to actors from 80's movies say racist things or berate their child via taped telephone conversations made by someone trying to extort money from them and then sold to media outlets and then reposted on the Internet so we can never be free to enjoy Lethal Weapon 2 again is truly one of the greatest pleasures electricity can afford us. Or glaring at photos of former child stars stepping in or out of vehicles and showing the entire world that Tuesday must be laundry day and clubbin' commando is all a girl can do is possibly akin to watching a child take it's first steps. Fuck celebrities. They're the modern monkeys of the futuristic zoo that is the Internet. Their very being is to entertain us, whether it's in dope movies we taped off TV as kids or for us to judge and label as bitches, skanks or raging douche bags, their public personas are the reoccurring characters in the greatest ongoing drama in history and the number one distraction from our own lives that is the personal lives of interesting people we don't know!
Friday night, punk rock legend Ben Weasel punched two women in the face while performing as part of the South By Southwest music festival. It was filmed up close on video and immediately posted to the Internet. You've probably seen the clip, where he places the microphone in the stand clip, steps from the stage and clocks a female who had been heckling him and then turns and hits another woman twice as she tries to stop him before being restrained by a security guard. The whole thing is essentially over after 10 seconds and is one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen. As one of the first bands to change my life (yes, I consciously do maintain that cliche) and someone who've I've been a fan of for half of my life, I literally felt nauseous as I laid in bed and watched this clip on my iPhone maybe 60 seconds after waking up Saturday morning, seeing as someone who's been a hero, committed a deplorable, vile act and possibly ending a career that had just launched a revival.

Ben Weasel punching two women in the face has become one of the most talked about things of SXSW 2011. Pretty much any online database for punk rock or even indie-leaning music has mentioned it and used it as an indication that the festival is getting out of control, despite the show appears to have been attended by only a couple hundred people and has overshadowed most of the artists way more famous than he is making surprise appearances at the festival (I suspect Kayne West is very upset at not only the attention this has garnered, but the fact that's he's been out-douched. And by a fellow Chicagoian!) . The punk rock community has also deemed Weasel's actions as characteristic, unforgivable and essentially the work of a terrible person who we're all supposed to hate because we're all about high school-grade solidarity. I mean, we've all seen the clip. Ben Weasel punches women. That's what he does because he obviously thinks that women should be punched because they deserve it for coming to Screeching Weasel concerts, right?

Right now, Ben Weasel is up there with Charlie Sheen and Mel Gibson as a celebrity douche bag you must hate if you consider yourself an intelligent human being. As of this writing, four major contemporaries have dropped off future SW shows, citing "the events that occurred in Austin". Weasel did issue an apology on his website Monday morning, but as we all know celebrity apologies hold zero weight of sincerity, especially when held against video footage.

Now, it's not like he was known as a friendly guy before this happened. For the past 25 years, he's been known as one of the most opinionated assholes in punk rock, from the liner notes of his records to his MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL columns, decrying major record labels and the bands who record for them to his many, many, many feuds with bands including members of Screeching Weasel. But that was part of the persona of Ben Weasel, and part of what came with liking his band.

My honest opinion of this incident is that it's an overall tragedy on many levels. It's essentially ended the career of Screeching Weasel, made people regret they ever liked the band and has perennially villainized Ben Weasel and labeled him a woman beater. And I think that it's fucking great that this judgement call has come from a community of people who consider themselves to be the smart and educated ones.

When looking at all the facts and my final judgement, I take more into consideration than the punches that were thrown and the people who received them. First, I must state that I don't know Ben Shaffer (his real name) personally. I shook his hand once at a show and asked if I could get my picture with him, and he gave me a lame excuse why not and then proceeded to hang out at the other end of the bar. I know some people who know him and they describe him as stubborn and opinionated. But from listening to his music and reading interviews with him where he states hating everything from touring to protools to My Chemical Romance, I don't get the feeling that he hates women. Many of his songs are written from feminist and pro-gay perspectives, which I don't find characteristic of your average misogynist. In fact, just before he called the woman heckling and spiting beer on him a skank and punched her, he was praising the band Matt & Kim, a duo who features a female drummer named Kim.

