Category: The Rock & Other Listening Material

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).

Six years ago, I went to Detroit with djl to see my second weezer concert. Among the opening acts was a young (or at least around my age) band called Ozma. The Oz played energetic, melodic rock and was a perfect appetizer for the main course of weez.

Last night. accompanied by the Civee, I went to the Basement, here in Columbus, to see Ozma headline. The Basement is a small venue (not more than 100 people), but nevertheless a loud one. We missed most of the first opening act, and the second act, Eastern Conference Champions, had some interesting sounding tunes, even if their lead singer sounded like he had nasal issues.

As for Ozma, well, they’re all grown up. Mostly.

In the time since I last saw them, they released an album, broke up, re-formed, got a new drummer and released another album. They looked comfortable in their headlining role and played more of their old stuff, with only a handful of songs from their new album in the setlist. It sounded like they were having technical difficulties (the keyboards were barely audible for most of the songs), but they did a great job of rocking out. And, as a surprise to me, I wasn’t the only person in the crowd who knew the lyrics to most of their songs.

So it was a good show. Check ’em out sometime.

A few months ago, a report surfaced that Rivers Cuomo sent Rick Rubin a CD of some demos for the next weezer album.

Well, today, the first demo for the sixth album “leaked.”

The demo, a song called Pig, is a bit different, being told from the point of view of a pig whose time has come. It’s an interesting idea for a song and it sounds like a good first step (but be forewarned: it’s just Rivers and some instruments, not full-band-rock).

Since first hearing them sometime last decade, I’ve been a casual fan of Fountains of Wayne. While they’re not the weez, they have a gift for making some really catchy pop-rock tunes.

One thing that bugs me about them every now and then is their songs delve into the “slice of life of someone else”/story-style song. I heard some bits of their new album, and they keep this tradition alive. The one song that stood out (and even though it was a story song, I liked it), was the first single “Someone to Love.”

I was listening to the song this morning, and two of the lines bugged me:

And a date with the Late Show’s all that you’ve got

But she’s sitting at home watching “The King of Queens”

Are they getting some kickbacks from CBS for the title dropping, or what?

On a kind of related note, the Civee and I recently saw Music and Lyrics, a romantic comedy starring Hugh Grant. The music in the movie was written by Adam Schlesinger, a cornerstone of FoW. No big surprise, the songs in Music and Lyrics are actually pretty good.

So I was listening to the radio and the classic tune, “One Night in Bangkok” came on.

I’m listening to Murray Head go on about massage parlors and temples and I was thinking to myself, he’s not really singing, he’s talking.  Is it possible that Murray Head was one of the first white rappers? After all, the only singing in the song is really done by the women in the background.

And you can’t forget that pan flute solo, beats anything on a Tull record.

Tough guys tumble before O.G. Murray Head.

How to win friends and influence people, RIAA style:

Step 1: Sue a bunch of random people on vague claims of copyright infringement.

Step 2: In the event that a defendant dies, file a motion for a 60-day extension in the case to give his or her family time to grieve.

Step 3: Out of a self-proclaimed “abundance of sensitivity,” drop the case.

Sometimes it feels like the recording industry is a goldmine for bad karma. As if past actions such as:

-suing customers
-abusing their copyright rights
-denying artists their creative rights
-keeping artists tied to unconsciable contracts
-and promoting crappy music nonstop at the expense of good music

weren’t enough, they go and do something like this. I suppose out of my own personal “abundance of sensitivity,” I should congratulate them for dropping the case, but I’m not a sensitive person.

Well, it looks like the music media was wrong and weezer isn’t breaking up.

From Rivers’ blog:

“I certainly don’t see them becoming Weezer songs.” This is a misquote. The writer unfortunately didn’t record my words exactly but rather paraphrased them according to his understanding–and sometimes misunderstanding. In this particular case, what I meant was that the soccer song, “Our Time will Come”, certainly won’t be on a Weezer album. The verses are about particular players and situations in US Soccer history and wouldn’t be appropriate for that purpose. I imagine it would be recorded by Weezer and given directly to the soccer federation. The rest of the songs, though, are definite contenders for a Weezer record.

People can stop telling me they’re sorry.

Ever since that infamous MTV interview first appeared two weeks ago, I’ve had a number of people I know (and some I don’t) tell me they’re sorry that weezer’s breaking up.

The condolences are nice, but unnecessary. =w= drummer (and the only member of the band I haven’t met)Pat Wilson posted an interesting response on his blog:

What is up with all the crazy bad journalism drawn from Rivers interview? I can assure you that =w= is fully intact. I know this because I am in Weezer. The glaring proof that today’s media is shallow reveals itself in this simple fact: not one person called me to ask my opinion. Which is cool cuz I would have made up some fantastic lie about becoming an Antarctic explorer.

Of course, if he had told some MTV “journalist” that, he’d be on the next airplane to the South Pole.