Looking at the original lyric sheet for the pre-Blue Album song “Paperface” is a pretty rare (and funny) treat. There is an aborted attempt at a verse that begins, “I played the game / I was all right / For a while / I didn’t fight,” which Rivers Cuomo scribbled over with an emphatic “CRAP” (made slightly ironic in hindsight, since those kind of lyrics aren’t too uncommon in his latter day songwriting). And there is what wound up becoming the song’s second verse, an autobiographical story of learning that it pays to be a fake in the competitive push-and-pull of Los Angeles — to “wear a paper face,” so to speak, which presents Cuomo with some struggles of authenticity (“How am I supposed to sing with this thing in my way?”). There are also two interesting marginal notes, a list labeled “Weezer” that was either meant to be a setlist or some early contenders for album material (notably including the unheard and fantastically titled “Spiderbitch”), as well as a note that says, “It sounds like something I heard before in a Spike Lee movie.”
The latter note probably isn’t a reference to this song, ’cause “Paperface” is a genuine slab of that angriest of white dude musics, punk rock. In fact, Weezer — then with Jason Cropper on guitar and backing vocals instead of his soon-to-be-replacement Brian Bell — have never attacked a recording with quite such unbridled energy ever again after the 1992 recording on the Kitchen Tapes demo. The guitars come surging right out the gates, and the larynx-lacerating scream that Cuomo and Cropper share moments later is more intense, primal, and unleashed than anything else ever to bear the Weezer name. Cuomo also indulges in a rare moment of third-person storytelling during that frantic first verse, crafting a thrilling vibe also unique in the band’s catalog before or since:
Amy Moore blew her top
Stole a car, shot a cop
Sped away — 2000 miles
Didn’t stop until she hit New Orleans
That’s all right
There’s just one thing…
Her wedding ring, or anything
She left behind, forgot to pack
How the hell is she gonna get it back!?
As the energy builds through the verse and into the narrative’s wry punchline, Cropper appears in the last couplet with some scream-shouted echoes that are pitch perfect (marking another distinction this performance has: Cropper vocals that actually fit!). The chorus offers no answer to that concluding question, but only the insane, blood vessel-bursting refrain: “PAPERFACE!!!! PAPERFACE!!!!” Fortunately, it sounds fucking great.
And so does that early Weezer acoustic arpeggiation that introduces the second verse (the same as the one originally written in Cuomo’s notebook), just before the electric comes roaring in with a pickscrape to tear the thing to shreds. The chorus reappears, twice as long as before, leading into a fantastic bridge that could make for a pretty good swing progression (if they slowed it down a few dozen BPM) but winds up collapsing on itself in an exhausted heap.
And this is where things really click. The acoustic reappears — this time shouldering the progression while a clean-cut electric moseys a melody around it — and Cuomo repeats the first verse half as fast as he did before. While the frenetic energy of the song’s opening made the mid-line pauses sound as though Cuomo was fighting to breathe through the bedlam, now he savors every moment of it, as if telling some sad bluesy tale almost too hard to believe. (I’d say it sounds like he’s the new east coast boy trying to fit in with the guitar-slingers in some Nashville bar, if it weren’t for what sounds like crickets in the background — so we’ll have to settle for a Nashville porch instead.) The bass, drums, and a third guitar add in for dramatic emphasis halfway through, but soon Cuomo loses control of the thing again, as the rhythm speeds up, Cropper challenging him with those scratchy back-up vocals of his. The chorus explodes once again, even more brutal than before, Cuomo testing out his vocal stamina as Cropper barks like a rabid dog and either of them pushes one of those wailing electrics into its death throes. It’s an intoxicating, lose-your-shit-or-protect-your-neck moshpit moment up until the very last chord.
This version — finally released in 2004 as a bonus track on the Deluxe Edition reissue of Blue — is a real winner, and the one song “Getchoo” has to answer to in the raw rock power department. But in 2007 we got to hear this song in another, earlier light on Rivers Cuomo’s Alone II compilation — that of its original home demo. (Curiously, this was issued as “Paper Face,” with an added space.) For the most part, it’s a similar arrangement, but performed with a beat machine and some truly fuzz-smothered guitars. The tempo just barely lacks the velocity it needs to work, though, and everything here — from Cuomo’s vocal to the beat machine — sounds tentative and unsure. There’s also a different (and seriously cheesy) bridge that features awkwardly melodramatic lyrics — “Let’s see what you have got inside / Underneath your paperface” — and some very deep-voiced counterpoint in the backing vocals, an effect that was never repeated in Cuomo’s recorded history outside of maybe “The World Has Turned And Left Me Here.” The bridge is far from the best part of the Kitchen Tapes version, but the one here just doesn’t fit lyrically or musically, and really weighs things down — especially when the bridge is reprised as the song’s anticlimactic outro. But to his credit, I don’t think Cuomo included it on Alone II for its quality, but rather its humor. My favorite part is his hilarious vocal intro to the song, in which he acknowledges the performance’s shit quality by bragging that it’s a scratch track.
