Pinkerton is, for the most part, an album composed of bitter, incendiary rockers (“Tired Of Sex,” “Getchoo,” “Why Bother“) and sad, contemplative slowburns (near everything else, extending as far as perennial b-side cuts like “Waiting On You” and “Devotion”). To that general rule, I would say that 2 of the album’s 10 tracks represent (seperate, distinct) anomalies: there is the upbeat “El Scorcho,” which celebrates the exciting confusion of a fresh crush with practically exuberant self-deprecation — and then there is “The Good Life.”
“The Good Life” is, in my estimation, a catchy little distillation of Pinkerton: it’s got both the sharp bitterness and the introspective sadness, as well as the hip-shaking, slang-slinging rollick of the “El Scorcho” radical. The sleazy, slovenly guitar riff at its core seems like it can barely get itself out of bed — sort of like Rivers Cuomo himself, who, in this part of the album’s narrative, finds himself longing for the sex-addled lifestyle he disavowed on track one, though he’s been out of the game for so long that he hardly feels comfortable in his own skin anymore. As an ode to lethargy, “The Good Life” works quite nicely on the literal level and the musical level alike.
Admittedly, for a first listen, the lyrics are pretty simple; “It’s time I got back, it’s time I got back / And I don’t even know how I got off the track” is the song’s most instantly memorable refrain. But there’s surprising depth here, including one of my favorite descriptors in the Weezer canon — “broken-beaten down” — and a considerable amount of personal detail. The line, “Without an old man cane, I fall and hit the ground,” is actually not just a vivid metaphor, but also a reference to the cane Cuomo was sporting at the time, then only in his early twenties. Because he had been born with one leg roughly two inches shorter than the other, he decided to undergo a correctional procedure shortly after the Blue Album tours, which involved the surgical breaking of his leg for a more “proper” regrowth. The recovery process was evidently quite painful — Cuomo compared it to “crucifying” his leg — and, coupled with the fact that he was an undergrad at Harvard at this time (one with braces too, mind you), it’s easy to understand why Cuomo was feeling a bit alienated and hermetic. It’s no coincidence that an x-ray of Cuomo’s leg adorns the artwork for the “Good Life” single.
And then there are all those delectable mid-90s Cuomoisms that just brim with character and personality. When he cuts loose on the chorus, it’s heaven: “I don’t wanna be an old anymore! / It’s been a year or two since I was out on the floor / Shakin’ booty, making sweet love all the night / It’s time I got back to the good life!” Whereas the white gangsta slang of “Buddy Holly” was clear self-parody, Pinkerton reveals that Cuomo had a real penchant for spicing up his vernacular every now and then. It’s infectious, too; you’ll find it hard not to shout along when Cuomo throws up his hands and says, “Screw this crap, I’ve had it!” There’s just something so conversational and honest about these words, like much (if not all) of Pinkerton.
Speaking of which, Matt Sharp’s flippant echo — “I’ve *had* it!” — adds even more color to the text, and highlights one of early Weezer’s greatest strengths: its vocal arrangements. Although there are few moments on this album that recall the Wilsonian harmonies of “Surf Wax America” or “Holiday” (dammit, why doesn’t Weezer do those kinds of vocal arrangements anymore!?), Sharp’s occasional falsetto and Brian Bell’s ever-present backing lead really help bring it all home on this record. And, unlike Blue, there are a lot of sing-speak Sharp moments like this one that brighten the mood a bit (the greatest, of course, being his “How cool is that!” on “El Scorcho”), a light counterpoint to lines that might otherwise sound emotionally heavy-handed (“I should have no feeling / ‘Cause feeling is pain,” anyone? It’s not hard to tell why many blame Pinkerton for the young generation of emo bands that would invade FM dials and New Jersey in the early ’00s, despite innumerable stylistic differences). And then there’s one of my very favorite Weezer moments, wherein Cuomo delivers one of the album’s finest couplets — “Ain’t gonna hurt nobody, ain’t gonna cause a scene / Just need to admit that I want sugar in my tea” — and Bell provides the perfect paranthetical in its conclusion: “Hear me! (Hear me), I want sugar in my tea!” Show me a better sing-along album and I’ll smack you upside the head.
Pat Wilson’s little drum fill at 1:32 has often been cited as his best ever (these folks are surely forgetting the climax of “Across the Sea,” though), and my lord, the instrumental breakdown that follows the scorching solo has to be one of the prettiest moments in rock’n'roll. Just after the band gets dangerous and slashes up the place, the tempo just sort of melts (as so perfectly articulated by Wilson’s graceful, tumbling tom roll), and all of a sudden, Cuomo’s doing this bleeding-heart slide guitar straight outta blue Hawaii, those pretty Pinkerton bells lighting up like reflected stars playing along the sea. It’s just such a god damn beautiful moment, and you’ve gotta wonder why this is one of the few times Cuomo’s ever played slide guitar on record. He’s too good to have never done it again.
