Screeching Weasel
[3] Shortly after their formation, Weasel decided that it was too difficult to play bass and sing at the same time, so Vince Vogel, who took the stage name "Vinnie Bovine" joined as the band's bassist.
After what Weasel described as a "disastrous" tour,[5] Fish left the group and was replaced by Dan Schafer, originally nicknamed "Sewercap" and later renamed Danny Vapid.
Screeching Weasel disbanded when Vermin and Vapid stated that they wanted to leave the band to concentrate on their side project, Sludgeworth.
On December 29, 1990, the members of Screeching Weasel reunited for what was intended as a one-off gig to pay off debts the band incurred from the recordings of Boogadaboogadaboogada!
Shortly after the record's release, Weasel decided that he no longer wanted to perform live, and Vapid left after falling out with Ben.
Following the second breakup, Weasel, Vapid, and Panic formed the band the Riverdales and experienced some notoriety touring with Green Day.
[7] However, both Vapid and Panic left by mutual decision after the recording, and Weasel and Jughead decided to go on without them, adding bassist Mass Giorgini and drummer Dan Lumley, both from Squirtgun.
Their next release, 1999's Emo, featured the same lineup minus Zac Damon, who was unable to record due to school commitments at the time.
After the album, Screeching Weasel made their first live appearances since 1993, playing 30 minute matinees at Chicago's House of Blues.
Jughead also continued his membership with the Neo-Futurists, a theater group he has written and performed with since 1997, appearing in a show called Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.
During his set, backed up by The Guts, he was joined on stage by Dan Vapid for several Screeching Weasel and Riverdales songs.
I've got a killer line-up comprised of myself, Danny Vapid, Simon Lamb (the Ritalins), Justin Perkins (Yesterday's Kids) and Adam Cargin (Blueheels) (he's also the new Riverdales drummer) and we've got a great set list.
As for people like Ben Weasel, Dan Vapid, or even John Jughead, I have nothing to say, because they never really existed, they were just made up names for a bunch of friends that tried to do something different in order to survive and make a living in this world.
[19] On November 30, 2010, Ben Weasel appeared on Last Call with Carson Daly to talk about his personal problems with anxiety disorders and agoraphobia.
[21] On March 18, 2011, during Screeching Weasel's South by Southwest Festival performance at the Scoot Inn in Austin, Texas, Foster punched a female audience member who had thrown a beer and ice cubes at him, and also spit in his face.
As a result a woman on the stage, believed to be the club's owner, grabbed him from behind, and Ben mistaking her for an attacking fan turned around and punched her in the scuffle.
[25] Despite speculation of a breakup, Screeching Weasel returned with a new lineup on October 29 at Reggie's Rock Club in Chicago with The Queers.
[26] The lineup included Ben Weasel-vocals, Zac Damon-guitar, Dave Klein-bass, Pierre Marche-drums and Mike Hunchback-rhythm guitar.
[27] In March 2013, Ben Weasel announced on the band's Facebook page that Dave Klein had split from the group amicably to join Black Flag.
On July 13, 2014, Weasel released a video on YouTube stating that new albums were in the works, through a two-part rock opera called Baby Fat.
[29] A documentary on the band was in the works for several years, but was cancelled in 2012, with producers citing Weasel's lack of cooperation with production.
The band remains active, though tour plans were postponed for a number of years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with their last shows prior being played in 2019.
[3] While Weasel has been the sole writer of the majority of the band's catalogue, a number of songs credit Vapid, Jughead, or The Queers' frontman Joe King as co-writers.
Blink-182 covered the band's song "The Girl Next Door" on their album Buddha, with Blink-182 guitarist Tom Delonge citing them as one of the biggest influences on his songwriting.
[12][38][39] Additionally, a number of independent punk bands such as The Apers, Bigwig, The Leftovers, The Manges, and The Unlovables cite Screeching Weasel as influential.