Oh, I nearly forgot to mention that a new recording of this song was included on 2008′s Not Alone DVD. It’s an acoustic performance (not sure if Cuomo’s playing the guitar, but it’s got a surprisingly Brazilian bossa nova swing to it), which is interesting for a moment but ultimately ruined by an absolutely bizarre rendering of the chorus. It’s neat to hear Cuomo choose to revisit this song a decade and a half later, but this take is even worse than the original demo.
In short: wanna brush up on your Weezer archaeology and hear some strange little curiosities? Check out the solo Cuomo variations. Wanna get whiplash the fun way? Crank the Kitchen Tape.
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This post is dedicated to HMC, who won the most recent Every 500th Comment contest and chose this song for a rare deviation from the iTunes randomizer! Thanks HMC!
The ‘Not Alone’ version features awesome solo guitarist Joe LoPiccolo. Rivers doesn’t have the fingerstyle chops to pull something like that off.
I find it to be a really interesting alternate version. The guitar playing is fantastic, and Rivers does a totally adequate job vocally. That “bizarre rendering” of the chorus is really a pretty standard move in the flamenco vocabulary. It sounds great, and Kudos to LoPiccolo for caring enough to come up with an interesting fingerstyle arrangement rather than just playing the chords and bashing away.
It was recorded for that Sirius radio session, the same one that spawned that ‘One of Us’ cover with Rainn Wilson shitting all over it. Rivers asked LoPiccolo to choose a song, and Paperface was his selection. Research this shit if you’re going to comment on it!
Aw man, Paperface. I always get a special feeling of joy whenever I see or hear any of the Kitchen Tape demos. Back in early 1997 I had made a Weezer website (a small-time GeoCities job), and in my discography/song list section I actually specifically commented about the demos, saying something along the lines of “I haven’t included any demo songs like ‘Paperface’ or ‘Let’s Sew Our Pants Together’ because I’ve never heard of anyone actually having these songs, and we’re unlikely to ever hear them.” Regardless of all the other shit that goes on with Weezer, and how we have gotten used to having a million demos from them nowadays, I am still incredibly appreciative that we have gotten to hear so much older/demo material from them.
I have no idea at what point I ended up hearing ‘Paperface’ for the first time, but I do remember being shocked at its sheer intensity and thinking ‘whoa, holy shit, this is Weezer?!’ While I do think it’s interesting, I think I consider it more of a novelty and not really a song that I go back and listen to for fun. I thought the Sirius/Not Alone acoustic version was pretty decent (including the chorus), but again not something that I would seek out to listen again (except for right now as I’m typing this). I was only interested to hear the different bridge in the Alone II demo, but agree that it certainly doesn’t fit as well as the Kitchen Tape version. It’s nice to have the two versions to compare though, like with ‘Hot Tub’.
What do you mean with the “Cropper vocals that actually fit”? I hadn’t really noticed anything particularly terrible with his backing before. Then again, I have probably been giving recordings where he appears a lot more leeway since they are so old, and generally demos. Rose-coloured glasses and all…
i think this song shows how influenced by nirvana rivers is particulary the end where he is screaming
greatestscorch – definitely. His voice from this demo along with “Thief,” “Let’s Sew Our Pants Together,” and a few others seemed to borrow a thing or two from the vocalists of the grunge wave.
Haha Soy, you’re right — “I played the game / I was all right / For a while / I didn’t fight,” definitely sounds like a line ripped straight from Make Believe itself!
If this song doesn’t deserve Very Best, no song does.
Art: Thanks! I knew something was off about my recollection of that version (in fact, until writing this post, I had COMPLETELY forgotten about its existence), in multiple ways. And I knew “bossa nova guitar” was wrong, but no wonder it still sounded familiar — my mother LOVES flamenco dance and music. I’ll edit my post with your kind contributions as soon as I can. Still think the version sounds like crap, though.