When the lead vocal reappears, it’s almost as though you can thread a clear narrative through the entire song: that lazy guitar at the beginning is Cuomo stumbling about his lonely house, slouched and unkempt, pondering where he went wrong; the dialectics of Cuomo’s lead and the backing vocal echoes (provided by Sharp and Bell, as previously noted) represent the stircrazy, nigh-schizophrenic descent that he’s made into self-imposed solitude; the frantic solo rockout is the furious peak of Cuomo’s anxious ramble to himself, and the transition into that wonderful, starlit slide guitar is him growing tired from spinning his own wheels, drifting into a deep and peaceful sleep. Restored and ready, Cuomo now rouses himself from his dreams and lethargy over a slow build of guitar — hell, if the second one that comes alive at 3:09 doesn’t SOUND like an awakening, I don’t know what does — and now, Bell reenters in perfect accord with Cuomo, the voices of our protagonist’s mind now coming together to serve a sane, singular vision.
“I wanna go back, yeahhhhh!” Wilson lighting into his cymbals, Sharp’s bass driving forward with melodic purpose, Cuomo and Bell swinging for the fences and straining for the fretboards…It all comes together just right, and you think that our hero might just have a chance with this thing. The plot thickens.
Regarding other versions, the single remix of this song is mostly unchaged; with a cursory listen, I can tell the drums (toms, specifically) have been raised in the mix, and the amp noise outro has been faded out to please the radio. Not that that did much to help, seeing how the only international chart this song made was US Modern Rock, where it peaked at 32. The Australian “Good Life” EP came packaged with a live acoustic version from a lunchtime gig at some random high school (they won an MTV contest, y’see), which is a pretty great version despite Bell being quite thoroughly trashed and Cuomo forgetting the words for half of a line. Sharp’s falsetto inflections are in top form (he even echoes the “I’m a pig, I’m a dog” line with a well-placed “woof woof!”), of course — mayhaps because that was the only thing he was doing; no bass here — and while the rockout falters a bit on the acoustics, the slide guitar section gets by with some pretty “ooh-ooh” falsettos in its stead. The high school kids sure seem to dig it, even if the record tanked…
While that does it for the officially released versions, I have some more of the versions in circulation, including an acoustic radio performance for “99x FM” dated 1997 — featuring some twangy, cheapo electric guitar for good measure. There’s another acoustic good’un from the same year that the band did for Y100 (worth finding if you can), and there’s also one from Tokyo, immediately pre-Green in April 2001, although you can sort of tell Cuomo’s losing interest in this part of his discography by that point. The song was last played in 2005 during the Make Believe tours.
108 Comments
A note to all discerning readers of the TVS: my weeks at college are growing harder and harder. I’m scaling back the update schedule to just 2 per week for a little, landing on Mondays and Fridays. The blog will pick up again sooner or later; I’ll be sure to notify you when.
This is your best post yet. As with any songblog, I think a sure sign of a successful post is one that has me diving for my iPod/CD rack/vinyl box/computer/whatever to hear the song I’ve just read about.
This is, quite simply, my favorite Weezer song, and one of my favorite songs ever, and you’ve, as they say, made it new.
Excellent work.
Fantastic post, but…
[it’s just such a god damn beautiful moment, and you’ve gotta wonder why this is the only time Cuomo’s ever played slide guitar on record. He’s too good to do it just once.]
Getchoo, No Other One, Pink Triangle, and most notably, Waiting On You all have slide guitar. I suppose you might even count Wanda too, since it’s been commercially released.
Rockin’.
Best post yet.
And your best line yet:
“…those pretty Pinkerton bells lighting up like reflected stars playing along the sea.”
Magical.
Like Johns comment above, I think you just made this song completely new to me.
Great stuff.
AWESOME post! I listened to the song again and I totally see all the imagery of Rivers stumbling around and the passing out sequence and all that. You’ve brought a whole new light to this song for me.
Also, I just wanted to echo this statement:
“…the greatest, of course, being his “How cool is that!” on ‘El Scorcho’)”
I’m really glad that this entry is refreshing the song for some of you — really, your compliments are what keep me going. I also get something out of it; I think everyone makes the narrative connection to this song subconsciously (and I could’ve made a better argument for that with a little more time to revise; for example, the lyric begins with “When I look in the mirror,” providing the obvious setting of a bedroom), since it’s just such a cinematic song, but even I didn’t really make the connection verbally till writing this post.
Art: Huh! I always assumed that was just finger-slides, not real slide guitar, but your perspective certainly makes sense. I’ve edited the post to be sure.
HowCool: Yep! I always let my friends take the lead so that I can do the Matt Sharp echo on that one. Too fun.
A God-damn good song. What are peoples views on the ‘revolutionary’ music video?
