Why Weezer WHY!?

Engine · 12-14-2012, 02:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black Francis

Not sure if this thread is in the right section or not..

i would like to get you guys opinion on the Band Weezer cause this band broke my heart
i had their first album which was great!
That whole album is good, you can even see traces of that Emo punk bands fad that were popular for a little while, Bands like Dashboard confessional, yellow card, All american rejects..

That type of whiny Emo singing, Rivers sang kinda like that. (Btw i hate all those bands i mentioned)

i loved that album though, at the time i thought they were like a Nirvana Pixies combination but yet with their own style.

their next album 'Pinkerton' was not bad, but nothing too memorable
their Next album was better, but it was more commercial and while the songs were catchy they were total people pleasers,, you could tell they wanted "Hits" not songs

their next album i didn't get BUT THEN THE NEXT ALBUM had 'Beverlly Hills"

it was then i decided "IM DONE WITH WEEZER!"

What the hell happened to them!?

I sympathize. I also have loved their first album since it was released. Even back then people made fun of me for it because Weezer weren't all that cool according to the people I knew.

I had a few close friends who understood though, and we all saw them live on their first tour and learned to play My Name is Jonas together because it was the only pop rock song I could play all the way through on guitar. I'll always love that first album.

Pinkerton is commonly known as their "best" work but I disagree. It's a fine album but it doesn't have the serious/sarcastic feel of their first one. Also, the big heavy, easy to play riffs were gone. After Pinkerton they were just another shitty band that I had no interest in.

Although, for vktr's sake I will say that I like the two singles on their Green album, Island in the Sun and HashPipe.

Anyway, what happened? I have no idea. They (especially River) seem fairly serious about their music. I really can't say why they became such a horrible, forgettable band.

Forward To Death · 12-14-2012, 03:31 AM

The Blue Album kicks ass, Pinkerton was good, but what can you expect from a band that plays pop with hard rock guitar. They still essentially do the same thing, but they try to keep with the times by doing songs with Lil Wayne.

simoirs · 12-14-2012, 09:55 AM

Weezer turned this way because no one at the time understood how good was Pinkerton.
After the cold general reaction he would probably have thought that to go on that way was meaningless and only stupid stuff could be appreciated. Why to put so much effort and emotions if your most commercially successful song becomes Beverly Hills (that I love, eheh)?

Everyone now think it's cool to write about very personal situations in life, see the Arctic Monkeys' debut, but when the precursor tried it it took years to get the deserved reaction.

Screen13 · 12-14-2012, 10:16 AM

It's simply the natural fact of a band losing the raw muse that first attracted one to a band when one first hear them. Although I'm not really that much of a listener, I can cay that they are at least lucky to have stayed around all this time.

Around for about 2 decades? Had a debut album that actually made it and inspired a lot of other music? Compared to a lot of other bands, many of them never getting that first step through a major company door, that's at least something. In Rock Years, they achieved seniority when a lot of others have went away.

Just listen to what you like and at least dig that first album plus all the other tracks.

**Goofle** · 12-14-2012, 10:21 AM

Their debut is certainly my favourite of theirs. nMver really got into anything else other than Pinkerton, which is okay.

JakeATLBraves24 · 12-14-2012, 03:06 PM

Rivers was very sensitive to the backlash after Pinkerton, and Weezer has never been the same since. People were expecting another upbeat and fun album like the Blue Album, but Pinkerton was quite the opposite. As a result, the record wasn't received nearly as well. Weezer didn't make another album for five years, and when they did, what had made Weezer great was gone. The Green Album had some nice tracks, no doubt, but it was glazed over and ultimately a sell-out.

90s-era Weezer is probably my favorite band of all-time. Pinkerton is a masterpiece, and the Blue Album isn't far behind. Nowadays, Weezer isn't anything more than a lame pop-rock group.

TheBig3 · 12-14-2012, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janszoon

Probably because they have a song named after him.

Well, I just **** my pants. Thanks for the laugh, Zoon.

GuitarBizarre · 12-14-2012, 07:50 PM

...the first page of this thread is a ****ing disgrace.

In what universe does it qualify as music discussion to fill a page of thread with "<band> sucks now", while offering absolutely no argument or other content of any kind within the post?

I like Weezer perfectly well, but ultimately their music has never wowed me particularly. A friend of mine however, is prone, when drunk, to argue that Pinkerton is the best album ever made. He's onboard with the idea they went downhill afterwards though he's never really explained to me in what way. And neither has this thread.

