Weezer

So here we are again with the second batch of songs. It’s been kind of a slow week here on the blog. Partly because I’m fighting some kind of bug or cold which has resulted in stuffed ears, and partly because nothing has really inspired me this week. That said, this week we’ll be back into the swing of things properly, starting off with more songs that if you’re a fan you probably have and if you’re not, you probably don’t care about. Oh well.

Throwaway nonsense just about redeemed by some rather impressive guitar work.

Wow, Rivers with an inferiority complex. Now that’s certainly a novel theme for a song. Joking aside though, it’s probably what Rivers does best when it comes to his songwriting, so unsurprisingly this is a pretty solid song. It’s another of the aborted album five recordings, meaning it never really got developed all that far, but what is here is pretty damn good.

Rivers loves football. Apparently Domingo is a footballer. That’s about all I have on this one.

One of the better songs that never amounted to anything, How Long? seemingly charts that last phase of a relationship. That part where you both know that it’s falling apart yet ignore that and carry on regardless. Musically it’s pretty simplistic stuff, but it could have turned into something very good.

Lyrically it’s pretty non-sensical, but the most interesting part about Little Songs is how Rivers seems able to rebuild a song from the ground up. I may have my timeline confused a little here, but the instrumentation on this song was originally used in another Weezer song entitled We Go Together that the band played live a lot back in 2001. This version of the song is completely different from the original, yet the core of it still remains intact, which is something of an impressive feat.

More piano goodness to be found on this one. Another one of the album 5 demo recordings than never made it any further. Which is quite a shame as it’s a really nice song.

A rare case of Rivers singing in the third person here. Seemingly a story about a homeless man who is actually quite happy with his lot in life (”He’s on his own / He likes it that way”). A world full of homeless people huddling under bridges is hardly massively original imagery, but it’s different enough to warrant a little attention. If only to prove Rivers can come up with something that isn’t misery or drugs.

An absolutely insane song, with guitar work that sounds like it just stumbled in from the big rock era of the 80s. Trying to keep up with the lyrics is pretty much a lost cause, so it’s not hard to see why the song was abandoned, but I still find it to be a lot of fun.

The first song where Rivers seemed to get vocally pissed at the press (and the fans?) for their constant negativity about recent Weezer material. It isn’t exactly the greatest of comebacks (”Now to my challengers / Still think with little words / You’re so upset you’re pissing on yourself”), but the sound of the song makes it unique enough for me to post it here. I think this may have been Rivers’ first dabble in the rap-rock genre, but I’m not too sure. There’s also a story floating about that this was written for Axl Rose to sing, but he dropped out so Rivers did it himself. I’ve no idea how much truth there is that, but it makes it all the more curious.

One of the few “lost songs” that is regarded almost as a band staple despite never having been released. If you were a Weezer fan back around the time of The Green Album, you knew Modern Dukes. The band played it live at just about every gig for a few years. Various recordings of it floated around the internet. It was even recorded in demo form for two different albums, but never made it to either. Which is a shame as it’s really bloody good.

That’s the halfway mark. Come back over the next two Sundays for the rest. Assuming swine flu hasn’t killed us all.