Go back and listen to Maladroit. Or Blue. Or Everything Will Be Alright. You know what you hear? Weezer rocks. Like, they really really rock.
And that's the promise on the cover of Van Weezer.
And they deliver. "Hero" is the metal meets Green Day I didn't know I needed. There's a bunch of bangers on this disc and I just wanna air shred to it.
"I Need Some of That" is soaring chorus that gets to a place The Cars never could but is a tribute to Ocasek and it's sublime.
Rivers is interpolating some of the best stuff out there, "Don't Fear the Reaper", "The Longest Time", "Heat of the Moment", "Crazy Train", "Girls, Girls, Girls" and the album is better for it as it acts like tribute not like a guy who ran out of ideas.
I don't want to go to far down the rabbit hole. This is the second Weezer record in six months, they couldn't be more different and each are quite delicious in their own way.
I want more of that lead up into the bridge to "1 More Hit". More! Please!
"Sheila Can Do It" proves what I've said before: Weezer wishes they were Cheap Trick. But a confessional one.
A
ASide: The End of the Game, Hero
BlindSide; I Need Some of That, Blue Dream, Sheila Can Do It
I wish I thought of it first but OK Human is a reaction to OK Computer. Sure, it's 20 years hence but I wish I had come up with it. I mean, I do love Radiohead but the way they distanced themselves from humanity as their career progressed should have been a warning sign to all of us of what was coming.
Rivers and the boys have run the other way. Isolation seems to have done that to them. Ad Taylor Swift and well, everyone.
"I tried to raise an eyebrow, it weighed too much" is the epitome of how we all feel during lockdown. I was never really isolated. Instead, I had a wife and kids and life was, well, great. I actually had people overload. As I'm sure some other families felt. It wasn't until I had to leave the country for work and, because we'd rather shoot everything in one go, I signed up for 2 months in an apartment by myself.
The first 2 weeks was full isolation. I did it. But it was really lonely. I couldn't bring myself to read emails even though I had all day to do any kind of work. It was monotony. But I was determined, I would cook for myself and, when I could leave I would bike all over Vancouver.
It took 3 weeks for me to text to my brother: "Ok. Three weeks is the amount of time it took from me, living alone, to go from, “I shall cook healthy meals” to “dinner is an overcooked piece of pork and ice cream”.
This album is unlike the excesses of the prior ones while filling itself with all sorts of instrumentation. "Grapes of Wrath" is about reading a book, for fuck's sake. "Playing My Piano" is like something you hear on The Beatles White Album. At that point (at many points) The Beatles were amusing themselves, right?That's what Rivers is doing. During a quarantine.
This is Weezer’s version of either the Beatles White Album or what John Lennon would have written had he the time.
By 2021 Rivers Cuomo had been writing and producing music for 27 years. Think about that. The Rolling Stones began in 1963. By 1990 they had nothing to offer. Who else is still trying at that point? And that's what he's writing about in "Bird with a Broken Wing". His own irrelevancy. Wow.
A-
A Side: All My Favorite Songs, Screens
Blind Side: Grapes of Wrath, Bird With a Broken Wing, Here Comes the Rain
Reflecting Pool - Weezer - Everything Will Be Alright in the End
Weezer - Everything Will Be Alright in the End - 2014
Weezer is back on this record with a vengeance and a handful of self loathing but not too much.
I’m glad I took a while to give this a write up since I never understood what “Maybe P:at should play the drums” meant until I recently learned that Rivers allowed Pat Wilson to take on lead guitar chores while he concentrated on being the front man.
“Back to the Shack” is yet another song in the “I went too far doing something else and I need to get back to what works that Rivers started with Pinkerton’s “The Good Life”.
But it’s been years in the wilderness which includes co-writers and letting band mates take over…some weird stuff out there.
Here they are, back with Ric Ocasek after losing their record deal and putting out the surprisingly good Hurley on Epitaph. This is a one off for Republic and, dammit, I really wish it was an eponymous record cuz it FEELS like Green.
