Weezer

Weezer
File:Photo Weezer We 300RGB.jpg
Background information
Years active	1992 – present
Members	Rivers Cuomo Patrick Wilson Brian Bell Scott Shriner

Weezer is an American rock band. Formed on February 14, 1992, they have released five full length albums, two EPs, a DVD, and a two-disc set, deluxe remastered edition of their debut album with the addition of b-sides and imports. Their latest album, entitled Make Believe, was released on May 10, 2005. They have sold over 7 million records to date.

History

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.

During the recording of the blue album, Jason Cropper left the band to take care of his future wife, who was pregnant with their first child. Jason was replaced by Brian Bell, a then bassist from a band called Carnival Art. In order not to disrupt the pace of the album recording sessions, Brian needed to learn Weezer's entire catalogue of songs in just 10 days. Testament to this, in "Undone", he can be heard singing the wrong lyrics; instead of "hold this thread as I walk away", Brian sings "pull this thread" in several parts of the song.

"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 later 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.

The video for Weezer's third single, "Say It Ain't So," was directed by Sophie Muller. It featured the bandmates playing hacky sack and performing in the band's original rehearsal space in California. A photo of what the band calls the "Garage" is also featured on the inside cover of the album.

The Blue Album is currently certified 3 times platinum, making it Weezer's all-time best seller. It was re-released and repackaged in 2004 as a Deluxe Edition, which included a second disc of b-sides along with other previously unreleased rarities.

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 was intended to feature 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, the magazine changed their rating 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.

The title of the album comes from the character Lieutenant Pinkerton in Giacamo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly. The entire album is heavily influenced by the opera's story line. Madame Butterfly is mentioned under her real name, Cio-Cio San, in "El Scorcho." The song "Butterfly" is written from the Pinkerton's point of view at the end of the play.

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 tryout unreleased material, including possible new songs for the next Weezer album. 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 2001's 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.

File:Hashpipegrab.png

Screenshot from the hit video for "Hash Pipe" featuring Brian Bell's impossible bend

File:Riverscuomobeard.jpg

Rivers Cuomo donning his infamous "hobo" beard during the Maladroit tour

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, but 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 critical reviews (including making many "Best of '02" lists), its sales were not as strong as The Green Album and remains their worst selling 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 break after the releasing of two albums in quick succession.

Make Believe (2003-2005)

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.

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, many months after its release.

File:BeverlyHillsSingle.jpg

Front cover of the major hit single, "Beverly Hills"

The video for "Beverly Hills" features the band and its fans interacting with Playboy Bunnies and Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion. The song was nominated for Best Rock Song at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, the first ever nomination for the band. The video for the song 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.

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.'

From September 8 to October 28, 2005, Weezer set out on a tour with the Foo Fighters, which, to many, was simply called Foozer. The Foozer tour was awarded "Most Creative Tour Package" at The 17th Annual Concert Industry Awards.

On December 13th, 2005, Winter Weezerland EP was released on iTunes. The EP was essentially a re-release of the 2000 Weezer christmas CD which featured "The Christmas Song" and "Christmas Celebration".

A live DVD comprising of footage from the current Japan tour is scheduled for release in 2006. It will consist of a 2-day, 7-camera shoot of the shows in Japan, plus material that will be drawn from various behind the scenes footage 1.

The Future (2006-)

The band were rumoured to be close to quitting due to the fact that Cuomo is set to return to Harvard University in February to complete his degree in English Literature.

"It's not going to be entirely quiet on the Weezer 'hood not by a long shot," a posting on the bands official site reads. "Everyone is planning on writing music and indeed a good deal of the songs have already been created while the band was still on tour this fall. Rivers returns to college this spring and everyone... continues to work towards a musical future... Only time will tell when the Weezer machine will get back into full gear."

The band also are planning to release a live DVD of their recent Japanese tour, culled from their three night performance at Tokyo's Studio Coast. "We've got the footage; now it's a matter of putting it together. I don't have any info as a projected release time yet, but it will happen in '06 for sure", the statement continued.

Members

The band currently consists of the following members:

• Brian Bell — guitar, backing vocals
• Rivers Cuomo — vocals, guitar
• Scott Shriner — bass guitar, backing vocals (2002-present) (plays on Maladroit and Make Believe)
• Patrick Wilson — drums

Former members:

• Jason Cropper — guitar left the band in September 1993 (believed to have been fired by Cuomo, although it is not clear as Cropper is forbidden from discussing the issue)
• Matt Sharp — bass guitar, backing vocals (1992-1997) (plays on The Blue Album and Pinkerton)
• Mikey Welsh — bass guitar, backing vocals (1998-2001) (plays on The Green Album)

Discography

Studio Albums

• Weezer (1994) #16 U.S., #23 U.K. known as'The Blue Album'
  Weezer
  (1994)
  #16 U.S., #23 U.K.
  known as'The Blue Album'
• Pinkerton (1996) #19 U.S., #43 U.K.
  Pinkerton
  (1996)
  #19 U.S., #43 U.K.
• Weezer (2001) #4 U.S., #31 U.K. known as'The Green Album'
  Weezer
  (2001)
  #4 U.S., #31 U.K.
  known as'The Green Album'
• Maladroit (2002) #3 U.S., #16 U.K.
  Maladroit
  (2002)
  #3 U.S., #16 U.K.
• 
  Make Believe
  (2005)
  #2 U.S., #11 U.K.

EPs

• The Good Life - OZ EP (1997)
  The Good Life - OZ EP
  (1997)
• 
  The Lion and the Witch
  (2002)
  Live
  Lmtd. Edition
• 
  Winter Weezerland EP
  (2005)
  iTunes exclusive release

Other

Songs from the Black Hole - unfinished and unreleased concept album. It was originally intended to be the follow-up to the Blue Album. The album was supposed to be a space-themed rock opera, with each band member playing a different character. The album (and some leftover songs) was eventially transformed into what is now the very different Pinkerton album. Demos, articles, interviews and information regarding the album's planned tracklists are availble at www.sftbh.com. Even though part of the album has been released in the form of demos, a large portion of the album remains unheard. The devoted Weezer fanbase has demanded the songs be released. The most recent attempt to have the songs released is a petition that can be found at www.releasesftbh.tk. The current petition was launched with the aim of collecting 1000 signatures and has reached 591 signatures as of 16th January 2006.

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"	54	4	-	-	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"

References

• John D. Luerseen: Rivers' Edge: The Weezer Story (2004), ISBN 1550226193 An unofficial history of all things Weezer up to the year 2004.
• MTV.com
• Scott Shriner Bio
• Weezer Summer Songs of 2000

External links

• Official site
• The Weezer Network
• Weezer @ the SoundtrackINFO project
• Weezer Media Archive - official media resource
• FHM Magazine interview with Rivers Cuomo
• MTV News: The Week O' Weezer
• Weezer Tabs
• Rivers Cuomo
• Matt Sharp
• Mike Welsh
• The Space Twins
• The Special Goodness
• Downloads and Information on the 'Summer Songs of 2000'
• Weezer Bandnews
• Bornbackwards review
• Flash game/scavenger hunt with clips of Make Believe
• Weezer discography at MusicBrainz
• An extensive library of rare Weezer recordings can be found WeezerNation.com here in the Media section.
• There is also another Weezer media library located Weezer Sweden here.

Fan Sites

• WeezerNation
• WeezerNerds
• WeereZ
• Across The Weez Forum
• AllThingNotWeezer
• WeezerForum
• Weezer Picture Archive
• Across The Sea - for french fans
• Weezer drum kit scores with request function
• Fan circulated petition to release the lost Black Hole tracks