My good friend and I (let's call him Nweb) were very curious as to what the marijuana drug smoke had to offer. I had already had a couple of terrible experiences prior to this but I'm just too fucking stubborn to let my silly desires get the best of me.
Story goes, here we were, Nweb and I, standing in a kid's playpark with a one skinner between us that desperately needed some TLC, or to be smoked rather quickly before it completely fell apart. "You first" I suggested, Nweb was more experienced than me. Before I knew it, I was in Nweb's bathroom staring at myself in the mirror, more specifically, at the little sag of skin we all have just beneath our eyes. "Wow!" I thought, "I never noticed that!". Of course, you didn't, fucking hell man. "How strange" I wondered. Mhmm yes how very strange indeed and with every step into the living room my legs got heavier and heavier and my breathing became the centre of my hearing better again my attention and my eyes felt like they were sliding down my chest passing by heart as it got closer and closer to my throat then I saw Nweb and told him "I'm really fucked" but he merely chuckled and agreed as he too was 'fucked', so I just allowed myself to be glued into the armchair as I felt that if I moved even in the slightest I will forever be trapped in this paranoid n' irrational state for the rest of my life when all of a sudden these ridiculous thoughts were beaten out of me by a buhchaga bu-cha buh! followed by a riff that sounded real smirk worthy, but kinda sad at the same time.
To be honest, it was the most hypnotic acoustic guitar I had ever heard in my life, it was kinda grungy and a lil' brit poppy at the same time. It was Weezer - ‘The World Has Turned and Left Me Here’. We were three songs into the album and I was completely oblivious because I was too busy finding out
new things about my own face. And to be honest, I kinda hated Weezer. I hated everything about their stupid songs about sausages and drug pipes or whatever it was they were yammering on about. Until, of course, this very after-school evening with Nweb and his dad's CD player.
Weezer are kind of one of those Marmite things that we like to do with everything ever. Their goofy, nerdy n’ nervous sound combined with their extremely casual grungey(ish) style of choice is sometimes a little hard to get to grasps with for first time listeners. I think I was one of those listeners for quite a while, although when I played through 'Say it Ain't So' on Rockband at hard mode without any mistakes whatsoever I did actually really enjoy that song. But then I got blitzed and had a silent panic attack while I buried my face in an armchair, now look!
I wouldn't even call myself a fan of the band, I honestly just adore 'The Blue Album' for its coherent n' somewhat melancholic touch that continuously trudges on throughout the entire album. It's infectious, in some way's addictive. During the recording of the album the band was growing musically, and as individual members had their own battles and lessons, the songs chosen for the final product is not far off a greatest hits compilation album straight off the bat. They hit the ground running essentially. Almost all songs featured were written and arranged by lead singer and guitarist Rivers Cuomo, the fucking legend. Rumour has it, after founding guitarist Jason Cropper was kicked out of the band, Cuomo recorded all of his parts again, in one take. Deary me!
Let's just say the album did very very well, without all the official details of this and that, the band were a commercial success and there were no signs of stopping. Then Pinkerton was released, which wasn't so successful. This album was what would have happened if 'The Blue Album' was an attempt at fitting into popular music of the time, Blue Album is very special for that reason, it's neither grunge nor punk-rock nor punk-pop. It’s neither in the middle nor out of place. It’s just there, somewhere.
Weezer's albums following the release of Pinkerton became a little less heartfelt, a little less ahh, how warm and fuzzy this makes me feel, instead, Cuomo went for a much poppier approach, it was far less personal; tracks from the bands debut such as '(Undone) The Sweater Song' were perceived as funny, when in fact "it was meant to be a sad song" says Cuomo, I think the band took this into their stride when working on the third album, coming back giving the fans more of what they wanted from the debut, but taking it over the top which ended up giving the whole thing some comedic value. It went well. Pinkerton was actually meant to be a concept album, 'Songs From the Black Hole' (I know right?!). But this idea was dropped (what a shame).
They are still doing their thing today. With the same line-up and more than enough enthusiasm. They are set to release an album this year 'Van Weezer', with two singles out as of now, they sound exactly like you'd imagine.
I've put together a playlist that, umm, we'll say, kind of, makes me feel the same way Weezer did all those years ago. You can view that right here. I hope it does something for you.