Recording History - Page 11

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The Weezer recording history: Page 11

Recording History
Page 10
(Sept. 1997 - Winter 1999)
Page 11
(Spring 1999 - Nov. 1999)
Page 12
(Jan. 2000 - Dec. 2000)
All Recording History pages
Page 1
(1987 - Feb. 1991)
Page 2
(Late 1990 - Jan. 1992)
Page 3
(Feb. 1992 - Sept. 1992)
Page 4
(Sept. 1992 - Aug. 1993)
Page 5
(Aug. 1993 - Spring 1994)
Page 6
(Late Spring 1994 - Dec. 1994)
Page 7
(Late 1994 - Early 1995)
Page 8
(Late 1994 - Aug. 1996)
Page 9
(Aug. 1996 - Aug. 1997)
Page 10
(Sept. 1997 - Winter 1999)
Page 11
(Spring 1999 - Nov. 1999)
Page 12
(Jan. 2000 - Dec. 2000)
Page 13
(Dec. 2000 - Feb. 2002)
Page 14
(March 2002 - Nov. 2003)
Page 15
(Dec. 2003 - April 2005)

spring 1999

By this point, for whatever reason(s), not much was happening in rehersals, and they werent happening with much frequency. Management, concerned at spiralling costs of production without a known product (very little music was leaked out of the rehearsals, leading people in various offices to worry that there was no music to justify the expenses) suggested that the band simply take a break until things started to move again. Pat, already excited to work on the Special Goodness, welcomed this. Brian used his time to write Space Twins songs and play shows with both his Space Twins and another L.A band, Mephisto, while Mikey was a bit confused as to what to do, having dropped everything to join the band a year earlier.

Mikey had been writing bass lines during the months of spring 1999, originally offering these to Rivers for new song ideas, but Rivers didnt make use of them. When it became clear that rehersals were to be suspended indefinately, Mikey offered them to his then-friend and ex-bandmate Juliana Hatfield, and they ended up recording her new cd together in Boston in summer 1999. This album was released on Island Records as "Juliana's Pony" in 2000.

RIVERS'S 1999 DEMOS

Throughout the course of 1999, Rivers embarked on a whole series of new demo recordings, in a major attempt to focus on songwriting like never before. By the end of the year, 121 songs had been written, though only ones that got past an experimental stage actually got on tape as a demo. These are listed below. Note that for each one of the songs in this list, at least 5-15 demo versions were recorded, as changes were made. The following list is a fairly chronological account of what Rivers was doing for much of the year.

Rivers Demos at TK Productions, early 1999

  1. "Socialite"
  2. "Crazy One"
  3. Riff In G#
  4. "Sunshine"
  5. E - A Riff
  6. "Stars Shine Bright (Goodnight)"
  7. "Saturday Night Another City Dream"
  8. "It Feels Good (Finger Burns)" (error in master recording)
  9. "How Many Places"

Rivers demos at unknown locations, spring - winter 1999

Rivers demos - assorted dates - "Egmbedeie Molaictium"

This is a set of demos that apparently was an amalgamation of several additional "TKX" tracks from sometime in 1998, plus a bunch of 1999 demos and even a few early 2000 ones. Why they were grouped together like this is unknown, and they are being kept together on this list for clarity, for now.
1,2, and 8 = "tkx 1998" 3 - 7 and 10 - 22 = 1999 and 2000

  1. "I Dont Need You"
  2. "It Used to Be Mine"
  3. "Heavy Metal"
  4. "Heavy Metal"
  5. "Heavy Metal"
  6. "Heavy Metal"
  7. "Heavy Metal"
  8. "I'm Such a Little Bitch"
  9. "Full Instrumental"
  10. "I Wanted to Know"
  11. "There's a Lucky One"
  12. "Smokin' Crack"
  13. "Let it All Hang Out"
  14. "Dumb"
  15. "Stop, Drop"
  16. "Hold My Mind"
  17. |A BG|G |
  18. "Stay"
  19. "You Wanna' Be"
  20. "Average Town"
  21. "Hey Angel"
  22. "Everybody Waits"

Winter - Spring 1999

Pat helps out his old friend Pat Finn, by playing drums on Finn's new demos for his band "Organic Mechanic". they did about 6 songs together, some on several different occasions. Since that time, Pat Finn has assembled a full band and has recorded a full album, to be independently released in spring 2001. The demos that Wilson played on will likely stay under wraps.