Something else that I feel should be taken into consideration is the main factor that he's given to the reason to why Screeching Weasel has broken up so many times over the years which is an anxiety disorder and acute agoraphobia which was the focus of a 2001 Spin magazine article. I've heard accounts over the years of him having crippling panic attacks that have caused tour cancellations and have lead to all those break up, including in 1995 which caused SW offshoot The Riverdales to drop off an arena tour with Green Day and preventing the 16 year old me from seeing them.

Now, I will restate that I don't know the guy and I'm not going to go on record as judging him, his action or his feeling, but I feel that this anxiety disorder should be taken into account when judging what went down. Anxiety attacks are something I take seriously and identify with because I suffer from them personally and try to cope with them unmediated. I've been caught in situations that (without going into too many details) have escalated very quickly and resulting in me yelling at people I shouldn't have yelled at because I felt trapped in a situation, my adrenaline kicked in and then convinced me I was under attack. I've never go so far as to hit anyone, but that's also because I've never felt it reasonable to resort to violence in any aspect of my life, but if I did I possibly could have.

I feel some other facts should also be taken into account, namely the fact that Ben's now married and has recently born twin daughters, possibly born around the time of the band's recent reforming. Could it be possible that he's revived a much loved band from a past era who has accumulated a growing fan base over the years, most of whom have never seen the band live and then formed a new line up while still using a widely recognisable name in order to cash in on it's popularity as a means of supporting his new family? Is it also possible that he's attempted to power through his disorders in order to perform live despite the fact that doing so with his disorder is the equivalent of swimming through shark infested waters and trying to ignore the sharks? Could someone who suffers from anxiety attacks have one triggered by being in an entire city overrun by cynical people and then turned into a place of sensory overload, and then being personally heckled and singled out by an individual in a room full of people, then making that person think they're under attack causing them to strike out at the people around them?

Don't get me wrong, it's not OK to for a man to hit a woman and what happened was wrong, but I don't feel that Ben Weasel is the kind of guy who goes around hitting women or ever has remotely condoned such an action. I also feel it's irresponsible and ignorant for the punk "community" to have taken the stance it has taken. Ben Weasel is not Chris Brown (a guy who beat the shit out of his more famous and talented girlfriend and then recorded an album about how he's the real victim) and not a single word Ben published in his apology points the finger anywhere but to himself. I feel that people who consider themselves as educated, open minded and intelligent should look below the surface of an incident like this before making a judgement and throwing someone under the train. Also, while still maintaining an anti-violence stance, I would also like to point out that Henry Rollins personally accounts assaulting female fans in similar situations during Black Flag shows in Get In The Van, but has never been widely labeled a misogynist for doing so. This could have a lot to do with the fact that the evidence here is printed transcript as opposed to video, but as everyone knows, watchin' TV is way better than book readin'. Charles Bukowski is also regarded among the learned for his frankness and honesty, but can be seen kicking and insulting his wife in the documentary Born Into This, but I'm assuming that was cool because being an alcoholic is pretty fucking awesome.

I guess I'm just disappointed in everyone. I'm disappointed that Ben let his emotions get the better of him, disappointed that a Screeching Weasel fan would be so belligerent as to provoke someone who I assume they like to do something like that and disappointed that celebrity judgement and gawking isn't only reserved for the slack jawed yokels I assumed were the major consumers and producers of it, but that swift judgement is also an aspect of the punk community as well, which is fucking great.

So remember kids, don't get too attached to your heroes because one day you may literally wake up to find them doing something terrible, and just like blasphemy that is stem-cell research, nobody's mind should be big enough to accommodate any sort of educated reason to not make quick judgements. Also, don't punch girls.

