Wheatus is an American rock band from New York who is best known for the 2000 single Teenage Dirtbag, featured in the movie Loser, the HBO miniseries Generation Kill and as an acoustic opening for the anti-bully film Bully. Wheatus was formed by Brendan B. Brown in 1995 on the lower east side of New York City. Brown began by writing a few songs and subsequently enlisted the help of his brother Peter on drums, Rich Liegey on bass and backing vocals and Philip Jimenez on various percussion instruments, keyboards, harmonica, providing samples and special effects. The band derives its name from the nickname “wedus”, given to the Brown brothers by their father when they were children. The self-titled debut album by the band was recorded in the basement of vocalist and guitarist Brown’s mother’s house. The debut single Teenage Dirtbag was released in July 2000 as a single and peaked at number 2 in the UK and number 7 in the U.S. charts. The single was later certified platinum in the UK. The Erasure cover A Little Respect was released as a single in 2001 and charted at number 3 in the UK. Wannabe Gangstar / Leroy, a double-A sided single, was released in January 2002 and peaked at number 22 in the UK.
Wheatus is available as a 20th anniversary edition of 1000 numbered copies on turquoise vinyl and 1000 numbered copies on yellow vinyl. The package includes a 4-page booklet.