My Bird Performs

Well, another icon of my youth has bitten the dust. According to everyone's favorite British music rag, Weezer may be headed for the big comic book convention in the sky. On Tuesday, NME.com reported that Rivers Cuomo, the oft-frustrating front man of everyone's favorite love-or-hate power pop group, told MTV that the band is on hiatus and that he's "not certain we'll ever make a record again". Cuomo went on to say that, though he's been writing songs over the course of the past year, his own solo career is also on hold.

Though widely derided for last year's abysmal Make Believe, Weezer still holds a place of distinction for even the snobbiest of indie fans. For many of those in my age bracket, Weezer (along with, perhaps, Green Day) was probably the first "alternative" group to really connect with us. I can still remember watching MTV when "Buddy Holly" came out and thinking, "Dang, I may be in 4th grade, but I know catchiness when I hear it". And, amazingly, I was right, and the love affair was on.

Over the years, my affinity for Weezer has gone through ebbs and crests. The summer after I graduated from high school, I discovered Pinkerton by way of a worn cassette tape in the console of Andy Butler's car, and suddenly found myself with an entirely new collections of music to pine by. I'm not sure that tape left the player that summer. One night in particular stand out in memory. Andy and I sat parked outside the house of the girl he was after at that time. He wasn't alone in that venture; on that night, his competition had beaten us to the punch. It was around dusk, just reaching the point where the sight of two men sitting parked in a residential neighborhood goes from "acceptable" to "call the cops". Since we'd always erred on the side of the latter, we killed the lights and waited. I'm not sure what we thought we could accomplish there, sitting in a dead car listening to "Tired of Sex" while Andy's prospective beloved was being wooed by another man on the other side of the wall, but somehow, we knew it was the closest thing to an appropriate response we could muster.

College marked the beginning of my turn away from Cuomo and his music. After two successful album releases in 2001 and 2002, Weezer was everywhere by the time I got to Bradley. I was a DJ that fall, and in that crowd, anything popular was regarded as either passé or ironic. Weezer fell into the second category. As I hurried to increase my credibility, I shied away from the songs I loved the most in public while listening fervently in private. At least, that's how it began. Over time and countless new records, my defenses fell. I began to listen to better bands, groups with better lyrical chops and more varied instrumental tendencies. Instead of Weezer, I could now go to the Smiths for angsty romanticism, or the Pixies for ballsy rockers. Weezer's actions didn't help much either: Cuomo's bitchy aloofness made the group very hard to like. While I wasn't as elitist as some of my fellow radio staffers, I was convinced that the first band to "get" me didn't really get much of anything.

Of course, in the last few years, Weezer and I came to an uneasy truce. Though I wasn’t able to overlook things like this little number, I’ve realized that, cool or not, Weezer’s music was the soundtrack of a key time in my life. They gave me tons of memories, and for that, I salute them.

When the band reunites for an album by the end of the year, please disregard this entry.

Weezer – Mo’ Beats. There was a time when Weezer still had a sense of humor. Before Rivers Cuomo’s spiritual awakening/self-imposed celibacy, the band could crank out a smirking, self-referential tune with the best of them. Exhibit A: this track, culled from the band’s numerous unreleased demos. One listen will have you yearning for the days when Cuomo’s cockiness was entertaining instead of self-aggrandizing.

Weezer – Suzanne. There’s something about songs named after girls. This one, featured on the Mallrats soundtrack, hits all the right highs: a chugging chorus, yearning lyrics, and a reference to Guns ‘n Roses.

Posted by Tyler on Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 9:07 PM | Permalink