Weezer -- Classic or Dud?

However reading US magazines, CMJ and Alternative Press and looking at some internet forums some yanks seem to rate them i.e college rock kids and that dreaded word emo.

I suppose the UK equivalent not in sound but in a stereotypical cult guitar band following in Britain would be Hefner - Who have a following in Lammo/Peel circles/ fanzines.

Weezer are not for me.

Weezer are lightweight and insignificant, like bubblegum they are disposable, for some a three minute single may be enjoyable but after there is no flavour or substance.

ned raggett: classic or dud.

OBVIOUSLY dud. i mean, did you see that aicon picture?

anyhow, i don't much like weezer. and i say this on the basis of hearing three songs. they seem to have a strong cult of personality built up, cf. brian wilson in the 70s -- "rivers cuomo went to HARVARD! he recorded like ten albums, but destroyed them all! he got braces! he's INSANE!" is this part of the charm or is it all about the music? or both?

josh, speak! interesting that his name was invoked because i've always believed that weezer fell under the made-up genre heading of "josh rock."

So I asked Maura about them. Maura'll know, I thought. She said an interesting thing, which is that it's the big gap between records which has created the Weezer myth/mystique. Which got me thinking: Weezer turn up playing catchy, clever, knowing pop songs after a very dour, angsty period. So culturally speaking they're the US Blur. But also they record a kinda retro record at just the right time then duck out of sight and delay a follow-up for years. So culturally speaking they're *also* the US Stone Roses. So it's hardly surprising they're so rated (overrated?).

The big singles are great, but I have a special fondness for "In The Garage", with its too-honest snapshot of the geek's private retreat: "I've got the Dungeon Master's Guide / I've got a 12-sided die / I've got Kitty Pryde / and Nightcrawler too / Waiting there for me / Yes I do, I do" Weezer wasn't my high school experience, but it sure could have been.

I have big misgivings about the much-hyped comeback though. BIG misgivings.

but. happened to get their album out the library and i'm converted. 'only in dreams' is classic, rest pretty good too.

As for me being Kris and Otis -- I like that. Actually, maybe I'm inventing all of you except Tom to make him feel like he's got a popular forum. ;-)

And I never said my own opinion on the matter -- eh. Unduly worshipped, and the Dream Warriors did the twelve-sided dice thing better anyway.

http://www.aol.com

This is truly bizarre: "Brian Langel"'s email address is one letter away from being Jamie Ashley and Sarah Hutchings's band ...

Well, that was the idea, anyway :).

However, The Face revealed last year that "Red Shift" (Garner, needless to say; the one with the astonishing Drake / Thompson / Martyn xerox) was the name of a sixth-form band at Sherborne School, which was essentially where I got the idea from. That, and the cultural myth of 70s prog fans being largely middle-class.

I had also forgotten the dead pan way Buddy Holly opens with "What's with these homies dissin' my girl?" which is just great.

excuse me if i fart

Sorry, but I tried to talk about "Friends of P" with Fred one time and he's all, what? I'm all, that song, you know, it goes, "If you're down with P, then you're down with me". That was the best song.

Otis, if you don't take a picture of Ramon's reaction to all that, I will hunt you down and kill you with my bare hands, hello.

Wasn't Matt Sharpe's big claim to fame that he shagged Miki from Lush? I always thought she had really bad taste for doing that.

Gareth: It also helps if you know all the words and can't sing.

all that said, it is a mid-90s alt-pop album, not something hugely groundbreaking and innovative -- ll cool j good not public enemy good. if you don't like "buddy holly" you probably shouldn't bother with the rest of the album.

now if only i can get josh to concede cinderella;)

And don't be so harsh on the Rentals- Matt's not Rivers, but, nobody but Rivers is Rivers. ;Þ (Say that 5 times fast!!)

Maybe one day Rivers will become happy. That would be wonderful for him, but, then who would the rest of us sad geeks have to identify with?

This thread had the potential to be the original DMB thread, but it (luckily?) didn't pan out. to be dormant for 3 1/2 years is impressive.

I bet they're gonna name the next album "Bigger Than Jesus" then!

i though the early demos on that second disc (kitchen tapes???) were really great. they actually kinda sounded lo-fi like the drag city pavement, while also making me wonder if they really did like the feelies (my favorite was 'paperface' or 'somethingface' which has screeeming - see they ARE emo)

reminds me i need to check out his myspace page again.

also Malkmus is FAR and away the better, more inventive guitarist. really knows his weirdo english folk records, bizarre tunings, phrasing, etc.

I never got that impression from a Pavement album.

b-b-but Rivers Cuomo is so into getting laid (specifically by little Japanese girls) its fucking creepy! seriously.

yeah thats pent up frustration from years of NOT BEING FAMOUS

also Malkmus is FAR and away the better, more inventive guitarist. really knows his weirdo english folk records, bizarre tunings, phrasing, etc

WEEZER ALSO USE WEIRD TUNING AND RIVERS IS BETTER AT METAL AND 70S ROCK SOLOS THAN MALK.

Dude I just bought the CR reissue and am listening to it - "Range Life" now playing - and loving it but CAUCASIAN PLEASE.

makes me want to wear my old weezer t-shirts and make that "W" sign with my hands that everybody makes at their shows.

i really like a lot of the kind of hard to find pinkerton demos and stuff between pinkerton and the green album. 'Keep Your Distance', 'Longtime Sunshine', 'Walt Disney' in particular.

I was a couple of years' too late for the Blue Album to have any fascination for me; "Pinkerton" has its moments; I really dug "Hash Pipe."

I remember reading an interview where Cuomo said that Dylan has had (overall) a rather negative influence on popular music. This from the man who made Pinkerton! (Not a horrible album, but the music and lyrics it's influenced...yuck.)

Ok, maybe he's smarter than Mickey Mars,

I fucking doubt that.

i love weezer

http://dsf.pacounties.org/training/lib/training/muppets_and_weezer.jpg

Weird to me is how they went from being just another jokey-alt band to suddenly being a revered and 'influential' group with 'Pinkerton' hailed as an antecedent to Emo...(most of my research is just mostly general conversation with kids in bands, but still...) I nearly fell over when I saw a bio on the group: River's Edge: The Weezer Story (I couldn't make this shit up.) I opened to the intro just to see what the fuck and sure enough the author is unhinged. He recounts how he discovers the group by getting a free cassette and listening to it in his car on the ride home and how he's completely blown away because here was a band who were combining the aggression of punk with the pleasing harmonies and hooks of pop -- and this had never been done before!

Like the Ramones never happened. Never mind the other three hundred bands we could list. If I ever end up in jail I might read this book.

I remember back in the '90s they were pegged as "MTV's Pavement" and that was good enough for me. Trash.

i see all those muppets but where's the band amirite

weezer is so awesome

chaki otm

hating weezer is easy but loving them is SO MUCH EASIER

i don't hate em

creep

I love the Blue Album, not much beyond that but a few singles. But the Blue Album is high on the list of my favorite albums from the 90s, just for the first two songs and "Only In Dreams" alone, not to mention the singles.

only in dreams is fucking epic

i like that buddy holly tune

Driving back late to my hotel after a really important night for my work, I put on the University of Pittsburgh college radio station and "Only In Dreams" came on. At that moment it became the Greatest Song Ever, the Platonic Idea of Epic. The final build-up and climax is pretty autosexual, but that's part of its greatness: I mean it is only in dreams.

weezer were an amazing band who tragically died ten years ago.

I like the quiet moments on Only In Dreams. The loud dynamic stumbles.

'death and destruction' is an underrated tune. it's as close as they came to the greatness of the blue/pinkerton era imo

Honestly, aren't C/D threads like this skewed towards people who cared enough to actually listen to a bands albums and therefore liked them in the first place? I only heard the radio singles and concluded 'Dud' long, long ago but that probably doesn't make it a fair judgment. Nevertheless, I won't lose any sleep over it.

