My Personal Tribute to My Favorite Band Ever!
“Torniamo all antico e sara un progresso”—loosely translates to “Let us return to old times and that will be progress.” ~Verdi/Cuomo
weezer is a very under appreciated band. Not many people even know about them. Therefore I'm devoting a part of my site to them. Good job guys, and remember, if it's too loud, turn it down.
weezer History
The members of weezer began forming on the west coast in the early nineties. Essentially, they were all introduced by or met a guy named Pat Finn. Rivers, Pat, and Matt played in various short lived bands together and individually, and with the addition of Jason Cropper on guitar, weezer was truly born on Valentines Day (February 14), 1992. The line up consisted of Rivers Cuomo, lead vocals and guitar, Jason Cropper, acoustic guitar; Matt Sharp, bass and backing vocals; and Patrick Wilson on drums. They all shared close living quarters and spent their time rocking out in the infamous garage.
weezer spent the next year and a half in complete obscurity, playing small venues with even smaller crowds. They recieved a lot of criticism and backlash, but record companies began to flirt with them. Soon enough, Geffen then known as the DGC or David Geffen Company Records, A & R rep Todd Sullivan signed weezer to a contract.
The time came and the band decided to escape LA and go into Electric Lady Studios in New York city to work with former Cars frontman Ric Ocasek. Around this time, Jason Cropper's girlfriend Amy became pregnant with their first child. Jason decided to support her and returned to LA. Meanwhile, the search began for a new guitarist. Rivers turned to Brian Bell, whom he met at a party and exchanged numbers with, intending to play some shows with his band Carnival Art. Brian auditioned via cassette tape and Fed Ex and clenched the job when he replied that his favorite Star Wars character was Hammerhead.
A few months later, May 10, 1994 to be exact, the blue album was released. It picked up pretty quickly with three strong singles; "Undone- The Sweater Song", "Buddy Holly", and "Say It Ain't So". Their videos arrived in the Buzz Bin on MTV almost immediately, Buddy Holly becoming one of the most popular clips of 1995 scoring four MTV Video Music Awards including, Breakthrough Video and Best Alternative Music Video and two Billboard Music Video Awards Alternative/Modern Rock Clip of Year being among them. Then came television appearances, interviews, and a world tour. Since then, the blue album has gone triple platinum, indicating it has sold over three million copies. It also peaked on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart and remained on the chart for 76 weeks.
Next it was time to tour. The band toured for about a year and a half,playing 250 dates, winning fans throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. After their dizzying success, weezer settled into various other projects, much like their current status. Rivers went to Harvard to complete his English major, had a leg operation, wrote Pinkerton, and virtually became a Hermit; Matt launched his own highly successful project, The Rentals, complete with a tour and multi platinum album; Brian began to develop the Space Twins; and Pat played drums for the Rentals and laid out the foundation for the Special Goodness.
After their brief hiatus, they began to record their second album Pinkerton during Rivers' breaks from school between September of 1995 and June 1996. It was mixed by Jack Joseph Puig but the band produced the album themselves and searched for a deeper meaning to the songs and rawer sound. It was released September 24, 1996. Pinkerton wasn't as successful, in fact according to Rolling Stone it was the second worst album of 1996, but the fans truly appreciate it. "El Scorcho", "The Good Life", and "Pink Triangle" were the three singles, although there was never a video released for "Pink Triangle". They completed another world tour and again settled into hiatus mode after 1997.
In early 1998, Matt Sharp announced that he was leaving the group in order to focus full time on his own creation, the Rentals. Mikey Welsh has replaced Matt. Rivers performed several "solo shows" in Boston during the school year, Pat has released the Special Goodness CD in Asia and gone on a US tour with Mikey while Brian has stayed in LA working on the Space Twins.
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