Weezer -- Classic or Dud?

I feel bad having to break out the haterade, but I think a flood of figurative vomit flew up into my mouth...but as someone who used to love weezer (we were all 15 once), I didn't know it could get worse than 'Beverly Hills.' I would take Rivers on the emo-est day of his life at his Pinkerton or The world has turned and left me here absolute pinnacle emo-est over this. Unless Rick Rubin put them up to some elaborate joke (including writing these ridiculous lyrics, I mean, Pork and Beans? really? especially the buddy holly guitars in that, in a way, to blue album fans, it almost begs to be heard as a fuck you from Rivers to people who like/used to like that song/Blue album....boo-urns.

.....and that last post was accidentally sent before I could make it coherent, anyway, point I was gonna bring up is, do those who like the new weezer prefer it to older weezer?

Doubtful. New Weezer doesn't have cheeky quotes of Stockhausen or Kurt Weill.

New Weezer lyrics don't weather long-term scrutiny, either. You listen to their first two albums and well-articulated expressions of the transgressions of youth against youth (youth against itself, which is probably a very aware reflection of Pet Sound's theme of the transgression of adulthood against youth) and the obstacles to fulfilling, long-term (romantic) love begin to come to the front of the listening experience.

New Weezer lyrics have a lot of caveman three syllable lines, much fewer idiosyncrasies and the songs are less autobiographical. (The perfect pop song you're trying to write again and again is allowed to have details and personality, Rivers - more than pure craft.) They're also no longer quoting Cheap Trick, Beach Boys, Hanoi Rocks or whomever Cuomo is secretly/not secretly inspired by: they're quoting themselves analogously, and their body of work isn't large or varied enough yet to deserve recursiveness.

That said, their post-Pinkerton stuff deserves some defense, even the demos leading up to Make Believe, although not the album itself.

Thinking and talking about the Cuomo story and myth is a fun pastime, and wondering how he could write two intelligent pop records and give it up to facelessness is a big part of that. My three stories relating are about two well-meaning stoners/users and one clueless teenage Morrissey fan, and maybe that explains it all, that Weezer's fans ask, if anything, for LCD dumbness and cannot, when given it, put their finger on exactly what's wrong.

(The first Rentals album is fucking rad and gets a lot of regular play on my stereo.)

Weezer "Internet Meme"-themed "Pork and Beans" video...
I kind of smiled a few times:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muP9eH2p2PI

Though there are a couple of them I don't know the origins of. I was kind of waiting for a 2 girls 1 cup gag.

they rock bitches

i remember hearing "buddy holly" when i was 13 and thinking that it must be some old tune from the 70s. the first album had a few nice tunes.

poppier side of 80s us punk + poppier side of 70s us metal = weezer

like, descendents + cheap trick, etc

weezer = liz phair for teens. I was going to say 'for boys' but I think Liz's fanbase was mostly horny dudes anyway.

Also, the internet meme thing was already done by South Park so... Kudos to them

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/4281/tynan6in.gif

I think the Red Album (that's what people are calling it, right?) is pretty alright.

I feel a strong urge to buy it, and I haven't felt so since the Green Album (colors rock!!11)

I was not impressed by "Dreamin'" or "Greatest Man."

I wonder what Geir thinks of Weezer...

*whistles idly*

I like Pork & Beans and Heart Songs. But that's fairly predictable, right?

they rock bitches

-- usic

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/sites/default/files/Copy%20of%20DSC_0307.JPG

Uh...what're we looking at here? I think I recognize that guy.

that would be rivers cuomo

he looks to be off his train

it's a weird thing for an artist

Miss u 4ever, Matt Sharp

I'm surprised at the Weezer love on this thread. But I have to say ...

First two albums - Classic
The rest - massive sellout FAIL of legendary proportions.

That was taken at my fave record store ever - Fingerprints in Long Beach

"In case you haven't heard of it, Songsmith is this terrible and retarded Microsoft program where you can sing to it and it will automatically create music for your song.

Apparently it imagines Buddy Holly as a sad song to be accompanied by some sad piano."

Ah, I see I'm a few days late to your MS Songsmith discovery.

I just realized that Reunion Weezer has now been an active force for longer than Actual Weezer was, indeed, longer than the gap in between the two. This is like the Stones breaking up in 1967, then reuniting in 1978 to record Bridges to Babylon and continuing on 'til today as their current touring performance thing.

This is weird. Also, what happened to Rivers' hair? :-(

Anyway, they'll always be classic. I saw them in 2001 and it was one of the best live shows I've ever seen.