'death and destruction' is an underrated tune.

I-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U?

Isn't the new single a pretty great Weezer song?

chorus sounds great. hate the verse and the lyrics :(

Argh, I've been listening to / reading about Weezer after the weekend, and then this gets revived. Odd.

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.spinner.com/media/2008/04/weezer-300.jpg
Produced by Rick Rubin.

The record is being described as "experimental", and according to Cuomo, includes longer and non-traditional songs, TR-808 drum machines, synthesizers, Southern rap, baroque counterpoint, and band members other than Cuomo writing, singing, and switching instruments.

out june 17th btw

longer and non-traditional songs, TR-808 drum machines, synthesizers, Southern rap, baroque counterpoint, and band members other than Cuomo writing, singing, and switching instruments

They have a fever.

cover so funny

brian looks like federline

The Greatest Man That Ever Lived

8-(_____________)

(that's a dropped jaw)

(it's both ridiculous and brilliant at the same time)

"Greatest Man", "Pork and Beans" and "Dreamin'" are the best Weezer songs in ages. The rest...predictably awful.

=(_)

I feel bad having to break out the haterade, but I think a flood of figurative vomit flew up into my mouth...but as someone who used to love weezer (we were all 15 once), I didn't know it could get worse than 'Beverly Hills.' I would take Rivers on the emo-est day of his life at his Pinkerton or The world has turned and left me here absolute pinnacle emo-est over this. Unless Rick Rubin put them up to some elaborate joke (including writing these ridiculous lyrics, I mean, Pork and Beans? really? especially the buddy holly guitars in that, in a way, to blue album fans, it almost begs to be heard as a fuck you from Rivers to people who like/used to like that song/Blue album....boo-urns.

.....and that last post was accidentally sent before I could make it coherent, anyway, point I was gonna bring up is, do those who like the new weezer prefer it to older weezer?

Doubtful. New Weezer doesn't have cheeky quotes of Stockhausen or Kurt Weill.

New Weezer lyrics don't weather long-term scrutiny, either. You listen to their first two albums and well-articulated expressions of the transgressions of youth against youth (youth against itself, which is probably a very aware reflection of Pet Sound's theme of the transgression of adulthood against youth) and the obstacles to fulfilling, long-term (romantic) love begin to come to the front of the listening experience.

New Weezer lyrics have a lot of caveman three syllable lines, much fewer idiosyncrasies and the songs are less autobiographical. (The perfect pop song you're trying to write again and again is allowed to have details and personality, Rivers - more than pure craft.) They're also no longer quoting Cheap Trick, Beach Boys, Hanoi Rocks or whomever Cuomo is secretly/not secretly inspired by: they're quoting themselves analogously, and their body of work isn't large or varied enough yet to deserve recursiveness.

That said, their post-Pinkerton stuff deserves some defense, even the demos leading up to Make Believe, although not the album itself.

Thinking and talking about the Cuomo story and myth is a fun pastime, and wondering how he could write two intelligent pop records and give it up to facelessness is a big part of that. My three stories relating are about two well-meaning stoners/users and one clueless teenage Morrissey fan, and maybe that explains it all, that Weezer's fans ask, if anything, for LCD dumbness and cannot, when given it, put their finger on exactly what's wrong.

(The first Rentals album is fucking rad and gets a lot of regular play on my stereo.)

Weezer "Internet Meme"-themed "Pork and Beans" video...
I kind of smiled a few times:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muP9eH2p2PI

Though there are a couple of them I don't know the origins of. I was kind of waiting for a 2 girls 1 cup gag.

they rock bitches

i remember hearing "buddy holly" when i was 13 and thinking that it must be some old tune from the 70s. the first album had a few nice tunes.

poppier side of 80s us punk + poppier side of 70s us metal = weezer

like, descendents + cheap trick, etc

weezer = liz phair for teens. I was going to say 'for boys' but I think Liz's fanbase was mostly horny dudes anyway.

Also, the internet meme thing was already done by South Park so... Kudos to them

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/4281/tynan6in.gif

I think the Red Album (that's what people are calling it, right?) is pretty alright.

I feel a strong urge to buy it, and I haven't felt so since the Green Album (colors rock!!11)

I was not impressed by "Dreamin'" or "Greatest Man."

I wonder what Geir thinks of Weezer...

*whistles idly*

I like Pork & Beans and Heart Songs. But that's fairly predictable, right?

they rock bitches

-- usic

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/sites/default/files/Copy%20of%20DSC_0307.JPG

Uh...what're we looking at here? I think I recognize that guy.

that would be rivers cuomo

he looks to be off his train

it's a weird thing for an artist

Miss u 4ever, Matt Sharp

I'm surprised at the Weezer love on this thread. But I have to say ...

First two albums - Classic
The rest - massive sellout FAIL of legendary proportions.

That was taken at my fave record store ever - Fingerprints in Long Beach

"In case you haven't heard of it, Songsmith is this terrible and retarded Microsoft program where you can sing to it and it will automatically create music for your song.

Apparently it imagines Buddy Holly as a sad song to be accompanied by some sad piano."

Ah, I see I'm a few days late to your MS Songsmith discovery.

I just realized that Reunion Weezer has now been an active force for longer than Actual Weezer was, indeed, longer than the gap in between the two. This is like the Stones breaking up in 1967, then reuniting in 1978 to record Bridges to Babylon and continuing on 'til today as their current touring performance thing.

This is weird. Also, what happened to Rivers' hair? :-(

Anyway, they'll always be classic. I saw them in 2001 and it was one of the best live shows I've ever seen.

That's one of the most depressing YouTube videos I have ever seen.

that shot of the crowd ug, all those girls just texting and shit.

GETCHOO AH HA

New single "(If You Are Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To" is being hailed as a return to form, and it is better than their last couple of singles. It reminds me of "A Town Called Malice" tbh.

being hailed as a return to form

Not by me. It sucks out loud.

Any weezer fans know more about this supposed math hit-formula notebook Rivers has been carrying around? This sounds pretty amazing very David Foster Wallace thing to do.

I can't believe that the same guy who wrote "Beverly Hills" also claims to have songwriting down to a mathematical science. Songwriting: the real dismal science.

has anyone made a mashup of El Scorcho and Beverly HIlls (seems like generated from the same hit-song template?)

GETCHOO AHA

Every album they've released since Maladroit was initially heralded as "return to form."

More like a return to the bathroom.

http://kiwirock.net/05.mp3

Rad.

I can't believe that the same guy who wrote "Beverly Hills" also claims to have songwriting down to a mathematical science. Songwriting: the real dismal science.

― Cunga, Monday, August 17, 2009 8:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol...Super Masonic Da Vinci Code Math Science of Songwriting: recycle the chord change to "The Joke" by Steve Miller Band

i feel like "Troublemaker" has belatedly become Weezer's biggest latter day radio staple, I hear it EVERY SINGLE DAY even though it's a year old now

i never thought i'd long for a return to the glory days of "dope nose"

ehh -- i have no particular reverence for early Weezer and like "Troublemaker" and "Perfect Situation" and "Keep Fishin'" as much as anything else they've done

don't get me wrong, if you forced me to sit through a whole album i'd pick one of the 90s one, but as a singles band i think their batting average has been pretty steady

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S-lhxaecpw

The first album does seem more "organic" in the sense that any pop-formula expression seems unconscious rather than drawn from a notebook, dungeon-master die-rolling scheme. Is pinkerton when the notebook idea started?

Its cos Matt Sharp left.

Some internet wise guy should write some of the "missing pages" from this notebook and put them online ala The Michael Bay screenplay for the Dark Knight. Would read!

