Jughead

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Jughead (sometimes called "John Jughead") was the guitar player for Screeching Weasel from 1986 until 2001. Aside from Ben Weasel, he was the only constant member of the group. Jughead's real name is John Pierson and he spent his formative years growing up Mt. Prospect, IL. Aside from Screeching Weasel, Jughead's musical endeavors include the one-off project The Shotdowns, the Lillingtons (as touring guitarist), The Mopes, and an acoustic pop-punk band called Even In Blackouts. He is currently singing and playing guitar for the Mitochondriacs and splits his time between Chicago and Osaka, Japan.

Besides playing music as Jughead, John Pierson is also an actor and playwright. He has authored over a dozen plays under the name "Ian Pierce". His writings were collected in the book The Incomplete Philosophy of Hope and Nonthings which was published by Hope and Nonthings, a publishing company that John helped run. John acted with the Neo-Futurists outfit in Chicago.

In 2005, Hope And Nonthings published Weasels In A Box, Jughead's fictionalized look at his time with Screeching Weasel, unusually written almost entirely in second-person. The book was credited to John R. Pierson, Jughead, and Ian Pierce.

John now does a podcast called Jughead's Basement. The podcast initially focused John's favorite punk albums with interviews by people in the band and associated with its making. Among the albums he's covered are Screeching Weasel's My Brain Hurts, Big Black's Atomizer, Naked Raygun's Throb Throb, and Sludgeworth's Losers of the Year, along with a look at the career of the Bhopal Stiffs. He has since switched to interviewing various musicians from the punk scene.

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