AF: Interesting! I have to admit, if we never heard ANY unreleased material from the ’90s, I wouldn’t be here doing this blog right now. Their greatness really added and element of surprise and mystery to the Weezer story.
Tsarczar: You know, there was a time when I considered that, but I think the shitty Alone/Not Alone versions tempered my appreciation of this song. Still, I might be persuaded…What’s everyone else’s take? Grand Playlist only, or is this some Very Best-tier material?
I must say, I love love love love the Kitchen Tape version of this song… such a great tune. I was surprised to read it wasn’t in the Very Best and would definitely second a promotion from the Grand Playlist to the Very Best status. Great post, Soy!
You know guys, not every thing before 2000 has to be The Very Best, and this song sure as hell isn’t as good as Waiting on You, Devotion, Undone, Pig, Only in Dreams, or other songs in the Very Best category. Not even close. I’m sorry, this song as one of Weezer’s best is just too much of a stretch.
I think this is very best worthy the version on blue deluxe is what first put me over from fan to obsessed
I fuckin’ love this song, if you haven’t guessed. Almost certainly my favorite Weezer demo. I’d say The Very Best for sure, but I seem to like this song more than most.
I know what you mean, GuessWho, but I also see where the others are coming from: it’s such a rare treat to hear Weezer do a style of music not associated with them and completely nail it. In that way I relate it to stuff like “The Organ Player,” “The Spider,” “The Underdogs,” “Hot Tub,” “I’ll Think About You,” “1000 Years,” “Run OVer By A Truck”…And all of those songs I’ve already written are Very Best awardees, while the ones I haven’t are in very strong contention for the position…
I’m still torn!
Paperface isn’t terribly far removed from the kind of music Weezer does, or at least, did at that time. You mentioned Getchoo in this post, which is definitely the closest album track in terms of style, but Tired of Sex is also similarly raw. I imagine several songs on Blue would sound closer to Paperface as well, if they didn’t have such poppy production – My Name is Jonas sticks out as an example. I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem as different from typical Weezer as any of those songs you just mentioned.
It’s not just the energy, it’s the speed. And the screaming has never been anything like what it is here, either. I don’t hesitate to call this Weezer’s punk song.
The screaming I’d argue on (ashamed of WHAAAAAAAAAAT I said, I’ve come UNDOOOOOONE etc.), but the only example for speed I can think of is Possibilities, and it would be such a ridiculous insult to Paperface to make that comparison so I’ll just give you that one.
True. “Possibilities” is a pop-punk shitfest, a third trimester abortion from Rivers’ imitation Green Day phase…
This is in defense of the Kitchen Tape version only, not the Alone II shit version:
Look at what this fucking song does in 3 minutes and 2 seconds! It’s a complete and utter beautiful trainwreck of a song, completely on the edge. And listen to how they nailed it. It’s a song that you wish they never recorded again, because you know they’d fuck it up. And then around 1:38, you go from 120mph to zero to this sweet little first verse repeat, then back up to speed. Is this an original idea? Surely not, and if that is your whole argument for downgrading this song, go ahead. I can’t fight it. But it sure as hell was novel to me when I first heard it. This would be one of the first songs I’d play someone if they wanted to really dive into Weezer.
Soy, if you put “The Underdogs” in the very best and not this, we’re gonna have a problem here.
The Kitchen Tape will always hold a special place in my heart. It is a point of =W= history that will (likely) never be revisited in terms of their musical direction, so I am very glad to have what couple tracks there are available. The intensity and vigor contained in these songs makes these demos very fun ti listen to. Also, it makes for a fun trivia item, as everyone I have played the Kitchen Tapes for would never believe that it is Weezer.
Finally, when trying to classify which songs from the Kitchen Tapes are my favorites, I always thin of Paperface as one of the first choices, but I can hardly be trusted as I can’t help but pick them all. This whole collection of bare-bones demos is a big favorite of mine.
Oh, I was waiting for the day that you’d cover Paperface on here… except I thought it was a sure bet for “Very Best”. One of my all-time favorites. Love Rivers’ voice in this one. I could only wonder what a Blue Album take would sound like…
Yeah if Underdogs makes it into Very Best and not Paperface… there will be mass TVS riots. I don’t think Underdogs should be in Very Best period but will grant you a pass as long as this one makes it in too. lol
I would put this on the lower rung of the Very Best but still think it should be in there all the same. It is arguably the best song from the kitchen tapes, a representation of an infamous point of history in Weezer’s career as a band. This rough demo holds its own against anything post-Pinkerton and is beloved by fans… come on Soy, you know you wanna put it in there! lol
Paperface will always be remembered as one of the most aggressive and passionately recorded songs in the weezer catalog. I love the 3rd person perspective and storyline – I’d love to see Rivers get back to this kind of writing and delivery again.