Okay so....a bunch of thoughts I'm having while watching some Weezer AOL Sessions youtube clips (old & new):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95sTh4mxAys

Okay, why is the drummer playing bass now and who is this new drummer guy? Also those quirky handclaps WTF. Biggest WTF in the world for the Kenny G guest solo which is my favorite part of an otherwise pretty dull song. I like how Rivers is jumping and hyping it up like it was a guitar solo. I think after the "Pork and Beans" (which I actually liked), this new direction is to throw a million 'viral' ideas against the wall and see what sticks. I mean, you have Kenny G, that horrible "Raditude" title and album artwork, the Lil Jon collab, etc. Can't say it's a bad strategy though because every review I've read of the album has been dismal, and all the ridiculousness is the only reason I've just listened to "I'm Your Daddy" by Weezer in 2009.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Av1kuh8EBY

Rivers's costume here makes me crack up; he looks like a little kid that found his dad's suit. Sounds to me like at least some of these vocals are auto-tuned. WOW GUYS THE 80S ARE BACK! Look at these Moogs. Kind of makes me think of the Rentals or something. What would they think of this? The rapping is....well whatever. With "We Are All On Drugs" you may have thought the lyrical content had bottomed out but a chorus of "I can't stop partying partying"....I don't know, I think Rivers Cuomo really is on a mission to just crank out stupid simple pop songs like a scientist or a factory worker. Soft verse/loud chorus. Spacey 'retro' part. Guest star rapper. All the elements are there. If he was a little more shy he would be a producer for Universal Music Group.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv5Tnp5KzD8

Okay, this is weird but the guitarist is singing "Why Bother" and not doing too bad a job but not too good a job either. It took me a minute to realize that Rivers Cuomo was playing drums wearing a beret and a silly mustache. LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztvJdAIGk54

"Butterfly" sung by Rivers solo with a harp, really beautifully done too. Think about those lyrics "I told you I would return by I ain't never coming back". Is he singing to all the 1st gen Weezer fans? Someone print a list of best tracks from the post-Pinkerton years I need a compilation...

lol wonder if brian bell (who has some serious douche vibes) changed "i better keep whackin" to "you better start packin" out of embarrassment or cuz krusty the klown told him to

Was the riff from "Hash Pipe" taken from Hall and Oates' "Family Man" (towards the end of the song)? I always thought it sounded like the Munsters theme but Hall and Oates seem to be the more obvious theft victims for Rivers.

hash pipe riff is a note for note rip off of the song "he shot himself up" by The Shods.

Listening now - you seem to be right.

Hmm, according to wiki a member of The Shods played in a side-project band with Rivers, so maybe this is intentional?

Someone print a list of best tracks from the post-Pinkerton years I need a compilation...

Do you mean when they were working on the unreleased Pinkerton follow-up, leading up to the release of Green Album? Or do you mean everything from 1997 to present?

http://www.weezersnuggie.com/

are there bootlegs of the unreleased Pinkerton follow-up?

They're cute, though.

man does the first record kick ass

somebody should have murdered Rivers after the first two

What dude I know you did not just diss the Green Album.

I only really dig about 5 Weezer songs: Buddy Holly, Jamie, Suzanne, Say it Ain't So, and The Sweater Song.
I just noticed those are all 94-95 (wiki). (maybe I should listen to their first album for once)
I own the Green Album but I never got into it. I don't think it sucks though

oops typo. I own Pinkerton

@GavinRossdale hey homie! 11:42 PM Sep 12th via web Retweeted by 1 person

RiversCuomo
Rivers Cuomo

@SaraBareilles Congrats! 1:05 AM Sep 15th via web in reply to SaraBareilles Retweeted by 1 person

RiversCuomo
Rivers Cuomo

someone asked me to d/l "say it ain't so" for them. i never liked weezer, was indifferent to buddy holly, thought sweater song was lazy, etc.

but this song is weirdly compelling. now i sort of hate myself for maybe liking it. am i living out the whole weezer vibe? were they built upon confused self-loathing?

the subconscious power of the p4k list right there

hah!

somebody should have murdered Rivers after the first two birth

Mind over mind. about 18 hours ago via web Retweeted by 72 people

RiversCuomo
Rivers Cuomo

These guys are the "Windows 95 bonus file" guys in my mind.

i also d/l'ed a 311 song for weezer person that i'm ashamed to talk about here. who said guilty pleasures no longer exist? i've done some bad things.

Youdaman! RT@freddurst love Hurley!! Timeless and timely!! about 11 hours ago via web Retweeted by 14 people

RiversCuomo
Rivers Cuomo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnELkrxsXiw

that is pretty fuckin special

hahaha no idea if yr kiddin or not but Rivers is the man

I mean

Youdaman! RT@freddurst love Hurley!! Timeless and timely!! about 11 hours ago via web Retweeted by 14 people

RiversCuomo
Rivers Cuomo

xpost Lots of kids said the same thing back in high school iirc.. "Sweater Song" sucks, "Buddy Holly" is kinda good, "SIAS" is fucking awesome.

I don't completely agree.. I enjoy all 3 songs. But just sayin, I recall lots of people agreeing.

Unholy moly.
about 5 hours ago via web
Retweeted by 100+ people

RiversCuomo
Rivers Cuomo

Who is your arch rival?
8:53 AM Dec 10th via web
Retweeted by 37 people

RiversCuomo
Rivers Cuomo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaaHevyxvvA

AND LIKE A GOOD NEIGHBOR, STATE FARM IS THERE!!!

For some reason every single band in the Green Bay area covers "Say It Ain't So"; I even know how to play the thing and I'm not really a fan. It's kind of like a secret handshake at the local shows here, "Say It Ain't So" always makes an appearance unless it's like a metal show or something. That song is definitely classic. I can't even say what's so compelling about it. I absolutely hated that riff when Asher Roth ripped it off.

For some reason every single band in the Green Bay area USA covers "Say It Ain't So"

Packers super bowl champs = we're all green bay now

ugh this guy should be shot

is it me or is this the best song he's written in like 10 years?

@Kari_Mil I believe the number one source of the spiritual power on Pinkerton was my leg procedure.
about 3 hours ago via web in reply to Kari_Mil

RiversCuomo
Rivers Cuomo

Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal
12:46 PM Apr 1st via web
Retweeted by 100+ people

RiversCuomo

My wife rules for wearing leg warmers to bed.
11:54 AM Mar 30th via web
Retweeted by 53 people

RiversCuomo

well, ahoy: http://www.theweezercruise.com/

There's actually a decent lineup joining them:

Coming along with us are special guests Dinosaur Jr, as well as Sebadoh, Gene Ween and Dave Dreiwitz, Wavves, The Antlers, Yuck, Free Energy, Boom Bip, J Mascis (solo acoustic), Lou Barlow, Keepaway, Ozma, The Nervous Wreckords, The Knocks, Sleeper Agent and Yacht Rock Revue.

Why can't they just throw together a festival like a normal band?

aw, I remember how excited me and my pals were when we spotted Barlow's name on the map in the Pinkerton art.

Why can't they just throw together a festival like a normal band?

