My Brain Hurts
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| My Brain Hurts | |||||
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| Studio album by Screeching Weasel | |||||
| Released | 1991 | ||||
| Recorded | 1991 | ||||
| Genre | Punk rock, pop punk | ||||
| Length | 31:03 | ||||
| Label | Lookout!, Asian Man | ||||
| Producer | Andy Ernst, Lawrence Livermore | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Screeching Weasel chronology | |||||
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My Brain Hurts is an album by Chicago, IL based punk band Screeching Weasel. Released in late 1991, it was the band's debut full length for Lookout! Records and marked a very distinct stylistic shift. Following a brief breakup, the band reunited and made a conscious decision to pursue a more pop-based sound, rather than the faster, more aggressive songs found on their prior LPs like Boogadaboogadaboogada!. Along with the shift in sound, main songwriter Ben Weasel began collaborating more with guitarist (and former bassist) Danny Vapid. Weasel has been quoted as saying that Vapid is the only person he ever felt truly comfortable writing songs with. With this album, the band's popularity skyrocketed within the punk community. It remains one of their best-selling releases and is considered one of their absolute best albums by fans. This surge in popularity would unfortunately provide a source of pressure on the band when they recorded the follow-up album, Wiggle. After being out of print for a short time, the album was remastered and re-released by Asian Man Records.
[edit] Track listing
- "Making You Cry" (Weasel) – 1:35
- "Slogans" (Weasel) – 1:38
- "Guest List" (Weasel/Vapid) – 2:26
- "Veronica Hates Me" (Weasel) – 2:52
- "I Can See Clearly" (Johnny Nash) – 2:17
- "Cindy's on Methadone" (Weasel) – 1:27
- "The Science of Myth" (Weasel) – 2:24
- "What We Hate" (Weasel) – 2:26
- "Teenage Freakshow" (Weasel/Vapid) – 2:33
- "Kamala's Too Nice" (Weasel/Vapid) – 1:22
- "Don't Turn Out the Lights" (Weasel) – 3:37
- "Fathead" (Weasel/Vapid/Jughead) – 1:24
- "I Wanna Be With You Tonight" (Weasel) – 1:52
- "My Brain Hurts" (Weasel) – 3:09
[edit] Personnel
- Ben Weasel - vocals
- Jughead - guitar
- Danny Vapid - guitar and back-up vocals
- Dave Naked - bass
- Danny Panic - drums
[edit] The songs
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Many of the songs on My Brain Hurts have come to be known as definitive Screeching Weasel. For the brief time the band toured after this album and the next, sets were mostly comprised of material from this album. Many fans would list songs such as "Veronica Hates Me", "Cindy's on Methadone", and "The Science of Myth" as high points in the band's career. The album mixes Weasel's trademark tongue-in-cheek songs and love songs with his lesser acknowledged more serious writing. The album evinces a beautiful childlike 'nyah nyah nyah' guitar sound, along with childlike handclaps and whoops and whistles and cheers, and successfully straddles the innocence and naivety and wideyed happiness of youth with encroaching cynicism and more adult concerns.
"Making You Cry," the opening track, is an unusual relationship song. It details a relationship gone horribly wrong, possibly even violent, from the point of view of one making their significant other feel awful. As with many Weasel tunes, it's unclear whether the song is meant to be taken seriously, as some lyrics are written in a seemingly jokey manner. Throughout Screeching Weasel's career, Ben was known to tackle serious, sometimes autobiographical, topics with humor in this same manner to lighten the mood.
Never one to shy away from confrontation, Ben attacks the punk scene that warmly embraced his band very specifically on two songs, "Slogans" and "Teenage Freakshow." The former is a jab at self-righteousness within the punk community, calling out those who are quick to resort to one-liners and song lyrics to argue with others but who fail to see the emptiness behind their rationale. It also attacks youthful naivety and how this can be molded and manipulated into codified political responses. The latter lambasts the scene for falling into a predictable pattern- "funny hair and acting bored" and "refusing to change." Weasel sees the so-called "difference" of the punk community as just as boring as what it was created to rebel against.