I can only believe that “Eulogy for a Rock Band” has to be about Weezer, despite the fact that it’s been 20 years and not 15.
Yes, Rivers is co-writing here, sort of suggesting that, while he’s a pretty good songsmith, he really needed Cropper or Sharpe to flesh out his ideas.
What I find myself wishing is that Rivers was a songwriter who wrote stuff that other people wanted to play but his songs are SO Cuomo-centric that it’s impossible to imagine anyone else recording them.
And yet, songs like “Go Away” with Bethany Cosentino are spectacular and perfect for Best Coast.
Knowing that Rivers has a daughter and his relationship with his father and step-father weren’t the best…”Foolish Father” is a masterstroke of confessional Weezering. And knowing that “Everything Will Be Alright in the End” brings a tear to this father’s eye.
U2 has three distinct lives, broken up by sets of releases. I wonder if Weezer has the same. Because they could have ended everything here and been just fine.
I guess I’ll have to finish this and revisit some others to figure that out.
Grade: A
A Side: Back to the Shack, Eulogy for a Rock Band, Da Vinci, Cleopatra
BlindSide: I’ve Had it Up to Here, The British Are Coming, Go Away, Foolish Father, The Futurescope Trilogy Pt. III: Anonymous
Weezer keeps threatening to rock hard. These are the guys who named a comp record Death to False Metal. But, do they "rock"?
They have an upcoming record called Van Weezer and I worry that its another threat that won't pay off.
This one is...well, look at that cover. They really want you to think this is the one. The dark rocking Weezer rekkid we've been waiting for.
But they don't. The anachronistic cover with the music inside is...confusing.
It opens with a...somewhat Arabic rhythm and sound and...gleeps and glicks. (Green Day did this better on "Peacemaker") But you can't knock the earworm.
Who is buying Weezer records at this point? Uber Weezer fans? Are they called something? Weezheads? I wanna call them Weezheads.
"High As a Kite" is the kind of laconic and melodic Raspberries tune we've come to expect from Rivers. It's lovely.
"Piece of Cake". "I'm Just Being Honest". Straight out of the Cuomo machine. "Too Many Thoughts in My Head". Cookie cutter. But I like cookies and these cookies aren't bad.
It's nice that Laura Grace co-wrote "Byzantine". I like Laura Grace.
I really hated this when it came out. I kind of didn't understand it. It's full of keyboards and Weezer isn't a keyboard band. Plus, I really really reallllllllly hate Tribute Albums by individual bands. Remember that terrible Thank You record by Duran Duran? Or Spaghetti Incident?
Ugh.
This one starts off really weird with "Africa"? I get why they did it but...it's not all that. It reminds you that the original is better.
And from there it just plays like a jukebox of songs Rivers liked growing up. And that's great when it gets to Sabbath and A-Ha and ELO.
But then we get "No Scrubs" and an earnest but useless version of "Billie Jean".
Much of this is unnecessary but would be fine to walk to on the treadmill in the gym.
On that opener, "Mexican Fender", is Weezer biting on "Baba O'Reilly"?? Sure sounds like it.
Man, this is a crunchy record. If the previous one was light and airy and full of summer this one is...bigger, more expansive and...darker.
And that album cover might be my favorite in their entire catalog. Surpassing Everything Will Be Alright as my favorite Weezer album cover.
A lot of this makes sense, sonically, since it's produced by Butch Walker. He's magic on the knobs.
But it's really much ado about nothing cuz the songs are distractingly uninteresting. Songs like "Sweet Mary" and "Out There" really require LESS production, guys.
I revisited this record today and, honestly, I think I was a little harsh. I recall that I felt like I HAD to review it to complete the saga but, I didn't give it the patient listen it deserved. It's really something to wade through all of Rivers' music while thinking about Weezer's relationship to Generation X. They are really OUR band. I'm not sure if anyone will recognize that in the end but...
Go to Genius.com and read Cuomo's lyrics. He finds melody and choruses in his own life's observations and banalities. And writes a mean hook.