Life, you're a sweet sweet bitch you. So two and a half weeks ago, I somehow found enough anger, frustration and self esteem within myself to realise that the job I've held for 7 years and hated for 6 1/2 was not keeping me on life support so to speak and that it was downright ridiculous to continue working there. So I gave my two weeks and now here I am, semi-jobless and cautiously content with the way things are. At least I think. I had some vacation saved up, so this week and next week I'm still getting paid but I'm still on the hustle for a new source of income. It feels good to have quit. Really good. Anyone who knows me personally or has even encountered me in the past 7 years knows how much I hated that job and how crazy it drove me to feel trapped there, year after year after year. The way I saw myself and my responsibilities were so menial and meaningless that it made me feel completely incompetent as an individual and I was so desperate to do something else that it would really show through in every job interview I had over the years. But that's over now. My perspective was always that that job was a harness holding me up, keeping me from falling, when maybe falling was really what i needed to do. The pay was bad and the company in shambles, yet the responsibilities minimal and the hours there for me week after week after week. I had to just break, and I couldn't have done it at a better time. The day before my last shift, the General Manager was fired by corporate, and I watched as he was walked very unceremoniously out of the building holding a file box as if he was going on his lunch break, and then later told not to talk about it because of "the rumor mill." Give me a fucking break. No better time for me to go. Well, beside years and years earlier. Working there was making my life like a subject on Hoarders. It was driving me insane, but I was afraid of letting it go, keeping it stockpiled and convincing myself that I couldn't live without it because I was too scared to find out what I would do if it was gone.
So here I am now. I got no job (well, primary source of income), but at least I feel in control. I'm out looking for jobs, and I realise that my expenses are low enough that as long as I hustle, I can make ends meet. I still have my job at Metro, which I was working at a very minimum because of the last nights making the days that much harder, but now I have no problem picking up any shift that comes my way, and I actually have a lot of fun doing it. What's going to be going on in the next two weeks is still a mystery, but I'm not really worried. Something will come my way.
For the first time in my life, I'm really starting to feel happy, I'm not really pissed off and feeling like the world owes me something. I'm finally realising that if I want something, I can work for it and if I'm up for what it takes, I'll probably get it. I have friends now, or at least a satisfactory social life which for years I felt the world was cheating me out of. Dammit, things are pretty all right.
What do I still want? I want to be able to afford the things I need when I need them, and provide for myself in a fashion that doesn't force me to compromise and go without (i.e. sleeping on a broken bed, sitting crosslegged on the bus because my pants have crotch holes, subsiding on hamburger meat left over from a barbecue at my house weeks ago). I want to find a way to live my life where I feel confidant with who I am and what I do and finding some kind of professional capacity for my talents and the things I enjoy. I want to find a lady to be a part of my life and for me to be a part of hers. I want to have a family. I want to know what I believe. I want to make my own decisions, being clear with myself about things and not compromising them or letting myself be swayed by minor obstacles or difficulties perceived at failure. I want to get shit done. Life's too short to be miserable with the way things are. It's time to stop putting things off and not getting things done tomorrow. It's time to get things done today. Don't give up early. Don't call it a day when there's still things to do. Shit's about to get real.

The 2000's are over, and now were in a new decade of a yet to be determined title (the tens? the teens? what works best with "I Love The...." in front of it?). Anyway, with an entire decade behind us, it really is time to reflect upon a truly encapsulated era. The 80's were about excess, the 90's about change and so I guess the 2000's were about instant gratification? It was January 2000 when I downloaded Napster off my school's eithernet and then had any song I could ever think of downloaded in just a few short hours. I guess it really did become the age of technology, and maybe the general population became spoiled for it? I keep hearing people respond to the question of what they thought the 2000's stood for as "I don't really know, but that decade really sucked." To that I say phooie! Granted we had 9/11, the Bush presidencity/ Iraq war, the economy in the can and The Black Eyed Peas, but this was the era we pretty much got whatever we wanted when ever we wanted it entertainment wise, via cell phones and the internet, which probably lead everyone to spend money they didn't have and then crashed the economy. But I'll quit trying to theorize and get to what my original point is.
The Ten Greatest Albums of the 2000's (as chosen by me)