Because thats so 2008. Cruise tours are all the rage right now.

i like rivers's twitter feed

@RiversCuomo
Rivers Cuomo
Everyone's just trying to be happy.
15 hours ago via Twitter for Android

^^ IMO this tweet pretty much sums up last decade-or-so for RC

(and that's what amuses me to no end about him)

Counting down the days until Weezer's inevitable "Friday" cover

http://riverscuomo.com/2011/07/27/entertaining-my-daughter-from-the-road-via-skype/

it disturbs me that he has a child

http://i.imgur.com/hy16P.jpg

Apparently Mikey Welsh has died: http://www.facebook.com/MikeyWelshArt

I just heard that from a cop friend. Seems that he took his own life in his hotel room here in Chicago. I assume this means their appearance at Congress tomorrow is canceled.

http://www.wbez.org/story/weezer-bassist-found-dead-chicago-hotel-92992

More info, but not much more.

http://twitter.com/#!/MikeyWelsh71/status/118305899923259392

26 Sep via web

Why would the show be cancelled? He's their ex-bassist, not their current bassist. In fact, I could have sworn the reason he was fired was substance abuse problems.

xp WTF THAT'S FREAKY

(either that, or he knew he was going to kill himself)

Ever since that Twitter thing broke, I've been tempted to believe the latter.

on the FB page he does to promote his paintings or whatever he was going on abt seeing Weezer in Chicago and being pumped about meeting up w/ them - this was on Thursday or something - I don't really know anything about the dude other than he played on an album I quite like but it's pretty ~woah~

I probably could have written 'did' instead of 'does' there

on friday a woman jumped to her death inside a building (the thompson center) and then on saturday this...it's just so grim to have two public suicides in two days in the news here.

ALONE III: THE PINKERTON YEARS might be the best Weezer related release

I'm hoping Alone IV will cover both the green album and maladroit. That's the one I'm holding out for.

Strange that despite all the rarities that have been officially released in the past 10 years, they still haven't put "Thief You've Taken All That Was Me" or "Let's Sew Our Pants Together" on anything... even though "Paperface" and a few other Kitchen Tape demos were on Deluxe blue album. Perhaps the band wants these saved exclusively for the diehards.

Also "Death To False Metal" totally sucked, but I still thought the two Mikey Welsh-era tracks "Trampoline" and "Everyone" were decent. I'd be interested in any other demos from the scrapped late-90's Pinkerton follow-up.

There is also the case of the Homie album supposedly made in 1998, though I've heard conflicting reports about whether the songs even got recorded or not.

assuming you are familiar with this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRkYzvwU_14

I don't think I've heard Alone III! I need to check it out. There was a time when i obsessively collected all the Black Hole sessions and had these really short mp3s and read all the fan sites. Now I'm all old and jaded about Weezer but if this is a good listen i may have to get it.

the guitar tone on Negativland is the thickest, smoothest, most wonderful thing i've ever heard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2WKOw19vvA

lol @ rivers dining companions revealed at 2:02

Man, that was uncomfortable!

I'm hoping Alone IV will cover both the green album and maladroit. That's the one I'm holding out for.

toulows-lautrec (how's life) wrote this at 2013-03-13 16:46:20.000

There may be less solo demos from those in the same style, though I think he was churning them out to dictaphone during Maladroit

They posted all that stuff to weezer.com for a while after they came back from Pinkerton. Pretty sure you could find it all on internet archive.

now EVERYBODY will get to laugh about anecdotes of Rivers Cuomo at Harvard

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/psych-creator-steve-franks-teaming-728679

I was trying to figure out why I never heard nor bought Alone III, but it seems like it was only ever availble with some big dumb memorabilia box version.

five ten fifteen twenty twenty-five thirty thirty-five forty

I was enjoying the new song "Cleopatra" much more than "Back to the Shack" until they got to the counting section. Yuck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUHFzH06HqU

i like "cleopatra" a lot!

new album rules ._.

You've heard the whole thing or just based on the songs they've released thus far?

heard the whole thing, full of surprises

Didn't love Cleopatra, HATED Back to the Shack, so there's a really bar on this one.

really *low bar

"back to the shack" is very much a nadir, rest of the record towers around it. i know "best since pinkerton" is kind of... meaningless with this band, but it's a very good record

I'm going to give this one a shot. I considered Hurley worthy of a purchase so maybe my personal bar isn't set that high. I still don't understand why that album isn't at least as well liked (by Weezer fans) as Maladroit or Make Believe.

Make Believe was the last one I listened to the whole way through. The red one and Hurley and Raditude (and whatever else may have come in the interim) I just kind of picked up on peripherally. Far be it from me to read into Rivers' motivation and the dynamic of the band at this stage, but I think we went down different paths.

"futurescope trilogy" is so prog

Absolutely brilliant album, undeniably the best since Green. Time will tell if it's best since Pinkerton or Scary Monsters.

How are the lyrics? Gotta admit my estimation of the Green/Maladroit period has dropped as the novelty of New Weezer has diminished

Compared to recent fare, they're pretty great. I read some for the song 'Da Vinci' which looked awful on paper ("I looked you up on ancestry.com".. "Stephen Hawking can't explain you"), but they're actually very endearing as part of the song. Back To The Shack is the only real clunker on the album. I truly hope they've not burned too many bridges with fans over the last 10 years, I think many turned off by the last few could be won over.

yeah some of the lyrics are pretty endearingly goofy instead of embarrassing this time around

hell i love "pork and beans" so with ric behind the deck i'll definitely give it a shot

that song reminded me it was guitars not rivers' neurotic journeys that got me into weezer in the first place

oh well then this record is for you

lot of shredding plus the guitar tones are gorgeous

Da Vinci is kind of Pork & Beans II, but muuuch better

and I liked Pork & Beans

lot of shredding plus the guitar tones are gorgeous

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Friday, September 26, 2014 6:33 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ why I fell in love with the blue album, getting a little excited

oh yeah that's exactly right

xpost

I heard the clip for 'Go Away' with Bethany from Best Coast - out of context it sounded like standard recent naff Weezer fare, but turns out it's amazing in full. Just about cried when the bridge kicked in

don't mean to get your hopes up, it's not all rainbows of guitar, it's still a little calcified-sounding (which imo is essentially the problem they've had since the green album, maladroit sort of excepted)

but idk it's also great

well okay the other problem they've had since the green album is the amount of garbage they've put out

I have a friend he is an earthworm

Plenty of Blue Album style guitar that I'm enjoying. Tracks three through eight really have the magic and the rest of the tunes are okay. They were really close to a third classic record.

on first listen i am underwhelmed

not big fan of back to the shack but goddamn that song gets in my head

yeah i don't take it as a good sign that i can't remember any of the inoffensive songs as easily as offensive ones like that or raditude's "i'm your daddy"

also did hurley not have as much guitar or something? admittedly i can't actually remember if i listened to hurley but if you told me the new album was what hurley sounded like i'd believe you

still really enjoy this record, and it caused me to make a coherent playlist of uh "bad" weezer http://open.spotify.com/user/unbornwhiskey/playlist/4J6PHHzS0CJ7oltUauerBy

one of the cool things about making that playlist was realizing that hurley is half good but in a way that no other weezer record is. "trainwrecks" and "run away" especially sound like a different band.

man you know if you would have told me in 1994 that the three most enduring bands of alt rock would be weezer, foo fighters, and green day

It had guitar, but no Blue Album tone, wild solos, or feedback as far as I can remember. It's not a bad record at all I think Raditude just scared most folks away from ever hearing it.

Oh, fuckin' no kidding. Add the Flaming Lips to that though.

xp

also i think i said this in the weezer pox thread but death to false metal contains what i've discovered is my favorite ever weezer song, "blowin' my stack," which is a make believe cast-off iirc

Also those guys that did that "I'm a Creep" song.

I'm liking the new album - not sure about the 3 part ending song - I was expecting a Beach Boys style California Trilogy.

The new album is whupping mules' behinds with belts

Love the new record. I was pretty accepting of the various post-green offerings. So, now that they're somewhat back to their old sound with great songs, it's easy to like. Da Vinci, Lonely Girl and the trilogy are the best parts. Generally nothing vomit worthy, like a vast majority of make believe and red. I personally enjoy Raditude and Hurley. Some of their best pop offerings come from those two albums. Sure they were silly, but Rivers always had good songs, even if the production was not what weezer nostalgists demanded. I prefer to see a band grow and evolve, instead of putting out the same album over and over. Obviously this formula world for AC/DC, but AC/DC is for meatheads, for the post part.

