One of my earliest introductions to alternative rock that was a mainstay on my middle school playlists. Weezer has gone through many phases over the years with an output that hasn't burned out yet and they remain mainstays on alternative rock stations. The Buddy Holly glasses are on.
420 to 30: A Music Retrospective
Here's 7 of my favorites from Weezer.
Week 4: WEEZER
#022/420 - Weezer, “Hash Pipe”
For their 2001 album, Weezer would have to start over with a new bassist, Mikey Welsh, taking them a decidedly greener direction. In the sense that now their album cover was green instead of blue.
This was the lead single and features one of their most instantly recognizable opening riffs and makes for one of their better songs. I was lucky enough to smoke hashish once while traveling and even though I didn’t happen to play this song then, I did witness a knife fight in an Arab night club at the time and looking back, this song would have fit the moment.
Also has a really cool B-side, “I Do”, with a completely different tone.
#023/420 - Weezer, “Pink Triangle”
“I’m dumb, she’s a lesbian. I thought I had found the one. We were good as married in my mind, but married in my mind’s no good.”
The story of the “pink triangle” is that it was symbol originally forced upon gay men in Nazi concentration camps to denote their homosexuality, but since has been reclaimed as a symbol of strength and power for gay rights. Negative turned positive.
Besides being a catchy song, I liked how Weezer would write songs about love not working out in sort of an “aw, man, I suck” kind of way, like real life, rather than being super angry or super emo about it. Here it’s a patch of a pink triangle on her sleeve that tips off Mr. Cuomo that it ain’t going to work out. A shame indeed.
One girl I liked when I was in high school (we even kissed!), sure enough, turned out to be a lesbian. And I turned out to be dumb, but we already knew that part. And I thought of this song.
“If everyone’s a little queer, why can’t she be a little straight?”
#024/420 - Weezer, “Buddy Holly”
One of Weezer’s first and still one of their very best. Also one of their shorter songs, more of a Ramones length than your typical Weezer, which works well for them here. Leave ‘em wanting more.
I remember back in middle school even the punk rock kids liked this song so that’s how I really knew it was cool.
The thing I never got is, though, why are they singing about how much they look like Buddy Holly when nobody on the cover of this damn album even has glasses on!
#025/420 - Weezer, “El Scorcho”
I’ve noticed a lot of times 2 of my favorite tracks from an artist appear back-to-back on one of their albums. Is this psychological on my part or on the part of the artist? At any rate, in the case of Weezer’s Pinkerton (sounds dirty) it’s the back-to-back “El Scorcho” and “Pink Triangle” that won me over most. This was the first single from the album which was, as I understand, a commercial failure unlike their first album. Too bad because Pinkerton is right up there with the first one in terms of quality.
I like the whiny, noobish quality of the vocals here. “So I went to your room, and read your diary!” sounds like a line from Hodge-Stansson’s “Unforgivable” videos on YouTube. This is the sound I think Weezer is most skillful at and this song is one of the very best examples of that style on display.
Also one of their best refrains. Drunk-sounding, discordant group singing on noisy alt rock songs makes for pretty fun times.
#026/420 - Weezer, “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)”
I’ll argue there’s two better, but I would have no problem with someone calling this Weezer’s greatest song that ever lived. 12 different styles in under 6 minutes, this was Weezer’s return to form in 2008 after a string of, maybe we could say, a little overly commercial releases. I do like a good handful of songs from that era, but some of those songs can get old pretty quick, like “Beverly Hills”.
This, on the other hand, is an awesome song. It’s one of their most unique entries as a group, definitely one of the most memorable, and even though it’s fair to say Weezer shouldn’t make any full rap tracks based on the 25 seconds of that we get towards the beginning, in the context of this song and in the context of their persona as a group, it works as tribute and parody. The choral sections rock and the homages to Jeff Buckley, Aerosmith, Nirvana, Green Day, and The Andrews Sisters are all big successes in my opinion.
Along with “Pork and Beans”, this is definitely a song later in their catalog worth checking out.
#027/420 - Weezer, “Undone – The Sweater Song”
It’s not often that I find a band where they’ve had a successful career spanning three decades with 12 studio albums, but where their first single remains their best. However, in the case of Weezer, it is so. The Sweater Song is still king.
“If you want to destroy my sweater, hold this thread as I walk away.”
Now that’s a great line. Lyricists could spend their whole lives trying and never write a line that good. Congratulations to Rivers Cuomo.
Also I love all songs with groovy party dialog incorporated in. There’s something very appealing about someone asking for a ride to a party that their friends don’t want to go to in the middle of a song. It just is. You might think, that’s not that interesting of thing to have someone say… but people don’t really say interesting things usually do they? Suddenly I’m surrounded by wood paneling, wearing flannel, having a beer in a basement under tungsten light bulbs with pull chains and everyone in the room is still conscious of the Counting Crows. It’s a transportive song.
The opening drums and plodding guitar rhythm, the clash of noise closing the song out, dare I say, this is one of the greatest songs of the 90s.
“Watch me unravel, I’ll soon be naked. Lying on the floor, lying on the floor, I’ve come undone.”
#028/420 - Weezer, “In the Garage”
While “The Sweater Song” and “Buddy Holly” were what drew me into Weezer’s catalog, this is the song that became my favorite.
Even though I barely caught any of the references this song makes at the time (and still barely do, this song’s lyrics are how I even know who Ace Frehley is, sorry Kiss fans) it felt like a song that related to me on a more real level with the same kind of transportive quality of “The Sweater Song”, but one that extended to your youth, your comfort zone, your hiding place.
“In the garage, I feel safe, no one cares about my ways.” The garage can be a metaphor or physical, a place set aside for you to explore your creativity on your own, be it garage tunes or garage movies. Obviously a concept that was important to me writing and making films since my childhood.
Musically, it contains one of the most charged guitar riffs from any of their songs against one of their only uses of the harmonica in their entire catalog. It’s got the true spirit of the 90s in its blood, and the real 90s neighborhood feel, not just what was on TV. It connects with me, makes me think of being a kid, and remains my favorite from Weezer to this day.
While I haven’t kept up with Weezer as much in recent years, missing a lot of their newer releases, it’s been fun revisiting their albums I grew up with and they remain the band I associate most with “alternative rock”.
Speaking of harmonicas, next week I’ll be looking back at a man known for his use of the harmonica early on in his career, who is very difficult to narrow down only 7 songs for, and the first artist of the 60 who I have actually seen perform live, Robert Zimmerman, a.k.a. Bob Dylan.
(PS: It’s probably not going to be easy to find YouTube links for Dylan songs.)
420 to 30: A Music Retrospective
Week 2: The Jackson 5/The Jacksons
Week 3: A Tribe Called Quest
View the full list of "420 Songs" here: https://tinyurl.com/y8fboudu (Google spreadsheet link)