Shorter, Faster, Louder-Kid Dynamite (2000)


American V: The Man Comes Around- Johnny Cash(2002)


Is This It- The Strokes (2001)


The Bronx- The Bronx (2003)


Transatlanticism- Death Cab For Cutie (2003)


The Chemistry of Common Life- Fucked Up (2008)


Searching For A Former Clarity- Against Me! (2005)


Relatationship of Command- At The Drive-In (2000)


I Get Wet- Andrew W.K. (2001)


The Grey Album- Danger Mouse (2004)

Jay Reatard was found dead in his home yesterday. He was 29. I wasn't a crazy fan of his music, but I really liked his music and saw him play Riotfest a couple of years ago during a day long drinking session and remember (vaguely) being really impressed by his set, and hours later saw him on the street and tried to bum a ride from him. But the thing I really dug about the guy was that not only was living the dream of a 14 year old by not only playing snotty, sloppy punk rock,but making a living off it and he was making a career out of it. Jay dropped out of school in the 8th grade and pretty much treated his band The Reatards as if it was his business venture, not in that he had a model or plan out side of his band, but in that music was going to preoccupy his life and that's all that mattered; his music was going to feed and shelter him and that's all he was going to do, and he was going to fucking do it. It was so great to see some one my own age who started off in the same scene I came from still not only doing it, but evolving and maturing musically while stil sticking to what he started out to do, and while the music he played was teenage in spirit, he played it like and adult. It was so great to see a guy in his late 20's playing lofi punk and getting respect from the music community as a whole instead of just being a stale relic of a long dead scene who's still touring 10 years after his prime.
I guess what saddens me most is the fact that while he had so much ground behind him, there was so much ahead of him. I looked forward to where he was going to go and what his 30's, 40's and even 50's had in store for him and us. We won't get to find out but at least he showed us that playing punk past 25 dosent have to be pathetic or terrible but can be great and genuinely fun. Rest in peace Jay.

Has it really been two years? Well, it's been more like 5 since I really wrote on this thing with any sort of regularity, but hopefully that'll change soon. I bought an iPhone about a month and this very sentence is being plinked away horizontally with my thumbs from a Logan Square coffee shopee. This thing really is amazing. It pretty much tells me whatever I want to know whenever I demand it which makes me an even more powerful master of useless trivia. But it does really make life so much more simple. The GPS alllows me to never get lost again and tracts me on a display map way more effective than the Alien trackers James Cameron imagined back in the 80's. Actually, this lil' bastard could have possibly saved my relatationship had I had it two years ago. So many fights between my ex and I were over me getting us lost in our then new home of Chicago and then either wondering the streets or waiting for public transit in literally sub zero temperatures. Eh, but I'm sure even if I had been blessed with the omnicient power and ability to know where the hell all that one crazy carnitas place I'd read about in Pilsen (assuming AT&T sevices Pilsen) or the ability to see into he future and know when the hell the 66 bus was going to come around the corner and prove that I'm not a jerk for insistng we take a bus to go see The Wrestler down town in January, then who knows? Maybe we'd have a house and our first kid on the way. Or maybe the fact that we were at two different places in our lives and I wasn't emotionally mature enough to be in a relatationship would have become more prevelant, no matter what kind of gadget I owned and we would have drifted our seperate ways regardless. Unless I had a hoverboard. Those things will save us all.
And on that note, here's Glenn Danzig's shopping list.

