Weezer -- Classic or Dud?

Christ, I guess I've missed talking about Weezer on the internet. Even when the music's bad, they're one of the most interesting bands to ever be.

making new threads anymore but if anyone wants to post a "Weezer 2004-present POX" list, i'd be curious to see what kind of stuff gets chosen.

forgot to respond to this

blowin my stack
blowin my stack
blowin my stack
blowin my stack
blowin my stack
blowin my stack
blowin my stack
blowin my stack
blowin my stack
summer elaine and drunk dori

man, YES. YES. "blowin' my stack" is like neo-weezer on a classic weezer level, i love it so much. many do not! i really don't get why stuff like this was left behind for Make Believe, but then, you could say that every album

my picks chronologically, going from post-pinkerton onward just because

almost all Homie/'97 "rivers cuomo band" material
o girl
o girlfriend
photograph
island in the sun
hash pipe (falsetto metal song about transvestite prostitutes on FM radio in '01, yes please)
broken arrows (answering machine version, band demo is botched)
sandwiches time (!)
death and destruction
butterfly ('02 live version released in '05, cheating but it's so diff and so good)
worry rock (green day cover)
the organ player
[post-2004 starts here]
blowin' my stack (!!)
the story of my life (weezer's only *actual* emo song)
everybody wants a chance to feel all alone
i can love
hyde (specific '05 live version whose date idk)
the angel and the one (replete w/ stars-of-the-lid-on-guitar jam at the end)
miss sweeney (the protagonist of pinkerton at age 35, one of my very favorites)
pig (fans prefer the rivers demo, love that too but band version is in my all-time top 5)
the spider (!!)
i don't want to let you go (rivers demo, though raditude version isn't that bad)
run over by a truck (!)
the prettiest girl in the whole wide world ('97 version better, but rad outtake is good)
the underdogs (!!)
time flies
thank god for girls (have not seen any review that "gets" the lyrics imo)
do you wanna get high?
LA girlz
summer elaine

oh, that "o girlfriend" would have to be the '02 toronto version. gorgeous.

there are more...

Thanks for that, soyrev, imma check out that list. Like many casual Weezer fans, I only own (and love) the first two albums. I've heard a bunch of unexciting singles since then, but I suspected out of like eight albums there had to be some gems

sure! unfortunately with a lot of that stuff there're multiple versions (pre-2004 especially), and the mileage def varies, so my apologies if i waste your time on the wrong "organ player," "o girl," or "sandwiches time."

the high guitar harmonies in the background of "good thing" are my favorite thing about the new record right now. it's what i always want guitars to sound like. and pat's always been a great drummer but i love his little clustering fills throughout this record

Dud.

Yes, even the first two albums, which are incredibly overrated beyond belief. Pinkerton is a heap of shit, and they have quite possibly the most irritating fanbase of any band. Songs From The Black Hole isn't a lost classic, and never was.

sleeping giant awoken

at last turrican is here to answer the thread question

at least there's less frothing at mouth "rivers is a scumbag" chat at allthingsweezer these days, back there I go

how on earth have you even dug up SFTBH material if you think Pinkerton is a "heap of shit?" O_o

(i'll agree that SFTBH was overreaching, he was wise to ditch)

my real weezer 2004-now pox:

blowin' my stack
this is such a pity
the greatest man that ever lived
pig
the angel and the one
trainwrecks
the british are coming
da vinci
summer elaine and drunk dori
la girlz

i prefer Alone III to Pinkerton, that thing is a goddamn masterpiece

they have quite possibly the most irritating fanbase of any band

sunglass hut cashiers?

to claim there is any more than a good EP out of the red sessions is beyond delusional

angel, pig, sweeney and the spider are among weezer's best written, performed, and produced songs (except all the pitch correction on rivers' voice in angel =/). autopilot rules, too, in a way they've never done before or since. greatest man is silly but fantastic. next-tier options like dreamin, the odd couple, pork and beans, troublemaker, and automatic are getting into more lightweight territory, but not nearly enough to unanchor the other five or six gems. you'll also notice among most of these songs the theme of coming to terms w/ adulthood and eventual death (and, in a couple places, trying to fight that), which would've been a pretty good look for a rock band entering its own middle age. i don't remember if this was ever confirmed or just a fan rumor, but if they did track brian's are you gonna be, that's a lovely song that would've fit in perfectly (as opposed to the mess they made of thought i knew). they also did a rivers vocal version of king, which i can imagine being (/and am told is) amazing.

so, yeah: an incredible 4-song EP, a great 6-song mini-album, or the third best LP of theirs by miles.