Just rewatched the music video (who called it ‘revolutionary?’) for the first time since roughly 2002 (didn’t like it then), and I have two thoughts:
1) The mirrored performance shots are AWESOME, but it’s showing two different bands: Rivers and Brian, who are clearly taking this new “serious artist” approach very, well, seriously, and then there’s Matt and Pat, who provide some decent comic relief (Matt playing the xylophone was awesome), but really only serve to contradict the intent of the song (and their bandmates). Like, okay, a couple shots of Matt not playing bass is okay, but could there have been ONE close-up of Pat where he’s not “playing” with those stupid fucking maracas? The result is half a band that thinks it’s making beautiful art (correct), and half a band that’s saying, “Hey, remember us? We did ‘Buddy Holly.’ We’re still funny, right!?” It undercuts the message of the song, which has room for funny moments (I’ve HAD it), but is in general a very sincere artwork.
2) The pizza girl storyline is lame, lame, lame. Boring, predictable, mostly unrelated to the song, poorly and cheaply filmed/shot, etc. There should have been something much, much cooler (and more fitting) to break up the performance shots.
That said, gotta dig Cuomo’s Pinkerton mode, and Brian Bell offers his second best performance in a Weezer video (after “Hash Pipe”). Still, at best, it serves as great of an artifact of rising in-band tensions and fractures as the Mykel & Carli benefit bootleg.
wasn’t this high school gig played by rivers and matt only both playing accoustic guitars? haven’t listened to it for a while so i can’t say if you can hear brian. anyway, great read.
When the final chorus kicks in, it has to be my all-time favorite Weezer moment bass-wise. All the choruses here have that cool ascending/descending bass riff, but the last one is an octave or two higher, bringing it out in the mix. And it sounds really awesome.
Easily one of my favorite Weezer songs. This song has been responsible for making my voice hoarse on more than one occasion.
It was ‘revolutionary’ because of the filming technique with the 3 shots at once thing, which had never been done before – and if i remember correctly there is an interview where once of the band said it was ‘so inventive its never been used again’, i think it was Brian or Scott.
Oh yeah, and a great read – its just one of those tunes you get stuck in your head and can’t get out (in a good way)
Another interesting about the video: it’s directed by the husband and wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who, about 10 years later, would go on to direct the film “Little Miss Sunshine”.
A great, great song that I never get tired of listening to or singing along to. And one of the few in which Matt’s antics in the video or the song don’t annoy me.
I always thought that the RCB/Homie song ‘Fun Time’ was an attempt at trying to re-create this song. The sound and theme of FT seem to me to be similar to TGL. While FT is okay on its own, stacked up against TGL, it’s nowhere close.
And the video- one of my favorites. I dig the performance/plot dichotomy, not to mention the first of two uses of a 24 heartthrob as a leading female. And the commentary on VCD (which is where the “so inventive it’s never been used again” line comes from) is some of the funniest material on the DVD–but it’s a guilty pleasure. You can tell both through the video and commentary how miserable the band was doing this (and I think this is the video Pat said he wanted to wear a bunny suit or some other costume for). I just wish that during the making of this great material (audio and visual) the band wasn’t so miserable.
i remember hearing it for the first time and thinking it was the most accessible song on the album – i think it would have been a better pick for first single…but then again, because of the timing and lack of support from geffen (i think they wanted it to fail)- pinkerton was bound to bomb.
and yeah, that solo…the word “transcendent” comes to mind. amazing stuff.
soy – don’t worry about the timing – i was kinda hoping you would slow down anyway, i enjoy the blog too much and would like to see it go on for awhile. frankly when you crank those posts out fast – there’s not enough time for discussion. enjoy college while you’ll there. although you sound busy – if you take it all in and have some fun – it’s a heck of a journey.
as for A6 – does anyone know what happened…has anyone emailed greg?
this is Jason. changed my name to my new sn, which is way cooler.
TGL is perfectly described by a review I found on Weerez in the “Weezer” page. It’s under the little Rolling Stone part. Prepare yourself for how dead on this is.
“The Good Life’ is catchier than syphilis.”
’nuff said.
A great song (also agree with the comments re. the video) and for sure a vital component in the Pinkerton mix. Would be nice to see them play it live on the tour, it seems a no brainer to me; at the very least they should have done an acoustic version for the AOL sessions, I have mad love for Why Bother (one of my absolute favourites) but this would have been a better choice. With River on vox, obviously.
JBM: I had no idea. Wow.
Gumby: I don’t really understand the “Fun Time” connection so much. Care to clarify?
Tapegun: Thanks for the support, and yep, A6 is back up. You probably knew that by now, though.
Jason: I like that.
Great post as usual!
Regarding the video.. No, it’s not really the best ever, for sure. But I just had the misfortune to see the Troublemaker video. Talk about aiming directly for the Disney Channel audience. Compared to that, the TGL video is great art..
Hopefully, one day, I can see Brian perform this song live. That would really make my life good.
