Category: The Rock & Other Listening Material

Weezer Rocks and Surprises with Hurley

Today, Weezer releases their eighth album, Hurley. Past Weezer albums were always associated with a long period of anticipation- news would filter out (usually through the band’s Web site) that the band was recording a new album (along with pictures and song titles, if we were lucky). The band would go back-and-forth with song selection, maybe even take a break during recording. Then, a release date would be announced. Weeks later, the title would be revealed and a few weeks before the album release, the track list would leak out.

Compared to this historical schedule, Weezer’s Hurley is a big surprise.

New Weezer material is always anticipated around the Kingdom, but Hurley just seemed to sneak up on the world. The band first announced the album back in July- not the recording of an album, but the release date. The title and tracklist quickly followed, and now, in what seems like a blink of an eye since the initial announcement, Hurley is here.

And we at the Kingdom are glad.

Hurley is a good album. Actually, it’s better than that. Weezer has released some good albums, and even great ones (Green, Make Believe) in the past decade, but something about Hurley just feels like it fits right in with their two classic 90s-era albums. Hurley is full of surprises.

As I mentioned in my review of Raditude, I’m typically not a fan of musical collaborations. Once again, Rivers Cuomo used a number of co-writers for the album. But thankfully, there are no featured rappers or guest sitarists. The guest musicians are Ryan Adams on Run Away, Michael Cera on Hang On and a few others, musicians who actually fit on a Weezer record.

As for the songs, there are some genuine good, rocking songs on Hurley. The songwriting is good, featuring Rivers at his most poetic.  The band sounds good here.  Pat is rocking the drums and Rivers’ voice is outstanding, the best it’s been for a long time.  As for the songs, standouts include Ruling Me, Unspoken, Hang On and Smart Girls, which was one of the nicest surprises on Hurley. Prior to the album’s release, the Weezer community panned two songs based on their descriptions alone: Smart Girls and Where’s My Sex.

Smart Girls was described as an homage to the Beach Boys (as seen through the lens of The Beatles’ Back in the U.S.S.R.). As for Where’s My Sex, Rivers said in an interview he was inspired to write the song after his three-year old daughter was looking for some missing socks.

Based on those descriptions, it’s easy to see why these songs could potentially be considered clunkers. But the surprising nature of Hurley shows itself once again: these are good songs. Smart Girls is a fun, poppy rocker (but then again, I like Back in the U.S.S.R.) complete with what feels like the only guitar solo on the album. And for all its goofiness, Where’s My Sex is a fun song that’s a decent listen. There are some other decent songs on here too- lead single Memories, Run Away and Brave New World, which is saved by an incredible bridge.

There are two songs, however, that I can’t get behind. Trainwrecks sounds like it lives up to its name-it goes nowhere. And album closer Time Flies is a low-fi pile of meh.

Something else I can’t get behind is the deluxe version of Hurley, which is something of a departure for me. For The Red Album and Raditude, the deluxe editions contain some of those album’s best songs. For Hurley, I have to wonder if deluxe is even worth it. There are four tracks: All My Friends are Insects, Viva La Vida, I Want to Be Something and Represent. All My Friends are Insects and Represent are available elsewhere (and in the case of Represent, the other version is superior). Viva La Vida, aside from being a cover of the most pretentious song ever, is from a live show which has been available for more than a year. The one new tune is I Want to Be Something, a Rivers acoustic demo that should have been on an Alone instead.  (UPDATE 9/14: Went to Borders, the same place I’ve gotten each of the last four Weezer albums on their release day to pick up Hurley.  Standard was $10.  Deluxe was $20.  No way was I going to pay an extra $10 for those four songs).

My minor quibbles with the deluxe edition aside, Hurley is still a solid Weezer album that feels like it’s a Weezer album. Even though it’s been a bit of a surprise, I’d like to take my time and enjoy it, but I don’t think that’s likely.

In seven short weeks (November 2),Weezer’s former label will release not one, but two compilations featuring old and new material. I’ve already said plenty about the first, Pinkerton Deluxe. The second, Death to False Metal (original title: Odds and Ends) features ten unreleased tracks from 1993-2008 including a cover of Unbreak My Heart (originally recorded for Make Believe) and unheard Weezer tunes Auto Pilot (from the Red Album sessions) and Trampoline and Everyone (recorded during the summer of ’98- a time period I’m obsessed with).

With all this material on the way, it’s a great time to be a Weezer fan.

Surprises like Hurley just make it better.

King Tom3 Comments

Weezer’s Hurley: Not A Concept Album, But It Could Be

So it’s official- Weezer’s upcoming eighth album, Hurley (due September 14) is named after the character from Lost and will have actor Jorge Garcia on the cover.