The new record is fucking fantastic, minor quibbles aside. My favorite part about this is that Rivers' embarrassing lyrics are back to being charmingly idiotic instead of just plain stupid. No matter what he will actually cop to, he's been trying to recapture the mid-90s magic since 2001, this is the first time he's actually done so.

So ... I am absolutely shocked at how much I love this new album.

Minor quibbles, yes. Some dumb lyrics, yes. I would probably cut "Da Vinci" if I could.

But it sounds like the Weezer I love again.

For the record: I draw my line *after* the green album, not before. And I rate the blue album over Pinkerton, the former being one of my desert island discs, probably.

Actually I take it back, relistening to "Da Vinci" and I don't want to cut it. Lyrics are terrible, but the crunch of the chorus is too good and redeems them.

I promise Weezer if Ric Ocasek is the only man allowed to produce their future albums, I'll buy anything they put out.

oh shit, did he do this one? first since blue? i totally missed this nugget

No take backs, Rivers. All those silly, shitty records in a row mean I'm not listening anymore. Fool me once ...

Xpost Ric did green album too.

I suppose a few of these songs are as good as 1998-2002 Mikey Welsh era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_Wu6lI-42w

p good

Is it weed or does Island in The Sun remind anyone else of Cliff Richard's Summer Holiday?

i'm unsuccessfully trying to ID which '80s toy commercial rivers is ripping off with the vocal melody at the end of the chorus.

or possibly some song from a rankin-bass holiday special

No-ones even posted Thank God For Girls yet, hmmm.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4wjekuKn-4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJMruBJfhNM

i like both of the new songs for some reason

zZzZzZz...

add it to the suck pile.

so omfg the next album is the white album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGyBIQjU2Lk

hot take: all of the new songs are good

bretty gud

that fucking blows and sucks

what the hell, weezer?

that Weezer continues to be a viable enterprise in the music industry is sad and gross

yeah I'm amazing that the "holy shit the new Weezer album is horrible" cycle that comes around every two years hasn't dinged their commercial appeal at all, I can't think of another band quite like 'em

their xmas album was so lazy it was almost genius

lol guys that song is like one itty bitty notch below Pinkerton level. if u think Pinkerton sucks, that's fine, but still

it sounds like Green Day

i have no idea what song y'all are hearing

the shitty one

yeah I'm amazing that the "holy shit the new Weezer album is horrible" cycle that comes around every two years hasn't dinged their commercial appeal at all, I can't think of another band quite like 'em

― frogbs, Friday, 15 January 2016 18:20 (58 minutes ago) Permalink

idk, their commercial appeal looks pretty dinged to me, even with consistent top 5 debuts. Every album for the past decade has sold worse than the one before it, beyond what you'd expect even if you take into account the impact of unauthorized downloads and streaming.

I do agree that it's surprising that the outraged backlash hype cycle was able to last a full decade (or more)

that's what they get for making sub-Good Charlotte crap

yeah, they totally deserve it, no argument there!

why are they doing a white album? will it include their revolution 9?

Brilliant band. Each record post-Make Believe has had at least a couple great songs on it. i.e. "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To" from Raditude. Red Album was remarkably consistent.

I disagree, but I thought their last one had 2 or 3 that were a lot less embarrassing than usual.

i feel like sliting their throats.

idk, their commercial appeal looks pretty dinged to me, even with consistent top 5 debuts. Every album for the past decade has sold worse than the one before it, beyond what you'd expect even if you take into account the impact of unauthorized downloads and streaming.

― intheblanks, Friday, January 15, 2016 2:25 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also "Thank God For Girls" (which i thought was one of their better recent singles!) didn't even make the top 10 of the Alternative chart, which is usually incredibly easy for a lead single from a big '90s band.

Shakey OTM ITT.

I'm usually fine with dismissing artists' personal failings if the work is good enough, but a) Weezer's work isn't good enough and b) Rivers is totally loathsome

http://www.weezerpedia.com/wiki/index.php?title=Interview_between_Rivers_Cuomo_and_Joe_Matt

"There was this one time in Japan that was really emotional for me because this is when I was first starting to figure all this stuff out about being really aggressive. I'd been in Japan for a week and every night there were ten or fifteen girls in my room and nothing happened because I wasn't confident enough to say "Let's have sex or get out of the room." So finally, at the end of my stay there I said, "Whoever wants to stay in the room has to take their clothes off and get on the bed."and most of them left but four of them stayed. It was a very difficult step for me to take but I hadto take it. It was the truth about what I wanted."

jfc

http://x3.cdn03.imgwykop.pl/c3201142/comment_D1LivSBBuOJQXH4RQHpo9HxhEAv8bLeP.gif

L.A. Girlz
https://itunes.apple.com/us/post/idsa.6c0f9054-d599-11e5-85c4-7ebee77c13cd

it's also good!

plus it references jabberwocky for some reason!

it's great

video perhaps not so much
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiPsG7Yjrvk

this song is not too bad

"California Kids" is pretty good!

New album is rather fantastic, bit like the previous one rly

great record

like such a solid power pop record, but also their first album in forever where all of the songs feel connected to each other?

"summer elaine and drunk dori" is like a major key "lithium" rip

^ damn totally otm

yeah this record rules

old weezer is so much better than middle period weezer

loving 'Jacked Up' atm

i like that they call it the white album. these guys still have a sense of humour. i have a question. did they ever get rich with their music? after the first album (so great) they did not release one album i ever wanted to listen to. but this one at least starts quite promisingly.

quick search turned up:

$30 Million
Rivers Cuomo of Weezer — Net worth: $30 Million.Oct 19, 2015

but i have no idea how accurate that is.

they've done well. their first record went triple platinum, pinkerton went platinum, green probably did too. seems like they're always on tour, and they frequently headline small/mid-size rock festivals in the U.S. and Europe. they're, uh, big in japan. i worked at the Baltimore Virgin Festival in 2009, co-headlined by blink-182 and Weezer. they were good. "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To" is a great song. Love the title, too.

i don't like making new threads anymore but if anyone wants to post a "Weezer 2004-present POX" list, i'd be curious to see what kind of stuff gets chosen.

this is surprisingly good, definitely their third best. the last one was decent relative to the garbage they'd been making for ages but this is much tighter and more consistent, and with higher highs too. it's sort of a weird amalgamation of different styles they've done in the past but that works better than i'd have thought.

Wow, so strange to read so many consecutively positive posts on ILM, about new Weezer

Pitchfork naturally damned it with the faintest of praise, but their new music is never going to get a genuinely good review from them ever again

i will have to give this a shot. i heard the singles and was not too impressed, they sounded like same old crummy nu Weezer

the run from "summer elaine and drunk dori" to "jacked up" is my favorite set of weezer songs in forever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GotFSkL2PXo

this song is just the best

jacked up's chorus is insanely good. it's the wildcard song a la 'Freak Me Out', except done properly

I enjoyed this all the way through, 'easily 3rd best' otm

I like this album.

the run from "summer elaine and drunk dori" to "jacked up" is my favorite set of weezer songs in forever

This is totally the peak of the album for me as well. I never thought I could love a song called something like 'L.A. Girlz'...

I appreciated the last album too, but this is altogether more sure of itself. Plus some of the lyrics are even more amazingly weird than usual.

The last album seemed like such a desperate attempt to recapture the Blue Album especially the guitar solos, but I certainly didn't hate them for trying. The white album feels really relaxed and for once not chasing any particular trend. I hope they get a hit out of it.