I seem to remember that the “revolutionary” technique from the video had actually been done earlier in that Porno for Pyros video for “Pets” that used to play on MTV every five minutes. I remember seeing the TGL video on 120 Minutes and being annoyed because it looked exactly like the PFP video. I’m not sure which one was filmed first, though.
Jonny: Truth. “Troublemaker” has got to be the worst =W= video ever.
Hahaha, even when we’re talking ’90s Weezer greatness, Chuck can’t help but turn it into a diss for ’00s Weezer.
Speaking of “90′s Greatness,” I can understand where Rivers was coming from when he thought his music was kind of “dumb.” El Scorcho, next? please?
Worst Weezer video ever honors go to the original Island in the Sun.
As for the Fun Time/The Good Life link- it was something I always felt from first hearing Fun Time. Granted, I couldn’t tell you the last time I heard Fun Time, while I hear The Good Life multiple times per week.
The tune sounds similar, or at least it struck me as similar the times I’ve listened to it. As for the lyrics, well, the first verse about pissing in the sink really isn’t about anything (other than pissing in the sink), but the second verse (according to Weezer 101):
“When I’m cuttin’ the rug
I move from chick to chick.
I bust a superlative move,
And if I’m down in the groove
She’ll take me home real quick. ”
If The Good Life was written when Rivers was broken-beaten down, maybe Fun Time is about what happens to him when he’s actually out there shakin booty, makin sweet love every night. Maybe to him, the Good Life is dancing around and then pissing in the sink. Who’s to say?
Nah, original IITS was random, but at least it was professionally shot and edited. Plus Mikey looks really good in it (mancrush, maybe).
And hey Gumby, I’ll admit; that sounds like a pretty good life to me. : P
I love the TGL video. Pat and Matt are fucking hilarious. I prefer goofy videos to the type of serious one Rivers was trying to make, and even though Rivers looked sweet and all, you can only do so much trying to be all solemn. he just kinda stood there looking nerdy. If they would have had fun with this video, cut the bullshit pizza stuff, and just been really goofy, it could have been even better.
the original IITS didn’t have obtrusive product placement.
Slob video > Troublemaker video
The 2008 NY Yankees > Troublemaker video. Actually, that’s probably not true.
Most bad things in life > Troublemaker video
Troublemaker video > Pink Triangle video, Slob video, Dope Nose video, the first IITS.
fight me.
Just no.
What a great post. Once again, i don’t even have anything to add since you’ve covered it so well soyrev. I want to add that this post got me into a big pinkerton kick again this week, and what perfect timing. The weather is beginning to change into fall, which is the time of year i enjoy listening to pinkerton the most. as others have said, you definitely made this song new again. Well done. looking forward to the next post, pinkerton song or not.
Yeah, I think Pinkerton is a great fall album.
Thanks for the props, Sandwiches. : )
Re: the next post, it seems like I’m taking TAPEGUN up on his suggestion and scaling it back to 1 post per week for now. Seems like posts get more discussion that way anyway (35 comments for “Zep Song”!?), and it makes my (already-incredibly hectic) life a bit more manageable. However, if songs are particularly short (and short writeups), I may well do two a week, one on Monday and one on Friday — which is what’s happening next week (got the next three already written, so I can focus on actually learning econ for the exam in two Mondays). Cheers!
Oh, and during breaks — especially summertime — I plan on bringing the rate back up to 3 posts per week. I wanna finish this songblog sometime…
finally, some good news. i can live without a6 or wp, but losing this blog would be really painfull.
Soy- when did I suggest that?!
Yikes, total misattribution there. Tapegun suggested it back on comment #16. I’ve edited my post, but hey, sorry Tapegun and Gumby!
And Low: awww, shucks.
Amazing song, one of the first weezer songs i heard. Back then i wondered why this wasn’t a major hit. I had never before heard a chorus this catchy and at the same time, pure emotions and rocking guitars. As a 12 year old that’s enough to fall in love. Im 23 now but just as much in love with weezer. That must say something about this song. Great post by the way
you gotta love this blog!
TGL should have been the 1st single. I honestly beleive it could have had a significant impact on sales, and at least a slightly brighter future for the entire album.
I forgot to point one thing out about this song when you posted this, and I’m not sure if any one else mentioned this.
I don’t know if this was intentional by Cuomo’s part, but during the slide guitar solo, it revisits the “Tired of Sex” theme somewhere around 2:43. Listen to this part, and intro and middle of “Tired of Sex.”
I always thought this was put there on purpose, as sort of Rivers’ looking back in retrospect and longing the sex lifestyle he used to have (aka. going back to ‘the good life’). This is beautifully reinforced by the guitar slide solo sound, as it seems to symbolizes this longing. To me, this was a brilliant inclusion to the solo on Rivers’ part, and my all-time favorite Pinkerton moment.
This could be pure coincidence, but I find that the subject matter of the song and the STRONG similarity of themes were supposed to serve THIS purpose.
