Weezer -- Classic or Dud?

However reading US magazines, CMJ and Alternative Press and looking at some internet forums some yanks seem to rate them i.e college rock kids and that dreaded word emo.

I suppose the UK equivalent not in sound but in a stereotypical cult guitar band following in Britain would be Hefner - Who have a following in Lammo/Peel circles/ fanzines.

Weezer are not for me.

Weezer are lightweight and insignificant, like bubblegum they are disposable, for some a three minute single may be enjoyable but after there is no flavour or substance.

ned raggett: classic or dud.

OBVIOUSLY dud. i mean, did you see that aicon picture?

anyhow, i don't much like weezer. and i say this on the basis of hearing three songs. they seem to have a strong cult of personality built up, cf. brian wilson in the 70s -- "rivers cuomo went to HARVARD! he recorded like ten albums, but destroyed them all! he got braces! he's INSANE!" is this part of the charm or is it all about the music? or both?

josh, speak! interesting that his name was invoked because i've always believed that weezer fell under the made-up genre heading of "josh rock."

So I asked Maura about them. Maura'll know, I thought. She said an interesting thing, which is that it's the big gap between records which has created the Weezer myth/mystique. Which got me thinking: Weezer turn up playing catchy, clever, knowing pop songs after a very dour, angsty period. So culturally speaking they're the US Blur. But also they record a kinda retro record at just the right time then duck out of sight and delay a follow-up for years. So culturally speaking they're *also* the US Stone Roses. So it's hardly surprising they're so rated (overrated?).

The big singles are great, but I have a special fondness for "In The Garage", with its too-honest snapshot of the geek's private retreat: "I've got the Dungeon Master's Guide / I've got a 12-sided die / I've got Kitty Pryde / and Nightcrawler too / Waiting there for me / Yes I do, I do" Weezer wasn't my high school experience, but it sure could have been.

I have big misgivings about the much-hyped comeback though. BIG misgivings.

but. happened to get their album out the library and i'm converted. 'only in dreams' is classic, rest pretty good too.

As for me being Kris and Otis -- I like that. Actually, maybe I'm inventing all of you except Tom to make him feel like he's got a popular forum. ;-)

And I never said my own opinion on the matter -- eh. Unduly worshipped, and the Dream Warriors did the twelve-sided dice thing better anyway.

http://www.aol.com

This is truly bizarre: "Brian Langel"'s email address is one letter away from being Jamie Ashley and Sarah Hutchings's band ...

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

what the actual fuck

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/local-news/weezer-bassist-scott-shriner-wife-shot-la-police-chase-1236186437/

Weezer bassist Scott Shriner’s wife, Jillian Lauren, was shot by police while officers were pursuing suspects in a hit-and-run in Los Angeles on Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

LAPD officers said they responded to the scene to assist the California Highway Patrol in finding three suspects following a hit-and-run in the Eagle Rock neighborhood. Authorities said they were working to set up a perimeter in the area after the suspects ran into a residential neighborhood near the 134 Freeway and Figueroa Street.

Shortly into their search, officers were checking behind a residence for one of the suspects when they spotted a woman, later identified as Jillian Shriner, outside a neighboring residence and armed with a handgun. Police said they commanded her to drop the gun multiple times, but said that she refused and pointed it at them, and officers shot Shriner.

She went back into her home, but came out later and was taken into custody, according to LAPD. LAFD paramedics took her to a local hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Police said Shriner was not involved in the hit-and-run, and she was absentee booked for attempted murder.

She's very lucky she's white.

what could have possibly driven this woman to madness

xpost Yup.

Jillian Lauren stopped by to promote her book, ‘Some Girls: My Life in a Harem,’ and told the crew she got started in the sex industry after dropping out of school at the age of 17: “I was stripping and doing escort work.”

Jillian said she’d been a horrible waitress and “always really wanted something extreme,” but never became a stripper until a customer confronted her, saying: “You’re a horrible waitress. Why don’t you come to the Kit-Kat Club?”
Step 1: Stripping to Prostitute

Jillian said she did some acting work when she wasn’t stripping and met “an interesting, charismatic woman” on the set of a low-budget vampire movie.

The woman invited Jillian to work with her at an escort agency: “I thought it was going to be like ‘The Mayflower Madam.’ Candace Bergen territory.”

Jillian said her first customer was easy, so she stuck with it: “He wanted to look at himself in the mirror and do rush–like amyl nitrates? Poppers? And jerk [himself] off.”

Step 2: Prostitution to Party Guest

Jillian said she enjoyed being an escort: “It felt very powerful to me…to be able to be unaffected…I didn’t feel gross. Like I said, I didn’t feel much.”

After a while, she was approached with yet another opportunity: “I was recruited. I was told–I was tipped off about this audition.”

The ‘audition’ seemed strange: “It’s really just an interview in a hotel room.”

Afterward, she was called and asked to be a ‘personal party guest’ of the Prince of Brunei.

Step 3: Party Guest to Harem Girl

Jillian said her life as the Prince of Brunei’s ‘personal party guest’ started simply enough: “I really was a guest at these parties [in Brunei]…it was weeks before the Prince took a shine to me.”

When she finally banged ‘Prince Jeffrey,’ she was actually kind of into it: “He owned a country. I was fascinated–captivated by him.”

Howard asked if Jillian enjoyed it, so she explained that he was with several women a day: “It was quick.”

Jillian said she was one of 40 or so women in Prince Jeffrey’s harem: “A lot of the women there were teenagers from Thailand.”

Jillian was the Prince’s #2 girl–his #1 was Filipino soap opera actress: “The Western girls were in a separate compound from the girls from Southeast Asia.”

Jillian said she tried to tell her dad she was working as the Prince’s personal assistant: “To which he said, ‘My ass you’re a personal assistant!'”

After a year and a half, Jillian left the harem with a wad of cash: “I had a couple hundred thousand dollars.”

Step 4: Harem Girl to Rockstar Wife

Jillian then revealed that her husband, Weezer bass player, Scott Shriner, was in the green room: “This is the true Prince in the equation.”

Scott came in to say he knew Jillian was a handful when they met (“She looked like trouble.”) but quickly learned he’d found someone with a past that matched his own: “I’ve been going to porno theaters since I was in the 6th grade. I equated love with John Holmes.”