The Beat Is on the Brat

by

Screeching Weasel

Edit

WOW! Screeching Weasel took the masterpiece of the Ramones debut album and gave it a Screeching Weasel touch, they covered the songs, but in no way duplicated them. Ben Weasel's voice goes perfectly with all the songs, it's uncanny! When I hear the words "beat on the brat", I immediately think of this album rather than the Ramones' song. This album is a perfect mix of Ramones three-chord punk, Ben Weasel's whiny-in-a-good-way voice, teen angst, all that good stuff that makes Screeching Weasel what it is. If you see this around, make no hesitation to pick this up, it's a must-buy!

I was thrilled to learn that Screeching Weasel had covered the entire first Ramones album, after all, what better band to pay tribute to the Ramones than Screeching Weasel?

In practice, its not THAT awesome. Don't get me wrong, I think its very admirable that they spent their resources paying their dues to a fantastic and incredibly influential band that (at the time especially) wasn't really getting the recognition they deserved.

But while the act of tribute is very good, the actual album isn't much to scream about, as the band plays it very straight, changing almost nothing and just sounding a little bit faster than the Ramones did back in '76.

So if you wanna hear Screeching Weasel play the entire first Ramones LP the same way the Ramones did, go ahead and buy it. I'll just continue listening to "Ramones."

There is one reason you might want to get this CD, and thats because the last four tracks on here are the "Formula 27" EP. Its a very good EP, all four songs are good, especially "(Nothings Gonna) Turn Me Off (Of You)" with its hilarious lyric "I need someone to talk during the Munsters so that I can say 'Shut up' and not get punched even though we all know that the Munsters is a lousy show."

All in all the EP is nice to have, but the albums nothing you're gonna want to listen to more than once.