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Weezer

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Weezer
File:Weezer 2002.jpg
Background information
Years active1992 – present
MembersRivers Cuomo
Patrick Wilson
Brian Bell
Scott Shriner

Weezer is an American alternative rock band. Formed on February 14, 1992, they have released five full length albums, an EP, a DVD, and a two-disc set, deluxe remastered edition of their debut album with the addition of b-sides and imports. Besides these official releases, they are notable for having released dozens of otherwise unreleased material on the internet from their official website and having hundreds of songs which have never been heard by the listening public. Their latest album, entitled Make Believe, was released on May 10, 2005, and has since been certified platinum as having sold over 1 million copies.

History of the Band:

Early days (1992-1993)

Weezer formed on February 14, 1992, in Los Angeles, California by Rivers Cuomo, Patrick Wilson, Matt Sharp, and Jason Cropper.

Five weeks after forming, they had their first gig, opening for Dogstar (featuring Keanu Reeves) at Raji's Bar and Ribshack on Hollywood Boulevard. Weezer began playing clubs to small audiences around L.A. and recording home-demos. Soon the band began to receive attention from various A&R reps, and were signed on June 25, 1993 by Todd Sullivan, an A&R rep from Geffen Records. The band was signed onto the DGC label (which later became Interscope).

The Blue Album (1993-1994)

The self-titled debut, Weezer, commonly referred to as The Blue Album, was released May 10, 1994 (not to be confused with their 2001 "comeback" album, which was also self-titled). "Buddy Holly," "Undone (The Sweater Song)" and "Say It Ain't So" were released as singles. The album was produced by former Cars frontman Ric Ocasek, and much of that earlier band's influence can be heard on the record.

"Undone (The Sweater Song)" was released as the first single. Spike Jonze directed the music video for the track. In a single unbroken take, it featured Weezer performing the song on a sound stage with various amusing and surreal studio antics, including a pack of dogs swarming the set.

Jonze also directed the band's second video, "Buddy Holly." The video featured footage of the television sitcom Happy Days seamlessly spliced with the band performing in a remade "Arnold's Diner", a setting from the series. The video had heavy rotation on MTV, and went on to win Jonze and the band four MTV Video Music Awards, including Breakthrough Video and Best Alternative Music Video, and two Billboard Music Video Awards. This video was also included as a bonus on the Microsoft Windows 95 CD. The success of the video arguably pushed the band into the mainstream spotlight.

Directed by Sophie Muller, the video for "Say It Ain't So" was not as successful . It featured the bandmates playing hacky sack and performing the track in "The Garage," the band's original rehearsal space featured on the inside cover of the album.

The art on the album jacket is similar to the art on The Feelies' first album Crazy Rhythms, which can be counted as one of the work's major stylistic predecessors.

As of July 2002, the album had sold 2,652,339 copies in the U.S., where it peaked in February 1995 at #16. It is currently certified 3 times platinum, making it Weezer's all-time best seller.

This album was also re-released and repackaged in 2004 as a Deluxe Edition which included a second disc of b-sides and other rarities that the band had never put on an album.

Pinkerton (1995-1997)

In late December 1994, Weezer took a break from touring for the Christmas holidays. Cuomo traveled back east to his home state of Connecticut, and using an eight-track recorder, he began piecing together demo material for Weezer's next album. Cuomo's original concept for Weezer's sophomore effort was to be a space-themed rock opera, Songs from the Black Hole.

The album would have featured songs that flowed together seamlessly, and ended with a special coda that briefly revisited the major musical elements of the piece. The band began demoing and working on Cuomo's concept through intermittent recording sessions in the spring and summer of 1995. Ultimately, the Songs from the Black Hole album concept was dropped. The album would instead feature some old tunes from before their first album (which had briefly been incorporated into the space-opera) as well as some new ones written while Cuomo was at Harvard.