Grade: B-
A Side: Mexican Fender, Weekend Woman, Feels Like Summer
Is this Weezer's "Beach Album"? It sure starts off like that. But it also starts off in trad Qeez fashion, with a four on the floor beat and a staccato 1/16th strum on the guitar ala Ramones without the meth.
And Brian Bell is a better lead guitarist than the Ramones ever had.
Let's note that the opener, which a perfect Cali PCH riding son, was co-written by the guy from Semisonic who wrote "Closing Time", so it's bound to be hooky.
From there we approximate Beach Boys choruses via Cuomo and the boys.
"Thank God for Girls" is what I expect from them as a single. Mid-Tempo "Beverly Hills" redux that touches the harpstrings of Hip Hop and doesn't 100% succeed in that. But that don't make it not good. It's just not bad.
The highlight of side one is that "Islands in the Sun" beach tune, "Girl We Got a Good Thing", which is a Power Pop Glam Rock Beach Boys amalgam. Wilson is pounding that quarter note beat and I just realized....Wilson! There's a Wilson in Weezer!
Perfect.
"Do You Wanna Get High" is a prime example of proof that Cuomo is a perfect songsmith for his own band. He knows how to do it, he does it well and they come along for the ride.
Song Exploder featured Cuomo and "Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori" where Rivers explained his very meticulous, spreadsheet oriented way of songwriting. And I love that story, the song and especially the chorus.
This album is terrific. Well, a terrific Weezer album.
Grade: A
A Side: California Kids, Do You Wanna Get High?, Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori
Blind Side: (Girl We Got a) Good Thing, King of the World, Jacked Up, Endless Bummer
One thing that caught me off guard as I listened to this album for the 1st time in 11 years is that it starts off with a fucking banger. "Memories" is a helluvan opener and I could see it leading off a concert. If I were them I would open the show with this and then go into a bank of retro hits before returning to the album.
Turning 30 seems to have had an influence on Rivers as he starts to look back on his life but refuses to let go of his desire to rock. He's always been a nerd rocker. But he has always wished he was cooler and that creates this bizarre Beta Hard Rock Power Pop that, dammit, it works.
Maybe it's that I'm 11 years older and I've come around to lower my expectations or maybe the 11 years ago me was so full of judgment that he couldn't see this album for what it is: a collection of heavier than they need to be Power Pop songs and that Weezer really claims to want to be a cock rock band but, at their core, they want to be Cheap Trick.
Gread: B+
ASide: Memories, Ruling Me, Unspoken, Where's My Sex
Raditude, perhaps one of the worst titled album, with the most obnoxious cover, I've ever seen, opens with perhaps the most exciting, lacerating and deliberately radio friendly song Cuomo and the boys have ever foisted onto its fans and non-fans alike. Co-written by power/pop genius producer Butch Walker, If You're Wondering if I Want You To (I want You To) could also be the saddest and, in a strange way, most honest Rivers has been in a while. It chronicles a relationship from the beginning to complacency. It's terrific and, through it, the album holds a LOT of promise. Taking a page from previous Listening Post stars Aerosmith and Bon Jovi, Weezer has turned to outside writers for the first time, the aforementioned Walker, Jermaine Dupri, Li'l Wayne and others. And, in Rolling Stone, Cuomo alleged that he enjoyed the collaborative process so much that he sought out the outsiders. I doubt that. I think the songs needed a bit of sprucing up because a cute video and a hootenanny tour couldn't elevate Red to even Make Believe sales. (Red was also a pretty crappy record). Whatever the reasons be they honest or duplicitous, creative or mercenary, a bit of energy has been injected into the Weezer repertoire for the first time in a while. “I'm Your Daddy”'s pop sheen and soaring chorus had my toe tapping all the way and the Gary Glitter-stadium ready beat of “The Girl Got Hot” elevates a song that was already pretty great to begin with. Who hasn't know a girl from high school who blossomed and, well “got hot”? The single, “Can't Stop Partying”, featuring Li'l Wayne, rounds out the 1-2-3-4 salvo of this album (named by Rainn Wilson...god, please someone stop Rainn Wilson from doing more than Twittering.) While it's easy to listen to, Cuomo has said that he couldn't relate to the track until he added some changes to more solemn minor chords to the musical bed, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a weak excuse for a single. I have to admit, the music does add an ominous overtone to the song and brings an ironic tone