The cover news came out today, courtesy of Spinner, and lends credence to an item posted on the alt.music.weezer newsgroup back on July 30.  That item, posted by someone who claimed to have seen the cover, noted that Garcia would be on the cover (proven to be true as of today), also reported the album would be released on Epitaph records (confirmed last week) and had a tracklist, with several of the song titles being confirmed (also last week) by a Rolling Stone article.  The newsgroup post claims Hurley‘s tracklist is:

    1. Memories
    2. Ruling Me
    3. Trainwrecks
    4. Unspoken
    5. Where’s My Sex?
    6. Run Away
    7. Hang On
    8. Smart Girls
    9. Brave New World
    10. Time Flies

Nevermind the fact that these days, leaking news on a newsgroup is like the nations of the world coordinating the attack against the alien invaders by using Morse Code in Independence Day.  But enough of the other information in the post has ended up being correct, I’m willing to say this may be the tracklist too.

Over the weekend, Weezer released the first single off the album, Memories, a fast-paced, quasi-punk tune about what the band’s life was like when they were just starting out.  It’s a decent catchy tune, not their best single, but far from their worst.  The chorus, which goes “Memories make me want to go back there (back there)/(All the) memories make me want to go back there (back there)/(All the) memories, how can we make it back there (back there)/I want to be there again” got me thinking about a possible link to Lost.  The chorus sounds kind of like (Rivers, if you’re reading this, skip this next bit) Jack at the end of Season 3.

For a while, I was hoping that Hurley was a Lost-related concept album.  If Memories was about Jack, the other songs could be about other Lost characters and events.  Ruling Me could be about Juliet’s relationship with Ben.  Unspoken could be about all the questions the characters had that were never asked.  Time Flies could be about Faraday.  Smart Girls could be about….um…nevermind.

But unfortunately, Hurley‘s ties to Weezer end with the album title and cover.  Rivers told Spinner that he met Garcia recently and has only watched Lost through season two.  The band went with Hurley because, as Rivers told Spinner,

“Ultimately, we just went with some random word that doesn’t really have anything to do with anything. I just loved this photo of Jorge Garcia — it just had this amazing vibe. We didn’t want to do a fourth self-titled record and we knew people would refer to it as ‘the Hurley record’ even if left it without that title, so we just called it ‘Hurley.’ No words are on the cover because all we wanted was his amazing face.”

Even if it’s not about Lost, it’s a great album cover.

King Tom4 Comments

Weezer Pays Homage To The New Dude In Charge

It’s looking like it will be a good fall for Weezer fans. Even with the Pinkerton Deluxe (no tracklist yet) retrospective, unreleased tunes compilation Odds and Ends (same here) and possibly another installment in the Alone Series (your guess is as good as mine) coming this fall, Weezer is releasing their eighth studio album on September 14.

Rolling Stone had some details about the upcoming album, entitled Hurley, hinting that its title may be inspired by one our favorite characters here at the Kingdom:

After parting ways with their longtime label Geffen/Interscope, Weezer will release Hurley — which may be named after the portly Lost character — through California-based punk label Epitaph.

Seems that like Raditude, this album will feature a few collaborations, but unlike Raditude, these collaborations will be with more rock-influenced artists, like Mac Davis, who wrote In The Ghetto for Elvis Presley (the other King).

As revealed on the Alone II album, much of Rivers’ early material was influenced by the pop sounds of the Beach Boys.  In a way, Hurley could represent a return to Rivers’ roots.  From RS:

Instead, Hurley will focus on the melodies and major chords of traditional ’60s pop. In addition to the planned first single “Memories,” other new tracks include “Ruling Me” and “Hang On,” another pop-rock track that “sounds like Frankie Valli but mixed with Metallica guitars.” There’s also “Smart Girls,” Cuomo’s ode to all the girls that proposition on him on Twitter. … “Smart Girls,” which Cuomo compares to the Beatles’ “Back in the U.S.S.R.” in the sense that it sounds like someone else writing a “cheesy Beach Boys type of song.”

In case you have to ask, yes, I’m looking forward to this.  Speaking of things I’m looking forward to, the Lost DVD set coming out later this month will have a look at what Island life is like under the Hugo Reyes regime.

King Tom

Who Needs The Butter Cow When Weezer’s At The State Fair?

Ten years ago (technically, nine years and 11 months), I went to my first Weezer concert.  Today, I went to my tenth.

I’ve seen them in all sorts of places – small clubs (like at the first show), an outdoor amphitheater, arenas and now, at a state fair.  I’ve gone to different cities, but this show was held about two miles from my house.

During my first show, held in the reunion summer of 2000, the band played a variety of songs from their first two albums along with a handful of songs that were in contention for their third album, then a year away (interestingly, none of these songs made the third album, though one would make their fourth).  During tonight’s show, held nine years and five albums later, Weezer played their singles, a mash-up cover and that was pretty much it.

Not that there’s anything wrong with their singles- they’re great songs and they played them very well.  But I do miss the songs when you’d hear a song like Falling for You or Crab at a live Weezer show.

Nevertheless, Weezer had a lot of energy.  Rivers once again showed it was possible to play guitar and bounce on a trampoline at the same time.  Scott rocked a kilt.  Pat went back and forth between lead guitar and drums.  And Brian took the lead on a very interesting instrumental (one of two) in the middle of the set.

For the show, because it was held at a state fair, there was a sign language interpreter off to the side.  The interpreter who covered Weezer’s set was rocking out while interpreting.  During Troublemaker, Rivers left the stage and joined the interpreter in her little area and sang as she interpreted.