I was surprised just now to find Island in the Sun is by far the most popular Weezer song on Spotify.

xp funny how poor brian didn't even want thought i knew on the record, and complains about it in the liner notes of the album itself. must've been sad to have tried for years to get a song on a record and then have it be a botch released against your will. (then again, i'm sure he's psyched for his well-earned credits on la girlz and endless bummer!)

my heart songs is great. i like red album the most of the post-green LPs

Just listened through the White Album again and it's very sunny and I feel excessively good about it right now. I love the little semi-motifs from L.A. Girlz that crop up in California Kids and Do You Wanna Get High?. It all holds together so well.

http://imgur.com/UfR8eLR

same, small, new england, farm, town

oops

http://i.imgur.com/UfR8eLR.jpg

good interview here - http://n.pr/23CsP3E

thanks for linking that ^ ... good listen

feel pretty sad for him when I hear him obsessing over Metacritic scores

Rivers is an absolutely fascinating psych case

He was on Song Exploder a couple weeks ago talking about his songwriting process:

http://songexploder.net/weezer

Uh, now that I'm listening to the NPR thing, I guess the content may be pretty similar.

https://vine.co/v/MTI3l0AKlDh

was talking about that in-depth song interview last week, realized how utterly depressing it was to hear about spreadsheet songwriting

Saw them a couple nights ago thanks to a friend with free tix - the awkward medley-ing of older songs was NAGL (eg, playing all of "Beverly Hills" but only sections of "The Good Life" and "Surf Wax America"). Not sure I've ever had a faster pivot from embarrassment/rage to joy as I did when Rivers started singing Drake and reading out tweets about the show displayed on the venue screen (including at least one icky one), then pulled up a keyboard on started on "El Scorcho."

also at one point he paused the show to read out the full lyrics to the chorus of the (not terribly inspiring) newer song they were about to play, for some reason

like to think that Weezer permanently broke up after Pinkerton and that every album after that = Cuomo going solo and sucking but it isn't so

The best Weezer song of all time is the one where Rivers Cuomo just lists the age of consent of every Japanese prefecture

— stefan heck (@boring_as_heck) April 26, 2017

Bush did 9/11

— Rivers Cuomo (@RiversCuomo) June 20, 2017

So... there's a new album!

*fart*

Ha!

https://vimeo.com/249694026

lmao that's really well done

woulda never thought to call weezer "nirvana in a major key" but there you are

Not bad, though this is probably my favorite "Poppy" take on Smells Like Teen Spirit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnAgMvSJmcA

That first one sounds much more like Third Eye Blind

The Black Album is the worst music I've ever heard in my life

I'd say "worst music I've ever heard in my life" is maybe underselling it a tad but practically every track makes me want to listen to something else. "Can't Knock the Hustle" is just a really bad modern Cake song. "Living in LA" rips a hook from The Police. "Piece of Cake" is like Dukes of Stratosphear with a lobotomy. And so on. I can't believe Rivers is 50 years old and still writing songs like this; I've never encountered a successful musician with less to say.

I keep seeing Weezer everywhere lately, and it feels like they weirdly might be like...the most popular rock band for non-music nerds right now? Along with....Queen again? I didn't realise they were classroom-instruments-and-barbershop-skit-on-Fallon big. Music's weird, man.

Didn't they just release an all covers album on the heels of Africa?

they were and are garbage

the white album is so fucking good, it's a shame rivers is like... an extremely cynical songwriter?

Who would have thought they would be the last (?) '90s radio rock band standing