to the entire affair. Tracks like “Put me Back Together”, “Tripping Down the Freeway”, are no better or worse than some of the pop offerings from Green Album. They may not have the resonance of the lesser songs on Pinkerton or the highs of, say, “Perfect Situation” but they're light years better than the lowlights of Red or Maladroit. Lyrically, for the first time I feel like Rivers is embracing his place in life. He's pushing forty, he's still a geek, likes rap, Kiss, etc, but now he has a kid and a wife, a college degree and maybe life isn't so anxious. It's anxious, yes, just not as desperate. There's, criminey, happiness in his world. He's let others in a bit. He's a rock elder statesman. Trapped by his musical limitations he's no longer trying to be something he's not, as on Maladroit, or clumsily retrospective, as on The Red Album. He still tries to experiment a bit, there some East Indian music and singing on “Love is the Answer” but that's okay, since India is, if nothing else, the land of Kama Sutric Love. (And at least it's not a trainwreck like “The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived”) The top-down convertible bombast of “Let It All Hang Out” was completely unexpected and takes that Weezer as 21st Century version of The Cars to the next level. “In the Mall”'s production and energy overcomes the weak songwriting. But just barely. The desperate and sad Beach Boys-ian “I Don't Want to Let You Go' is splendid.
I'm not sure where Weezer fits in the pantheon of rock history. They certainly aren't growing artistically, successfully stretching their wings like their 90s counterparts, Green Day. Their music is at best exhilarating power pop, at worst forgettable ephemera. But as long as they keep putting out records like Raditude they will have a fan in me.
Grade B+ A Side: The Girl Got Hot, If You're Wondering...., BlindSide: I'm Your Daddy, Let It All Hang Out, I Don't Want to Let You Go DownSide: Nothing really bogs this record down.
What? What is the Purple album? It's just a collection of B-Sides. I'm not even gonna wax on about it. Suffice to say songs like, "Velouria", "Mykel & Carli", "Jamie" & "I just Threw Out the Love of my Dreams" can be found on it. Take the songs you like. Get them all and read all about them on The Good, The Bad and the Unknown.
Red was my line in the sand with Weezer. Taking 3 years off from Make Believe, this is the one that made me almost write the band off. The guys from Sound Opinions LOVED this record. And I have no idea what they were thinking. At first it's deceptive. “Troublemaker” sounds like the Weezer I've come to love. The great hooks, the terrificly explosive choruses. It's good. But it's hard for me to concentrate on the song because I can't get past this horrible cover. Look at that poorly photoshopped crap. Why is Rivers dressed like a refugee from Village People? What is this? I might be the only person that hates hates hates, "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Theme) but I think it's just about as bad as anything I've ever heard committed to....okay, recorded. Green Day can do the epic suites. My Chemical Romance figured it out, too. But, Weezer! You are not up to this task. Shoving ten styles into one song is not songwriting. It's almost as though they listened to the second side of Abbey Road and decided to do the same thing but all within 6 minutes. Using a Shaker melody as a template. It's awful. The fact that Rivers calls this the greatest Weezer song ever shows just why this band has never really grown and should just sit nicely in the pantheon of really good power pop groups. The hit single, "Pork & Beans" is catchy enough. (I can't help but think the original lyric was "eat my candy with a fork and.....something" but they just decided they needed a rhyme for "Scene" and "Spoon" didn't work. Nothing, however, prepared for the horror show that is Heart Songs. After hearing some of the reviews of this song I figured it had to be one of the greatest songs ever. Rivers name checks all the songs that have special meaning to him. And the moment that he heard Nirvana for the first time propelled him to play his own songs. It's a nice enough trip down memory lane but it's so sugary and sweet that it hurts. And, to add insult to bad songsmithing, there's almost no melody. I could take this song if there was something to hold on to. But there isn't. It's as amateur as the local crap I once heard on Red Snerts "The Story of Gulcher Records." It's terrible. And should never be played again. This is also the album that sees Cuomo giving berth to songs by the other members of the band for the first time ever. Once we get through "Dreamin'", a predictable if not serviceable Cuomo tune, it's time for the rest of the guys to shine.
