Friday, September 12, 2008
In the fall of 2001, Weezer — fresh off a comeback with The Green Album, and having just replaced rehab room bassist Mikey Welsh with ex-Marine Scott Shriner — agreed to film a concert for HBO’s Reverb series. Funnily enough, it wound up being one of the shows the band did under their alter-ego, Goat Punishment […]
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Imagine my surprise when, in researching the previous post, I found out that Rivers Cuomo called “Beverly Hills” and “Falling For You” – two diametrically opposed pop songs – his two proudest musical achievements. Then imagine my surprise when, after “Beverly Hills,” the very next song to come up in the TVS randomizer was…”Falling For You.” Cuomo […]
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
In 2001, Weezer was poised for a comeback. The past year had been one of changes for the band, who had returned from three long, stagnant years to play their first “reunion” tour to rapturous applause and surprisingly sold-out audiences. These shows offered the debut both of a replacement bassist, Mikey Welsh, and of a […]
Monday, September 1, 2008
Recorded in the fall of 1992, this 47-second nugget didn’t see the light of day until the very end of 2007, on Rivers Cuomo’s solo demo compendium Alone. It is the sole a capella Cuomo song to see official release. The song, despite its obvious lack of lyrics or riffs, has its very own number in Cuomo’s Catalogue […]
At the time of its 2005 release, “Peace” was perhaps the most thematically thoughtful song Weezer had put on an album in the near-decade since Pinkerton. A lot of that has to do with Cuomo’s refrain — “I need to find some peace” — which refers to Cuomo’s then-nascent experiences with Vispasanna meditation. The acoustic guitar in the verse seems to represent […]
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Like Hamlet is a young man’s play, Pinkerton is a young man’s album. Surely anyone can appreciate either (and at any age), but there’s a very hormonal, angsty, testosterone-motivated facet to both (at their respective cores, even), and at least in Pinkerton‘s case, that the vast majority of its acolytes are male and discovered it during their teens is […]
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Back in 2005, on the eve of Make Believe‘s release, guitarist Brian Bell remarked that the record’s second track, “Perfect Situation,” sounded like “Green Plus” to him. He was right — I can hear some traces of Green in “Situation” (namely its reuse of the opening bars from “Simple Pages,” more or less verbatim), and it’s a […]
The great “In The Garage” is a rare entry in the all-too-shortlist of Weezer songs with harmonica, which also includes the esteemed likes of “Mykel & Carli,” “Pig,” “Wanda (You’re My Only Love),” “My Name Is Jonas” and “Freak Me Out” (one of these is not quite like the others). The mouth organ riff that begins […]
Ask any of Weezer’s die-hard fans about “My Best Friend” and you’ll hear the sound of disdain. A survey of the comments on its SongMeanings entry, however, reveals plenty of love. “This song is wonderful,” remarks jack_the_brat. “this song always reminds me of 1 of my friends, shes not actually my best friend but i bloody wish […]
Thursday, August 14, 2008
This song is part of Songs From The Black Hole, a collection of songs that the band never finished. In the wake of The Blue Album‘s commercial breakout, Rivers Cuomo was disappointed to find that the mainstream had largely misunderstood the record, shocked to find the band had been misconstrued as a novelty act with a […]