Musicwhore.org Music and memory

My first encounter with Weezer was at a concert. A friend of mine had an extra ticket, and I was curious about the band, having heard about them for years.

It was not a pleasant introduction.

First, I had a beer in my hand and was about to take a sip when a frat boy bumped into me, spilling my drink. The motherfucker turned to me and said, “Watch where you’re going.” That did not put me in a receptive mood.

Weezer got on stage, and the only thing I heard was a bunch of songs ripping off the Pixies.

I said as much to my friend who asked me what I thought. He hadn’t yet discovered the Pixies.

I wrote off Weezer from that moment on.

There was just one problem. Rivers Cuomo is so totally my type.

Whenever I flipped through rock magazines, I would do a double-take whenever I spotted Cuomo, then feel let down when I discovered the cute guy in the pic was in that band I totally hated.

By 2002, I surrendered to my hormones and gave Weezer a chance. So I picked up Maladroit. I still wasn’t impressed, mostly because I was deep into Japanese indie rock. Among my friends who were Weezer fans, the post-Pinkerton albums were varying degrees of disappointment.

So Rivers Cuomo joined that cadre of musicians who I found attractive but could not support. I was not the target market.

I do make one exception: Pinkerton.

I found a copy of the album at the Lifelong Thrift Store and bought it on reputation alone. Whatever traces of the Pixies at which I scoffed in the concert aren’t found here. I might buy another Weezer album if it sounded like Pinkerton.

Similar to Billy Joel’s Storm Front, Pinkerton is the album to own if you don’t really like Weezer all that much.

Tags: music discovery, weezer