Following Screeching Weasel's very public self-destruction at SXSW last year, we now get to answer the question of who put out the best post-break-up work. Well, if Screeching Weasel II's Carnival of Schadenfreude EP and Dan Vapid's self-titled LP with The Cheats are anything to go by, Vapid's just kicked Weasel's ass.
Weasel's rushed-sounding EP reeks of self-pity and petulance (see the title track or "Under the Bus" for damning evidence). On the other hand, Vapid, who's also been in Sludgeworth, The Riverdales, The Methadones and Noise By Numbers, has picked himself up from a devastating loss and begun yet another new band, Dan Vapid and The Cheats. Vapid's new band draw on '77 punk, power pop, new wave and sixties girl group ('natch) to delirious effect. Killer tunes like "Baby Baby Get Over Yourself" and "Heartbeat" survey the wreckage of the past with steely-eyed optimism and a near-complete absence of bitterness.
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