Category: The Rock & Other Listening Material

While searching for the latest news in the world of the rock, I was quite surprised to find out that just last week, the Presidents of the United States of America released a new album.

Back in ’95-’96, the Presidents were all over rock airwaves, and rightfully so, with Lump and Peaches, two catchy, witty and poppy rock singles. While the 1996 follow-up, II, had one hit with Mach 5, the Presidents’ career slowed, to the point where they broke up, re-formed and broke up again. Well, they got together again and this month, released These are the Good Times People, a 14-track album of concise, poppy, catchy songs loaded with humor and animal references.

I picked up the album over the weekend and I’m impressed. Three songs that really stand out are Mixed Up S.O.B., Bad Times and So Lo So Hi. These three contain the trademark wittiness and optimism thad make the Presidents’ other hits so darn catchy.

You can listen to the whole album online here. Try it out.

Happy International Weezer Day!

Unlike the last few years, there’s actually some Weezer action to look forward to this year. And of course, I’ll blog about it once it happens.

A few years back, I wrote an article for the Morning Toast about Weezer fans. It isn’t there anymore, so I’m re-posting it here, after the jump:

Continue reading “Remembering That Special Day” →

I was in Borders yesterday and it took me forever to find a copy of Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo.
It wasn’t under “C” for Cuomo, nor under “R” for Rivers. It wasn’t in the new releases section. But I finally located it in the “W” section (for Weezer). I paid for it, left the building, and sat in my car for a few minutes with the CD in the player as I read the liner notes, and I was content.
Continue reading “Rivers Cuomo, Alone” →

“Alone” comes out next week.

But Superfriend is here.

Worth the wait? For a weezer fan, yes. It may not make much sense outside of Songs from the Black Hole , but when you consider it’s all Rivers trying to sing two different parts and play the instruments to lay down a story and feel for his scrapped concept album, it’s pretty impressive.

It’s nice to have these pieces (the ones that we already have and the ones that we’ll get next week), but even with everything that Rivers has recorded, SFTBH was never really finished. Because of the band’s reception of his ideas, the release of Return of the Rentals and his own experiences at Harvard, Rivers took what he could from SFTBH and made one of the best albums ever, Pinkerton. Sadly, the rest, like Superfriend got dropped. Some of his dropped demos from all eras of Weezer are real good. Some aren’t. I’m just glad that Rivers (and the label) is now releasing Alone so that we finally get to hear what else there is.

Clips of the rest of Alone are right here.

Looks like someone got the tracklist right after all!

The other night, I was watching one of my favorite shows on the television, VH1 Classic’s We are the 80s. The video for Starship’s We Built This City came on, and while watching it, I noticed something disturbing.

And I don’t mean the fact that I was watching the video for We Built This City.

Anyway, during the video, the band is playing the song for a group of diverse young people. As they play, lights flash and the band and audience are transported to various places in America, including, the Lincoln Memorial:

And we go to a close-up of Honest Abe’s memorial:

And then, all of a sudden lights flash, Abe springs to life and starts to dance:

BUT WAIT!

Is it me, or does that look nothing like Lincoln?

Here’s another look of the memorial come to life:

I don’t know if it’s just me, but that looks more like Robert E. Lee:

I’ve either uncovered a vast historical conspiracy, or aside from being reformed hippies, the members of Starship were Confederate sympathizers.

Despite the declaration on weezer.com that the tracklist of Alone: The Home Recordings Of Rivers Cuomo won’t be published until the album hits the stores, a Japanese media site has made the list public.

From http://www.ro69.jp/news/archive.html?1265, translation available here:

1.Ooh／オー
2.The World We Love So Much ／ザ・ワールド・ウィー・ラヴ・ソー・マッチ※The New Radicalsのソングライター＜Gregg Alexander＞の曲
3.Lemonade／レモネード
4.The Bomb／ザ・ボム　※Ice Cubeのカヴァー
5.Buddy Holly ／バディ・ホリー　※未発表別テイク
6.Chess／チェス
7.Longtime Sunshine　★／ロングタイム・サンシャイン
8.Blast Off!　 ★／ブラスト・オフ！
9.Who You Callin’Bitch?　 ★／フー・ユー・コーリン・ビッチ？
10.Wanda(You’re My Only Love)／ワンダ（ユー・アー・マイ・オンリー・ラヴ）
11.Dude We’re Finally Landing　★／デュード・ウィー・アー・ファイナリー・ランディング
12.Superfriend　★／スーパーフレンド
13.Lover In The Snow／ラヴァー・イン・ザ・ショー
14.Crazy One／クレイジー・ワン
15.This Is The Way／ディス・イズ・ザ・ウェイ
16.Little Diane／リトル・ディアン　※Dionのカヴァー
17.I Wish You Had An Axe Guitar／アイ・ウィッシュ・ユー・ハド・アン・アックス・ギター
18.I Was Made For You／アイ・ワズ・メイド・フォー・ユー

Of course, that all depends on if the google translation is accurate. It could be the list of theme ingredients on the next season of Iron Chef.

It’s a decent list. A few songs that the weezer community already has, but enough new stuff to make the disc interesting.

Aah, who am I kidding? I’ll buy it the day it comes out.

While scouting the Internet for any information on the upcoming Rivers Cuomo solo demo CD, I came across a column published today in which an MTV writer plays the metaphorical role of victim of a “loveless relationship” with Cuomo and the rest of Weezer.

I loved Weezer more than any other act alive (except for maybe Beck). Blue and Pinkerton were two of the albums that defined my teenage years, and I still believe that the latter’s squealy pre-emo makes it one of the decade’s most important discs, on par with, say, Radiohead’s OK Computer. (I even wrote a rather embarrassing pseudo-column about this three years ago.) But ever since bassist Matt Sharp split and the band went on hiatus in the summer of ’97, everything changed; the relationship, for all intents and purposes, was over.