Feel free to agree or disagree.
Also, note the abrasiveness and repetitiveness of the Tired of Sex theme clashing with the slow, beautiful, yet heart-wrenching theme revisited in The Good Life.
It’s a little after 2:45, actually…around 2:47 or so. My mistake.
VERY cool insight!
I’ll have to go check that out. It certainly seems likely that Rivers would do something like that, considering his obsession with classical composition in the Pinkerton era.
Especially since this album is essentially a concept album, and its basic foundation is Songs from the Black Hole, where Rivers has cleary shown an interest in revisting themes.
I should have been more descriptive and accurate when posting this originally…this is actually the repeated and abrasive bass line in TOS, which is sometimes amplified by guitars (I’d have to listen to TOS again).
weezer offcially relaunched this song at the weenie roast. pretty awkward performance but still good to see live
Yeah, that was a nice surprise.
I thought the performance of the song was great. Not only was it one of the best songs on the setlist, but one of the best performed also.
Especially when listening to the bootleg and not having to see Rivers acting like a retard. It has gotten several spins in my media player.
I hope they keep it for the tour and that they give us some more surprises even if I understand there isn’t much space to do so.
I think that if they drop the stupid covers there could be space. Here, lets look at the hits:
- BvH
- PS
- Undone
- Buddy Holly
- Say It Aint So
- Keep Fishin
- El Scorcho
- IITS
- Hash Pipe
- Pork & Beans
Those are pretty much requirements. Then add in about 7 tracks from the new album, and that gives you 17 songs. Considering that the band have 7 albums, they should probably be playing setlists around 23-25. So, that gives you like 7 or so tracks to put in random fan favourites. I’m thinking:
- TGL
- Only In Dreams
- Surf Wax
- Any Pinkerton B-side
- Burndt Jamb or TGMTEL (something extra to represent Red/Mala)
- Blast Off!
- MNIJ
That’s 24 songs. Easily do-able, and would please casual and cardcore fans alike. Heck, Blast Off and TGL are so catchy that they may even convert a few new fans with just that. Makes sense.
However, this is weezer, so it will probably be the hits, 7 songs from the new album, Dope Nose, Troublemaker, WAAOD, then assorted covers to fill out the rest of the set.
Do they ever play 23-25 songs? I thought it always averaged around 18-20.
Last time was 21, I think, and that was the most they’ve ever done. But, come on, they have 6 albums, and at least 3-5 albums worth of great unreleased material. Add in the new album, and they really should be playing long sets.
Fucking great great great song. I love how on the live version Pat Wilson hits the cymbal earlier on the bridge back into the final chorus, at just the right, braincell-bursting moment.
Yup, this song still rules.
I’ve been bitching about Weezer’s weak ass set list for years, but apparently it’s too damn hard for them to bother learning their own catalog.
When their contemporaries like Pearl Jam are out there wailing 3 hour sets that change significantly night in and night out, Weezer has no excuse to be this lazy. For those of you who say “it’s hard to learn that much,” I say: BULLSHIT. There are hundreds if not thousands of bands who play more complex music and play sets that are hours long every night of the week.
The band should really be embarrassed that they don’t work harder to put on a longer, more in depth live show. That said, their live performances are often executed really well (until Raditude), but doing a cookie cutter setlist with minimal effort just shouldn’t cut it for a band this talented.
I’m curious: can anyone think of any bands of Weezer’s size that have been around 15+ years and have a comparably large discography, and yet play shows as brief and generally unimaginative as Weezer’s are? Don’t get me wrong, I always enjoy myself at Weezer shows, but they could stand to be markedly longer and a little more adventurous. And no, I don’t mean more adventurous cover choices…(though even that would be a welcome change, really)
It’s kind of weird to me that Weezer doesn’t want to play more songs. One of the best aspects of being in a band is being able to play a lot of songs. Weezer songs are relatively easy to learn. They have a ton. They clearly DO like learning different things, because they’ve been whipping out covers all over the place. And they only get so much time on stage when on tour that you’d think they’d want to maximize.
Maybe they just don’t really like their own music much.
Weezer has pretty much become one of the most talented cover bands out there
True, Greatest Scorch. Scott, Pat, and Brian even do pretty decent covers of “My Name Is Jonas” and “El Scorcho” every now and then! And we love those songs!
Weezer: The Best Weezer Cover Band in the World
I remember in the Weezerpedia interview with Karl, he said that the band just doesn’t want to play 3 hour shows. Which is a damn shame.
Regardless, with their catalouge, they should be able to mix up a 1 1/2 hour show, no problem. I remember I was looking through the official bootlegs on the site, and under the set-lists, all was posted was two set-lists. One titled “before (some date)” and another titled “after (some date).” And the only real change was one song.
Absolutely ridiculous.
That said, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing them at The Bamboozle this year.
