Ha!
The jokes on you.
It occurred to me yesterday as I was listening to the local pop station that Weezer’s reemergence was no accident. There they were playing “Beverly Hills” right between some Ashlee Simpson and Kelly Clarkson. I truly think Rivers Cuomo is brilliant. Here is a song about being a left out loser lamenting the fact “preppy girls” don’t give him the time of day. Thus was born a tune praising rampant consumerism and a shallowness found only in the epicenter of all things superficial, Beverly Hills, California.
That song being a hit is a reason alone to make me believe Cuomo is a genius. He even admits to studying what makes a hit a hit. The funny thing is the guy is a meditating Buddhist, yet his songs follow a formula of mentioning being uncool, not getting the girl and finding solace in toking up. I’ll admit I bought his message once, but I was 18 at the time and I think, at least then, Rivers Cuomo believed what he was signing about. At least more so then he does now.
Somewhere around his mid-20s, Cuomo put together the best album Weezer has done to date. “Pinkerton” revealed emotional layers that many artists would hesitate to share a peek at. Cuomo threw it on the table as if to say “look at my freshly spilled guts, they’re still steaming.” The album was a commercial flop. I spent the next few years longing for more of that from Weezer. Eventually, they toured again. I went and along with everyone else, I knew and sang along all the lyrics to their catalogue. At that time it was 2 albums. Two years later, I saw the band again and had to wade through late teen wannabe hipsters who toked up, as if on cue, to the opening chords of “Hash Pipe.”
Weezer ushered in their triumphant return with the “Green Album.” It was a 30 minute tribute to the perfect pop song. At least one track was so catchy the Olsen Twins used it in one of their movies. Things came full circle and a new generation discovered Weezer. The sad thing is they don’t know the Weezer I knew and still love. They know the Weezer that sings songs about getting high and meeting girls. Something tells me this soon to be Harvard grad and practicing Buddhist marching headlong into middle age hasn’t touched a hash pipe or a groupie in a very long time. I wouldn’t be surprised if he pops out a 200 page dissertation on how easily manipulated the masses are. The rough draft is weighed down by a 12 sided die somewhere is a sparse apartment in the dodgy side of Hollywood.
The jokes on you.
It occurred to me yesterday as I was listening to the local pop station that Weezer’s reemergence was no accident. There they were playing “Beverly Hills” right between some Ashlee Simpson and Kelly Clarkson. I truly think Rivers Cuomo is brilliant. Here is a song about being a left out loser lamenting the fact “preppy girls” don’t give him the time of day. Thus was born a tune praising rampant consumerism and a shallowness found only in the epicenter of all things superficial, Beverly Hills, California.
That song being a hit is a reason alone to make me believe Cuomo is a genius. He even admits to studying what makes a hit a hit. The funny thing is the guy is a meditating Buddhist, yet his songs follow a formula of mentioning being uncool, not getting the girl and finding solace in toking up. I’ll admit I bought his message once, but I was 18 at the time and I think, at least then, Rivers Cuomo believed what he was signing about. At least more so then he does now.
Somewhere around his mid-20s, Cuomo put together the best album Weezer has done to date. “Pinkerton” revealed emotional layers that many artists would hesitate to share a peek at. Cuomo threw it on the table as if to say “look at my freshly spilled guts, they’re still steaming.” The album was a commercial flop. I spent the next few years longing for more of that from Weezer. Eventually, they toured again. I went and along with everyone else, I knew and sang along all the lyrics to their catalogue. At that time it was 2 albums. Two years later, I saw the band again and had to wade through late teen wannabe hipsters who toked up, as if on cue, to the opening chords of “Hash Pipe.”
Weezer ushered in their triumphant return with the “Green Album.” It was a 30 minute tribute to the perfect pop song. At least one track was so catchy the Olsen Twins used it in one of their movies. Things came full circle and a new generation discovered Weezer. The sad thing is they don’t know the Weezer I knew and still love. They know the Weezer that sings songs about getting high and meeting girls. Something tells me this soon to be Harvard grad and practicing Buddhist marching headlong into middle age hasn’t touched a hash pipe or a groupie in a very long time. I wouldn’t be surprised if he pops out a 200 page dissertation on how easily manipulated the masses are. The rough draft is weighed down by a 12 sided die somewhere is a sparse apartment in the dodgy side of Hollywood.
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