After the multi-platinum success of their debut album, Weezer's sophomore album was finally released on September 24, 1996. Pinkerton, which peaked at #19 in the U.S. upon its release, didn't sell as many copies as its predecessor, probably due to its darker, more abrasive nature. Pinkerton was labelled "one of the worst albums of 1996" by a Rolling Stone reader poll. Eventually, the album grew into a cult classic, and is viewed by some as one of Weezer's greatest albums. In fact, in 2004, an article changed its status to a 5-star rating and inducted it into The Rolling Stone Hall Of Fame. This article can be found in the Reviews sections of the 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time issue.

Three singles were taken from the album: "El Scorcho", "The Good Life", and "Pink Triangle". However, they did not receive as much airtime as the singles from their debut album.

On Hiatus (1997-2000)

Weezer completed their touring for Pinkerton in the summer of 1997 mostly with No Doubt. The members of the band took a break, with drummer Patrick Wilson returning to his home in Portland, Oregon to work on his side project, The Special Goodness, Matt Sharp left to complete the follow-up album for his group The Rentals, and Brian Bell went to work on his group, Space Twins.

Rivers Cuomo returned to Boston, Massachusetts, but dropped out of Harvard to focus on songwriting. He formed a solo group, The Rivers Cuomo Band. Cuomo used the group to try out songs intended for the next Weezer album and also to showcase songs written by Rivers however never recorded by Weezer. The band played their first show at T.T. the Bear's on October 8, 1997. Future Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh was part of the solo band's line-up. The Boston songs were later abandoned and not used on the next Weezer album, but live recordings of the Boston shows are openly traded on the internet. In February of 1998, Rivers left Boston and Harvard academia behind and returned to Los Angeles.

Pat Wilson and Brian Bell joined Cuomo in L.A. to start work on the next album. Matt Sharp did not rejoin the band and officially left the group in April of 1998. The group decided on Mikey Welsh as Sharp's replacement. Weezer continued rehearsal and cut demos until the fall of 1998. Frustration and creative disagreements led to a decline in rehearsals, and in late fall of 1998, drummer Pat Wilson left for his home in Portland pending renewed productivity from Cuomo.

The band would not reunite until April of 2000, when the Fuji Festival in Japan offered Weezer a high-paying gig to play in August 2000. The festival served as a catalyst for Weezer's productivity, and from April to May, 2000, the band rehearsed and demoed new songs in Los Angeles. The band returned to live shows in June 2000, but without the Weezer name. Instead the shows featured the group's first use of the pseudonym Goat Punishment.

On June 23, 2000, the band, now back under the Weezer name, joined the Warped Tour for eight planned dates. Weezer were well-received at the festival, leading them to book more tour dates for the summer.

SS2K - The Summer Sessions (2000)

In the summer of 2000, Weezer (now consisting of Rivers Cuomo, Mikey Welsh, Pat Wilson, and Brian Bell) were back on the road. Weezer's setlist consisted of 14 new songs, but 13 of them were later scrapped and replaced with what was to become Weezer. Fans labeled these songs the Summer Songs of 2000 (commonly abbreviated, SS2K). Three SS2K songs, "Hash Pipe", "Dope Nose" and "Slob," were re-recorded for studio albums (with "Hash Pipe" appearing on the Green Album and "Dope Nose" and "Slob" appearing on Maladroit).

A collection of these is located on the referenced site below available for free downloads.

The Green Album & Maladroit (2001-2003)

Eventually, the band went back into the studio to produce a third album. Weezer (2001) chose to repeat the self-titled name of their first release. This album quickly became known as The Green Album due to its distinctive bright green coloring. Shortly after the release of The Green Album, Weezer went on another American tour, attracting many new fans along the way due to the strength of hit singles "Hash Pipe" and "Island In The Sun", both of which had videos that received regular rotation on MTV.

The video for "Hash Pipe," directed by Marcos Siega featured sumo wrestlers and was nominated for Best Rock Video at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, it lost out to Limp Bizkit's "Rollin." Two videos were recorded for "Island in the Sun". Marcos Siega directed the first, which focused on a Mexican wedding, and Spike Jonze directed the second, which involved Weezer with animals in a wildlife reserve. Their video for "Photograph" was shot and put together by Weezer friend and unofficial "5th member" Karl Koch.