I can understand that, but even just ratcheting it up to a standard two hours would improve matters drastically. Or, almost just as well, they could EASILY switch up a 1.5 hour set like you said.
Karl also mentioned that before the ’09 tour started off they had rehearsed several more songs than they ever played (according to Karl, the ones that would make the ‘real fans’ a lot happier). Karl said when things got started that he presumed the band would mix things up a little bit, but yeah, all that happened was substituting “The Good Life” for “Why Bother?” And if the change is that minor, then why bother indeed.
I can understand not wanting to play a three hour set but, as Soy said, they could even accomplish a lot by doing two hours… and really, two hours isn’t that long. U2 easily fits 22-24 songs into a two hour show and their productions are usually a lot more involved. When you have as many short songs as Weezer, I don’t understand how they couldn’t play as many songs in two hours or less — it’s really not that hard.
I can understand not playing b-sides… a lot of bigger bands don’t (and using PJ as an example is a bit unfair because they’re sort of the exception to the rule as far as mainstream acts go.) When a band like U2 plays a more diverse array of material with each tour than you do though, it’s a sad state of affairs. Their setlists don’t change drastically over the course of a tour but they are at least smart enough to include some songs that they haven’t played in forever — some that aren’t even singles like Ultraviolet (Light My Way,) Your Blue Room, In A Little While and even rarely played singles like The Unforgettable Fire (which hadn’t been played in like 20 years before this last tour.)
Imagine if Weezer just threw in say Butterfly, Holiday, Getchoo and Falling For You. Even if they played them at every show on the tour fans would still go apeshit… it’s not rocket science.
But Ludicrosity, the people who showed up for “Beverly Hills” and Rivers’ glasses might get scared!
Yeah but i really do not think Rivers is into playing songs fans want to hear. He is determined to play his pop songs and occasionly “reward” his fans with anb old number they wanna hear
You know, as shitty as BVH is, it was actually really entertaining in its Hootenaney form when I caught the band on the Troublemaker tour. I’d still rather see some more obscure stuff but even shuffling up certain arrangements to spice the more over-played songs up (with the exception of some classics and I am not talking about different members doing lead vocals) would go a long way. It just seems like they’re always going through the motions on stage, except for a couple of elements on Red (the uniforms, little skit with Heart Songs before Sliver and trampoline were neat touches) which were kinda neat. Still, I agree with thegreatestscorch, I don’t think Rivers really gives a shit what the fans want to hear… when rehearsing for Red the final setlist spot was between Keep Fishin’, Surf Wax America and Holiday… Maladroite is the most universally panned Weezer album and yet, up against two fan favourites from a classic album, he took Keep Fishin’. The band had to have known that fans would’ve appreciated one of the other two more.
Sometimes I think they are trying to alienate old fans of Blue and Pinkerton because they’re so much more critical of the PP stuff compared to the teeney boppers just picking up on the band now or those only familiar with the singles.
I’d imagine that Rivers’ old stage fright has a lot to do with this. Until recently, he really seemed to hate performing, and just stood there sullenly. I can see how he’d want to keep his shows short if he’s not enjoying it. Maybe this new, more charismatic Rivers is an act, one that’s hard for him to keep up. Those other bands do long sets because they enjoy performing, but Rivers has never given any indication that he does.
i like how they chose Keep Fishin over SWA and Holiday on the red tour. they don’t need to play every damn song from the blue album. if they traded out Blue songs for different Blue songs, then thats fine. 1 or 2 songs from mala are okay, as shit as the album is. and i like how the outro to keep fishin was that little melody thing.
i fucking loved the show i saw on the Troublemaker tour, my only problem with it was DeLonge on Undone, the two or three covers they did, and that the Hoot kinda slowed down everything.
Agreed on all points, Slaves, except “Keep Fishin’” being a good idea. I’d enjoy a good Maladroit choice, but neither of the singles are anything I ever need to hear again.
hi, i’m new. i agree with you brownerton – i think it’s stage fright. the new, showy, active rivers just kind of seems phony. it’s like he’s trying really hard, but isn’t really sure about what an audience would consider a “crazy good time” kind of performance – hence the random football throwing during why bother at that Yahoo show at the roxy. also, the really awkward speeches during undone and constant references to how great weezer is. these kinds of things happened in 2002 also, but he wasn’t trying to act like a super outgoing guy, so they weren’t as awkward. it just seems like he’s really forcing it, and it’s unnatural for him.
ehhhh. Dope with Scott is a great improvement on the song, somewhat worth listening to.
I still think it’s inexcusable that they play entire tours with a variance of only 1 song per night (if that) and won’t even consider a 2 hour show.
Should be calling a spade, a spade? Are they just plain lazy? Do they take their success for granted?
