Weezer has never officially stated why Mikey left the band, but Mikey felt incredibly betrayed by Rivers. It was not until Make Believe that Mikey and Rivers became on good terms again. With Scott Shriner freshly in the Weezer lineup, Rivers began to turn to a harder rock. At the time, Rivers was reading lots of Nietzsche.
He said in a magazine, "I want to conquer far and wide in the name of Weezer. Rivers took complete control of Weezer in a way that he previously never had.
Songs got progressively heavier as new song after new song was debuted live for everyone to hear. New live songs were recorded off the soundboard and posted on the official website for fans to hear. When the band went to do a BBC performance, they played all new songs, which included many songs that would eventually appear on their next album. Also around this time, Rivers became very interested in what fans had to say about Weezer.
To Rivers, the fans on Weezer boards acted the same as a record producer, but their insight was often better. They knew Weezer better, they were not motivated by money, and they were easy to talk to. Setting up a message board, Rivers began corresponding with fans, first through Karl, and eventually on his own under the username "Ace" a reference to Ace Frehley.
During a given day, Weezer would go into the studio, record all new songs, post them online for fans to download and critique, then the next day they would take the advice into consideration and attempt new lyrics, bridges, arrangements, etc. Eventually, relationships between Rivers and the fans grew less and less friendly. Rivers, angered with the fans attacking his new songs and loving only his old ones, wrote the song " Space Rock ", which chronicles the relationship he had with his fans.
Still, Rivers and Weezer did indeed take the advice of the fans. Even the album's name, Maladroit , was a fan suggestion. Maladroit was released on May 14 , It was the first album to contain a booklet with lyrics. The first , copies of Maladroit have a limited edition gold number on the bottom corner. Like any other Weezer album, the album was an album of firsts. The album contained thirteen tracks rather than ten, was self produced like Pinkerton Rivers would say 'unproduced' , and inside the booklet was a special message thanking the Weezer fans on the boards.
The album received strong reviews, but sold much less than previous albums. The first two singles, " Dope Nose " and " Keep Fishin' " received strong radio play and MTV circulation propelled by popular music videos. Continuing the traditions of Maladroit, Weezer began to explore a new sound, which made heavy use of keyboards, pianos, synths and depersonalized lyrics. These songs were also posted on the official website and are referred to as Album 5 Demos , because although they were intended for a fifth album, which eventually became Make Believe , their sound and style are completely unique to what would eventually become the fifth album.
These songs were also met with a weaker fan reception. Rivers, who had started smoking, drinking, and controlling all facets of Weezer's publicity, eventually got in contact with Rick Rubin , who suggested to Rivers that he meditate.
Taking his suggestion, Rivers was able to find some solitude. The result was a drastically different sound. Things then became quiet. Starting the Vipassana meditation practices, Rivers quickly felt the meditation effecting his songwriting. One song, " Pardon Me " Rick Rubin's favorite was written because meditation asked that he seek forgiveness from all those he harmed.
Another song, "Hold Me", was written on a fast. The songs began to reflect a more emotional side to Rivers that was absent from Maladroit and compressed in Green Album. Rivers would write several demos, leave them to the band to work with, and then go back to Harvard. During breaks, the band would record and rehearse new songs. Rick Rubin oversaw all of the recordings. The band was able to work with a new found cooperation. The band setup themselves as a democracy and for the first time since the old Amherst days, were getting along well.
Several songs were written and recorded during the Make Believe sessions, but few have surfaced other than in the form of the album. Very few songs have surfaced from this era, save a few leaked home demos, a song on Alone , and two office demos that were not released until Make Believe received mixed reviews, and was met with some fan criticism. The most pervasive criticism is in regards to the slick and clean production provided by Rick Rubin.
Many fans have stated that had it had the more "raw" production of Pinkerton , the album would have been stronger. Despite fan criticisms, Make Believe was quick to go platinum and its lead off single, "Beverly Hills", was Weezer's first 1 single. It was also the most popular download of although technicalities make "Holla Back Girl" the most popular.
The first printings of Make Believe are in a digipak and there is an error on "We Are All on Drugs" the wrong bridge was used. There was some controversy regarding the second single, "We Are All on Drugs".
