Thursday, August 13, 2009
Billy Joel has always had a surprisingly strong influence on Rivers Cuomo, at least as far as this side of the new millennium is concerned. There’s the matter of Joel’s “Leningrad,” the introductory piano figure of which Cuomo shamelessly cribbed for the main melody line of 2001 b-side “I Do” — a surprisingly nice listen, […]
“Slob” has had a pretty interesting life, for a Weezer song. The tune was debuted during the Summer Songs 2000 tour, which found it sticking out in the memory of fans as a rare slab of raw emotion in a batch of Rivers Cuomo’s least personal songs to date. Truth be told, the semi-officially released […]
Just after I finish singing the praises of Rivers Cuomo’s 1997 output comes probably the least impressive song from that year: “Little Sister.” While unknown demo or rehearsal recordings of the song may exist, the only public airing it ever received was at a Rivers Cuomo solo show at T.T. the Bear’s in Boston, October […]
Hot on the heels of “Sheila Can Do (It)” comes another artifact from Rivers Cuomo’s unfinished 1997 sideproject, the Boston-based alt.country of Homie. While many of those songs were old demos and scrapped song ideas that Cuomo was repurposing, this one, “Autumn in Jayne” (a.k.a. “Autumn Jane,” a.k.a. “Autumn and Jane” — both of which […]
While it’s hardly the lost classic a few Weezer die-hards have made it out to be, early Maladroit contender “So Low” is by all means a decent song, and one that’s held up better than a good portion of what actually wound up on the record. Perhaps it’s the spacious live recording we have to judge […]
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Interesting that this sunny little gem was one of just six songs Rivers Cuomo wrote in 1996 — especially when you consider what the other ones were. The song keeps impressive company, being written between two considerable pairs: “Across the Sea” with “The Good Life,” and “Falling For You” next to “Butterfly.” Indeed, that’s more […]
“Devotion” is, without question, the single most depressing song Rivers Cuomo has ever written. That’s no small claim, especially considering the Pinkerton era from whence it came. The song is a b-side to the “El Scorcho” single and, like most Weezer b-sides, is fantastic: most all of the ones we’ve heard are as good if […]
The next song on the list is another short one, so I might as well bang this one out tonight, too. This December 2002 cover gives us a neat little insight into what Rivers Cuomo was listening to at the time: the 2001 solo record from Nina Gordon, a saccharine pop departure from her more […]
Also known as: “Serendipitous Jam,” “C’mon Let’s Go,” “It’s Only Rock’N’Roll,” and one of the worst pieces of detritus from an era that was mostly comprised of tossed-off schlock rock. In that sense, “Serendipity” is a Maladroit outtake par for course: another rudely generic rawk riff, a solo that scorches only in the redneck sense, […]
As I’ve mentioned before, few songs really stand out from the Summer Songs 2000 era. Even nearly a decade after the songs debuted to the public, it’s a little hard to tell them all apart sometimes. Lyrics overlap, certain sections of songs sound so nondescript that they could fit in just about anywhere, and the […]