In the Garage
| "In the Garage" | |||||
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| Album track by Weezer | |||||
| Album | Weezer (The Blue Album) | ||||
| Released | May 10, 1994 | ||||
| Recorded | August-September 1993 at Electric Lady Studios, New York, NY | ||||
| Length | 3:55 | ||||
| Label | DGC | ||||
| Writer(s) | Rivers Cuomo | ||||
| RC# | 168 | ||||
| COR# | N/A | ||||
| Producer(s) | Ric Ocasek | ||||
| Status | Officially released | ||||
| Live debut | August 1, 1993 in West Hollywood, CA | ||||
| Weezer (The Blue Album) track listing | |||||
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| Rivers Cuomo song chronology | |||||
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"In the Garage" is the eighth track from The Blue Album.
Contents
Appearances
- Weezer (The Blue Album)
- Bloodshot (DGC Promotional CD)
Overview
In the original press kit for The Blue Album, Rivers Cuomo identifies "In the Garage" along with "Holiday" and "Buddy Holly" as having been "written in a sudden burst of confidence and optimism right after we got a record deal."[1]. The song was likely first recorded in July of 1993, and was catalogued by Cuomo on his personal demo tape Don Slacks.[2]. Weezer debuted the song live at the Roxy in West Hollywood, CA on August 1, 1993[3], the last concert they would play with Jason Cropper.
The garage named in the song is one that the band used for early rehearsals and recordings, next to a home that many of them lived in. It is located at 2226 Amherst Avenue in Los Angeles, California and referred to as the "Amherst House." This location is depicted in the "Say It Ain't So" music video.
The song was recorded with the rest of Blue at the end of August 1993, though the itineraries of individual recording days are not known[4]. On August 11, a few weeks before these formal sessions, the band worked with Ric Ocasek on a "reprise" of "In the Garage" that Karl Koch termed "a weird mellow vocal harmony thing"[5]. This recording has not surfaced, and it is not known if or where it would have appeared in the Blue tracklist otherwise. In January of 1995, Weezer recorded a new in-studio version of the song featuring an organ in place of harmonica. This was aired on the BBC Radio 1 program The Evening Session.
Alongside "My Name Is Jonas," "Garage" makes prominent use of a harmonica. Weezer would not return to this instrument on an official recording until 2005's Make Believe, on the song "Freak Me Out." Though Cuomo initially performed the harmonica parts for "In the Garage" in live shows, Brian Bell has performed it as well.
The song's lyrics were referenced in much of the early press that the band received, helping to associate the band with labels like geek rock and nerd rock.[6][7]. Writing in a retrospective 2017 review of The Blue Album for Pitchfork, Jillian Mapes described the song as "an homage to that happy place where no one judges you for your comic books, D&D figurines, and Kiss posters... The hopeless ambition of “In the Garage” would make it the defining song of nerd-rock."[8]. Mapes juxtaposes the autobiographical qualities of "Garage" ("a hyper-detailed song about himself") with the fantasy-driven "Surf Wax America."
Video Capture Device live video
Shot in Denver in the afternoon, at a different venue from the that night's gig at the Ogden, which was with a seated audience-for reasons we never figured out... Oh yeah, it was for the Weezer DVD 9 years later!
- -Karl Koch on this live take of "In the Garage," from the liner notes for Video Capture Device
Audio
Lyrics
I've got the Dungeon Master's Guide
I've got a 12-sided die
I've got Kitty Pryde
And Nightcrawler too
Waiting there for me
Yes I do, I do
I've got posters on the wall
My favorite rock group Kiss
I've got Ace Frehley
I've got Peter Criss
Waiting there for me
Yes I do, I do
In the garage I feel safe
No one cares about my ways
In the garage
Where I belong
No one hears me sing this song
In the garage
I've got an electric guitar
I play my stupid songs
I write these stupid words
And I love every one
Waiting there for me
Yes I do, I do
In the garage I feel safe
No one cares about my ways
In the garage
Where I belong
No one hears me sing this song
In the garage, in the garage
In the garage I feel safe
No one cares about my ways
In the garage
Where I belong
No one hears me sing this song
In the garage I feel safe
No one laughs about my ways
In the garage
Where I belong
No one hears me
No one hears me
No one hears me
No one hears me
No one hears me sing this song
See also
External links
References
- ↑ Weezer (The Blue Album) press kit#RIVERS
- ↑ [1] Catalog O'Riffs document from Cuomo lists "In the Garage" under the date June 30, 1993
- ↑ Historic event: 08/01/1993
- ↑ Recording History - Page 5#BLUE ALBUM SESSIONS New York City - August, September, October 1993
- ↑ Recording History - Page 4#8/11/93: Practice Demo recorded by Ric Ocasek
- ↑ Entertainment Weekly interview with Weezer - October 14, 1994
- ↑ Guitar World interview with Rivers Cuomo - March 1995
- ↑ Weezer (The Blue Album) Pitchfork Media record review