Despite a fantastic reaction to the song at live shows, fans were quick to dismiss the song as a single. The song was re-recorded as "We Are All in Love".
Later, when "Perfect Situation" was announced as single 3, it received a new chorus after Weezer fans reportedly, according to Cuomo, sang it the way he originally wrote it. Fans typically prefer the original. The new version also features backing vocals of "perfect situation!
Pat, meanwhile, set out to work on The Special Goodness , having scrapped sessions he did a year earlier with Scott Shriner. Brian Bell set out on a brand new project called The Relationship. With all four members of Weezer off pursuing different things, little was spoken of on the Weezer front.
The article was finally published and its selling point was that Weezer had broken up. Despite Rivers never saying "Weezer have broken up", he did say, "Really, for the moment, we are done. And I'm not certain we'll ever make a record again, unless it becomes really obvious to me that we need to do one. Additionally, the interviewer was new. Still, the damage was done, and even well into many people were under the impression that Weezer had broken up.
The band was quick to dismiss the breakup rumors on. In April of , Weezer fans were treated to their first bit of new material in nearly two years when the song " Pig " leaked as an acoustic home demo on music blogs. It is still entirely unknown how the song managed to get out, but Karl did post a link to the song briefly on Karl's Corner. It is unknown why the link was taken down hours later. The metadata for the track revealed it was a twelve track album entitled Deliverance at Hand!
Nothing related to this mysterious demo album would be spoken of, or known of, for another year. Around this time, a mysterious website entitled Albumsix popped up with an image saying "Album 6" that redirected to Weezer. At the time, Karl was rather unaware of Weezer happenings and truthfully reported that he had "no idea what this albumsix stuff is about". Also around this time, Rivers wrote a letter on the official website stating that recording for the new Weezer album would begin shortly.
Eventually, Albumsix posted information saying Weezer's sixth album would be called Tout Ensemble. They also provided a release date.
Many major news outlets picked up on and reported this as the truth. Karl responded with the statement: "Please note that Weezer and Geffen Records have no affiliation with www. The new Weezer record is not called Tout Ensemble and there is no official release date yet for the album. Remember, when it's on Weezer. Though I will say, 'well played', to the authors of that site.
Weezer's new album sessions began shortly after Rick Rubin received a copy of Deliverance at Hand! The material was somewhat more experimental than anything Weezer had previously done. At the beginning of the album's creation each Weezer member asked themselves what they wanted to get out of the album. With that in mind, they set out to record. Recording was done in three sessions. Half of the album was recorded during the Spring of with Rubin overseeing production.
Interestingly, Ruben was far less involved with the album than he was with Make Believe. It is uncertain if the band and he had a falling out, but the band did comment later that he "just sort of stopped showing".
Weezer went on to finish the production of the album themselves in a second recording studio. Finding themselves with an abundance of experimental by Weezer standards material, Geffen told Weezer that the album lagged and was too slow. This forced Weezer to enter into a third session in which two new songs were recorded with Jacknife Lee : " Troublemaker " and " Pork and Beans ".
The album is unique in recording because it is the first album to have multiple lead vocalists. Rivers posted on his official MySpace blog that the new single was a 12 letter word starting with T and ending with R. Fans quickly set out making lists of possible names. It was assumed the song was called "Troublemaker", although some speculated it was "Tranquilizer" and "Turbocharger".
Later, Rivers published on his blog that he was wrong about the first single, and that it would now be a song about a "four legged pink farm animal". He then said "you ain't gonna figure it out boy!! On Aprils fools day , , Rolling Stone reported that the new Weezer album then scheduled for April 22 was a self titled "Red" album, with the lead-off single called "Pork and Beans".
Most people, if not everyone, assumed it was one of many April Fools Day pranks. Rolling Stone updated the article saying " Fans were quick to bootleg the recording, and within minutes, the track was leaked.
In late April, the new album's first eight tracks leaked. Geffen quickly changed the album release date from June 18th to June 3rd. Fan opinions were mixed, but were universally positive in comparison to those of Make Believe. The standard edition of Red contains 10 tracks, a throwback to the roots of Weezer. The deluxe edition contained four bonus tracks that were completely recorded, but omitted from the final track list for reasons relating to preference of the band and Geffen.