"Guest List" is a fun little tale of trying to woo a female fan waiting outside the show by getting her on "the list." The plan works, but possibly not so well, as she smacks the protagonist in the head late in the lyrics because of his punk scene infamy.
"Veronica Hates Me" is another portrait of a decaying relationship. Weasel would later explain that many of these songs were his way of dealing with problems in his long-term relationship at the time. Once again, he paints himself as the one doing wrong in the relationship, but the mutual dislike seems to hold the two together. The recording of this song highlights the strong harmonizing Weasel and Vapid were able to achieve, much to the benefit of the music. This would go on to become a staple of the band's sound.
"I Can See Clearly" is a punk adaptation of a Johnny Nash song. It's slightly rearranged and became a fan favorite at live shows.
"Cindy's On Methadone" is another shining example of Weasel's mixture of wit and serious social criticism. The song tells of a poor girl hooked on heroin who now has found a solution in methadone. She appears to have fixed her life in many ways, no longer "calling at 3:30", "looking thin and dirty", "ripping off the neighbors", and "taking change from strangers." By the last chorus of the song, though, Weasel attacks the very method of "fixing" the addiction, labeling it a false solution that belittles the intelligence of the protagonist of the song. He sees that trading one addiction for another is no solution at all.
"The Science of Myth" is considered one of the band's best songs. The title may lead one to believe it is an attack on religion, but instead it takes the route of an even-handed debate of the merits of faith. The first verse sums up a few major religions, accepting that many people have questioned their beliefs but suggesting that we move past the antiquated notions of literal translation of scripture and thinking "spiritual matters are enslaved to history." Weasel takes a relativist stance, noting that "half the world sees the myth as fact and it's seen as a lie by the other half." In a true philosophical departure from punk orthodoxy, Weasel spends the final verse discussing a woman who was beaten, raped, and left for dead, but used her faith to hold on. It's a touching endorsement of the positive aspects of religion, much out of line with the usual black-and-white distrust of faith found in punk music. Weasel, in the end, finds no concrete answer, he is merely content to "get by without ever learning.
"What We Hate" maintains the serious tone set by the previous song. In it, Weasel ponders the nature of change and maturation, as well as the ultimate value of earthly accomplishments. In the song's climax, he accepts that "you're only young once, old forever," and "we become what we hate." In a sense, it follows the indictment of the punk community found in other songs, saying that while rebellion and acting up may serve to pass the time for now, when adulthood hits, many will become exactly what they rallied against.
To lighten the mood, the band follows with "Kamala's Too Nice." Kamala is a promoter in the East Bay punk scene who let the band crash with her on tour, and the song goes through what awful things they put her through, all the while with a smile on her face.
"Don't Turn Out the Lights" comes from the viewpoint of what sounds like a child, afraid of the dark before going to sleep.
"Fathead" is a short, to the point insult song. Weasel goes after an anonymous Weasel-hating scenester punk with many colorful jabs, such as "go fart in a puddle" and "sit on it nerd." The song reads like a playground argument, punctuated with Ramones-style "Hey!"s at the end of each line.
"I Wanna Be With You Tonight" finds Weasel pining for a girl he cannot have. He's unable to speak to her, he just admires her from afar and daydreams about what she must be like. Weasel captures the ideal people project onto an object of their desire before they know the details of their life.
The album closer (and title track) returns to the philosophical state of mind from the middle of the album. Weasel spends the song exploring different aspects of everyday society and the possible futility of his own existence. He contemplates a beautiful girl sitting beside him (possibly the same girl he was admiring just one song earlier) who lives in an entirely different world. In the end, Weasel resigns himself to the knowledge that "if I want to do something right, I've got to do it myself." He sees that "it isn't all black and white", a conclusion echoing many of the sentiments found in other songs on the album. The ensuing confusion leaves his "brain hurting," as the album fades out with one of John Jughead's signature guitar leads.
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