"Thought I Knew" by Brian Bell is piss poor sing-songy piece of forgettableness. "Cold Dark World" is written by Scott Shriner with an assist from Rivers. And, it's about as good a track as one could expect from the bass player. Wait, that's not fair to John Deacon. It's boring, awful and pedestrian. "Automatic" is from Patrick Wilson, the drummer. It's bad. We get one more for the road on Red, if you've made it past the horror show that was those three songs, the coda to the record is "The Angel and the One". Its a song as tired as it seems these guys are of making music. Unfathomingly, Red Album has gotten some pretty terrific reviews. I have to wonder what album those guys were listening to. Because this is one of the least likable albums I've ever heard.
Grade D A Side: Troublemaker, (I kind of like Everybody Get Dangerous) BlindSide: DownSide: Heart Songs, The Greatest Man That Ever Lived, The three songs by the other guys.
I don't know why the fans bristle so much about this record. Maybe they were hoping that the band would continue the cycle and label this with a rainbow color. What about “Red”? (Yes. What about “Red”???) When I first heard Make Believe I liked it. A lot. Let's liveblog it, yes?
1. Beverly Hills. Sludge pop. Catchy, sure. More importantly, Rivers has really caught the lazy, entitled usurpation of quality by the shallow with this hit. 2. Perfect Situation. Perhaps my favorite Weezer song of all time. “There's the pitch, slow and straight, all I have to do is swing and I'm a hero. But I'm a zero.” Lyrically, this is the most honest and forthright since Pinkerton. 3. This is Such a Pity. Taking a major cue from the 80s this song could fall flat. Except that, lyrically, it's dynamite. It's The Cars circa Heartbeat City run through the angst machine of Rivers Cuomo. 4. Hold Me. What is this?? It sounds like, dare I say it, something that belongs on the Blue Album. Yes, it's that old Weezer sound. 5. Peace. Where Weezer and latter day Green Day converge. Not great, but no where near as bad as one might have been led to believe. 6. We Are All On Drugs. Terrific songcrafting. Just a fine bit a pop rock. 7. The Damage in Your Heart. Middling album filler. But, with a massive chorus that RC can write in his sleep. 8.Pardon Me. Harmless. Useless. Forgettable. But harmless. 9. My Best Friend. I love this song. I don't know why. It's cloying and obnoxious and...happy. Too happy for Weezer. But, it's great. 10. The Other Way. See “Pardon Me”. 11. Freak Me Out. I don't know what to make of this song. It doesn't suck and I find my toe tapping, but it's kind of horrible and then I hate myself for singing along and then I like it again. Weezer as Sine Wave. 12. Haunt You Every Day. Piano. Huh? Other than that curious bit of instrumentation this song is Weezer-by-Numbers. You don't need to hear it. You won't be worse off if you do. But, there's no need.
Weezer – Maladroit – 2002 (iTunes – Amazon)
In 2002 the internet was all abuzz with word that a new album by Weezer was coming and it was coming fast on the heels of Green. In keeping with (what was now perceived to be a tradition), the album would have a name rather an eponymous colored record.
“If you hate this, I can't blame you. Cuz I'm hurting, so I'll flame you.”, Cuomo blasts on “American Gigolo”, the opening track of Maladroit. Good thing it's such a great song, cuz he was really opening himself up to attack here. From his fans. Who he seems to hate, yes?
Following it with the Arena sized, near souther rock, “Dope Nose” is a smart move. It's a gas. And it contains probably the best lead guitar solo Brian Bell has ever recorded. It's the most memorable. Has he ever been allowed to lay waste like this before? I can't recall. I don't think so. He has the chops. He should have been cut loose much much much earlier than this.