What, musically, changed about Weezer, that made everyone hate them? With Metallica you can say "They started doing bad Thin Lizzy covers and stopped having guitar solos" or "Kirk Hammett found the wah pedal and they weren't the same since".

Can anyone identify for Weezer, what happened?

JakeATLBraves24 · 12-14-2012, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuitarBizarre

Can anyone identify for Weezer, what happened?

This write-up puts it into words better than I could (remove the spaces, I'm not allowed to post links because of post count):

ht tp : / / ww w. angel fire. co m/ ks /weezerisdope / greendeficiencies . ht ml

I think the main reason is the change in material Rivers has written about. He has gone from writing meaningful songs to generic, hollow pop songs. Compare "Only In Dreams" or "Pink Triangle" to "We Are All On Drugs" or "Troublemaker." The passion is long gone and has been replaced with calculated, contrived fluff. I think it extends to the music as well. Take the Green Album for example. Rivers' vocals are glazed over; it sounds like he has had the soul siphoned out of him. It's like Weezer has been censored. The sincerity that made them great just doesn't exist in their music anymore.

14232949 · 12-14-2012, 09:11 PM

I feel I've already addressed this subject.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merrycaaant

It often perplexes me how competent musicians who gel together well in a band and have produced incredible albums in their lifetimes can also churn out sub-par albums.

It isn't for lack of talent, this much is evident in the fact that they can make good albums and have done so.
An unwillingness, a lack of enthusiasm? Perhaps.
Relentless touring and publicity which affects the most popular of musicians is bound to take a toll on musical output.
I then ponder if that is the case. Why put out a record at all?
If your heart's not in it and you're suffering from tour dates, media attention and playing the fame game, why thrust yourself back into the limelight with a new record.

Especially major label releases. Think of the touring; the promotion, the interviews, the marketing of a major artists upcoming record.
It's a lot to try and shove down the consumers throat to assure people buy the record.
But if it's not worthy of the hype that's inevitably going to precede its release, why bother releasing it at all?

If the records born out of frustration, exhaustion, why bother taking the time to record it at all. The idea of quitting whilst ahead, keeping a favourable image of your music in the eyes of the listener would seem like a better option.
Perhaps that's what the deliberate inductees of the 27 forever club had in mind.
They didn't want to reach the stage where they were releasing meaningless records for the sake of it and didn't think that they could ever recapture the fire and passion of their early works. Deciding to bow out whilst still ahead of mediocrity.

It seems like an extreme. But every artist must suffer from it at some point.
A creative blockage, once where the ideology of creating music was enough to drive them to success, merely sustaining their position within the industry and adding to the ever depleting quality of their discography has replaced what led them to success in the first place.

One need only look at Greenday for an example of this. It's not that Billie Joe Armstrong and co are not capable of putting out good records, they have done so.
Years ago, when rising up the ranks they were seen my many as a symbol of alienated youth. An angst ridden group of young men who wore their hearts on their sleeves and created music to express themselves.

Fast forward to 2012 and Greenday are releasing three records in one year (which unless you're The Weeknd is almost certainly setting yourself up to fall) and Billie Joe has had what for me was a toss up between on stage breakdown and cheap publicity attempt by losing his bearings during a live performance and slamming industry scapegoat Justin Bieber.

I don't think exhaustion is the key here. If one were to truly love music. To love their art, they'd know when to release records.
If you were growing distant from your passion, any right thinking individual would assume time away from said passion would be the best remedy to try and recapture a passion in it or to find that you no longer can connect with it, and move away completely.
It beggars belief that if you became so disengaged from music that you would continue to keep with it, whilst beginning to resent it.
Unless it was for financial reasons. I get that people have families, bills to pay, mouths to feed, rent to pay, etc. Lots of people work jobs they hate.
However I fail to believe this extends to artists such as Greenday who surely cannot be in any financial troubles.

Therefore, I introduce my theory. Why can an artist like Weezer produce a masterpiece of an album like Pinkerton and then go onto release an album like Raditude.
Simple. A change in circumstance.

Think about how many artists produced their best works in their early career and fell off the more they kept prolonging their careers.
When most of the songs from Pinkerton were written, it's to the best of my understanding they were written by an emotional teenager who channelled their true to life feelings into songs.
Songs such as Across The Sea and The Good Life are simple in topic yet have a genuineness unmatched in later releases.
Why is this?
Could it be, that when they were written, the artist was in a genuine state of mind. They were just expressing their true to life, everyday feelings about run-of-the-mill activities that many could relate to.

