Weezer -- Classic or Dud?

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

Have 26 often testing years of goodwill from two solitary albums finally starting to run dry?

xpost the world's biggest light-up "W."

America has spoken: "If you're wondering if I want you to...i don't want you to"

my friend wrote "nobody wants to see u cos you're a diddler" in response, who is she referring to? did Weezer get in some trouble?

honest question as I don't follow them anymore

Diddler sounds like it could have been another '90s alt-rock band.

I just did a cursory search and apparently they've been criticized for being misogynist, racist and homophobic, but I haven't turned up any specific accusations.

all that I knew about.

unless she's making fun of Rivers's guitar playing

Maybe she mixed Rivers up for someone else? There's already several other well-known alternative rockers with similar accusations leveled at them.

i just saw them play at a little 600 cap venue here. a secret warm up show for their upcoming "back to their roots!" tour thing. they totally sucked, complete dog shit. rivers' voice and guitar playing are still good, bryan is playing and singing great too. but no heart. they had no amps on stage, i guess they just play through rack units. this totally lessens the power of a rock band in a smaller venue. they play to click track and backing track so its hard to rock out. the times they had no click (only in dreams and paper face) then the ol magic was there. oh well.

they played new stuff off their szns eps and it was all proggy, thrashy, metal and very guitar heavy, but what's the point when it's so subdued by sticking to the click?

What's the point of playing to a click live unless you have a) backing tracks, or b) lots of visuals or idk pyro effects to sync up? Maybe they do once they move on to bigger venues, or maybe they just hate their drummer.

i think they do have backing tracks for some of the newer material lol

'no heart' is completely what i'd expect from them

listened to the white album yesterday. so perfectly suited toward the summer that i once again convinced myself it's my favorite weezer album

I heard Big Dipper's "Ron Klaus Wrecked His House" this past weekend and damn if it isn't "Undone" but seven years earlier and ~135,000,000 less spotify spins. Great song.

Agreed about the white album, I love that record