The Rise and Fall (And rise?) of Weezer.
By Leith Ali
MUS-210-22N
Weezer is an American pop-Alternative-rock band that achieved soaring commercial and critical success in the early 90’s into the 2000s. The band was founded in Los Angeles on February 14, 1992 by Rivers Cuomo (Lead Vocals, guitar), Jason Cropper (Guitar), Matt Sharp (Bass) and Pat Wison (Drums) with a serious of lineup changes in the years to come. The band immediately began writing and playing music at local clubs with little success. After a hard 16 months of “gig life” and recording demos the band achieved their first record deal. The members were relocated to New York to record their album in the legendary Electric Lady Studies; they were to be produced…show more content… Songs from the Black Hole was a 1995 unreleased concept album that reached surprising stages of development. Today the album can be listened to online due to a leak. This unreleased album featured a completely different Weezer than the one on The Blue Album and is a good clue on what is to come of the music of Weezer. The songs on this album are, "darker, more visceral and exposed, less playful" to put in the words of Cuomo. He called the album a rock opera and it described his mixed feelings toward success. It was far more introspective and darker than anything the band has written before. The album was later left behind and forgotten in…show more content… The Album was a 1996, long awaited follow up to the Blue Album. The album was self-produced, most of the songs being written by River during his time as a student at Harvard. He dropped out two semesters before graduation to re-unite his band. Pinkerton maintained the mid paced rock songs typical of Weezer, but came off more abrasive. Singles from the album were, “el scorch”, “the good life” and “Pink Triangle”. The album featured some of the most honest songwriting to ever be produced by Weezer. River put his most honest work into this album, and it was rejected. The album was still fairly commercially successful (it sold poorly compared to the Blue Album), but critics and fans were not satisfied with the album, it inevitably being compared to the success of The Blue Album. It was not the Weezer they knew and loved. Ironically, today the album is praised as one of the best albums in the larger body of the bands musical work alongside The Blue Album; but at the time the album was completely rejected. This rejection scared the groups sound and would be noticeable on the albums to follow. The band themselves rejected the album, "[Pinkerton] is a hideous record. It was such a hugely painful mistake that happened in front of hundreds of thousands of people and continues to happen on a grander and grander scale and just won't go