The standard edition was a jewelcase; the deluxe edition was a digipak which also contained a lyric booklet with band commentary. Reviews of Red were mixed, but primarily positive. A Japanese special edition was later made available with a bonus DVD featuring footage of the band's Japan tour, behind-the-scenes footage, commentary and more.
The second single, "Troublemaker" did fairly well, released on July 26th, peaking at 2 on the 'Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks' chart, another hit for the band. A European release was planned for late November, promo CD's were sent to radio stations but for unknown reasons the release was aborted. Spike Jonze is attached to direct the video and 20 b-sides are contending for the release including the fan-contributed "Lets Write A Sawng". It is possible that the release many turn into an EP.
The band performed their first dates for three years in Japan at the beginning of September and then embarked on what was dubbed the 'Troublemaker' tour - 21 dates around the US, including one in Canada. Shortly before the encore at each show, the band would bring on fans with various instruments and perform Island in the Sun and Beverly Hills with them. At a show in Austin, after Tokyo Police Club had played their set, Rivers was wheeled out in a box and mimed to a recording of rare Weezer demo, 'My Brain', donned in pajamas with puppets on his hands, before being wheeled off again.
This bizarre event later surfaced as the lead song for Rivers' second demo album, Alone 2. Cuomo released a second solo CD of home demos on November 25 , , entitled Alone 2: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo , featuring three additional pieces recorded for "Songs From The Black Hole", a song written by Jermaine Dupre, a variety of songs which ended up as Weezer demos and various previously unreleased tracks.
As an album release party, Cuomo held a Hootenanny in which fans chose what songs were played and performed along with Cuomo. Cuomo also revealed that a new compilation dubbed Odds and Ends will be released during It will feature a variety of b-sides and songs that "didn't make the final cut for [a] record". It'll be very much in the vain of Rivers' two demo releases and may be the final release to expire the band's seven album Geffen contract.
Another set of songs emerged in the form of Christmas with Weezer , six Christmas hymns rerecorded by the band for exclusive use on the iPhone game 'Tap Tap Revenge'.
The songs were ripped and leaked in perfect form making up a six track mini-album as a Christmas suprise to many fans. It is unknown if the song will be made public on an album. Billboard reported that Weezer will be heading into the studio in early November to cut Weezer album 7 with Jacknife Lee , who recorded two songs on The Red Album , most notably "Pork and Beans.
Since they no longer had to rely on one person for the songs, the band accumulated an album's worth of songs much more quickly. However, in an interview with Spinner , Brian Bell denied these early album plans, stating that someone "jumped the gun," and that although the band was currently writing new material, they did not have any plans to enter the studio anytime soon. Pat also noted that a song called " In the Mall " would be on the album, which was later discovered to be written by him.
On May 20, , an Albumsix user claimed that a source revealed to him that the album would most likely be released in August or September of Said user also claimed the album was written largely through collaboration, as previously speculated.
Other rumors include that Pat has taken over Rivers' guitar duties, with Josh Freese replacing Pat on the drums. The boardie also confirmed that " Can't Stop Partying " was on the album and that the label was having difficulty selecting a single. Weezer, of course, never made such an album; Matt Sharp, destined to part ways with the group circa , did instead, with his band the Rentals. It certainly was an obvious hit; during mixing, Shaw remembers stepping out of the control room to hear a receptionist humming it to herself.
Just before they finished recording, Weezer fired Cropper, and Cuomo replaced all of his guitar parts. Cropper is still convinced that he was canned mostly because of his relationship with his then-girlfriend, now his former wife, who was unpopular with the bandmates.
Next thing you know, Luca Brasi was swimming with the fishes. Brian Bell and Rivers in Photo credit: Karl Koch. For Cropper, it was a tough road at times, though he eventually reconciled with Cuomo and told him he was grateful for all the years he got to spend with his family. People on the L. Bell was in.
Bell got word that he would be sharing a room with Wilson. In classic Nineties fashion, Cuomo almost immediately realized he hated being a rock star. Photo credit: Spike Jonze. He became obsessed with classical music, and began sending out applications to elite universities.