Lastly Rivers claims he has a black album all ready to go, but with Rivers its hard to say if he's even telling the truth or just trying to have fun with the press.

This was part of a special album package earlier this year

Take a Greyhound to the Galapagos with Rivers where you’ll stay only for a limited time. Once you get to the islands, you’ll go bird watching to try and find the elusive White-cheeked pintail

My only problem with EWBAITE, other than Back To The Shack being terrible, is that the solos are a bit too widdly in the Maladroit tradition rather than the spikiness of 90s Weezer. Well, I suppose all the "guitars are dead!" shite at the very beginning it pretty cringe. Great album otherwise though. I hope that not every album they do will be a "return to form" from now on

Best since Green at least, maybe Pinkerton. Ewbaite was terrible.

spent a lot of time with ewbaite earlier this year and it is super not terrible

It's garbage. A few decent songs (AGN, British, the Happy Meal one – Lonely Girl is alright for the Green outtake that it is), but arguably their worst ever (Back to the Shack may not quite invent a new way to suck, but it's one of a very rare breed), and many more that had one or two good ideas but come out so confused and embarrassing (Foolish, Da Vinci, jesus christ Anonymous). Many of the best riffs are jacked, some from very unfortunate places (vocal melody of Father's verse = Feel Good Inc, Anonymous is basically the theme from The Office). The fidelity is awful too, they ran out of money for the project before even the production was finished, which is why some of the premixes they shared sound better than the album itself.

Even if it were good, the whole thing is tainted by the fact that in order to make his "return to form" Rivers relied on hundreds of hours of focus group sessions conducted with die-hard Weezer fans (ten-point scales, bubble choices, "How do these songs compare to how you would rate the first two albums," the works) over a period of at least 4 years, without even consulting his band. It sure sounds it.

i was at one of those! I just remember it being 10 point scales and notes

"da vinci" is great, i get the hate but rivers' lyrics have always been embarrassing

or tbh I don't get the hate because rivers' lyrics have always been embarrassing

also love "eulogy for a rock band" and "cleopatra"

Yeah, they changed the system a bunch. Sometimes it was just Karl and a tape-recorder in a hotel room, one-on-one (creepy much?).

The lyrics are pretty dumb, sure (I love the chorus', except if by Rosetta Stone he means the software, which of course he does). I'm mostly put off by the Foster the People verses. There's nothing wrong with them in concept, they just sound so limp and hollow. The embarrassment factor in Rivers' lyrics up through Maladroit and after has a totally different valence though, with "No One Else" and Pinkerton he's trying to sound ugly and regressive, and doing it with artistry. Compare that to him channeling a similar voice on a Make Believe outtake like "Outta Here" and it sounds totally clueless. Plus yeah, once you get to Red, you've got the additional stench of product placement everywhere (or a "man, I hope he got paid for that" feel, at least).

"Eulogy" is decent in a vacuum but sounds too much like that one Killers song, and one or two more from that era. Also ties into the whole "rock is dead, guitars are dead, but we're gonna rock out like '94 with the guitar strap the fans love (and focus groups, and a song doctor from Dr. Luke's clinic...shhhhh)" self-reflexivity that I found noxious. "Cleopatra" is another one that had potential, but given that the record reuses so much material from Rivers' archive I almost wonder if the nu metal post-chorus comes from the shelved Fred Durst collab.

With White, I feel none of these issues. And I think these are easily his best lyrics since Pinkerton, in some ways even better just on the page (at least in places – still needs time for me). You could still parse '00s Weezer tendencies in moments of EWBAITE, and they just weren't integrated at all, but here I think they fit into the fabric of the record real well and are some of the brightest spots on it (TGFG, "Jacked Up"). My main issue is the self-plagiarism ("Only In Dreams" has no business being in KOTW's bridge, "LA Girlz" sounds a little much like "Susanne" and "Miss Sweeney" at least pulled it off in a completely different way, the "Pink Triangle" ordeal with the DYWGH solo, and many more), and rated against Green I feel like, well, at least he wrote Green on his own...but those are pretty minor gripes and barely impinge on my top-to-bottom enjoyment of this album. Nice to be able to say that for the first time in my ~14 years of being a fan.

For the record, Red is a giant mess, but if you resequenced the record strictly using outtakes that they actually had finished and mixed at the time, you could come out the other side with something even better than White...That's consensus in a lot of Weezer discussions, though not sure if the opinion's come up here before.

I definitely agree re: the idea of a resequenced red being potentially one of the best weezer records. those b-sides are all great

anyway i was substituting for a friend at one of those focus groups, and had very little investment in a new weezer record being good. the first song they played was "i've had it up to here" and i lost my mind. i think all the songs i rated highly made the record, except for a truly offensive one I gave a 7 or 8 too bc I thought I would make people so mad

I remember nothing about it of course, other than it was definitely not "back to the shack"

Btw unclear of me to have said "strictly" using Red outtakes, I of course meant the best of the standard edition as well.

IHIUTH is definitely a highlight and the demo you heard was probably in its original key (a half step or two even higher), which fans generally consider the superior version.

Anyway, I generally don't consider Weezer fans to be the best co-directors for Weezer's future (they're much too conservative), especially not some average of dozens-or-hundreds of them. I just find a bit tragic the idea of trying to mount a critical comeback on the basis of systematized pandering, especially when the best aspects of Red era (and even early Rad) material involved Rivers going out on a wild limb. Especially bummed that it kinda worked, and somehow White's fairing worse. Only a bummer given how often Rivers has gone on record as someone who cares deeply about such things.

EWBAITE isn't great and does feel weirdly calculated (like much else they've done), but the only track that's garbage is Back to the Shack. it's decent enough for a band to be making at that point in their career let alone for one with their low standards. at the time it seemed about as good as a 'return to form' for them could realistically be but White is a much more enjoyable album than i thought was possible for them.

especially when the best aspects of Red era (and even early Rad) material involved Rivers going out on a wild limb

i'd argue this extends to the best tracks on hurley which sound really wacky and un-weezer-y

How come this story about Weezer using focus groups isn't better known? If you google "Weezer focus group", the only thing that comes up is a blog post written by... soyrev. It's so weird (to me, maybe not to music industry people) and fascinating, you'd think it would be all over the place!

lol well it was all very hush hush at the time, and then it was still like 1.5-2 years before ewbaite came out, so at that point...no one cared? everyone forgot? soyrev mentioning them now is the first time I've seen anyone talk about the focus groups

I think so too. It's the only album ever made in this way. The closest precedent I can think of would be Rivers himself, with the "Rivers Correspondence Board" in '01/'02, even if he claimed to have ultimately disregarded what everyone said and gone with his gut on Maladroit (but given fans were providing incorporated feedback for things as granular as the phrasing of specific bars in guitar solos, obviously it's more complicated than that…not the fans' fault that the base material was as shabby as it was, though).

If you really want to get into it, there is a 4chan post out there written by a disgruntled focus group attendee who felt used (and alleges that some of his friends who were involved even felt plagiarized), and tons of old Weezer fan board postings riddled with deleted posts over at allthingsweezer.com (a private forum). The earliest I heard of it was somebody PMing me there in 2010 with details about how it went down, and how he recommended me to them on the "strength" of the terrible blog of mine you found, and at the time I thought it was weird but didn't think much of it. When discourse finally spilled into the forum post-ewbaite about the extent/systemization of it, I got pretty grossed out and tried to get to the bottom of it (especially since I had gotten a promo of the album and the PR literature made zero mention of it, or even the fact that the album had tons of famous credited co-writers, which judging by the reviews most critics didn't even seem to notice), but everyone involved was almost completely mum because they don't want to risk being blacklisted from future "opportunities" (some did confirm certain things for me 100% off-record). Tensions rose as Rivers and Weezer's management sent the word down that they wanted such discussions quelled, which I found truly pathetic, given it implied that this was something they were embarrassed of having done, and didn't want reaching the public during a time of at least moderate critical redemption. Deleted my account for that very reason, actually.

