What's the deal with Weezer?

Matt Sharp embracing his inner frustrated frontman there.

it's not like Sharp was ever a songwriting presence in Weezer

really? i always figured he was contributing things to the arrangements and whatnot on the first two albums if not exactly writing entire songs. when you hear the first Rentals album it's pretty close to the Weezer sound. seems like he would have contributed a lot of high harmonies and stuff.

im still of the opinion Matt Sharp was the ultimately deciding factor but if you honestly think the green album is on the level of the first two albums (which is fucking insane) you won't be convinced otherwise.

I have no doubt that he chipped in with some ideas/his opinion regarding arrangements, but that's not writing the song.

Also, this band have always been, for want of a better word, stupid. 'My Name Is Jonas' and 'Surf Wax America' are as silly as anything Weezer put out after 2000.

― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Tuesday, September 5, 2017 2:31 PM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

to your point i agree 100% songwriting-wise, "Buddy Holly" and "Beverly Hills" are both silly dumb songs as written material. but the biggest change was musically, performance-wise, sound-wise, production-wise. from a dynamic and pan-emotional garage band to a heavily compressed radio act without the interesting arrangements. the first two albums had these soaring solos and instrumental sections where the band would break down and build up. not as easy to do with a new bass player when you are making your comeback and trying to learn all the old material for your tours.

imo this was Matt Sharp's main contribution, and it crept into other things, the videos ("Good Life"/"El Scorcho" being points of contention between him and Rivers, goofy vs. serious), the band image. the new bass player was a random LA musician where Matt Sharp was full of ideas. even if he didn't write songs he probably would have tried to veto the worst ideas or maybe come up w a bass line working w the drummer (who also went from crazily loose and inventive ("Tired of Sex") to very simple patterns) to perhaps give a song like "Hash Pipe" a new hook or something. most post-Pinkerton songs are pretty one note, only a hook or two, verse/chorus/verse, the unique intros/outros, the high harmonies, a lot of stuff is missing.

Rivers wrote the bass line for "Tired of Sex" and many, many other Weezer songs. Rivers wrote the songs and many of the parts. It was his idea to do barbershop-style harmonies and made the band take vocal lessons. I agree that Sharp's most significant contribution was as a filter w/r/t ideas & arrangements. That's not to say he was insignificant - he obviously had an impact - but the shellacking that Rivers and the band got for Pinkerton and its lyrics is the reason they shifted to a radio-friendly sound. Maybe that's why Sharp jumped ship. Rivers made a conscious attempt to avoid the humiliation of Pinkerton and write songs with extreme limitations and conceits. As evidenced by some of the later albums, it's not like they forgot how to shred, or write instrumental breaks. That shift was going to happen whether Sharp left or not.

Mikey was the best bassist anyway.

So much seems to be made of what Rivers took from Matt, but less so about how much it worked the other way round. I'm pretty sure Rivers was of the opinion that Matt rode his back to launch the Rentals. Rivers demos a analogue synth-driven concept album about space travel. Matt then records and releases Return Of The Rentals. Rivers scraps his project.

I'm quite certain the common notion that Matt was some kind of magical talisman of good taste in Weezer appeals massively to his not-inconsiderably-sized ego