The Blue album turns 30

[welshywelsh]

It's not russian roulette IMO, EVERYTHING they do is shit. They were a perfect band for two albums + accompanying singles and B-sides, and then they turned into 100% dogshit.
This SNL skit isn't even funny because it's so accurate.

It's not everything if they were perfect for two albums

Everything they do, not everything they've done.

I will admit to one exception though, I am the greatest man that ever lived, which, with a slightly dirtier production style, would have fit right in on Songs From the Black Hole, the scrapped rock opera idea that instead became Pinkerton.

Ha, I'm glad you've mentioned that song as it's always been a bit of a guilty pleasure. It's a mess but kinda works.

I'd throw my hat in the ring for the Green Album being awesome as well. After that I have no desire to defend anything they've done

[marqueemoon]

I knew the singles of course, but I didn’t actually get into the album until I bought a copy at a thrift store like 15 years later.

I think it’s held up pretty well. There’s a lot of nostalgia baked into it already.

[rhythmjones]

Maybe it was mostly a backlash from the grunge era, but Weezer and PUSA somehow just felt really fresh back then.

And CAKE and Ben Folds Five

[Pepe Silvia]

It's not russian roulette IMO, EVERYTHING they do is shit. They were a perfect band for two albums + accompanying singles and B-sides, and then they turned into 100% dogshit.
This SNL skit isn't even funny because it's so accurate.

It's not everything if they were perfect for two albums

Everything they do, not everything they've done.

I will admit to one exception though, I am the greatest man that ever lived, which, with a slightly dirtier production style, would have fit right in on Songs From the Black Hole, the scrapped rock opera idea that instead became Pinkerton.

Green Album with different production and guitar solos would have been a great album. IATGMTEL could have been better with different production, without the cheesy bridge and the fact that they didn't know they were ripping off a shaker hymn.

I also thought Ms Sweeny on the deluxe version of the Red Album could have been one of their older songs too.

Maybe it was mostly a backlash from the grunge era, but Weezer and PUSA somehow just felt really fresh back then.

And CAKE and Ben Folds Five

Robert Sledge was rumored to be joining Weezer after Mikey Welsh, it would have been interesting if it happened and if it would have change the trajectory of the band.

[budda12ax7]

Just never got into them at all....played a gig with them at the ANTI-CLUB back in the early 90's....they had minder with them that was very pushy....got my goat up a bit...

[rhythmjones]

Robert Sledge was rumored to be joining Weezer after Mikey Welsh, it would have been interesting if it happened and if it would have change the trajectory of the band.

DANG!!!!!

[crazyzeke]

It's interesting, grunge is viewed as synonymous with the nineties, but really a lot of it was hangover from the late eighties. I think bands like Weezer or the Presidents, or even bands like Green Day or the Lemonheads with their irreverence were far more reflective of the nineties cultural zeitgeist, if someone asked me what nineties guitar bands sounded like I'd probably point to them rather than most of the grunge bands.

Depends where you were based I think; in the UK the 90s also included Britpop, which despite the name also encompassed a bunch of rock bands with catchy choruses, even mopped up some more glam (Suede) and goth rock (Mansun) oriented bands into the term.

Towards the end of the decade there was the emergence of nu-metal as well, some of which I still love (Deftones springs to mind, especially White Pony) but honestly I remember the 90s to early 2000s in general as the absolute dominance of electric guitar based music across a wide range of genres - all kinds of rock, punk-pop, Britpop, nu-metal. Basically something for everyone. I assumed it would always stay like that but honestly, sales figures say different, and rock is kinda in the doldrums now in a way it never was the rest of the time I've been alive.

Also, I know this record is a bit divisive, but I really, really like the Green Album. It does nothing revolutionary, it's formulaic (but almost conceptually so), it's really sugary and bubblegum, but it's a very very good guitar pop record and I think probably every track from it could've been a single.

Yeah that's pretty much how I feel about it. It's short and sweet, and the hooks are so good you can almost forgive that literally every guitar solo is the vocal melody, Teen Spirit style - once you know that you can't help but notice it every time. So for me they're a kind of 2 ½ to 3 albums were good band, and then some patchy albums with the odd good song(s), then mostly straight trash for over a decade now. I don't hate Beverly Hills as much as Pat Finnerty although I feel he makes a load of great points about the highs and lows of =W=

[Rob]

One of the only benefits of being older now is that I was a young adult in the 90s, and got to see a lot of great bands in their prime in small venues. In 1996 I was fortunate enough to see the original Weezer lineup in a club in Cincinnati where they played the entire blue album, most of Pinkerton, and a couple B-sides and outtakes from that era.