So yeah. Given what a mess the record is and the way it was made, I have no qualms ranking ewbaite as the very worst of the Weez (I've got more respect for Raditude even, at least Cuolmes was going for exactly what he wanted). Plus I just don't think an album with a pandering nursery rhyme apology for the vast majority of your career a la "Back to the Shack" (which sucks in the exact way it's apologizing for, right down to the hack co-writer) could ever ever be good, throw that thing on Pinkerton and even that would be one of the worst albums of all time.

I should add that in ewbaite-era interviews Rivers did make a couple mentions of "really loving his fans now" and occasionally hanging out after the shows to play them new stuff and "let them know where they're at," but skirted any mention of soliciting pen-and-pad feedback on a mass scale. I think the sessions had an impact also on White (I remember "Do You Wanna Get High" having been one of the songs discussed at one of those sessions c. 2013, 2014), but far less so. That's just speculation though, for all I know they could still be happening after every show.

oh well in the interests of not getting anyone in ilx in trouble I have no idea what you're talking about and I hallucinated whatever I confirmed

which judging by the reviews most critics didn't even seem to notice

well I mean this is always the thing. can you tell dan wilson cowrote "california kids"?

the only time I was like "oh yeah that's where that idea came from" was justin hawkins, and I guess some of the horrible raditude b-sides

I meant more in a looking-at-wikipedia way. Honestly I don't care about "Cuomonly" songwriting nearly as much as your average Weezer die-hard (though I did coin the term :B), a lot of my favorite Weezer songs are co-writes – "Sweeney," "The Underdogs." But I do think when the narrative behind your record is "Maybe I should play the lead guitar and Pat should play the drums," "rockin' out like it's '94," etc., it's worth mentioning that a pro songwriter is helping you come up with those words whereas in '94 all those songs would be just Cuomo and the occasional Pat co-write. (As a secondary point to the fact that "rocking out like it's '94" is a stupid goal, and even then, on those terms the record fails.)

Though yes, I remember some ATW posters saying "wow this sounds kinda like the Darkness! in a good way!" and then being sad to discover that it was actually co-written by the dude from the Darkness. (Maybe you can hallucinate-confirm, but I think co-writer status wasn't something mentioned at the focus groups, either.)

Christ, I guess I've missed talking about Weezer on the internet. Even when the music's bad, they're one of the most interesting bands to ever be.

making new threads anymore but if anyone wants to post a "Weezer 2004-present POX" list, i'd be curious to see what kind of stuff gets chosen.

forgot to respond to this

blowin my stack
blowin my stack
blowin my stack
blowin my stack
blowin my stack
blowin my stack
blowin my stack
blowin my stack
blowin my stack
summer elaine and drunk dori

man, YES. YES. "blowin' my stack" is like neo-weezer on a classic weezer level, i love it so much. many do not! i really don't get why stuff like this was left behind for Make Believe, but then, you could say that every album

my picks chronologically, going from post-pinkerton onward just because

almost all Homie/'97 "rivers cuomo band" material
o girl
o girlfriend
photograph
island in the sun
hash pipe (falsetto metal song about transvestite prostitutes on FM radio in '01, yes please)
broken arrows (answering machine version, band demo is botched)
sandwiches time (!)
death and destruction
butterfly ('02 live version released in '05, cheating but it's so diff and so good)
worry rock (green day cover)
the organ player
[post-2004 starts here]
blowin' my stack (!!)
the story of my life (weezer's only *actual* emo song)
everybody wants a chance to feel all alone
i can love
hyde (specific '05 live version whose date idk)
the angel and the one (replete w/ stars-of-the-lid-on-guitar jam at the end)
miss sweeney (the protagonist of pinkerton at age 35, one of my very favorites)
pig (fans prefer the rivers demo, love that too but band version is in my all-time top 5)
the spider (!!)
i don't want to let you go (rivers demo, though raditude version isn't that bad)
run over by a truck (!)
the prettiest girl in the whole wide world ('97 version better, but rad outtake is good)
the underdogs (!!)
time flies
thank god for girls (have not seen any review that "gets" the lyrics imo)
do you wanna get high?
LA girlz
summer elaine

oh, that "o girlfriend" would have to be the '02 toronto version. gorgeous.

there are more...

Thanks for that, soyrev, imma check out that list. Like many casual Weezer fans, I only own (and love) the first two albums. I've heard a bunch of unexciting singles since then, but I suspected out of like eight albums there had to be some gems

sure! unfortunately with a lot of that stuff there're multiple versions (pre-2004 especially), and the mileage def varies, so my apologies if i waste your time on the wrong "organ player," "o girl," or "sandwiches time."

the high guitar harmonies in the background of "good thing" are my favorite thing about the new record right now. it's what i always want guitars to sound like. and pat's always been a great drummer but i love his little clustering fills throughout this record

Dud.

Yes, even the first two albums, which are incredibly overrated beyond belief. Pinkerton is a heap of shit, and they have quite possibly the most irritating fanbase of any band. Songs From The Black Hole isn't a lost classic, and never was.

sleeping giant awoken

at last turrican is here to answer the thread question

at least there's less frothing at mouth "rivers is a scumbag" chat at allthingsweezer these days, back there I go

how on earth have you even dug up SFTBH material if you think Pinkerton is a "heap of shit?" O_o

(i'll agree that SFTBH was overreaching, he was wise to ditch)

my real weezer 2004-now pox:

blowin' my stack
this is such a pity
the greatest man that ever lived
pig
the angel and the one
trainwrecks
the british are coming
da vinci
summer elaine and drunk dori
la girlz

i prefer Alone III to Pinkerton, that thing is a goddamn masterpiece

they have quite possibly the most irritating fanbase of any band

sunglass hut cashiers?

to claim there is any more than a good EP out of the red sessions is beyond delusional

angel, pig, sweeney and the spider are among weezer's best written, performed, and produced songs (except all the pitch correction on rivers' voice in angel =/). autopilot rules, too, in a way they've never done before or since. greatest man is silly but fantastic. next-tier options like dreamin, the odd couple, pork and beans, troublemaker, and automatic are getting into more lightweight territory, but not nearly enough to unanchor the other five or six gems. you'll also notice among most of these songs the theme of coming to terms w/ adulthood and eventual death (and, in a couple places, trying to fight that), which would've been a pretty good look for a rock band entering its own middle age. i don't remember if this was ever confirmed or just a fan rumor, but if they did track brian's are you gonna be, that's a lovely song that would've fit in perfectly (as opposed to the mess they made of thought i knew). they also did a rivers vocal version of king, which i can imagine being (/and am told is) amazing.

so, yeah: an incredible 4-song EP, a great 6-song mini-album, or the third best LP of theirs by miles.