As reported on August 16th, 2001, by MTV, bassist Mikey Welsh was checked into a psychiatric hospital. His whereabouts were previously unknown, as he mysteriously went missing before their second filming of the "Island in the Sun" music video, featuring the band with various animals. Weezer was prompted to find a temporary replacement for Welsh. Through a mutual friend, Cuomo received Scott Shriner's number and asked if he was interested to fill in for Welsh. Shriner, at first believing it was a prank phone call, accepted.

Much to the ire of their recording label, Weezer decided to forgo the industry-preferred waiting period of 2 to 3 years between albums, and soon began recording demos for their fourth album. The band took an experimental approach for the recording process by allowing fans to download the demos from their official website in return for feedback. After the release of the album, the band subsequently stated that the process was somewhat of a failure, as the fans did not supply them with cohesive constructive advice. Only the song "Slob" was included on the album due to general fan advice.

The fourth album, Maladroit, was released in 2002 with Scott Shriner replacing Mikey Welsh on the bass, and served as a harder-edged version of their trademark catchy pop-influenced music. Although met with generally positive critic review, its sales were not as strong as The Green Album.

Two singles were released from the album. The "Dope Nose" music video featured a Japanese motorcycle gang, and was put into regular rotation. The music video for "Keep Fishin'" combined Weezer with The Muppets, and had heavy rotation on MTV. Both videos were directed by Marcos Siega.

As soon as Maladroit had wrapped up, the band immediately began work on their fifth album, recording numerous demos between tours for Maladroit (often recording as many as 24 songs in a day). These songs were eventually scrapped and Weezer took a well-earned break after the releasing of two albums in quick succession.

Make Believe (2003-2005)

From December 2003 to the summer and early fall of 2004, the members of Weezer recorded a large amount of material intended for a new album to be released in the spring of 2005 with producer Rick Rubin. That album, entitled Make Believe, was released on May 10, 2005. The album's first single, "Beverly Hills," became a hit in the U.S., staying on the charts many months after its release.

File:BeverlyHillsSingle.jpg
Beverly Hills Single

The "Beverly Hills" video features the band and its fans interacting with Playboy Bunnies and Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion. The video was nominated for Best Rock Video at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, but ended up losing out to "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day, a band that Cuomo has named on several occasions as one of his prime influences.

In March of 2004, Weezer released their first DVD. Entitled Video Capture Device, the DVD contains all of their then-current music videos, live concerts, and homemade movies. The DVD was certified "gold" on November 8, 2004.

As of the "Make Believe" tour of 2005, Cuomo has been allowing other members of the band to step under the spotlight of certain songs, allowing the following members to sing the following songs:

  • Brian Bell: "Getchoo"(from Pinkerton), "Why Bother?" (from Pinkerton), "Smile" (from The Green Album), and "Keep Fishin'" (from Maladroit)
  • Scott Shriner: "Fall Together", (from Maladroit) "Dope Nose" (from Maladroit) and "In the Garage" (from The Blue Album)
  • Patrick Wilson: "Photograph" (from The Green Album), "Song 2" (Blur cover) {whilst playing lead guitar}
File:Rivers and Dave.jpg
Rivers and Dave Grohl sharing the stage on the 'Foozer' tour.'

In September 2005, Weezer set out on a tour with the Foo Fighters, which, to many, is simply called Foozer.

The tour for Make Believe can be considered a turning point for the band, who appear to be having much fun. Rivers began the tour appearing shy and moving very little whilst playing songs, however at this point in the tour he appears to have much more confidence than before. The band appear tighter than ever before in 2005, and apparantly consider this tour the best they have ever had.

The Future

In September 2005, one source (MTV.com) reported that the band has decided to be on hiatus again and not record another album in the near future or may, according to several rumors, break up all together.

According to Karl Koch, the article by MTV was slightly misleading and said on the Weezer news page:

"...The real message is simply one of not knowing what the future holds - same as ever, really. In that same article you have Rivers talking about writing new songs: 'I have a lot of ideas for songs, a lot of things I want to try, and a lot of new ways of writing I want to explore, and I'm very excited about trying all of that.' In my opinion, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Que sera sera, and viva la Rock!"

