Historic event: 04/15/1993

weezer records at Loyola Marymount University, L.A.

Dale Johnson, a student at LMU had done the sound at a weezer show (the 3/9 appearance at Rhino Records), and asked them to come record at the LMU 24 track studios, for his final project in music engineering class. They recorded several takes of "Jamie". A few weeks later, a classmate of Mark's asked the band to come back, for her own final project (see 4/27 news entry). In all cases, the music was recorded "live", each microphone assigned to its own track. There were no overdubs.

The word from Dale Johnson: "I was the LMU student that brought Weezer into the studio and engineered the version of "Jamie" that appears on DGC Rarities Vol 1. I saw Weezer for the first time in the early spring of 1993 when i did the sound for them at an in-store at Rhino Records in Santa Monica. I had worked there for a bit and had become familiar with them thru my friends Rachel Haden and Kerry Murphy, who had booked the show there that night.

So, I asked them to do the recording assignment which was a live to 2 track version of "Jamie". I still have the shitty copy of [Rivers'] original 8-track demo that was dubbed on the back of a Grant Lee Buffalo sampler cassette somewhere in my closet [see Recording History].

Anyways, I guess the guys were happy with the LMU version of "Jamie", but i never entirely was completely satisfied. I mean, only so much you can do with a live take and only a few hours! Rivers seemed to be really completely amazed when i told him I only got a B+ on the project. "But it's gonna be on a CD, man....!" I remember Matt being really adamant that they would do the recording project with me, but that they had to own the master. Smart boys they were, and I agreed to it, I just really wanted to be credited with the recording."

The session was done with Rivers in an isolated small room, and the rest of the band playing in a larger room. They couldnt see each other but could hear each other and the engineers room via headphones. I (Karl) was in Rivers' room, reading "The Beatles: Recording Sessions", not without some sense of irony. Pat and the others in the big room would periodically call out for me, desperately requesting "more Bromo Seltzer", and asking if i was "lost in the mine shaft". Rivers was moving his head around a lot, claiming that moving his head side to side was his new "singing style". To accomodate, Dale had to crank up Rivers vocal mic so his vocal was consistently loud. In doing so, the mic picked up the sound of Rivers pick strumming the strings of his electric guitar, making it sound like there was an acoustic layered on top of the electric (ironic because Jason had only recently switched from acoustic to electric). (Rivers guitar was electric and was indeed amplified, but the amplifier was isolated in a side closet so it was only audible in the guys headphones, and on the recording itself.)

jamie	take #1 :	incomplete, breaks down
jamie	take #2:	complete but determined to be inferior
jamie	take #3:	incomplete, breaks down
jamie	take #4:	complete but determined to be inferior
jamie	take #5:	selected for a final mix, then rejected in favor of #6
jamie	take #6:	this was used on "DGC Rarities Vol 1"

See also

• Super-Chrono - 1993