Punkhouse

Punkhouse

Original Limited Potential cover
EP by Screeching Weasel
Released July 7, 1989 (1989-07-07)
September 1991
November 1993
Recorded April 1989
Studio Studio One in Chicago
Genre Punk rock
Length 10:03
Label Limited Potential (LimP 003)
No Budget (NBR 001)
Selfless (SFLS 018)
Producer Mike Potential
Screeching Weasel chronology
Punkhouse
(1989)		 Pervo Devo
(1991)

Punkhouse was the first EP by the Chicago-based punk rock band Screeching Weasel. The EP was originally released on 7-inch vinyl with a limited pressing of 500 copies on July 7, 1989 through Limited Potential Records. It was the band's only non-compilation release to feature drummer Brian Vermin and the first to feature Dan Vapid (then known as Sewercap), who would be featured on many later Screeching Weasel albums. Musically, the songs on Punkhouse are in a similar vein to the band's previous album Boogadaboogadaboogada!, albeit with a rougher sound.

The EP went out of print quickly, and vocalist Ben Weasel repressed it himself on his own label No Budget Records in 1991 without a jacket. The last repress was by Selfless Records in 1993, who released it with a slightly different cover from the original. The song "Fathead" was later re-recorded for the group's third album My Brain Hurts in 1991 and all the original tracks from the EP were included on the compilation Kill the Musicians in 1995.

Background and recording

After releasing their second album Boogadaboogadaboogada! in late 1988, the band fired drummer Steve Cheese because he was unwilling to tour and replaced him with Brian McQuade (renamed "Brian Vermin") and went on the "No Showers 'til Gainesville" tour with local band Spongetunnel.[1] Vocalist Ben Weasel called the tour a "minor disaster" with the two bands arguing constantly. Tensions grew within Screeching Weasel at the last show of the tour and, two weeks later, bassist Warren Fish was fired.[1] Fish was replaced by Dan Schafer (renamed "Sewercap" and later known as "Dan Vapid"), a fan of Screeching Weasel's who had been the singer for various local hardcore bands.[1]

Before starting their next tour, the band decided to record an EP and went to Studio One in Chicago in April 1989. Mike Potential, founder of the fanzine Limited Potential, served as producer/engineer and opted to release the EP on his newly-founded Limited Potential Records. Weasel later criticized the recording quality of the EP, calling Potential a "terrible engineer."[1] The entire EP was recorded without John Jughead's guitar, due to him being stranded in downstate Illinois.[1] When Jughead finally made it to the sessions, the other members made him hurry recording his parts and did not notice that his guitar was out of tune with the other guitars on the recordings.[1] Weasel later admitted to writing the lyrics to the songs while he was drunk and cited this, and the recording quality, as why Punkhouse is his least favorite Screeching Weasel release.[1]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Ben Weasel, except where noted. 

Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Punkhouse" (lyrics by Weasel; music by John Jughead) 2:18
2. "Fathead"   1:17
3. "Good Morning"   2:15
Side two
No. Title Length
4. "I Need Therapy"   1:23
5. "I Think We're Alone Now" (written by Ritchie Cordell; originally performed by Tommy James and the Shondells) 0:59
6. "Something Wrong"   1:51
Total length:
 10:03

Personnel

Production

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Screeching Weasel - Kill the Musicians liner notes. Retrieved 2016-02-06
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