Screeching Weasel Learn From Grateful Dead's 'Terrible' Image

When bands rerelease old material, they tend to pick landmark albums -- stellar debuts, odds-defying sophomore efforts, career-defining third records, stunning comebacks, etc. 'Television City Dream,' Screeching Weasel's eighth full-length, is none of those things, but according to founding frontman Ben Weasel, the 1998 collection deserves another listen. Fat Wreck Chords agrees, and earlier this month, the label issued a remastered edition, complete with a new cover and five extra tracks.

"It's not a fan-favorite at all," Weasel tells Spinner. "When the record came out, it was panned by a lot of people, and a lot of other people liked it. It was a love-it-or-hate-it kind of record. As time has gone on, it's probably been the most ignored Screeching Weasel record. The ones that were pretty bad, people at least talked about. The ones that were really good, people talked about. But that seemed to be one that never got much notice."

Weasel wanted for years to enhance the sound and tweak the cover art, and while he's pleased with the finished product -- one of the Chicago pop-punk group's hardest, fastest records -- he says the songs bring back less-than-happy memories.

"It's hard for me because it's a time when the band wasn't really functioning, except in the studio," the singer, songwriter and sometime guitarist says. "That record in particular, I was more distant from those guys in terms of working on the record than I'd ever been before. There were some aspects to that record -- thematically with the lyrics and stuff, and even with the music -- I look back on it and say, 'I probably wouldn't do that today.' I feel different about things, but I can say that about all the records."

"On the opposite side, there are some really terrific tunes on there and one of the things I loved about that record originally was it was very aggressive. It was really driving and in stark contrast to the record that had come out prior to that, 'Bark Like a Dog,' which was very slow, really, compared to what we'd done before and a little bit more polished," Weasel adds. "In retrospect, it's not a big deal, but at the time, it felt like a really big change for us."

The original cover art also marked a change for the band. While Weasel likes the abstract red and yellow geometric design created by computer-graphics pioneer Aldo Giorgini, father of then-bassist Mass Giorgini, he can see why it might have confused fans. The cartoon skeleton he chose for the reissue is more in keeping with the group's irreverent punk-rock aesthetic.

"I think it didn't fit people's idea of a Screeching Weasel record, and I think it turned a lot of people off," Weasel says of Giorgini's cover. "I walked away from that experience thinking I'm going to be really careful about that in the future."

Even in the digital age, Weasel puts a lot of thought into artwork and packaging. He says it's a result of his childhood, when he discovered the importance of connecting rock music with proper visuals. He still remembers borrowing a Grateful Dead record from the library as a kid and feeling misled by the skeletons on the cover.

"You'd think, 'This is going to be a badass band,' and it's this folk-blues hybrid with no balls at all and terrible wispy vocals," he says. "It's just like, 'Man, the band name, the record cover -- none of it fits this music at all.'"