Everyone can relate to feelings of confusion about love, depression and a teenage anxiety of confusion.
This likely lead many people to begin supporting the artists, knowing that they could relate their feelings to that of the artist.
Because at the time, when Weezer wrote Pinkerton they were alike many of those who gained solace in the record.
They were average joes with a passion for music speaking about things that mattered to them, things that they cared for.
They weren't superstars. They weren't millionaires. Their problems were the same as many of their fans. They could be related to.

When a person has it all; money, fame, legions of fans, as many woman as they want...how can the average person relate to them?
Try as they might to repeat past successes, it can not escape the feeling of falseness attached to the new material.
How can they embrace the same angst, the same emotion they had when they were teenagers questioning their place in life and high school status when they don't have those concerns any more.
They're successful, they're not like us any more. They made it. They grew up and regrettably they didn't allow their music to grow with them.
In trying to retain, trying to pretend they were the same angsty teenagers, they produced records of illegitimate emotions and subject matter which was no longer relevant to them which just ended up sounding forced, phony and immature.
It's Blink 182 syndrome. How can one take 40 year old men singing about first dates and skateboards seriously.

Weezer are a talented band despite what may be popular opinion, but they are not showcasing themselves as much with a reluctance or perhaps ignorance in adapting to the times.
Not that the world has changed. It hasn't. I guarantee as many young people can relate with Pinkerton now as they did in 1996.
The world hasn't changed, Weezer have.
They have not changed with their circumstances. Sure they can still sell records, but can their new material really match Pinkerton in terms of quality no.
Until they quit becoming a parody of their former selves they won't be able to make another Pinkerton.
Actually, they never will. They will never be those angst ridden teenagers again. Try as they might they will never capture those feelings, those emotions again.

People often ponder on here why emo is dead. It isn't. it is survived with every generation of young emotional people who come up through their teenage years and enter adult life.
Emo isn't dead, the artists just grew up.
Not to say emo is immature. It isn't. In my humble opinion it is the most open, brutally honest genre of them all.
However when a person settles into happy adult life with children and a secure job they can no longer relate with the scene.
Which is a hard but true reality. How can one who is perfectly content channel the raw emotion and misery within themselves to make an emo record?
Oh, they can try and you get albums like Raditude. They're just ****.

12-14-2012, 10:16 AM	#14 (permalink)
Screen13 Music Addict Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 1,388	It's simply the natural fact of a band losing the raw muse that first attracted one to a band when one first hear them. Although I'm not really that much of a listener, I can cay that they are at least lucky to have stayed around all this time. Around for about 2 decades? Had a debut album that actually made it and inspired a lot of other music? Compared to a lot of other bands, many of them never getting that first step through a major company door, that's at least something. In Rock Years, they achieved seniority when a lot of others have went away. Just listen to what you like and at least dig that first album plus all the other tracks. Last edited by Screen13; 12-14-2012 at 10:24 AM.

12-14-2012, 03:31 AM	#12 (permalink)
Forward To Death Trolier Than Thou Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Minnesota Posts: 1,336	The Blue Album kicks ass, Pinkerton was good, but what can you expect from a band that plays pop with hard rock guitar. They still essentially do the same thing, but they try to keep with the times by doing songs with Lil Wayne.

12-14-2012, 09:55 AM	#13 (permalink)
simoirs Groupie Join Date: Nov 2012 Posts: 38	Weezer turned this way because no one at the time understood how good was Pinkerton. After the cold general reaction he would probably have thought that to go on that way was meaningless and only stupid stuff could be appreciated. Why to put so much effort and emotions if your most commercially successful song becomes Beverly Hills (that I love, eheh)? Everyone now think it's cool to write about very personal situations in life, see the Arctic Monkeys' debut, but when the precursor tried it it took years to get the deserved reaction.

12-14-2012, 03:06 PM	#16 (permalink)
JakeATLBraves24 Grouper Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: North Carolina Posts: 55	Rivers was very sensitive to the backlash after Pinkerton, and Weezer has never been the same since. People were expecting another upbeat and fun album like the Blue Album, but Pinkerton was quite the opposite. As a result, the record wasn't received nearly as well. Weezer didn't make another album for five years, and when they did, what had made Weezer great was gone. The Green Album had some nice tracks, no doubt, but it was glazed over and ultimately a sell-out. 90s-era Weezer is probably my favorite band of all-time. Pinkerton is a masterpiece, and the Blue Album isn't far behind. Nowadays, Weezer isn't anything more than a lame pop-rock group.