Screeching Weasel is one of those bands that is your favorite band’s favorite band. A long-time fixture in the skate punk scene, Screeching Weasel has been cited as a significant influence by a metric load of bands that I grew up on– luminaries such as Blink-182, Green Day, New Found Glory, MxPx, Fall Out Boy, Less Than Jake, Alkaline Trio just to name a few– and listening to My Brain Hurts it’s pretty easy to understand why. Behind lead vocalist Ben Weasel’s sneering enunciation, the straight forward frenetic power chords and bass, and breakneck drum patterns, Screeching Weasel takes the foundation that Ramones laid with their debut album and adds a sense of pop melody in both the lead guitar sections and vocal lines to create what effectively became the beginning of the pop punk movement in the United States a decade before it blew up in a big way during the early aughts.
My Brain Hurts is everything that’s fun and accessible about punk rock without any of the heavier themes of politicization or grand statements that can be found in other iterations of the genre. If you’re looking for something to just simply bump along to and turn your brain off to, My Brain Hurts is the ticket.
Standout Songs: “The Science of Myth”, “What We Hate”, “Making You Cry”
