What MUSIC are you listening to? ARCHIVE

Just found out about Operation Space Opera, a crazy project to faithfully recreate Weezer's lost Songs From the Black Hole album.

SFTBH was a what Rivers Cuomo originally wrote to follow The Blue Album. It was intended to be a 27 track double concept album, much of it seamlessly strung together. For whatever reason, they decided to make Pinkerton instead. Which is fine, Pinkerton might be my favorite record of all time. There's a few SFTBH songs that carried over, like "Tired of Sex," "Getchoo," and "No Other One," and a few songs made it to B-sides. Rivers has started to let parts of it leak out on his solo demo records, but never the whole thing and what is out there sounds pretty terrible.

So then there's this Operation Space Opera thing. Using his notes and the recordings available, this fan project set out to give everyone an idea on what this would have sounded if it were made. Just listened to it and it's fucking interesting. There's some really, _really_ great songs here. I've always loved "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams," and in context of the concept it's great. Much of the subject matter that made it to Pinkerton is still here, and it's a bit more potent on SFTBH. There's some really weird shit here and there for sure, but when it's good, it's great. Maybe this would have gone on to be just as interesting as Pinkerton, who knows?

The performances themselves sort of let me down. It's a bit to polished, too restrained. You listen to Pinkerton and hear how Rivers sings, and in comparison to Blue, he sounds like he's a guy coming apart at the seams. Not here, and the guy singing often annoys me. There's a girl, too, and her parts are great, but without that classic Weezer harmonizing, while it's cool to hear how this record would have sounded, something still feels like it's missing.

It's out there on Bandcamp if you want to give it a listen.

I had to listen to Dave Matthews Band on my ride home from work and I've decided if you like jam bands you're an unfixably broken human being.

tscook wrote: I had to listen to Dave Matthews Band on my ride home from work and I've decided if you like jam bands you're an unfixably broken human being.

We'll go ahead and give this the FATCast seal of FUCK YOU approval. Ugh, jam bands...

Jam bands are for idiots that think they're really into music but really aren't.

Also people that think that being into music means closing your eyes and "soulfully grooving".

And these morons that think overcomplicated, overlong songs indicate great songwriting and musicianship.

Wipe them out.

All of them.

Michael Barnes wrote: Jam bands are for idiots that think they're really into music but really aren't.

Also people that think that being into music means closing your eyes and "soulfully grooving".

And these morons that think overcomplicated, overlong songs indicate great songwriting and musicianship.

Wipe them out.

All of them.

Pedophiles, dog abusers, and Jam Band fans. You're slowly lowering your standards.

S.

Well, it looks like it's back to what I was listening to in 1998 for awhile. Can't stop jamming on my favorite obscure Weezer tunes. So fucking great.

Pinkerton is an excellent album, I would have loved the double album.

They really fell apart post-Pinkerton, especially once Rivers figured out his problems or whatever and went to Harvard. I'm not sure they should have ever made their Green album comeback, though they've done very well for themselves so it's hard to begrudge them.

Now they're a novelty band. Which is too bad---the first two albums are pretty personal. It makes what followed feel especially cynical.

I just listened to the rerecordings you talked about. You're right, the performances are definitely missing the emotionally unhinged edge of Pinkerton and the B-sides of that era. It's a nice try, though. It actually brings up an odd question---how would you feel if your biggest artistic achievement, by a country mile, was from one of the most difficult times in your life? You don't want to go back, but to think you hit your arete artistically and then collapsed once you got happier/better organized... also makes me wonder if Matt Sharp was actually the talented pop artist in Weezer.

The Rentals certainly have a big part of the sound that's been missing since he left Weezer.

I think there's been some pretty great stuff to come out post-Pinkerton. Maladroit, while emotionally flat, is totally underrated, with no dumb, jokey songs. And I love most if Hurley. But I agree with everything you're saying.

Rivers was something of a hometown hero growing up (I've lived in the town next to the one he's from all my life). It's the epitome if "least likely if places." A friend of mine with a few years on me was in his D&D group. I actually met his mom in a Games Workshop when we had such things. She's super proud of him, it's pretty cool.

My Weezer fandom peaked just before Make Believe. I still maintain that the Green album and Maladroit are terrific pop-rock albums, even if they are content to only go surface level lyrically. Make Believe is clearly the turning point to me, though I would submit that it's mostly just bland and colorless, and not actively terrible like the Red Album and to a lesser extent, Raditude.

They're still able to churn out one or two good songs on any given album. I tried really hard to like the albums until just before Hurley came out, and then I realized that they had beaten me. I just didn't care anymore.

I recently went back and listened to everything. The Blue Album and Pinkteron are in a class by themselves, (I prefer blue for sentimental reasons) but Green and Maladroit have some serious riffage, don't make me feel embarrassed on Rivers' behalf, and are exactly as long as they need to be. Everything past that has been pleasant but forgettable at best, and downright regrettable at worst.

tscook wrote: I had to listen to Dave Matthews Band on my ride home from work and I've decided if you like jam bands you're an unfixably broken human being.

I rank Dave Matthews Band up there with Limp Bizkit as music for frat boys with backwards hats and popped collars.

I dated a girl in college who was obsessed with Dave Matthews band. I think it was literally all she listened to. It's amazing it lasted as long as it did, though it did help me realize that I kind of hate DMB.

Maybe 15 years ago, DMB came to town and I was working at the arena where they played, selling merch. A metric shit-ton of American college kids (ok, so I was also a kid back then) came to the show, and that was pretty surprising and unusual. Syracuse is a good 3 hour ride away from Ottawa. I don't know what's up with DMB and people in college, but they managed to draw many rabid fans from far away.

Columbob wrote: Maybe 15 years ago, DMB came to town and I was working at the arena where they played, selling merch. A metric shit-ton of American college kids (ok, so I was also a kid back then) came to the show, and that was pretty surprising and unusual. Syracuse is a good 3 hour ride away from Ottawa. I don't know what's up with DMB and people in college, but they managed to draw many rabid fans from far away.

From what I've observed, this has finally subsided. 5 years ago, though... frat boys and DMB. Wow.

The Blue Album is what made me work out a deal with the lunch lady for free left over lunch so I could save my lunch money and go buy a guitar when I was in 6th grade. That and Pinkerton are two of the most perfect records ever. The B sides from that era are equally amazing. I'm SOOOOO stoked that I got to see them a few times before they ever put out the Green Album so it was just 100% amazing sets.

I've been listening to Spector a lot this past week, I especially dig this jam...

I want to say that I've seen Weezer 3 times. The first was right after Green came out, which okay. Mikey had gone missing just days before and Cold was supposed to be the opener but thankfully bailed. Second was the tour where they supposedly made their setlists with a system similar to the random dungeon generator from D&D. It was weird but totally awesome. Played a lot if stuff you'd never expect to hear and left out some big hits. The last time was after Rivers got into meditation and it was like watching a different band. He was super happy and they played a ton of Pinkerton stuff, which he was shy about doing for a long time. It was on the tour for Make Believe but was really, really awesome and fun.

Michael Barnes wrote: Jam bands are for idiots that think they're really into music but really aren't.

Also people that think that being into music means closing your eyes and "soulfully grooving".

And these morons that think overcomplicated, overlong songs indicate great songwriting and musicianship.

Wipe them out.

All of them.

The other day, I was struggling to remember all the people that I have supervised over the years. You just helped me remember the one I always forget. She was a big Phish fan, and I teased her about it almost every day.