Chicago punk vets Sludgeworth (mem Screeching Weasel) giving '95 comp first vinyl release w/ bonus tracks
Chicago pop punk pioneers Sludgeworth — who were fronted by Dan Vapid (Screeching Weasel, The Riverdales, The Queers, etc) and also featured Screeching Weasel’s Brian Vermin on drums — only existed between 1990 and 1992, but that was enough time to leave an impact on the Chicago punk scene and beyond. Their 1995 Lookout! Records compilation Losers of the Year brought their music to an even wider audience, and in 2007 they finally reunited to play hometown festival Riot Fest. The following year, they played Baltimore’s Insubordination Fest and recorded it for a live album/film.
Now, Losers of the Year is coming to vinyl and streaming services for the first time ever, courtesy of Red Scare Industries, and the CD/digital version is getting two previously unreleased tracks: “To Be The Same” and “Here For A While.”
“I’m excited. This record has been out of print for over 20 years,” Dan said. “I can’t tell you how many times I had people ask if it would ever get re-pressed. Now, the time has arrived, thanks to the good peeps at Red Scare, this weathered relic has been dusted off and put back on display with a new shine for the public.”
About the unreleased songs, guitarist/vocalist Adam White says, “We were in the studio to record album #2 when things came to a head. Some young and dumb opinions on what the band should be or where it was heading. The old artistic differences… Dan took the blunt of things since he had an actual idea of what he wanted us to sound like, while the rest of us did not.”
“In my view, the focus was lost,” Dan adds. “This is coming from someone with actual ADHD as well. Ha. What we did well was getting swapped for what we didn’t do well. The experimentation was to the point of where it was hard connecting to the ideas presented at rehearsal. In Sludgeworth, we mostly all wrote the music, not just me, and when it worked it was great, and when it didn’t it tanked. At the time, I thought it was fun to experiment, but at the end of the day, I just wanted to write a good song. You have to deliver that first and foremost. In my view, that was getting lost.”
The reissue also comes with live photos from back in the day (like the one above), and liner notes featuring contributions from Naked Raygun’s Jeff Pezzati, Rise Against’s Joe Principe, Mikey Erg, Dillinger Four’s Patrick Costello, and more. It comes out December 9 (pre-order).
Stay tuned for the previously unreleased tracks, but meanwhile three tracks from the original album are streaming now and you can hear those below.
Tracklist
1. Waste It Away
2. Someday
3. Anytime
4. Only One
5. Another Day
6. I Analyze
7. Never Say Never
8. Follow
9. Over And Over
10. She’s Not Disposable
11. Cry Baby
12. Nearest One To Stand Behind
13. Angry Man
14. Two Feet On The Ground
15. You And I
16. To Be The Same *
17. Here For A While *
* – CD/Digital only bonus tracks