About 15 years later, I joined a Weezer tribute band that predictably only covered the same material. I think we may have eventually added "Hash Pipe," but I think that's it. And one night we teased the intro to "Island in the Sun" but then launched into the Pumpkins' "Geek USA" instead, for some reason.

I hadn't seen that SNL sketch before! A little too on-the-nose, haha.

[eilrahc]

Depends where you were based I think; in the UK the 90s also included Britpop, which despite the name also encompassed a bunch of rock bands with catchy choruses, even mopped up some more glam (Suede) and goth rock (Mansun) oriented bands into the term.

Towards the end of the decade there was the emergence of nu-metal as well, some of which I still love (Deftones springs to mind, especially White Pony) but honestly I remember the 90s to early 2000s in general as the absolute dominance of electric guitar based music across a wide range of genres - all kinds of rock, punk-pop, Britpop, nu-metal. Basically something for everyone. I assumed it would always stay like that but honestly, sales figures say different, and rock is kinda in the doldrums now in a way it never was the rest of the time I've been alive.

Yeah, Britpop was sort of interesting, it burnt very bright for a very short time and really just in one place (although I think Oasis cracked America), but it was absolutely massive., if you were alive in Britain in the nineties it was just so ubiquitous and culturally significant. I think still think the alternative thing defines that era more broadly (and some of the Britpop and Britpop-adjacent bands were influenced by it), but yeah, Britpop was just huge.

Yeah that's pretty much how I feel about it. It's short and sweet, and the hooks are so good you can almost forgive that literally every guitar solo is the vocal melody, Teen Spirit style - once you know that you can't help but notice it every time. So for me they're a kind of 2 ½ to 3 albums were good band, and then some patchy albums with the odd good song(s), then mostly straight trash for over a decade now. I don't hate Beverly Hills as much as Pat Finnerty although I feel he makes a load of great points about the highs and lows of =W=

I think patchy is a pretty fair way to describe post-Green Weezer. I can't agree with the people who think they've been irredeemably terrible since 1997, there's a lot of great tracks, but unfortunately a lot of total dross as well.

[sal paradise]

My friend described Rivers’ songwriting style as: “it’s like once he has an idea, he has to finish it no matter how good or bad.”

It would account for 70% of their output over the last 20 years.

[crazyzeke]

My friend described Rivers’ songwriting style as: “it’s like once he has an idea, he has to finish it no matter how good or bad.”

It would account for 70% of their output over the last 20 years.

That actually makes a lot of sense. Me personally, I've recorded literally thousands of songs, written tens of thousands, and other people only get to hear maybe the best 5% because when you write prolifically you get to be very good at filtering what works and what sucks.

Yeah, Britpop was sort of interesting, it burnt very bright for a very short time and really just in one place (although I think Oasis cracked America), but it was absolutely massive., if you were alive in Britain in the nineties it was just so ubiquitous and culturally significant. I think still think the alternative thing defines that era more broadly (and some of the Britpop and Britpop-adjacent bands were influenced by it), but yeah, Britpop was just huge.

It was overall as a "scene" (not that I totally qualify it as that) very short, probably just about 5 years give or take because I remember it as mid to late 90s. Built on the back of stuff like the shoegaze/Madchester scenes which explains why future luminaries of Britpop often started more ambient - Ocean Colour Scene and The Verve spring to mind.

I adored Britpop, and to an extent still do. The sense of national pride that went along with it was nice, but really the thing with staying power was and is the songs. Even somewhat also-ran bands like Shed Seven and The Charlatans had a couple of outstanding tracks - hear Heroes by the former and North Country Boy by the latter. Or after The Las were driven apart by the madness of Lee Mavers, how John Power picked up his own pieces and made good anyway, with Finetime being the best Paradise City ripoff I've ever heard. Huge compliment but it's basically the same chords, same rhythm in the same key, works though.

Even obscure stuff that has the Britpop kinda vibe (via a classic punk song) - Sound Of The Suburbs. Bloody miss John Peel; after he passed, no one really replaced him and turned us all onto great music we might have missed.

[mynameisjonas]

Or after The Las were driven apart by the madness of Lee Mavers, how John Power picked up his own pieces and made good anyway, with Finetime being the best Paradise City ripoff I've ever heard. Huge compliment but it's basically the same chords, same rhythm in the same key, works though.

I always liked Cast back in the day, but looking back later they were one of those bands I imagined would sound really dated today. But I went back and listened to some of their stuff a few months ago, and it sounded surprisingly fresh to me.

[crazyzeke]

I always liked Cast back in the day, but looking back later they were one of those bands I imagined would sound really dated today. But I went back and listened to some of their stuff a few months ago, and it sounded surprisingly fresh to me.

Yeah for me they've aged well because they were the sound of a lot of childhood summers, and a lot of their songs still sound unique to them even though they were part of the bigger Britpop sound/ethos.