I’ve relented and given “Paperface” the Very Best. Your many enthusiastic comments and just the general awesomeness of the performance (and that first verse; a really unusual treat in Rivers’ songwriting) have swayed me. If anyone wants to dish out a vicious counterpoint, now’s the time…
However, I’m going to stand by my guns in saying that “Paperface” isn’t half the song that “The Underdogs” is. Mo’fuckaaaas
I still remember opening up the Alone 2 liner notes and seeing that picture of Amy Moore-that was hilarious. The fact that Rivers actually tracked her down and played the song for her is pretty cool.
Oy — another historical background oversight caused by having given my copy of Alone 2 to a dimwit former girlfriend. Anyone wanna be a pal and up the PDF booklet for me here?
Giving one of your favorite albums to a lady-friend? Rookie mistake, Soy!
I will never understand your unrelenting nerd-boner for “Underdogs”, Soy.
You will whenever I’m done writing it. If I can’t make this song beloved, I’m going to at least make it clear why some people hold it in such high regard.
Just thinkin’ ’bout it makes me
Oh, and ThomYorke, I know — I made the same mistake with my first “girlfriend” half a decade ago. But in both cases, it just seemed like a harmless lender at the time…And then things go south, you break up, and you don’t particularly feel like asking for your copy of a ten dollar CD back. You know how it goes.
Alone II PDF
http://www.sendspace.com/file/yhpu7f
(That Alone II PDF was upped by Random Hero on the forums, by the way, so credit goes to him.)
I agree with Art and don’t think there’s anything anyone will ever say that can make me understand why some people love Underdogs… just thinking about that song makes me cringe.
And about giving ex-girlfriends a good CD, it could be worse: I actually bought one ex a copy of Make Believe. While I am slightly amused that she got one of the worst Weezer albums ever recorded, I am also the one who sprung the money to buy an extra copy… ugh.
I just thought of something… shouldn’t this be filed under the Pre-Blue category?
Yeah it should be actually.
Thank you AF, and thank you Steve! Much appreciated on both ends.
I haven’t seen this mentioned, but I love the “bang, bang!” and “L.A.!” parts in the Alone 2 demo. Silly, but they made me smile when I heard them.
They sound like Muppets on helium, or something — no idea how Rivers got his voice to sound quite like that.
But I DO love the beginning: “Scratch track, mama! Scratch track, mama!” One of the funnier things Rivers has ever done in a song, I think.
The most furious rocker in the Cuomo Canon. The Very Best, indeed.
Yeah it should be actually.
i think this song shows how much nirvana had an influence on rivers. in particular the loud quiet style that showed in many nirvana songs. also the end where rivers is screaming his head off i feel like is him trying to emulate kurt. anyone agree/disagree?
Definitely. Rivers did a good amount of Kurt emulating in those days. Last chorus of Kitchen Tapes “Only In Dreams,” for example…
And i think in his maladroit/green era songwriting, he tried to emulate kurt as well. In the sense of going in knowing that your lyrics will mean nothing and be as unpersonal as they can be
Yeah, part of his whole obsession with “strophic composition” (‘fans of Nirvana and Oasis don’t seem to mind it at all!’) and all that came with it. The sad thing is that the only thing that changed between the mid-90s and early-00s is the fact that Cuomo went from using the great elements of his inspirations to placing strange and undue value on the insignificant ones.
Btw, i still have failed to gain acess to all things weezer :/. if someone could help me out and send me another invite it would be most appreciated
I’m not sure you want to go in there
Whys this? I just want access to the media section
that’s what i said…
sigh…
Haha, I know. Try to walk away, but I stumble…
No matter — invitation sent, Scorch!
According to the user-list you successfully registered on 14 Mar from my previous invite. Maybe you just need to get your password reset or something? It will likely tell you there’s already a user called “Thegreatestscorch” if you try to re-join…
The problem was they never sent me a confirmation code, how would i go about correcting that? Btw im sorry for being a hassle
Hmm, I see, that does suck. There’s actually a “Did you miss your activation email?” link near the log-in part of the page – have you seen/tried that? Hopefully that should re-send it to you.
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