Spring 1999: (4/14/99) The Rentals "Seven More Minutes" released

After endless delays, some caused by Matt as he kept remixing and modifying songs throughout 1998, and some caused by his label Maverick, who kept holding things up by requesting that Matt change things that Matt refused to change, Maverick released 7MM to a small enthusiastic audience, that failed to grow due to Maverick's mysterious sudden lack of promotional muscle. An unfortunate anti-climactic result to Matt's 3 years of work, but a fine album nonetheless!

I don't have info as to Matt's remixing and various small re-recording sessions throughout 1998 and early 1999, I only know he did a ton of them, mostly in LA.

Spring 1999: Special Goodness demos:

...all recorded by Pat, direct to laptop computer in a spare bedroom at his house in Portland

note that 4 of these songs ended up on a special 20-25 CD run of cd-r's that were sent out to various venues, in the process of booking the fall 1999 SG tour. Those cd-r's have the 10 songs from the japanese release, plus 4 of the above songs tacked on.

Summer '99 : first Special Goodness shows (mini-"tour")

?/?/99: Portland OR: 17 Nautical Miles : audience bootleg of the very first show, last 2 songs of set are missing from the recording

summer 1999: Space Twins Demo

this is a cd demo, "space twins" and a contact # is printed on the disc

summer 1999(?): Space Twins show

unknown date, location, and set list, except for:

summer (fall?) 1999: Space Twins demo

Brian had a small run of CD's pressed up for this demo. (25?)

all the versions on this are quite different from earlier demos and 7"s

note: some cd's of this have only 5 songs, i dont know which song is absent on those.

these are cd demos, "space twins" and a contact # are printed on the discs

October/November '99 : Special Goodness tour bootlegs

If you know of other audio or video bootlegs, contact karl

10-26-99 - Rutgers U., NJ : post show backstage interview with the band, aired on college station WMCX on 11/4/99.

10/29/99 - Boston, Mass.-The Middle East : video bootleg

11/2/99 Pittsburgh - Club Laga : includes the "weezer karaoke" encore. some mp3s exist.

11/4/99 Dayton, Ohio : full audience bootleg 11/13/99 - Fayetteville, AR - Clunk Hall : At least two people videotaped the show.

11/18/99 Houston - Rudyard's Pub : whole show, audience recording (done to minidisc, nice recording) (tracklist unavailable) 11/20/99 Dallas - Club Clearview : whole show, audience recording (done to minidisc, nice recording) (tracklist unavailable)

11/25/99 San Francisco - Club Cocodrie: Space Twins + Special Goodness together! Audio Tape, audience boot(?), quality level unknown

Space Twins setlist:

"Osaka Aquabus"
"Louder Than Lies"
"Rings of Saturn"
"Burn in Black"
"Rust Colored Sun"
"Goddess of Love"
"Final Voyage"

The Special Goodness setlist:

"It's Only Natural"
"What You're On"
"Fatigue"
"Pardon Me"
"Conquistadors Of Nothing"
"B.S."
"What You Can Forget"
"Reason to Worry"
"Let's Go Down"
"I'm With You Sister"
RIFF
"Went Down Swinging"
"Life Goes By"
"I'm Not Too Proud"
"It's All Here In This Book"

Note that the shows from Austin TX (11/19/99) through Seattle WA (11/27/99) were documented extensively by members and staff of the opening band, Eureka Farm. They videotaped and audiotaped many SG sets, but their tapes are now in private hands.

if anyone knows of other recordings of any of these shows, tape or video, please let karl know.