That's one of the most depressing YouTube videos I have ever seen.

that shot of the crowd ug, all those girls just texting and shit.

GETCHOO AH HA

New single "(If You Are Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To" is being hailed as a return to form, and it is better than their last couple of singles. It reminds me of "A Town Called Malice" tbh.

being hailed as a return to form

Not by me. It sucks out loud.

Any weezer fans know more about this supposed math hit-formula notebook Rivers has been carrying around? This sounds pretty amazing very David Foster Wallace thing to do.

I can't believe that the same guy who wrote "Beverly Hills" also claims to have songwriting down to a mathematical science. Songwriting: the real dismal science.

has anyone made a mashup of El Scorcho and Beverly HIlls (seems like generated from the same hit-song template?)

GETCHOO AHA

Every album they've released since Maladroit was initially heralded as "return to form."

More like a return to the bathroom.

http://kiwirock.net/05.mp3

Rad.

I can't believe that the same guy who wrote "Beverly Hills" also claims to have songwriting down to a mathematical science. Songwriting: the real dismal science.

― Cunga, Monday, August 17, 2009 8:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol...Super Masonic Da Vinci Code Math Science of Songwriting: recycle the chord change to "The Joke" by Steve Miller Band

i feel like "Troublemaker" has belatedly become Weezer's biggest latter day radio staple, I hear it EVERY SINGLE DAY even though it's a year old now

i never thought i'd long for a return to the glory days of "dope nose"

ehh -- i have no particular reverence for early Weezer and like "Troublemaker" and "Perfect Situation" and "Keep Fishin'" as much as anything else they've done

don't get me wrong, if you forced me to sit through a whole album i'd pick one of the 90s one, but as a singles band i think their batting average has been pretty steady

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S-lhxaecpw

The first album does seem more "organic" in the sense that any pop-formula expression seems unconscious rather than drawn from a notebook, dungeon-master die-rolling scheme. Is pinkerton when the notebook idea started?

Its cos Matt Sharp left.

Some internet wise guy should write some of the "missing pages" from this notebook and put them online ala The Michael Bay screenplay for the Dark Knight. Would read!

Okay so....a bunch of thoughts I'm having while watching some Weezer AOL Sessions youtube clips (old & new):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95sTh4mxAys

Okay, why is the drummer playing bass now and who is this new drummer guy? Also those quirky handclaps WTF. Biggest WTF in the world for the Kenny G guest solo which is my favorite part of an otherwise pretty dull song. I like how Rivers is jumping and hyping it up like it was a guitar solo. I think after the "Pork and Beans" (which I actually liked), this new direction is to throw a million 'viral' ideas against the wall and see what sticks. I mean, you have Kenny G, that horrible "Raditude" title and album artwork, the Lil Jon collab, etc. Can't say it's a bad strategy though because every review I've read of the album has been dismal, and all the ridiculousness is the only reason I've just listened to "I'm Your Daddy" by Weezer in 2009.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Av1kuh8EBY

Rivers's costume here makes me crack up; he looks like a little kid that found his dad's suit. Sounds to me like at least some of these vocals are auto-tuned. WOW GUYS THE 80S ARE BACK! Look at these Moogs. Kind of makes me think of the Rentals or something. What would they think of this? The rapping is....well whatever. With "We Are All On Drugs" you may have thought the lyrical content had bottomed out but a chorus of "I can't stop partying partying"....I don't know, I think Rivers Cuomo really is on a mission to just crank out stupid simple pop songs like a scientist or a factory worker. Soft verse/loud chorus. Spacey 'retro' part. Guest star rapper. All the elements are there. If he was a little more shy he would be a producer for Universal Music Group.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv5Tnp5KzD8

Okay, this is weird but the guitarist is singing "Why Bother" and not doing too bad a job but not too good a job either. It took me a minute to realize that Rivers Cuomo was playing drums wearing a beret and a silly mustache. LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztvJdAIGk54

"Butterfly" sung by Rivers solo with a harp, really beautifully done too. Think about those lyrics "I told you I would return by I ain't never coming back". Is he singing to all the 1st gen Weezer fans? Someone print a list of best tracks from the post-Pinkerton years I need a compilation...

lol wonder if brian bell (who has some serious douche vibes) changed "i better keep whackin" to "you better start packin" out of embarrassment or cuz krusty the klown told him to

Was the riff from "Hash Pipe" taken from Hall and Oates' "Family Man" (towards the end of the song)? I always thought it sounded like the Munsters theme but Hall and Oates seem to be the more obvious theft victims for Rivers.