Weezerpedia:Today's featured article/June 29, 2009
The Story of Making the Blue Album
by Karl Koch, written October 30, 2003.
Getting signed to a major label was simultaneously the culmination of 4 guys' lofty dreams of music success, and a plunge into an abyss of worry and confusion.
Everyone was excited and relieved, but the horror stories were in abundance of bands who made albums that were never released, got dropped before they even made an album, and put an album out but were never given the tour support to go out and give it a chance. Weezer had played only a tiny handful of shows outside of L.A., so they were banking everything on the strength of an album they hadn't made yet, as they had no built-in fanbase to impress the record company with. The band felt that it was safest to record the album themselves in their garage rehearsal space, where they had made demos in the past, rather than take the big financial risk of hiring a producer and a big-time studio. The band's A+R man Todd Sullivan convinced them to send some tapes out to producers and consider doing it on that level. I only remember that we were sending a tape to the Cars's Ric Ocasek, based on Rivers and the band's recent love affair with The Cars' Greatest Hits album. The band were reluctant to say the least, but the die was cast. Tapes were also sent out to Sean Slade/Paul Kolderie and Lenny Kay, to round out the possibilities.