It was a fun show.  The crowd was an interesting mix of all ages (because it was at a state fair), with a lot of kids.  One girl was celebrating her ninth birthday.  Maybe in nine years I’ll be able to take Hope.

King Tom1 Comment

Mowing It Old School

Thanks to all the rain we’ve gotten recently, until tonight, my lawn has gone un-mowed for more than two weeks.

Because it was clear, cool and I had some time, I decided to mow tonight.  When I mow, I usually like to listen to something other than the whirring of the blades.  But I had a problem.  Usually, I’d use not-so-trusty phone, an LG VU as a music player (playing music is one of the few things the phone does well if you ignore the eternity it takes to load the music program).  But the cord that I use to link my headphones to the micro-USB slot broke.

Fortunately, I had a trusty backup that I had unearthed in the basement earlier this week: a Walkman cassette player.  I had gotten this particular Walkman sometime back when I was in high school (mid-90s) but haven’t used it at all this century.  Fortunately, all it needed were some new batteries and a tape.  I found a tape I had recorded off the radio from my junior and senior years of high school.  The tape contained songs like Undone, Buddy Holly, Einstein on the Beach, Allison Road, New Age Girl, Come Out and Play and Basket Case (most of which are also on my phone).  Also on the tape was a radio call from a May 8 1994 game between the Yankees and Red Sox in which Danny Tartabull, Mike Stanley and Gerald Williams went back-to-back-to-back (and as John Sterling likes to add “belly-to-belly-to-belly”).

The thing that struck me was during this time period, for music, I’d listen to WPST, a station out of Trenton, even though (for the most part) I lived in Staten Island, New York.  For the most part, the New York stations were too poppy and PST played mostly alt-modern rock type stuff.  Of course, these days, PST has gone through a major format change (and moved frequencies) and isn’t something I’d even listen to today.

It was weird having to switch sides on the tape (and even fast-forward physically through some commercials).  Because of the tape format, some of the songs (especially the Weezer songs I’ve heard thousands of times) seemed a bit slow.  But overall, it was an entertaining mowing session and I’ll probably use the Walkman again in the future.

I should mention that the Walkman isn’t the only ancient piece of equipment I used today.  This is our mower:

King Tom1 Comment

Weezer: The Year of Nothing

The final chapter in my article about Weezer between Pinkerton and the Green Album is up at All Things Weezer, which you can read here.

As frustrating as it is that there was all this material the band worked on that never made it out of the studio, it was enjoyable to work on this article.  I got to dig through some old-school Usenet posts and get some new information from sources close to the band (I’ve always wanted to use that phrase).

Who knows, one day we may get to hear more of what Weezer recorded in ’98.  Then again, that stuff may stay in the vaults forever.

King Tom

Searching For Weezer’s Holy Grail

For most Weezer fans, the time period between 1997 and 1999 holds a lot of mystique.  The band lost a bassist, replaced him and started demoing and recording songs for their third album.  But by the time The Green Album hit record stores in May 2001, the material from the summer of 1998 was forgotten by the band and never heard by the fans. Not much is known about this time period, perhaps something adding to the era’s mystique.

A few months ago, I was selected to be a blogger at All Things Weezer, the band’s leading fan site, with the idea that I’d write and develop feature-style pieces  Back in February, I started writing about the fascinating, yet maddening period between 1997 and 1999.  It’s taken a while to compile it all, but I’ve published the first of three pieces on the time period.  The first piece mostly deals with Rivers’ time in Boston and while it sets up what’s next, it’s probably the part with the least amount of new information.

Taken overall, the article isn’t meant to be a definitive statement about the time period, but rather, it will hopefully shed some light on what happened.  If you want to take a look, the first part is online at allthingsweezer.com/2010/05/05/indecision-and-abandoning-the-past-part-i/.

King Tom

Waiting and Waiting (for Pinkerton Deluxe)

UPDATE September, 2010: A Japanese Web site posted a possible tracklist, view it here.

Last fall, Weezer announced a special Deluxe Edition of their second album, 1996’s Pinkerton would appear in stores in February or March 2010.  Not only would this deluxe album feature the 10 tracks of Pinkerton, it would also contain demos, alternate versions and possibly other unreleased gems like a full-band version of Superfriend (from Songs from the Black Hole), Getting Up and Leaving or even the (now) mythical track Tragic Girl.

Last November, I wrote a post speculating what would comprise Pinkerton Deluxe, and I’ve gotten some traffic to the Kingdom thanks to it.  Well, I feel it necessary to post an update: It’s February (almost March) and we’re going to have to wait a little longer for the album.

Weezer Homie Karl Koch posted on allthingsweezer this week that while the tracklist is done, we will have to wait a little longer for Pinkerton Deluxe.  No word on how much longer.

However, before we get Pinkerton Deluxe, we can expect Odds and Ends, a CD featuring a number of unreleased Weezer songs that were recorded for album releases, but never saw the light of day.  If you want to speculate on what songs will be on Odds and Ends, you better have some time on your hands.  All I can say is check out the Weezer Recording History, and anywhere you see a song mentioned as being recorded during an official album session, you have a potential O+E track.

King Tom4 Comments