at a glance...

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
First Recordings: 1992

Personnel:
Rivers Cuomo - vocals, guitar
Brian Bell - vocals, guitar
Matt Sharp - vocals, bass
Patrick Wilson - drums

Bands in the Family :
The Rentals, The Spacetwins, Special Goodness, that dog., Nerfherder, Juliana Hatfield, Ash, Blur …www.Weezer.net has them all.

Notes:
After about a year and a half of trying to crack the LA club scene, Weezer were signed to DCG Records. They headed to the well-known Electric Lady studios to record their 1994 eponymous debut, which the Cars' Rick Ocasek on production duties. In the midst of grunge, Weezer emerged with the same churning rhythm section and sludgy guitars, but with self-deprecating humor that impish geeks everywhere could appreciate. MTV loved them and they even picked up Grammy awards for their single, “Buddy Holly”. Two years later, they released their self-produced album, Pinkerton (the title inspired by Madame Butterfly), which was darker and far more wonderful than their debut. However, Weezer shied away from commercial success and members went to work on other projects and lead vocalist Cuomo returned to his studies at Harvard. Bassist Matt Sharp amicably left the band to focus more on The Rentals and was replaced with Mikey Welsh from Juliana Hatfield's band. Their long-awaited third album is due in the spring of 2001.

In the canon of American modern rock n' roll, Weezer have been sorely underrated and criminally overlooked. The popularity and recognition they achieved with this debut is now flippantly mocked by critics and the biggest fair-weather friend of them all, MTV, who have deemed Weezer fit for one-hit wonder specials. Their rebellion against the slick sounds of pop got them pegged as a group only grunge-era kids could love. Of course, that's why teenagers got into rock n' roll in the first place, and what makes this record so essential. Weezer have captured that restless, mischievous spirit that resides somewhere between glistening pop and ragged rock'n'roll.

This record still sounds perfect. Weezer bring the '70s FM rock but eschew the gross excess in favor of Southern California pop melodies. “My name is Jonas” and “Surf Wax America” are a hard kiss on the cheek, smacking loud and fierce, but sweet and well-meaning. Rivers Cuomo has one of those strong, pleading voices that makes everything he sings seem urgent and true. Most of the lyrics, however, subtly jibe his geeky tendencies and bad luck with girls, like on “No one else”, where he claims, “I want a girl who will laugh for no one else/ When I'm away she puts her make-up on the shelf/ When I'm away she never leaves the house/ I want a girl who laughs for no one else”. The difference between Weezer and those soft emo kids is that Weezer know how to make loneliness fun. It's in the way they make phrases that sound like nothing mean everything, by kicking in with shouts of “YEAH!” and “LET'S GO!” right before they explode through your speakers.

But there is more to Weezer than power chords and self-deprecating humor. They are just as good at turning their dejection into beauty. “Say it ain't so” is -- without the cliché or misdirected bitterness this implies -- the anthem for isolated kids of the '90s. The emptiness of dead love in “The world has turned and left me here” swells exquisitely, as does the skewed doo-wop of “Holiday”. “Only in dreams”, however, is their eight-minute sublime pop masterpiece — it's weird and frustrated, but in the midst of crashing and pummeling their instruments, they shyly expose their hopeful vulnerability. It's no surprise kids fell in love when Weezer came out; they'd found their best spokesmen.