I agree that Scott’s vocals suit Dope Nose very well but it’s still a pretty lackluster song in general and there are many others I’d rather hear. I’m not sure what to think of Rivers and stage fright when he does things like the Not alone show where he’s alone, right up close with fans and playing a lot of material he hasn’t in years. Someone so afraid wouldn’t be doing stuff like that you’d think, unless it’s the fact that he plays Weezer shows in front of so many more people. I agree this new Rivers seems like an act but I dunno… if he hated playing songs for people so much, why would he bother doing stuff like the Not Alone show? I just don’t necessarily think stage fright is the reason for the short shows with paint-by-number setlists.
I agree that Weezer doesn’t have to play the whole Blue album but including SWA or Holiday would’ve only brought the blue total up to five songs from the record on the Troublemaker tour. I just think either song would be much more enjoyable to your typical Weezer fan, I don’t know too many who would rate Keep Fishin’ higher than either song. (BTW I am not counting Suzanne in my blue album count since it’s a b-side.)
Really I just think the band has become complacent and lazy with their live sets. They know their unimagitive setlists are enough to get the crowd going and apparently the bare minimum is good enough for them.
Being fair though, I give them some kudos for including Pink Triangle and Suzanne on the Troublemaker tour. I understand a lot of fans would like other songs to be played but these two wouldn’t be your expected choices in a Weezer set in this era or the Red album era of the band. It’d still be nice to see stuff like Don’t Let Go, Falling For You or even something like Death & Destruction (instrumental… which I believe they did on either Make Believe or the Troublemaker tour right?)
Yeah, that’s true. “Keep Fishin’” is a song that no one really cares about, diehard fanbase or mainstream.
And Ludicrosity, they definitely did not play an instrumental version of D&D on the Troublemaker tour. Maybe once or twice on the Make Believe tours? I don’t really know about that.
And yes, “Suzanne” was a nice gesture but I’m sure it was a concession more to Brian than anyone else — for a time it was his favorite Weezer song ever. It may still be. Either way, I met a crazy die-hard fan at the MSG show who had not checked into their setlists before seeing them, and when “Suzanne” started he screamed through the applause and looked at me as if he had just gotten an incredible Christmas present. Weezer can bring so many of its most heartfelt fans a great deal of joy with even just a small gesture like one old b-side…
It must be the MB tour then, I know they played it since touring for Maladroite though because I wasn’t paying attention to what they were playing back then… I don’t think they played D&D much on whatever tour it popped up on. I also agree on Suzanne being more for Brian than the fans now that you mention it, I wonder if they got to pick which songs they really wanted to sing or if Rivers imposed limits on it.
In defense of Keep Fishin, it’s always been one of my favorite 2000 era singles, and its video is just fantastic. In fact, it’s still one of my fiance’s favorite weezer tunes just because of that cover Julia Nunes did of it.
Anyway, I agree it’s not their best work, but it’s a more solid song than it’s being given credit for lately and I would never complain if it showed up at a concert.
I’m with Thom — I’ve always enjoyed “Keep Fishin” even though the lyrics are crap. I’d definitely take this song any day over any song on Raditude (minus IDWLYG, and the 3 bonus track gems).
Is it the only =W= song on with a shuffle beat? I really enjoy the transition of the shuffle beat to the straight rock beat in the “doo-waa” bridge. Pat’s drumming on this song is unarguably one of his best in my opinion.
The backing vocals on the song are stellar as well. I guess this is a discussion for the “Keep Fishin” post, haha.
what was the actual setlist for Troublemaker Tour?
MNIJ (Brian, Scott, Rivers 1 line)
Perfect Situation (Scott)
Hash Pipe
Troublemaker
Undone (w/DeLonge)
El Scorcho (Brian)
Pink Triangle
Dope Nose (Scott)
Keep Fishin
King (Scott, Karl or Lee on keys)
Automatic
Dreamin’
Suzanne (Brian)
Pork and Beans
Morning Glory (Pat)
Greatest Man
BvH Hoot
Island in the Sun Hoot
Sliver
Buddy Holly
i think. might have missed one. also dont remember the order.
actually that might just be the songs for the MSG show. i think at other ones they might have done other covers
god damn and somehow i forgot SIAS lol
http://www.self-titledmag.com/home/2008/09/25/1mm-weezer-madison-square-garden-92408/
oh lol thanks soy. god i wanna be at that fucking show again. The entire crowd singing along to SIAS at the top of their lungs was amazing.
Yeah, it was awesome. I was front row center in the pit!
That’s the same setlist as the Detroit show, except for the running order of a few songs I think. It wasn’t a bad show by any means and t’was my first Weezer concert actually so I don’t have much else to compare it to. It’d just be nice to see them have a bit more variety.
It’s an obvious statement that we all know, but just to reiterate:
The instrumental breakdown is the greatest moment in music.
In this horrible version, it’s one of the worst:
http://audio.soundopinions.org/streams/2010/02/thegoodlife.m3u
IS NOTHING SACRED?
