We're gonna have fun tonight!
Mark Everclear | Norwich, England | 10/21/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The Riverdales' self-titled album, originally released in 1995, still stands tall today as one of the great classics of the Lookout Records heyday of the mid-90s.
Due to Ben Foster (Weasel)'s legal problems with Lookout, resulting in every Screeching Weasel album, plus this one, being deleted from the Lookout catalogue, fans now have the chance to rediscover the album, re-released on Asian Man Records and with 12 bonus tracks, 10 of which are previously unreleased.
The original album remains timeless. If you couldn't tell from the band name and the song titles, the Riverdales' biggest influence are, of course, the Ramones. And of course, this album does sound like an unreleased Ramones record from their mid-to-late-70s era, with the benefit of not one but two lead singers: Ben Foster and Dan Schafer, better known to punk fans as Danny Vapid. It's Schafer's first outing on lead vocals since his tenure with Chicago punks Sludgeworth, and the vocals provide a pleasant and, yes, much more Joey Ramone-sounding contrast to Foster's more abrasive, snotty tones. The combination is perfect for this album. Like any classic Ramones record, the bulk of the material is fast-paced hard-rocking pop punk at its best, and there are three more slower-paced tunes, "Back To You" (memorably featured in the film 'Angus') with a brilliant lead vocal by Schafer, "I Think About You During The Commercials", and "In Your Dreams". Simply put, if you're a Ramones or Screeching Weael fan, you need to get this album.
Production and mixing is handled by Mass Giorgini and Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, who took the Riverdales out on tour with him when "Insomniac" was released, also in 1995.
The re-released version of this album has different artwork to the Lookout original; in fact Amazon seems to have the wrong artwork on this page. The new artwork shows a grainy depiction of the Chicago skyline. Sadly for such a classic record there are no new liner notes, but this is more than made up for by the bonus material.
We get two unreleased songs from the album recording sessions, plus one more from the same session, "I'm A Vegetable", previously released as the b-side of the "Fun Tonight" 7-inch put out by Lookout just before the album. Sadly missing is the Barracudas cover "I Can't Pretend", the b-side of the other 7-inch released from the album, "Back To You".
Of the two unreleased songs, "Two-Headed Girl", sung by Foster, with its heavily palm-muted verses, sounds more like a Screeching Weasel outtake than anything else on this album. Not that it's a bad thing, or, indeed, a bad tune; it just feels slightly out of place here, perhaps the reason it has remained unreleased for 11 years. The next tune, "I Won't Forget You", with a lead vocal by Schafer, is another slower-paced song along the lines of "Back To You"; perhaps it's the similarity both in style and lyrical content that left this one unreleased. Of course, both the songs are essential for Riverdales completists, and their addition is welcome - we could have got a straightforward re-release of the original album with no extras!
Next is "No Sense", another vinyl-only b-side, an incendiary rocker taken from the recording sessions for the second Riverdales album "Storm The Streets". This one originally appeared on the "Blood On The Ice" 7-inch, featuring a great lead vocal by Schafer and some of the most unintelligible lyrics on the album!
The rest of the bonus material is what appears to be most, if not all, of a Riverdales live set taken from the Lowlands Festival in Holland in September 1995. There's still little clue of the lyrics of some of the songs, but it's nice to hear slightly different and more up-tempo performances of this classic record. There's a nice nod to the Ramones too - Foster says "second verse, different from the first" during "Judy Go Home". Indeed, Riverdales setlists from around this period included the Ramones' classic call to arms, "Blitzkrieg Bop".
All in all, if you own the original release and loved it, you'll pick this up for the bonus material. If you've never owned it, the Asian Man reissue is a fine way to expand your punk rock collection.
Included in the original album's liner notes but not on this reissue is the following disclaimer:
There's no lyric sheet included with this album. On purpose.
Writing and asking for one would be pointless."
Track Listings (24) - Disc #1