I was surprised just now to find Island in the Sun is by far the most popular Weezer song on Spotify.

xp funny how poor brian didn't even want thought i knew on the record, and complains about it in the liner notes of the album itself. must've been sad to have tried for years to get a song on a record and then have it be a botch released against your will. (then again, i'm sure he's psyched for his well-earned credits on la girlz and endless bummer!)

my heart songs is great. i like red album the most of the post-green LPs

Just listened through the White Album again and it's very sunny and I feel excessively good about it right now. I love the little semi-motifs from L.A. Girlz that crop up in California Kids and Do You Wanna Get High?. It all holds together so well.

http://imgur.com/UfR8eLR

same, small, new england, farm, town

oops

http://i.imgur.com/UfR8eLR.jpg

good interview here - http://n.pr/23CsP3E

thanks for linking that ^ ... good listen

feel pretty sad for him when I hear him obsessing over Metacritic scores

Rivers is an absolutely fascinating psych case

He was on Song Exploder a couple weeks ago talking about his songwriting process:

http://songexploder.net/weezer

Uh, now that I'm listening to the NPR thing, I guess the content may be pretty similar.

https://vine.co/v/MTI3l0AKlDh

was talking about that in-depth song interview last week, realized how utterly depressing it was to hear about spreadsheet songwriting

Saw them a couple nights ago thanks to a friend with free tix - the awkward medley-ing of older songs was NAGL (eg, playing all of "Beverly Hills" but only sections of "The Good Life" and "Surf Wax America"). Not sure I've ever had a faster pivot from embarrassment/rage to joy as I did when Rivers started singing Drake and reading out tweets about the show displayed on the venue screen (including at least one icky one), then pulled up a keyboard on started on "El Scorcho."

also at one point he paused the show to read out the full lyrics to the chorus of the (not terribly inspiring) newer song they were about to play, for some reason

like to think that Weezer permanently broke up after Pinkerton and that every album after that = Cuomo going solo and sucking but it isn't so

The best Weezer song of all time is the one where Rivers Cuomo just lists the age of consent of every Japanese prefecture

— stefan heck (@boring_as_heck) April 26, 2017

Bush did 9/11

— Rivers Cuomo (@RiversCuomo) June 20, 2017

So... there's a new album!

*fart*

Ha!

https://vimeo.com/249694026

lmao that's really well done

woulda never thought to call weezer "nirvana in a major key" but there you are

Not bad, though this is probably my favorite "Poppy" take on Smells Like Teen Spirit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnAgMvSJmcA

That first one sounds much more like Third Eye Blind

The Black Album is the worst music I've ever heard in my life

I'd say "worst music I've ever heard in my life" is maybe underselling it a tad but practically every track makes me want to listen to something else. "Can't Knock the Hustle" is just a really bad modern Cake song. "Living in LA" rips a hook from The Police. "Piece of Cake" is like Dukes of Stratosphear with a lobotomy. And so on. I can't believe Rivers is 50 years old and still writing songs like this; I've never encountered a successful musician with less to say.

I keep seeing Weezer everywhere lately, and it feels like they weirdly might be like...the most popular rock band for non-music nerds right now? Along with....Queen again? I didn't realise they were classroom-instruments-and-barbershop-skit-on-Fallon big. Music's weird, man.

Didn't they just release an all covers album on the heels of Africa?

they were and are garbage

the white album is so fucking good, it's a shame rivers is like... an extremely cynical songwriter?

Who would have thought they would be the last (?) '90s radio rock band standing

Pearl Jam and the Foos still going.

Dare I say it, half of the Black Album is fine. Byzantine especially:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWzThKlk2Ac

PJ isn't making many albums (especially widely popular ones), are they? Foo Fighters probably are, idk, I always forget how many people seem to like them.

PJ pretty consistently make records every 3-5 years and never took a hiatus like Weezer/Rivers did. The records are definitely the secondary consideration compared to touring, though. (By a lot, at this point.)

I never understood why Weezer had this sort of eternal popularity on the backs of two decent albums instead of say, Everclear

Rivers being sort of a troll probably has something to do with it

god i had forgotten about everclear

So Much For the Afterglow is better than both of Weez's "classic" albums in my opinion

i liked that album at the time but can't remember anything about it.

worth revisiting, pretty perfect record

Everything Will Be Alright was about half ok.
White Album was actually solid.
2 or 3 songs on Pacific Daydream were ok.

Teal/Black are garbage - zero jams. RIP

the singles and the reviews made me expect that the black album would have a lot more actively terrible musical decisions on it than it did but unfortunately the rest of the album was mostly just bland and poorly executed pop rock, meaning it wasn't even as entertaining of a trainwreck as raditude was

i guess it's a bit disappointing that rivers is back to following his worst impulses after three albums that ranged from relatively pleasant (ewbaite, pacific daydream) to quite good (white) but there's really so little reason to have expected anything at all from this band these days so i can't complain at all

I never understood why Weezer had this sort of eternal popularity on the backs of two decent albums instead of say, Everclear

Feel like this is 100% the fault of people my age +/- two years (class of 2000) who were the core of the backlash to the Pinkerton backlash.

(class of 2000)

h.s. or college(?)

Pinkerton University

lol

Everclear's '90s singles all sound like boomer-grunge to me. No weirdness. No sense of humor. I've tried to get into them many times, but they're way too VH1 imo.

always thought of them as a grunge/power-pop hybrid with an emphasis on the latter

It's funny how their career after their third album has seemed mostly like an exercise in pissing off as much of their old fanbase as much as possible.

should i post “white album >> pinkerton” in the controp thread or just leave it here

You should post it on a Weezer forum!

I'm more likely to listen to Everything Will Be Alright in the End over Pinkerton these days, fwiw.

it makes me furious that rivers is capable of writing songs like "girl we got a good thing" and "wind in our sail" and just mostly doesn't!

i'm entirely with brad on "white >> pinkerton"

Yeah, it's not like he can't deliver the goods! This is ultimately the most frustrating thing. I wouldn't be so annoyed about his worst material if his great material hadn't been so good.

I should give White a proper listen. I thought Red had a few jams.

It did, but it also had some embarrassing tripe.

This sounds like the same exact conversation us Sun Kil Moon fans are having these days

I resist the idea that any of the last...five?...SKM releases have contained any jams at all

Well, not THAT exact, but tbf I have seen people citing "jams" here and there from recent albums. I can't be bothered to look into it myself. The guy retired with "Young Love" for me.

More broadly I meant that there were some great albums, then this huge drop that produced material way beyond parody that is so hard to understand the why and the how, and the frustrating realization that there are fans that actually prefer that direction and enable it.

Anyway, Weezer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl-hSj3gnks

best weezer song i've heard since the white album. new album van weezer (lmao) out next may

that's indeed pretty good! it's cool how rivers showing he can indeed make good music for a whole album if he wants to after all this time has only made him an even more frustrating figure

it's kinda like what i'd imagine a more successful version of maladroit would sound like lol

I don't hate OK Human? It's actually kind of charming in a weird Rivers way.

I'm hoping Alone IV will cover both the green album and maladroit. That's the one I'm holding out for.

― toulows-lautrec (how's life), Wednesday, March 13, 2013 12:46 PM (eight years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Apparently last year he released like all the Alones! Including the Green Years, which ends up being Alone VII for some reason I haven't figured out. Given all my bluster about this on this board, I'm going to have to listen to this in it's entirety at some point in the near future, but today is not that day.

https://riverscuomo.com/demos

Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo (2007)
Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo (2008)
Not Alone: Rivers Cuomo & Friends Live at Fingerprints (2009)
Alone III: The Pinkerton Years (2011)
Alone IV: The Blue-Pinkerton Years (2020)
Alone V: Before Weezer (2020)
Alone VI: The Black Room (2020)
Alone VII: The Green Years (2020)
Alone VIII: The Maladroit Years (2020)
Alone IX: The Make Believe Years (2020)
Alone X: The Red-Raditude-Hurley Years* (2020)
Alone XI: The EWBAITE Years (2020)
Alone XII: The White Year (2020)

well good luck getting through all that eventually, there's i think nearly 3000 demos all up there

i listened to a little bit on youtube though and there were some gems in the very little i heard. it's clear that rivers is largely an extraordinarily bad judge of his own work but it's also easy to understand how he could lose perspective after finding out just how bizarrely prolific he is with his songwriting.

The EWIBATE years is at least 3GB big. And just MP3s too, not flacs or wav etc. Absolutely insane

An obvious highlight from the drop (annoyingly cut off at the end):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxTX0gaw158