Cool tidbit of info came in the interview after though: in order to “show the critics,” Rivers starting listening to a lot of critically acclaimed music of the era shortly thereafter — Sebadoh, Flaming Lips (got their engineer), etc. These were primary influences on Pinkerton, which was apparently Cuomo’s attempt to be embraced by the “cool people” — the indie rock crowd. So really, we find here that no album is necessarily “pure Cuomo” — each and every one of them are influenced by whichever ‘crowd’ he’s (primarily) trying to appeal to in a given era. It’s very interesting to see his career in this light.
Still, its a testament to how good a songwriter he can be when tries to appeal to a crowd that challenges and sharpens his craft instead of an audience of fickle teenyboppers settling for the lowest common demoninator.
So does this revelation mean that he really doesn’t give a fuck about the dedicated fans who put up with the garbage they’ve spewed out since Maladroite? Just saying, if he specifically hones his writing so the songs will appeal to a select group… our group sure ain’t who he wants to appeal to.
What a strange twist a fate eh, Ludicrosity?
Damnit Rivers.
I stopped thinking Rivers cared what we thought long ago: the past five records are more than ample proof of that.
However, I do think he is grateful of his diehard fans, as difficult as they can be. He wants them to be happy, sure, but that’s not going to factor too heavily into what he wants to do with the Weezer project right now. (Whenever “right now” might be)
I wonder, due to the initial critical and commercial, backlash Pinkerton received if he considers the experiment a failure. I would say it wasn’t because all those influences did create a record with an indie band-atmosphere, even if it wasn’t successful at the time. I think he wanted that credibility from the album but didn’t think of the fact that it would most likely cause the record to do poorly on a commercial level. As great as indie music is, it’s no secret that the masses don’t clamor and buy those albums in record numbers like they do with more accessible pop music.
Just to clarify: I am speaking of success or failure on an objective level from Rivers’ point of view. I think it’s successful because it’s a great fucking album but I’m just curious to know if he thinks he succeeded with the goals he put forth for himself while writing this record.
I think he is aware of the fact that, in the end, it succeeded in the exact way he wanted it to — it’s on all the Top of the ’90s critics lists (usually ahead of Blue), it’s the barometer by which all their other work is measured, and if there’s one “cool” Weezer record, that is most certainly it. It’s just that it took over 5 years to get to that point — five very painful, influential years for Cuomo.
Well for awhile he described it as embarassing, the whole getting drunk and morning after metaphor… hopefully he’s changed his tune since then… or maybe he was just trying to provoke the fans again?
I first heard about Weezer 2 years ago, in 2008 (Yeah,it’s been thaaat long…i live in Brazil,so Weezer is not that famous around here as they are on U.S,unfortunately),thanks to a Japanese Indie Band called “Asian Kung Fu Generation”. Their vocalist,Masafumi Gotoh, is a great fan of Weezer and in 2008 they even played together on a show, in Japan. Gotoh said that Weezer is the band’s main influence to their sound style.If it weren’t for them,i think i would never have the chance to hear a Weezer song.
There are a lot of bands that are influenced by Weezer sound,mainly by their Pinkerton and Blue album songs,but i don’t know if i can say the same about their other 5 albums,though…
Anyway,both Weezer and Asian Kung Fu Generation are now my fav bands.
I’ve got some songs from the band on my channel on Youtube. If any of you are interested to give your opinions about what do you think of their music,here’s one song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW1M8UUtHZk
Even though i bet most of you guys will hate the song (at least the bass lines are good…i think), i decided to give a try and share with everyone else the kind of sound that i like.
If someone wants to comment about any similarities between both bands,please, leave your opinions here.
Oh,they also recorded a song along with Matt’s band,The Rentals,called “Hello Hello”,but i can’t find the damn song anywhere…Any ideas where i can find it?
for the most part now rivers considers pinkerton a great record as i have read in several interviews
I think Rivers actually does like Pinkerton now.
My favorite thing about this video is pat on bass and matt on drums
I actually dig the “Good Life” video in general. The weird “revolutionary” filming technique they used gets some pretty cool effects — but like the Pinkerton aesthetic in general, it’s a little too raw and off-centering for any real mainstream appeal.
I could live without the crummy pizza girl narrative, though.
I think I would have enjoyed it more if the pizza girl part was replaced by something darker, more relatable to Rivers in the period he wrote the song. I don’t mean a literal acting-out of his situation, and not necessarily with Rivers playing himself (preferably not, actually), but perhaps something more cryptic where people familiar with the material would watch it and realise “hey, wow, that was referring to Rivers”. I realise that at this stage of the proceedings the album was failing pretty hard and the label just wanted an entertaining video (not for the people already familiar with the material), but given the emotion behind the song it’s a shame that it isn’t really reflected in the video.
I think the best part of the video is Matt playing drums and Pat playing bass
Hey Scorch, check out comment #103. You feeling alright?
oh dammit, my computer kept fucking up i wasnt sure if it printed. mah b
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