Weezer (Music Notes)

This past Friday the band Weezer visited my collegiate institution for a free concert provided to us students. This is a band that has always intrigued me, even though as a whole I am only a fan of a quarter of the stuff they put out. But, hey, it’s free. After all, there was a similar concert I attended last spring which was Cobra Starship and freaking 3OH!3. I figured if I survived a group who has written the lyrics “gonna have a house party in my house” I would more than make it through a little tame rock-pop.


I am not a fan of most popular music, by and large, but I choose not to ignore it. There are very few acts I hate, and in fact I am indifferent about a vast majority of music. I can listen to just about anything, but I only really like or really hate a small portion. I do not sit around bemoaning the state of pop music as I listen to Arcade Fire while reading On the Road. I note its existence, accept it, and just choose to listen to what I want.  Weezer, over the course of their career, has released music that goes across the entire spectrum. There is some stuff I really love from them, I'm indifferent to most of it, and some stuff that makes me want to put my head in a trash compactor.

The story of Weezer is an endlessly fascinating, and at times infuriating one. In 1994 they released their first subtitled album (later dubbed The Blue Album) into the world, and the world fell in love with their brand of geeky surf rock. The song “Buddy Holly” became a huge hit (thanks in large part to a brilliant music video by Spike Jonze) and immediately Weezer rose to the top so fast that even the band eventually showed they could not handle it.

Out of misery can come great works of art, and next Weezer did just that with Pinkerton, as abrasive a masterpiece as you will ever listen to in your life. That’s right, a masterpiece. The first time you listen to it you will likely not agree with me. These are the sounds of a man about to burst, a man tired of the tedious life he has found himself in. Frontman Rivers Cuomo was 26 when Pinkerton was released: Not yet old, but in his mind no longer young. Many artists have made work illustrating their resistance to fame, but Pinkerton is one of the few albums that seems utterly and brutally sincere, and seems comparable to Nirvana’s In Utero. This type of art is often not received well, and at first the band was just about buried by the backlash. As time has gone on, however, Pinkerton has been embraced as the brilliant album it is. It’s a shame that Weezer would never come back to this place. Perhaps it was a well that was too painful to return to. Not everyone can write a song about being sexually attracted to a young Japanese fan you haven’t met (“Across the Sea”).

The band, frankly, was just about done after the tanking of Pinkerton. They went on hiatus and did not return with a new album until 2001, which would be their second self-titled release. The Green Album harkens back to their debut with a few catchy pop-rock gems surrounded by some forgettable filler. This would be the Weezer of the new millennium, providing a good song once in a while, but for one reason or another they think writing any 10 songs justifies the release of a new album. After The Green Album came the bland Maladroit which was saved from pure awfulness by a great music video for “Keep Fishin’” starring the Muppets. I’m a sucker for Muppets.

It is now we reach the era of brazen artificiality, and Weezer gives up on injecting any real emotion into their songs. That’s fine, I guess, as pop music has always been known for its brand of cutesy phoniness. Take a look at the likes of Ke$ha or Katy Perry and you can’t go 30 seconds without realizing you are not hearing their voices, but a computer. Just watch Perry try to act vocally talented on this past week’s Saturday Night Live. It’s almost painful.

But I digress. The next Weezer album was 2005’s Make Believe, known mostly for the song “Beverly Hills”, an ode to a rich and famous lifestyle. This song is jarring simply because not even 10 years before the album Pinkerton was an advertisement against such a phony environment, now Weezer makes a song so incredibly for it? Ugh. That being said, the album does have the decent “Perfect Situation”, but this was a band that had completely sold out. Their song “We Are All on Drugs” was remade as “We Are All in Love” for the music video.

So, now we reach the issue of selling out. What does it mean? Some simply throw that term around whenever their favorite artists release an album they don’t like. To me, it simply means that an artist has become more interested in making marketable music than good music. Sometimes an artist can still make good music after “selling out”, but often it overshadows a band for the rest of their days. For Weezer, The Red Album came and went without too much fanfare (just a brief hit in “Pork and Beans”), but next came an album which I have only listened to once, but left me angry at Weezer. In the past I may have been indifferent, but this crossed a line.

Raditude is the least sincere album I’ve listened to in a while, and works as a complete antithesis to Pinkerton. I need only say three words: “Can’t Stop Partying”. Weezer at its best would never create such a song devoid of irony, not to mention a cameo by Lil’ Wayne. I have no hatred of Lil’ Wayne, but as a companion to Weezer I just don’t buy it. The past few Weezer albums I grew tired, but here I felt like they had simply stopped trying.

On a more positive note, there are hints that of late Weezer has had a desire to get back to their roots. Their album Hurley (released earlier this month) brings back a sort of rugged sound I’ve long missed, but as songs they remain devoid of any real punch. Weezer is even planning a tour where they only play music off of The Blue Album and Pinkerton. For years they have seemed like a band that had shut themselves off from genuineness, but now they seem to be accepting that they aren’t reaching their potential as a band. Even ignoring the rumors that Hurley was named after the clothing company which allegedly sponsored the album and not the Lost character, I feel this band is moving in the right direction again. I haven’t thought that in a long time.

So now I come back to the free concert I attended. Essentially, they were Weezer. I left the concert with my usual indifference, accepting the fact they were a band that at this point seems to bat .250. However, there was one thing I noticed: they only played one song off of Raditude and Hurley each, and material off of their debut album got a whole lot of time. They even chose to play “Surf Wax America”, of all songs. (Not great, but old). Finally I seem to be getting a look inside, and they no longer seem content. They may have forgotten how to make great music, but I’m reassured that they, for the first time since the 90's, seem committed to trying. However, they’ve got a ways to go before they come full circle. Just know I’m rooting for you, kiddos.