That big rock sound keeps pounding along on tracks like “Keep Fishin'” and “Take Control” (which reminds me of how much I love Raging Slab) where Bell's solo feels like it fell off the 70s classic rock truck.
It would be easy to see why Gen Xers who fell in love with Weezer might take slight umbrage to this record. After all there is some really difficult music and songs that are not fun (“Death and Destruction”) and some are just bad (“Slob”) and others are just...weird (“Burndt Jam” which is SO steeped in 70s nostalgia that it is almost good and “Space Rock” which...I have no words for.)
“Slave”, “Fall Together”, “Possibilities” come across more as unfulfilled song ideas than anything you would put on a playlist or mix tape. Mix Tape is much more apropos in this case. Maladroit is Weezer's attempt at a stylized retro thing. It doesn't work and it's easy to hate them for it. But fans would wait til the next album to really get angry.
The album abandons these barely-demos towards the end with “Love Explosion”, but I imagine that I like this song more for how honestly it wears it's glam/southern/classic rock on it's sleeve. It's the band's triumph. In spite of Rivers.
In 2001, without warning, all of a sudden, Weezer was back. Five years after Pinkerton. Rolling Stone said it was the first 5 star album of the new decade, the new century. At 29 minutes it's the shortest they had ever put out. And Pinkerton was 33 minutes. The thing about short albums (and those of you who read Septenary regularly know that if an album is more than 40 minutes, my feeling is, it better be worth it. More often than not, it's crammed with filler and would easily be a stronger record with 1/3 cut out), is that they better really bring it. If you're only gonna give us 30 minutes, every song needs to be strong, right? Green is a very different animal than Blue or Pinkerton. I don't think Blue was supposed to be called “Blue”. I think it was called “Weezer”. But with the need to reinvent himself, Cuomo, in a sense, was trying to wipe away the previous incarnation of his band and starting anew. Trouble with ignoring your past is that your fans have to do the same thing or else, well, you're spitting in the wind. And the fans loved Pinkerton. And they ADORED the debut. What would they make of Green? “Hash Pipe” is the first real sense that Rivers and the gang are more interested in hooks than substance. “I can't help my boogies, they get out of control, I know that you don't care but I want you to know.” is laid against a musical bedrock that calls to mind the theme to The Munsters. But it works. It works hard to work but it does the job. And, dammit, if you can't shake the song out of your head. It's like ear candy. You want to hear it again because it's at once familiar, aggressive, fun and snarky. “Island in the Sun” could be Weezer's “Kokomo”. Except that, unlike that song, you don't want to go back and burn all your Beach Boys records in contempt. That doesn't mean that “Island” couldn't also double as the music for a “Sandals Resorts” commercial. Which also doesn't mean it's bad. “Crab”, “Knock-Down, Drag Out”, “Smile” &”Simple Pages” could all easily have been crafted in the “Rivers Cuomo Song & Taffy Factory”, on some assembly line, but they're good. And they don't stick around long enough to crumble under the weight of their own disposability. At this point in time, groups like Bowling For Soup were doing this kind of stuff, and doing it better (see “Girls All The Bad Guys Want” & “Emily”) and having more fun. But Weezer's re-entry is by no means a failure. It's not one of the greatest albums of the decade, but, it'll do.