The writer details his dissatisfaction with everything that came out after Pinkerton, as well as whines a little about how he only got 13 minutes to interview Rivers a few years ago.

Honestly, I’ve heard this (and similar thinking) before, and I don’t get it. I know that Pat Wilson (the drummer) semi-seriously said “You have to hate us to be a true fan,” but this is ridiculous.

It’s unrealistic to expect people (and bands) to stay the same–Rivers and the rest of the band have changed. The first hiatus (late ’97-2000) changed the makeup of the band and Rivers’ song production styles. And with each album since (and subsequent break from music making), things have changed for the band and the people that make up the band. They still make quality rock (better than anything else out there), but if it’s not your taste, why whine about how the old music was better?

Music (as with most art) is as much a product of the musician’s place in the world as their personality. Pinkerton came from a very negative place and times weren’t pleasant for Rivers or the rest of the band. For the last four years, we’ve been told there’s diplomacy and consensus when it comes to making music. The band members are grown up, and three of the four of them are married. Why would they want to go back to the days when Rivers told them what to play and when? Why would Rivers want to go back to the days of the Good Life?

Broken, beaten-down can’t even get around
without an old-man cane I fall and hit the ground
Shivering in the cold, I’m bitter and alone
…
Excuse the bitchin’ – I shouldn’t complain
I should have no feeling, ‘cuz feeling is pain
as everything I need is denied me
and everything I want is taken away from me
but who do I got to blame?
Nobody but me

I don’t wanna be a old man anymore
It’s been a year or two since I was out on the floor
Shakin’ booty, makin’ sweet love all the night
It’s time I got back to the Good Life

Or as Rivers responded to a fan question two years ago:

What do you say to those people (fans) who say they want another Pinkerton?
—Michael Silvers

I cant control what I write. I have to accept whatever comes. If its not what someone wants to hear, then at least they can agree with me to love Pinkerton and part as friends.

Addendum: The band’s attitude toward its fans is anything but loveless. Over the past few years, Rivers (and the rest of the band) have welcomed fans on stage to play, welcomed them backstage to hang out and given them boatloads of free video and audio content. Yes, we want more, but you could make the argument that we’re spoiled as it is.

While the world of Weezer fans waits for the band to release its sixth studio album sometime next year, Rivers Cuomo says he’s dropping his own solo CD of demos collected from 1992-2007. From Rivers’ myspace:

…I’ve decided to split my CD/book project in two. Ultimately, I feel that the music and the literary materials will be better served if developed and presented separately…
…The music, on the other hand, is ready to start coming out now. I’ve compiled a CD of my favorite demos from the years 1992 to 2007 and Geffen Records has agreed to put it out this December, on the eleventh. I hope you enjoy it. I may also be able to put out more demo CDs in the near future.

Not to mention the Weezer developments, which are also extremely great.

Nice that he’s also looking forward to the band’s production, even though his own “solo” album is coming out a few months before. Pitchfork is saying that the CD will be titled Alone – The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo.

I don’t know how much of a market there will be for this outside of the Weezer community. And even with the Weezer fans, if there’s not some stuff on there that hasn’t been heard before, this could backfire. A few years ago (2001-2003) Rivers himself gave the fans a number of demos from throughout his recording career. Many of them were good, and what he gave didn’t come close to everything that he has demoed.

Is it too much to hope that this is the surprise hit of the year, if only to encourage future endeavors like this?

The Civee is a fan of Rob Thomas, frontman of Matchbox 20. While I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to him, I’ve never been offended by his music. Until now.

Last year, The Civee couldn’t stop listening to Thomas’ single, Ever the Same. I noted at the time that the song bore a similarity to “i hope…”, a song by Cincinnati independent musician Ryan Adcock (incidentally, whose song “Drive to Hallelujah” we used as the first dance at our wedding).

Now, Thomas is reunited with his band, and the other day, The Civee was listening to their newest single, “How Far We’ve Come.” The first thing I noticed was the similarity to the song “Wussypuff” by the criminally-underrated Dynamite Hack.

If the Chiffons can sue George Harrison over My Sweet Lord and win, I say that Adcock and the Hack should start calling their lawyers, because to me, Rob Thomas is making a career of ripping off lesser-known artists.

I haven’t posted in a while, mostly because for the past week, the Civee and I were in Canada.

We got back early Sunday morning (or late Saturday night, depending on who you’re talking to). After recovering during the day yesterday, last night, I went to see The Rentals at the Newport in Columbus. I have to admit, the only reason I started listening to the Rentals was because the band’s frontman, Matt Sharp, was the original bassist in Weezer. But after buying their first album ten years ago, I followed the Rentals (Matt and a revolving line-up) based on their own output.

I could go on and on about this, but I think that Matt is much better suited to be the frontman of his own band than the bassist in Weezer. His personality was/is so much different than the rest of the band’s. At least with the Rentals, the bouncy music and personalities of his bandmates complement his own.

As for the show, it was really good (even if it felt weird going to a concert on a Sunday night). Except for the drummer and a backup guitarist, the other four members of the band (and Matt) changed places (and instruments) with every song. The songs featured during the show spanned the group’s two albums, and the four tracks from their new EP. In addition to the drums, bass and guitar, the band used a plethora of synthesizers, a violin and even a trombone.

Maybe the most impressive thing about the set was a four-song encore, which contained, as a nice surprise, a Rentals version of the Weezer song ‘I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams.’ The original Weezer version featured current Rentals bassist Rachel Haden on vocals, so I guess it makes sense that the Rentals would borrow it for their show.

Overall, a great show (even though it had a weird vibe for being on a Sunday night).