No one in the band will admit to worrying that it was all over when Cuomo matriculated, but it was definitely unnerving. Can we please keep doing this? In the fall of , Cuomo enrolled at Harvard, strolling through the leafy campus, just as he had dreamed.
No one bugged him; it was as if Weezer never happened. There were papers to write, piles of reading to do. Listen to an audio version of this story below: In the spring of , Rivers Cuomo was 19 years old, and all of his plans were coming undone.
Photo credit: Peter Orth Peter Orth. Photo credit: Karl Koch Karl Koch. Photo credit: Spike Jonze Spike Jonze. Newswire Powered by. Close the menu. Rolling Stone. Log In. To help keep your account secure, please log-in again. You are no longer onsite at your organization. Please log in. For assistance, contact your corporate administrator.
Arrow Created with Sketch. Calendar Created with Sketch. Cuomo's original concept for Weezer's sophomore effort was to be a space-themed rock opera , with him mulling over the title ' Songs from the Black Hole '. The album was intended to feature songs that flowed together seamlessly, and it was planned to end with a special coda that briefly revisited the major musical elements of the piece something reminiscent of progressive rock works from the 70s.
The band began demoing and working on Cuomo's concept through intermittent recording sessions in the spring and summer of Ultimately, the ' Songs from the Black Hole ' album concept was dropped. The album that actually came out would instead feature some old tunes made 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, Titled ' Pinkerton ', the work peaked at 19 in the U.
It didn't sell as many copies as its predecessor, probably due to its darker, more abrasive nature. Pinkerton was labeled "one of the worst albums of " by a Rolling Stone reader poll. Eventually, the album grew into a cult classic, and is viewed by some fans as Weezer's greatest album.
In fact, in , the magazine changed their rating to a 5-star rating and inducted it into The Rolling Stone Hall Of Fame. The video for "El Scorcho" featured the band inside a darkened room, sitting in a circle, that would be lit differently throughout parts of the song; it was directed by Mark Romanek.
However, the singles did not receive as much airtime as the singles from their debut album. The entire album is heavily influenced by the opera's story line.
The album's title was the source of a legal challenge. Pinkerton Securities of Encino, Calif. A judge ruled against the security company and the album was finally released. Weezer completed their touring for Pinkerton in the summer of 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 eventually went into seclusion. He painted his walls black, disconnected his phone, and didn't communicate with anyone. Later, he formed a solo group, The Rivers Cuomo Band. Cuomo used the group to try out unreleased material, including possible new songs for the next Weezer album.
The band played their first show at T. Future Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh was part of the solo band's lineup. 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. Matt Sharp did not rejoin the band and officially left the group in April of The group decided on Mikey Welsh as Sharp's replacement.
Weezer continued rehearsal and cut demos until the fall of Frustration and creative disagreements led to a decline in rehearsals, and in late fall of , drummer Pat Wilson left for his home in Portland pending renewed productivity from Cuomo. The band would not reunite until April of , when the Fuji Festival in Japan offered Weezer a high-paying gig to play in August The festival served as a catalyst for Weezer's productivity, and from April to May, , the band rehearsed and demoed new songs in Los Angeles.
The band returned to live shows in June , but without the Weezer name. Instead the shows featured the group's first use of the pseudonym Goat Punishment. On June 23, , the band, now back under the Weezer name, joined the Warped Tour for eight planned dates.
Weezer was received well at the festival, leading the band to book more tour dates for the summer. Weezer's setlist consisted of 14 new songs that fans have labeled the Summer Songs of commonly abbreviated, SS2K. When 13 of these songs did not appear on Weezer's next album, fans of the songs started a petition demanding the release of studio demos. Eventually, mp3s were made available on the band's official website for download.
Eventually, the band went back into the studio to produce a third album. Weezer 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. They attracted a new generation of fans thanks to heavy MTV rotation for the videos of their hit singles "Hash Pipe" and "Island in the Sun. Their video for "Photograph" was shot and put together by Weezer friend and unofficial "5th member" Karl Koch.
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 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 with Scott Shriner replacing Mikey Welsh on the bass. The album 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 to date.
Two singles were released from the album. The "Dope Nose" music video featured a Japanese motorcycle gang, and was put into regular rotation.
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