Weezer -- Classic or Dud?

Everclear's '90s singles all sound like boomer-grunge to me. No weirdness. No sense of humor. I've tried to get into them many times, but they're way too VH1 imo.

always thought of them as a grunge/power-pop hybrid with an emphasis on the latter

It's funny how their career after their third album has seemed mostly like an exercise in pissing off as much of their old fanbase as much as possible.

should i post “white album >> pinkerton” in the controp thread or just leave it here

You should post it on a Weezer forum!

I'm more likely to listen to Everything Will Be Alright in the End over Pinkerton these days, fwiw.

it makes me furious that rivers is capable of writing songs like "girl we got a good thing" and "wind in our sail" and just mostly doesn't!

i'm entirely with brad on "white >> pinkerton"

Yeah, it's not like he can't deliver the goods! This is ultimately the most frustrating thing. I wouldn't be so annoyed about his worst material if his great material hadn't been so good.

I should give White a proper listen. I thought Red had a few jams.

It did, but it also had some embarrassing tripe.

This sounds like the same exact conversation us Sun Kil Moon fans are having these days

I resist the idea that any of the last...five?...SKM releases have contained any jams at all

Well, not THAT exact, but tbf I have seen people citing "jams" here and there from recent albums. I can't be bothered to look into it myself. The guy retired with "Young Love" for me.

More broadly I meant that there were some great albums, then this huge drop that produced material way beyond parody that is so hard to understand the why and the how, and the frustrating realization that there are fans that actually prefer that direction and enable it.

Anyway, Weezer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl-hSj3gnks

best weezer song i've heard since the white album. new album van weezer (lmao) out next may

that's indeed pretty good! it's cool how rivers showing he can indeed make good music for a whole album if he wants to after all this time has only made him an even more frustrating figure

it's kinda like what i'd imagine a more successful version of maladroit would sound like lol

I don't hate OK Human? It's actually kind of charming in a weird Rivers way.

I'm hoping Alone IV will cover both the green album and maladroit. That's the one I'm holding out for.

― toulows-lautrec (how's life), Wednesday, March 13, 2013 12:46 PM (eight years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Apparently last year he released like all the Alones! Including the Green Years, which ends up being Alone VII for some reason I haven't figured out. Given all my bluster about this on this board, I'm going to have to listen to this in it's entirety at some point in the near future, but today is not that day.

https://riverscuomo.com/demos

Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo (2007)
Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo (2008)
Not Alone: Rivers Cuomo & Friends Live at Fingerprints (2009)
Alone III: The Pinkerton Years (2011)
Alone IV: The Blue-Pinkerton Years (2020)
Alone V: Before Weezer (2020)
Alone VI: The Black Room (2020)
Alone VII: The Green Years (2020)
Alone VIII: The Maladroit Years (2020)
Alone IX: The Make Believe Years (2020)
Alone X: The Red-Raditude-Hurley Years* (2020)
Alone XI: The EWBAITE Years (2020)
Alone XII: The White Year (2020)

well good luck getting through all that eventually, there's i think nearly 3000 demos all up there

i listened to a little bit on youtube though and there were some gems in the very little i heard. it's clear that rivers is largely an extraordinarily bad judge of his own work but it's also easy to understand how he could lose perspective after finding out just how bizarrely prolific he is with his songwriting.

The EWIBATE years is at least 3GB big. And just MP3s too, not flacs or wav etc. Absolutely insane

An obvious highlight from the drop (annoyingly cut off at the end):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxTX0gaw158

does not surprise me xp

it's definitely documented upthread but one of my favorite experiences in my life was being on a focus group for ewbaite

Weird vocal phrasing but better than practically everything else from the red era IMO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeabZ9C1U24

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

'French Pop' from the Black Room era is great too. Just staggeringly overwhelming to even attempt the get through everything. Later folders are filled with literally hundreds of voice memos as well as multiple versions of fully fleshed out demos

*to

van weezer is... fine. run of singles from "the end of the game" to "beginning of the end" (really top rivers tune here in particular) is thrilling though

i'm also very late to ok human and wow, rivers cuomo sure wrote a song about audiobooks and called it "grapes of wrath"

i kinda love van weezer actually

I think.... I kind of really like this? Or at least it's dumb in the fun way they haven't been in a long time? I had really low expectations but this is fun dumb power pop, even if the "hair metal" aspect is a little oversold.

lol @ the "Crazy Train" rip on "Blue Dream" though.

"i need some of that" is my favorite weezer song since the white album

That is a good one, tempted to credit it to the BOC rip. Weezer as nerdy guys in the garage with KISS posters, binging on Headbanger's Ball is vastly preferable to "lolz memes are cool" Weezer.

Hidden track on the vinyl is a new (and faithful) version of long lost 1993 song 'I've Thrown It All Away':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JLirnibRiU

this isn't great like the white album but it's really shockingly solid and plays to rivers' strengths in a way that so little of his work does. even after the white album & ewbaite it's still kinda shocking when they make another album that's actually good. there's a vision here of the very solid power-pop band they've spent most of their career fucking around to avoid. there's no real duds or anything and "the end of the game" and "i need some of that" are real highlights

"blue dream" really does have fun with the "crazy train" riff lmao

never got around to ok human until now and it's... not very good. kinda shocked that it was fairly well received, at least by modern weezer album standards. rivers seems determined to force these chamber arrangements on songs they often don't fit at all. it's a shame because a weezer chamber pop album probably could have worked if done right, focusing on the sort of melodic beauty rivers is capable of when he wants to.

“numbers” and “bird with a broken wing” are p awesome
imo

yeah those were the ones that stood out to me too, if the whole thing was like those it would have been a pretty good album but alas

btw brad what's your pacific daydream take? it never got any discussion here but i think at least half of it is kinda brilliant even if there's some clear duds.

especially "weekend woman" and "sweet mary" those are all-time great weezer songs

Really love Precious Metal Girl.

Honestly think Pacific Daydream is pretty excellent once you get past the first three songs. Sweet Mary is one their very best songs imo

i think "mexican fender" is fine too

America hits its limit?

I just learned that our Broadway shows have been cancelled (due to low ticket sales and unbelievably high expenses.) I'm very sorry to be telling you this now after we've already invested so much time, thought, and emotion. Extra apologies to those of you who cleared schedules and made travel plans to be with us. Thanks to @Broadway Producer for all your hard work and great ideas. I loved where we were going and I hope we can find a way to resurrect our vision.

What's with these homies cancelling my show

ha

Lol

Dud. Your annoying younger sibling in band form.

I'm not a Weezer fan, but they could at least do a one-off show and film it for streaming release. Seems pretty reasonable in terms of preserving an endeavor and getting it to a wide audience.

v curious about what the "unbelievably high expenses" could be for a 6-night stand at a single venue