There is also some talk of a future album, as Cuomo said during a concert in Detroit, MI, on October 7th, 2005: "Today in the hotel room, I wrote a new song. It's called 'Piece of the Pie'. We can't play it for you, because you'll record it and put it on the internet. And by the time the new album comes out, you'll all be sick of it!"

Members

The band currently consists of the following members:

Former members:

Discography

Albums and EPs

Year Album US UK Additional information
1994 Weezer 16 23 also known as The Blue Album
1996 Pinkerton 19 43 -
1997 The Good Life - OZ EP - - released in the Spring of 1997
2001 Weezer 4 31 also known as The Green Album
2002 Maladroit 3 16 -
2002 The Lion and the Witch - - live EP, recorded during the Maladroit tour in Japan on September 24 2002.
limited edition release in U.S., on general release in Japan.
2005 Make Believe 2 11 -

Singles

Year Song US Hot 100 US Modern Rock US Main- stream Rock UK Singles Chart Album
1994 "Undone (The Sweater Song)" 57 6 30 35 Weezer (Blue Album)
1995 "Buddy Holly" - 2 34 12 Weezer (Blue Album)
1995 "Say It Ain't So" - 7 - 37 Weezer (Blue Album)
1996 "El Scorcho" - 19 - 50 Pinkerton
1997 "The Good Life" - 35 - - Pinkerton
1997 "Pink Triangle" - - - - Pinkerton
2001 "Hash Pipe" - 2 24 21 Weezer (Green Album)
2001 "Island in the Sun" - 11 - 31 Weezer (Green Album)
2001 "Photograph" - 17 - - Weezer (Green Album)
2002 "Dope Nose" - 8 - - Maladroit
2002 "Keep Fishin'" - 15 - 29 Maladroit
2005 "Beverly Hills" 10 1 26 9 Make Believe
2005 "We Are All on Drugs" - 10 35 47 Make Believe
2005 "Perfect Situation" - 5 - - Make Believe

Promo and International Singles

  • "My Name is Jonas" was released to radio as a promo single in Canada before the release of "Say It Ain't So".
  • "Pink Triangle" was released as a radio promo in the US.
  • "Photograph" was released to Japan instead of "Hash Pipe" and then to radio in the US.

Guest Contributions

  • Jamie appears on the compilation album DGC Rarities, Vol. 1.
  • Susanne is a song by Weezer for the Mallrats movie soundtrack.
  • You Gave Your Love to Me Softly is a song by Weezer for the Angus soundtrack.
  • Worry Rock is a Green Day song covered by Weezer for a Green Day Tribute album.
  • Velouria is a Pixies song covered by Weezer for the Pixies tribute album Where Is My Mind?
  • Mykel and Carli, appearing on the benefit compilation CD Hear You Me!
  • O Lisa, a Green Album B-side appears on the wwf tough enough 2 soundtrack
  • Why Bother? (Live) can be found on the Petra Haden benefit record
  • You Won't Get With Me Tonight the Rivers Cuomo home demo can be found on the Buddyhead Records compilation Gimme Skelter"
  • Homie (side project of guitarist/vocalist Rivers Cuomo)
  • The Rentals (band of former bassist Matt Sharp)
  • The Special Goodness (side project of drummer Patrick Wilson)
  • Space Twins (side project of guitarist Brian Bell)
  • Ozma (opened for Weezer on the Outloud and Maladroit tours, leading Rivers to become their manager)
  • Avant Garde (pre-Weezer Rivers Cuomo band, 80's metal band, later renamed Zoom)
  • AM Radio (Opened for Weezer during the Midget and Enlightenment tours, and is currently managed by Rivers Cuomo. Kevin Ridel (the lead singer of AM Radio) was also band mates with Rivers Cuomo in the failed band Avant Garde.)
  • Dolour (Has played along side The Special Goodness on their 1999 and 2002 West Coast tours, opened for Matt Sharp on his first solo tour, also played with Ozma on their 2001 trip to Seattle.)

References

Fan Sites

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