Weston - A Real Life Story Of Teenage Rebellion
By the time Weston had settled down to record their first full-length album, founding member Chris Benner had departed to start his own band, Digger. In need of a replacement, the band added James Alex Snyder on guitar and backing vocals. This addition would prove to be very influential in the evolution of the band over the next few years, but at this point, he served simply as a guitarist who could occassionally be heard chiming in on the backing vocals.
A Real Life Story Of Teenage Rebellion featured re-recordings of two of the songs from their debut E.P. ("Little Mile" and "Two") and a ton of new songs. The album is a journal of sorts, each song representing an entry in the life of a teenage male, struggling with issues like love, arcade games, and '70's TV stars. The pop-punk sound that had been embryonic (though present) on their earlier releases is unleashed in all its glory on this album.
Having played the pop-punk circuit (which, at this time, was not a huge commercial draw) they made some alliances around this time with bands that, in retrospect, are really fascinating. Weston was known to share bills with the likes of The Bouncing Souls, Latex Generation, and even Green Day. (Billie Joe Armstrong even had a Weston sticker on his guitar after they became an MTV phenomenon and had a live concert played on that station late in 1994.) It seemed that Weston was on the cusp of something big.
This album was so important in the shaping of what kind of music I would listen to for the rest of my life, it is almost scary. I was on a camping trip with some of my guy friends in the dead of winter when I first heard it, I was 13 years old. Shivering around a boom box powered by C batteries, I heard the opening chords of "Just Like Kurt" for the first time, and I was blown away. Here were guys from the next town over from me, they had an album out, and were writing and playing songs that were fun, rocking, and you could learn them on guitar in like five minutes.
I bought my copy of this CD (the same one pictured above) in Nazareth, Pa (Weston's hometown) at a miniscule store across the street from Nazareth Music (where I was having my trumpet fixed.) If I remember correctly, this was the very first location of Double Decker Records (whether or not it was called that at the time escapes me. . .), which is the Lehigh Valley (and eastern Pa's) headquarters for vinyl to this day. I wandered into the store, where they were selling skateboarding and snowboarding gear, and (at the most) 4 or 5 CDs. And there it was, the awesome album I had heard on my camping trip, on sale for $7, if I remember correctly. I bought it, and, well, the rest is history.
A Real Life Story Of Teenage Rebellion - 10 out of 10.
Here is Weston performing "Just Like Kurt" around the time of the release of this album. Bliss.
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