Weezer

All images contained in the following pages came directly from weezer.com except for the above banner. That's an original.
 

Present Members
Rivers Cuomo - lead singer, songwriter, original member, brains behind the operation
Brian Bell - guitar player, backing vocals, replaced Jason Cropper in '93, also member of Space Twins
Patt Wilson - drummer, original member, also member of The Special Goodness
Scott Shriner - bass player, backing vocals, newest member, replaced Mikey Welsh in '01

Former Members
Jason Cropper - left the band in '93 to get married and have kids, now member of Chopper One
Matt Sharp - left the band in '97 to work on his own band, The Rentals
Mikey Welsh - replaced Matt Sharp, left the band in '01 for his own reasons

        It all started back in '95 when I heard Buddy Holly for the first time on the radio.  I remember asking my older sister, Michelle, if she knew who that song was by.  I always asked her when I had a question about who sang what cuz she used to listen to the radio constantly.  She said that she thought the song was by a band called Weezer.  I repeated the name over and over in my head about a hundred and fifty times until I was sure I'd remember it.  A few days later, my nana offered to take me to the mall with her on the bus (she doesn't drive).  We were about to leave the mall when the word 'weezer' popped into my head.  I ran into the music store and picked it up, and Nana said, "Oh, let me buy that for you!"  (she loves buying things for her grandkids... she's the sweetest).  So she bought it for me, and we headed back to her house to listen to it.  After listening to the first two songs, Nana was like, "Is it supposed to sound like this?" followed by an offer to take it back to the store for me.  Needless to say, I got out of there fast.  I took the tape (this was back when I still bought cassettes) back to my house and called Kim and Amy (my partners in crime at the time) over to listen to it.  We sat in the little playhouse in my back yard (we were in junior high and liked to act old and cool, yet we loved chillin in that little playhouse) and played it over and over.  I was in love with it at first listen.  This was way before I ever even TRIED to pay attention to lyrics, so it's not that I could relate to the lyrics at the time.  I just loved the sound.  From that day on, Weezer has been my favorite band.  Not too long after that, I joined the fanclub.  I don't remember when exactly, but I remember getting the fanclub number 3867 (hence the last 4 characters of my AIM screen name).  My best friend Kim and I washed my dad's car to earn the $10.  It's one of our fondest memories.  haha

       Anybody who knows me at all knows that weezer is my favorite band.  Lots of people ask me why they are my favorite band, and this question seems absurd to me.  It seems almost so obvious that it's impossible to put into words.  For one thing, the most important thing, I love the music.  I love the fact that no two of their songs sound the same.  I love that no two of their albums sounds the same.  When I first heard pinkerton after falling in love with the blue album, I was disappointed.  But by the second listening I was hooked.  To this day Pinkerton's probably my favorite album (although it's a close call between that and Weezer/blue... I guess it depends on what kind of mood I'm in).

        Another thing I love about them is that they're not all about image.  They don't dance around like trained monkeys and wear cute little matching outfits like a bunch of Ken dolls.  They're real.  I also love that they create all of their own music instead of having some company do it for them.  They are a real band.  All of the lyrics from their first two albums were based on things that really happened to or around Rivers.  Granted, the lyrics on the Green Album were not as personal, but Rivers had his reasons for writing them.  I don't want to get into that becuase I'm sure you can find the articles/interviews online somewhere, just as I did.  This page is just going to be devoted to my own personal experience with the band.  It will not be based on rumors/truths that I read about online or in a magazine, because that's not what's important.

        I also kind of like the fact that they are all members of other bands, because it proves that they're in it for the music and not just the money.  If all they cared about was money, they would all be devoted to nothing but Weezer since it is the biggest band right now.

        I admire Rivers because he put his band on hold to go back to school (Harvard University in fact), and then dropped out 2 semesters before graduation to go back to the band.... Simply because he felt the urge.  To be that devoted to music and inspiration... That amazes me.

        A few years after they "disappeared" (after the production of Pinkerton back in about 1996), a lot of my friends began to lose faith in them, and some even lost interest.  It was really sad.  I stuck by them the whole time though (I have witnesses, haha), and for some reason, I knew they'd be back.  I had people coming up to me telling me that they broke up, that they hated eachother, that Rivers was in jail..... All sorts of crazy stupid rumors, but I didn't believe any of it.  Even though they were sort of "split up" when Rivers went to Harvard and the other members worked on their other respective bands, I was always confident that they were still a band and that they were simply taking a break.  Maybe I'm psychic... or maybe I was just in denial.... Either way, I knew they'd be back.  I still wore my shirt at least every other Friday, and I still threatened to kill anyone who saw my shirt and asked "what's a weezer?" and it was all worth it.  I think it'll be a long time now before I have to hear that question again.

        Up until December, 2001, I had never seen them in concert.  I've always been the shy/quiet type, and never really had any interest in going to any concerts (weezer or any other band).  When Weezer was idle for those 4 years and people would ask me to go to a [some random band] concert, I would use the excuse that my first concert had to be Weezer.  Then after the production of Weezer/green, there were rumors that Weezer would be coming to Pittsburgh, and that made me nervous.  Cuz I still didn't really have any desire to be around that many people.  The idea of being around thousands of people and listening to extremely loud music and being pushed around in the middle of a crowd did not seem very appealing to me at all.  WHAT WAS I THINKING?  Anyway, after seeing them in concert for the first time (you'll have to read at least the first story to find out what got me to go), I fell completely in love with their music all over again.  I had no idea it all could sound so much better just because it was live.  So far, each concert I've been to by them has been  better than the last.  Below you'll find stories/reviews of each show.

<---- a little letter I got a while ago from carli
 
<---- the scratch-board drawing I did in my high school art class of the pinkerton cover

Rivers Quotes from Concerts...

An old weezer interview that MTV banned...

A good weezer article...
 

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