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Recording History - Page 7
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The Weezer recording history: Page 7
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late '94 / early '95: "songs from the black hole"
Over Christmas break, Rivers worked feverishly on writing, and recording 8 track demos at home in Connecticut, and emerged with a "mock-up" demo of what he was starting to envision as weezers next album. Influenced by musicals, operas, and "rock-operas", Songs From the Black Hole was an ambitious concept album idea.
By February 1995, Rivers had developed a tracklisting [henceforth known as "Tracklist 1"], and compiled a cassette of it from recordings as old as his late '93 "Tired of Sex" demo, and as recently as new recordings he made over the xmas '94 break at home. In Feburary 95, weezer was stuck in Hamburg, Germany for a week, as Matt had to rush home due to a family emergency, and the least expensive option in light of missing shows, was to just stay put till Matt got back. It was decided that at least some demos could be worked on, and Rivers and Pat rented a modest local recording studio in Hamburg. There the medium was the (then new) ADAT tape system. Both Rivers and Pat did a number of demos (and Pat and Karl even worked on some Southern Fried Swing when nothing else was going on [doing a track called "The Complete History of Techno", which was done solely to make fun of the nasty music being created in the studio next door]. However, it appears that NONE of the ADAT recordings were ever quite finished. It's POSSIBLE that some of the Black Hole songs were "upgraded" with a new recording here, and replaced on the cassette with fresh recorded demos of the same tracks.
Over the course of the winter, spring, and summer 1995 touring, the band discussed and debated the semantics of how to pull it off, and indeed, if it should even be done. Some of the songs were in fact rehersed as a band, some were played out live, and some made it all the way to the second weezer album - although by then the album concept was quite different.
Rivers entered school in Fall 1995, after initial "album #2" recording sessions in August and early September 1995 [listed chronologically later in the Recording History]. Those sessions failed to come together in a way that felt "right" for the Black Hole concept, and [in this writers opinion] Rivers began to question the direction of the second album.
In school, Rivers worked on some demos, and made [what is in this writers opinion] a "last ditch effort" to salvage Songs From the Black Hole. He re-compiled a new tracklisting [henceforth known as "Tracklist 2"] using several newly recorded bits and one mid 1994 demo that was not previously part of the album concept, and took out numerous songs that apparently were no longer needed, either due to their new status as "real album 2" songs, or due to simple creative changes of heart.
Whatever happened that fall, by Jan 1996 both "El Scorcho" and "Pink Triangle" had been written, and they were amongst the tracks worked on in a jan '96 session [documented chronologically later in the History]. By Spring '96 Black Hole had bitten the dust, as the songs "Across the Sea", "Falling for You", and "Butterfly" had come, and the Pinkerton concept had crystalized. the list below has 8 columns:
- Tracklist 1 all of these exist as demo recordings by Rivers
- Tracklist 2 different order but same demo recordings as tracklist #1 plus some new stuff, all by Rivers
- "from", shows the origins of the new tracklist
- "from earlier recording?" shows when the recording here is the same one that has already been listed earlier. Rivers just inserted it into the running order here.
- "band practiced?" shows if the song was then attempted as a band
- "band recorded (later)?" shows if the song was later put on tape as a band (those recordings will be listed later on)
- "released(later)?" shows if a later band recording of the song was in fact eventually released , on Pinkerton or as a b-side.
- is comments
NOTE: this table adheres to tracklist 1 as its base, so the tracklist 2 songs will appear out of order. They are numbered to show their actual order.
| Tracklist 1 | Tracklist 2 | from | from earlier recording? | band practiced? | band recorded(later)? | released (later)? | comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. "Blast Off!" | 1. "Blast Off!" | same | yes | yes (see aug '95) | no | 2/95 Hamburg, Germany demo | |
| 2. "You Won't Get With Me Tonight" | 15. "You Won't Get With Me Tonight" | same | yes, '95 Teenage Fanclub tour soundchecks | no | no | either xmas 94 RC home demo, or a 2/95 Hamburg, Germany demo | |
| 3. "Maria's Theme" | 3. "Oh Jonas" | same retitled | no | no | no | either xmas 94 RC home demo, or a 2/95 Hamburg, Germany demo | |
| 4. "Come to My Pod" | 5. "Come to My Pod" | same | no | no | no | either xmas 94 RC home demo, or a 2/95 Hamburg, Germany demo | |
| 5. This Is Not For Me | 6. "Oh No, This is Not For Me" | same retitled | no | no | no | either xmas 94 RC home demo, or a 2/95 Hamburg, Germany demo | |
| 6. "Tired of Sex" | 7. "Tired of Sex" | same | yes (late '93 'garage' demo) | yes (many times) | yes (many times) | yes (Pinkerton) | (renamed from "Tired of Having Sex") |
| 7. "Superfriend" | 13. "Superfriend" | same | yes, the band played this at at least one soundcheck (Phoenix) on the spring '95 tour with Rachel Haden dueting vocals with Rivers | yes [attempted spring '96 at Sound City Studios during Pinkerton sessions. Never completed.] | no | either xmas 94 RC home demo, or a 2/95 Hamburg, Germany demo | |
| 8. "She's Had a Girl" | 8. "She's Had a Girl" | same | no | no | no | either xmas 94 RC home demo, or a 2/95 Hamburg, Germany demo | |
| 9. "Good News!" | 9. "Dude, We're Finally Landing" | same retitled | no | no | no | either xmas 94 RC home demo, or a 2/95 Hamburg, Germany demo | |
| 10. "Now I Finally See" | 10. "Now I Finally See" | same | no | no | no | either xmas 94 RC home demo, or a 2/95 Hamburg, Germany demo | |
| 11. "Getchoo" | dropped | yes (early '94 demo) | yes (mucho) | yes | yes (Pinkerton) | new spelling | |
| 12. I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams | 11. "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams" | same | yes (1994 demo) | yes, done at at least one soundcheck on tour, w/ Rachel Haden on vocals | yes | yes | this ver. has pitch shifted Rivers vocals for female part. |
| 13. "No Other One" | dropped | yes (1994 demo) | yes | yes | yes | (title shortened from "There Is No Other One") | |
| 14. "Devotion" | dropped | yes (1994 demo) | yes | yes | yes | ||
| 15. What Is This I Find? | 16. "What Is This I Find?" | same | no | no | no | either xmas 94 RC home demo, or a 2/95 Hamburg, Germany demo | |
| 16. "Longtime Sunshine" | dropped | yes (late 1994 demo) | yes | yes | no | ||
| 17. "Longtime Sunshine" Reprise | dropped | (unclear if this is a '94 demo or later) | no | no | no | ||
| #? "Why Bother?" | dropped | yes (1994 demo) | yes | yes | yes | out of order, true placement in S.F.T.B.H. unknown | |
| n/a | 2. "Who You Callin' Bitch?" | fall 1995, new demo | no | no | no | no | |
| n/a | 4. "Please Remember" | fall 1995, new demo | no | no | no | no | |
| n/a | 12. "Lisa" | fall 94 demo | yes | no | no | no | |
| n/a | 14. "Longtime Sunshine" Reprise | fall 1995, new demo | no | no | no | no |
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