What Happened?

Anybody who knows me knows that I love-- no, wait-- am obsessed with Weezer. It's sad, really. I became a fan 13 years ago after seeing the "Buddy Holly" video late at night and, being a huge Happy Days fan, was instantly hooked. To the blue album, at least. When 1996 rolled around, there were other things going on in my life, so I stopped watching late night MTV/VH1 (where the nine-year-old version of myself found any music) and therefore missed out on some other great thing they did. In 2001, I saw the video for "Hash Pipe" and thought to myself, "wow, I remember these guys!" I bought the green album with the highest of hopes and thought it was alright, but I really missed blue. I searched throughout all of my things, but couldn't find my precious blue album cassette, so I found another ten bucks and bought that on CD. It was everything I remembered. It was everything I loved about my childhood (or at least that year of it before things got weird). While at the store, I noticed this dark covered album called Pinkerton. What was this thing? I had never heard of it before (I had no computer/internet access and hadn't really been into music for four years), but it seemed like something I had to try.

After a couple weeks doing yard work, I talked my aunt into taking me up to the store again and I bought Pinkerton. I rushed back to her car and put it on. Instantly, I was embarrassed and blushing. Here I was, thirteen and (maybe) the most awkward I've ever been, sitting in a car with my aunt (who's basically been my mother) listening to a song about having sex with a lot of girls. She didn't really seem to be paying any attention, but I didn't care. This was a headphones album when it came to adults. This was sort of a dark time in my life (family-wise) so it worked out pretty well. My sisters and I moved in with our dad, and it was kind of rough; but, he had a computer! Oh, my life certainly changed after this. We lived in a different city than where I went to school, so I rarely hung out with friends, which just meant that all day and all night, I was tying up the phone line with our wonderful 28.8k modem while listening to my relatively small CD collection on headphones. Pinkerton and TBA (Pixies too, but that's a different story) were pretty much it. This was right around the time that girls started talking to me (I've always been way too shy to talk to them), so Pinkerton was a big help there. Sort of. Basically, it just was there to help me deal with my awkwardness.

Anyway, this was all right before Maladroit came out, so weezer.com was posting loads of demos and the community was extremely helpful when it came to finding older demos. This is the point where the band really got me. TBA was fantastic. Pinkerton was a masterpiece. TGA was alright. So when I heard there were a ton of songs from before TGA, I went crazy with joy. I needed them. Unfortunately, I only had that 28.8k modem. This didn't stop me though. It took almost two weeks, but I got all the old songs that people were offering. They blew me away. I even started thinking, "wow, this is better than the albums." Not that I'm saying that they weren't, but nowadays I just accept that everything from that time is great.

So finally, the reason of this post: old Weezer. In the past few years, it's just been disappointment after disappointment. Sure, the new albums are alright. But they're bland. The lyrics don't seem to mean anything. It was all just... there. I don't know how else to explain it. It just seemed like an entirely different band. Anyway, as most of you know, they have a new single (with lyrics that just have to be a joke) and a new album coming out (which has a cover that has to be a joke, but still was enough for me to lose all faith), and that is the inspiration for this. So finally, a crap-load of useless words and a half an hour later, here are some good Weezer songs.

Please right click + save these, they're all from www.weerez.com
Also, I'll put asterisks next to my ten favorites.

1992 (The Kitchen Tapes)
*Let's Sew Our Pants Together
*Thief, You've Taken All That Was Me
*Paperface
1993
Purification of Water
Souvenirs, Novelties, Party Tricks
Hot Tub
I Swear It's True
Comin' Home (Left My Broken Heart in Carolina)
I Need Some Touch
*Lullaby for Wayne
1994 (TBA B-sides)
*Mykel and Carli
Susanne
*Jamie
My Evaline
1995 (when SFTBH was recorded)
Mrs. Young (Matt Sharp's song. This is the version with Rivers. Eventually became "Please Let That Be You" by the Rentals.)
Walt Disney
*Blast Off!
You Won't Get With Me Tonight
Come to My Pod
Oh No, This is Not for Me
Superfriend
You Gave Your Love to Me Softly (Angus)
1996 (Pinkerton B-sides)
*You Gave Your Love to Me Softly (el Scorcho single)
*Devotion
*Waiting On You
I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams (Rachel Haden of that dog. does lead vocals)
1997 (hiatus)
Lover in the Snow
American Girls (by the band Homie)
1998 (new bassist, side projects)
Velouria (Pixies cover)

That's all I'm doing for now. If you want more (SS2k, TGA b-sides, an astonishing amount of demos), sign up for www.weerez.com or google "Project Weezer" (every single non-album, Weezer-related song available). Also, if you want a zip or anything, leave a comment and I'll do that for you. Hope you enjoy these.

Buy all of Weezer's albums.
Buy Rivers' Alone (where some of these tracks and other good old stuff can be found)
What got me started on guitar.