At first Pinkerton was so massively maligned by the press and fans that it took me almost 10 years to pick it up. When I did I realized that all the pundits who, in retrospect, put the album at the top of their “albums of the decade” lists were absolutely right. I can't address, truly, why Pinkerton was such a perceived failure. I can only suggest that, maybe, just maybe, it's because the album took the angst and desperation of Blue and wrapped it in even less accessible pop angles and breaks. It's no secret that, after this album, Matt Sharp, the original bassist, left the group (and many say he was as important to the songwriting as Rivers), there was great acrimony, Cuomo retreated to his hole (and back to college) and, as far as fans were concerned, Weezer was over. They had their day in the sun and they would be, like Nirvana, over too early, though this time not by suicide. In both cases, though, it was due to the mercurial nature of the front man who wore his pain in his songs and on the stage. Pinkerton, it's been said, is based, in part on Madame Bovary. I don't know if that's true. I'm sure it's not totally apocryphal, it's just that I haven't read Madame Bovary. What it is, though, is one of the most aggressive and powerful power/pop/rock albums of all time. “Tired of Sex”, “Getchoo”, “No Other One”, “Why Bother”, the songs titles sum up the songs, just remember that they are all about girls, sex, distance (both literal and figuratively) and they are each as blood-letting as the last. (Why bother? It's gonna hurt me. It's gonna kill when you desert me?”) The melancholic longing in “Across the Sea” is as intimate as Cuomo has ever gotten. “The Good Life” is, perhaps, the catchiest tune of the decade. (Yes, it's better than “Buddy Holly”. It's not cute or clever, but it's honest and smart.) And the mini-breakdown after the (brilliant) chorus at 1:32 tells the entire story of why this album was a flop. Who comes up with that? On a pop album? Clearly the boys are trying something new. Different. (My money is on Sharp who, with The Rentals, proved that he was more interested in experimentation than popularity and, given what Cuomo's later offerings sound like, I think I'm right) Cuomo has all but abandoned this record. It's barely acknowledged. I think some of the songs make it into setlists, but what's a real shame is that is has been relegated to almost a footnote in the pantheon of rock albums. It shouldn't be. It's brilliant.
With Green Day, Weezer are truly the granddads of modern emo. So, like I did with those Berkeley punkers, let's take a look at the progenitors of geek rock.
I'm not sure I will ever get used to the feeling I get when I fire up Blue Album by Weezer. The opening track, a ¾ time epic about turn of the century union workers called “My Name is Jonas” is an modern alternative classic. But it's really more than that. It's a salvo. For a band that named itself after an asthmatic Little Rascal (I'm not sure they did it on purpose but, hell, it's true), one would expect exactly what they present on the cover: Nerd Rock. But these nerds are different than all the offspring they spawned like Bowling for Soup and Nerf Herder. Rivers Cuomo wants to be cool. It isn't just with irony that he laces his songs with the occasional hip hop reference. One gets the sense that he loves that stuff. So, it's earnest. As is his longing. And what is the best rock, really, but desperate and longing? He isn't shy about his desire to be obsessed. He wants a girlfriend that is just as desperate for him. And it's sort of creepy (No One Else) but it's so honest that you can't help but get caught up in his need. The songs are also so damned poppy that how could they not be a hit? Would they have been so without the videos crafted by Spike Jonze? Yeah, I think so. Because Cuomo and Weezer are the other side of the Nirvana coin. They touched an important nerve and in doing so, almost single handedly created the entire sub-genre of Emo. I've been asked so many times what “Emo” is. I get asked the same question about “Power Pop”. Strangely enough, Weezer is the epitome of both. Emo, as I take it, is emotional music. Dudes who wear their hearts on their sleeves and their needs as close to stalker as you can get without a warrant. But the music has tremendous melody and the teeth are in the content not in the sound. Although, it almost goes without saying that Rivers wants to have those teeth. He wishes he was in Van Halen, because the sound embraces the stadium anthem rock made great by those cock-of-the-walk rockers of yore. But, his references, “I'm Buddy Holly and ooh-ooh, you're Mary Tyler Moore”? Gen X all the way. Dungeon Master's Guide, 12 sided die, Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler from X-Men. Ace Frehley and Peter Criss and posters of Kiss. (Which I think is telling inasmuch as Cuomo doesn't name check Paul Stanley or Gene Simmons. Why should he? He doesn't relate to those guys. Simmons could never write “Beth” and Stanley is nowhere near the guitarist Frehley ever was). This is the quintessential slacker album wrapped in the energy of forward motion. It's positively brilliant.
Grade A A Side: Buddy Holly, In The Garage, My Name is Jonas, BlindSide: No One Else, Undone (The Sweater Song), Say it Ain't So DownSide: Only in Dreams