It's been 3 years since I did a top 10 list, so this year is as good as any to get back in the habit, or just start writing period. I actually did intend to do lists in '05 and '06 (.....Searching for a former clarity and The Bronx (II) would have been my number 1's respectivly) but better late then never. Hey, '07. The year just about everyone went digital information really became instant with portable internet and famous people's (and people who became famous because they told people they were)every moves were broadcast online or on TV every 30 seconds. It's like the future Orwell and Warhol predicted came true where everyone's every move is watched and everyone's famous for 15 minutes. So lets taste some Chocolate Rain and do this.


Top 10 Albums of 2007

10. Radiohead- In Rainbows
For now this album is more about it's method than it's content, which is probably just as revolutionary; the peerless musical cool kids of the last 10 years emerge from a 4 year absence by announcing their new album will only be available online and you pay what ever you want for it, which includes the option of not paying anything. Was the idea here to put the Napster ideal into practice and show the music industry that the consumer will really pay for something they can get for free out of sure ethics or appriciation, or was the band just out to scorn the record label or even the entire music industry by not letting them have a piece of a rumored masterpiece the public had been waiting years to hear? We may never really know the answer or know what portion of the public decided to download and dash, but it's a great album simply on it's own musical merits. I wouldn't say it's revolutionary in that it sounds like more of what we've come to expect from the band who knocked the world on it's ass with OK Computer 10 years ago, but it's still probably a foreruner for musical quality in a landscape paved by ringtones and soundalikes.



9.Lily Allen- Alright, Still

As first sight, this seemed like just another Britney clone out to take on TRL, but when I actually heard the album it was closer to NWA meets the Specials. You've got this English child of priviledge who essentially got a record contract because her dad's famous and then takes her love on Jay-Z and English ska and puts out the poppiest example of shit talk I've heard since Screeching Weasel. Songs like "Smile" where she sings about how her cheating ex boyfriends pain and misfortune make her down right cheery or "LDN" where a town full of crack and ho's is her kind of London. Extra points for refering to law enforcement as the filth. That that Easy E.


8.Patton Oswalt- Werewolves and Lollipops
Somebody told me this doesn't count, but I don't care it's my list. I've loved Patton's comedy since I don't even know when I started seeing him on Conan back in highschool and I've been listening to his last album on a regular basis since it came out in 2004 so this was definately a highlight of my year. So many of his jokes reference things that I grew up on, weither it's the hatred for the local movie critic in the small town you grow up in being oblivious to culture or how being so cynical can just remove you from reality. Oh and he voiced the rat in Ratatouille. How 'bout that.



7.M.I.A.- Kala
M.I.A is just awesome. She samples the Clash and the Pixies, raps about 3rd world economies and has 12 year old aboriginal guest rappers droppin beats over digery doos. Mia really has started to bring parts of the world that most of western society is completely oblivious or ignorant to to hipster culture, that with any luck will open up the eyes of the rest of the world, or maybe even at least hip hip. Definately the most orginal and diverse album I've proably ever owned.


6.Gallows- Orchestra of Wolves

Everyone name drops Black Flag, At the Drive-In and Refused but no body really sound like them. I mean, really sounds like them. Gallows does. There's been a lot of Clockwork Orange refrences made towards them because of their overt Cockneyness, but it really does apply, and as the album starts, you can just picture a white sleeved, eyeball-linked cuff smacking you over the head with a sword cane and shoving you in a pond. Their music has almost an art to it's agression that I really haven't felt since the first time I heard any of the bands I just mentioned, and unlike where more hardcore it's more of the same toughness, this just feels so raw and real and I'm glad people are taking notice.


5.The Good, The Bad and The Queen

I think this was the first album I bought in '07 and I really dug it's chill, yet interesting nature. Paul Simonon's bass lines are unmistakenable and Damon Albarn's projects seem to get better and better. Dangermouse produced this record and I think that's a first for him as far as doing something not at all hip hop, and he really brings some good beats to the music that also give it that much of a groove feel that really made me enjoy it.



4. Every Time I Die- The Big Dirty

This basicly a stupid rock record written by smart guys that is beyond a guilty pleasure. It just kicks ass, but has a sense of humor to it that's been missing from a lot of punk music. ETID can't really be described as punk, metal or hardcore but some of all with some Southern Rock thrown in which gives it a winking, cock-rock appeal in that parts could be seen as chauvinism, but to be taken with a huge rock of salt. It's just awesome.


3. Kanye West- Graduation
I've been kind of hit and miss with Kanye, but I did really like this album. Alot of the tracks (especially Stronger) contain a level of energy you can really feel and strikes you in a way most hip hop dosen't. As much shit he talks about being the greatest and being robed of awards given to others, he pretty much is as great as he says, not that that means he can get away with it, but I do feel he is one of the most talented people in music today. His beats aren't just nursery rhyme harmonies but have depth to them as well, using samples that sound like the come from Bond themes and give them an aura of grandness. Plus he raps about the Cosbys and Isotoner gloves, which as a kid raised by tv in the 80's makes me likey.


2. Against Me!- New Wave
Hey, our boys made it to the majors, got Nirvana's producer to do their album and jumped from the Che Cafe scene to the Beauty Bar. How fucking dare they. I'd like to say I'm glad one our our (read; fat wreck era punk bands) is out there in the majors, but I don't think Tom Gabel would like to admit the asscioation to the pages of Vice or Spin any time soon. But, good for them. The album I didn't feel knocked me on my ass, at least not in the way thier last album did, but it's still pretty good none the less and has some of the best song writing in a long time and unlike so many bands in the past who've jumped to majors only to crash and burn, Against Me! definately have their best years ahead of them.


1. Lifetime-Lifetime
This album is a prime speciment of what I love; pop punky hardcore. It's fun, it's fast, it's a little heavy, it's fucking Lifetime. I still can't get enough of this record. I don't what else to say except it's great.

Been in Chicago for about a month now. It's had it's ups and downs, and I still can't find a decent burrito but I just need to give things time to settle in. Anyway, here's some shit that's been on me mind.
  A few weeks at was in the Urban Outfitter in Wicker Park looking at home furnishings to decorate the naked walls of our apartment with when I stumbled upon some framed concert posters I thought looked cool. One of them happened to be for a Ramones show in 1980 and it featured a grainy picture of the band, that after looking at for about half a second made me realise that it was fake. The line up in the photo featured C.J. who replaced Dee Dee who quit in 1987, 7 years after this alleged concert was to have taken place. I don't know what pissed me off more, the fact that they were making fake poster to satisfy yuppie pseudo hipsters rock chic needs or the fact that who ever made the poster obviously didn't know that much about the band and figured any picture of 4 guys with long hair and leather jackets would do the job.
   I guess the Ramones are THE biggest victim of faux rocker shirt display (the wearing of a band shirt by some one who isn't a fan for fashion purposes) being that that have a classic logo and are probably the epitome of what rock and roll music really is; fast, simple, fun. I guess the trend really started the beginning of the 21st century when Johnny Knoxville began appearing on tv, wearing the Ramones and CBGB's shirts he'd probably been wearing for years while becoming a celebrity who was both nihilistic and cute which eventually was picked up by other celebrities and can now be purchased at Target.
   The thing that bothers me the most about the whole thing, besides the fact that the Ramones have probably sold more t shirts in the past 5 years that records during their 22 year career is the fact that their music is still mostly unknown to most Americans when it's some of the most fun, hooky and anthematic music ever and should be destined for greatness in our modern era of short attention spans where hits are written to be ring tones or commercials. America claims it wants Rock n Roll, well the Ramoes ARE Rock n Roll. Their songs are catchy as hell yet simple and even safe enough to play for your kids who you've bundled up into a CBGB's onesie. But you're more likely to hear Blitzkrieg Bop on a Verizon commercial than on the radio or coming from a soccer mom's SUV, and goddammit that's the irony that is modern, consumerist America. They don't want the best there is, they just want what the man has to offer and not matter how bad it really tastes they're eat it up and pay top dollar for more.