Difference between revisions of "Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo"

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== Background ==
 
== Background ==
Rivers Cuomo has long been known by fans to have recorded a great deal of unreleased material, nearly 800 songs in his lifetime. This material was recorded with Weezer, earlier bands, and self-recorded demos. Of these songs, despite the large amount of unreleased material that has been made available by Cuomo on the internet, large chunks of his work remain unheard by fans. These include certain demos for [[The Blue Album]], various songs from the scrapped ''[[Songs from the Black Hole]]'' project, over a hundred songs he composed and demoed throughout [[1999]] (songs which he has described as ranging from "drone-y Romantic," "abrasive dissonance" and "riffy pop-rock") and well over a hundred songs that didn't make the cut for Make Believe.
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Rivers Cuomo has long been known by fans to have recorded a great deal of unreleased material, nearly 800 songs in his lifetime. This material was recorded with Weezer, earlier bands, and self-recorded demos. Of these songs, despite the large amount of unreleased material that has been made available by Cuomo on the internet, large chunks of his work remain unheard by fans. These include certain demos for [[The Blue Album]], various songs from the scrapped ''[[Songs from the Black Hole]]'' project, over a hundred songs he composed and demoed throughout [[1999]] (songs which he has described as ranging from "drone-y Romantic," "abrasive dissonance" and "riffy pop-rock") and well over a hundred songs that didn't make the cut for ''[[Make Believe]]''.
  
 
The idea for the demo collection was made 10 years ago, when Cuomo had brought up the idea to his record company. However, they discouraged him from the idea because they didn't want to "dilute the Weezer name" by putting out less polished material. It wasn't until 10 years later that Cuomo pushed harder for the collection and it gained enough support for a release.
 
The idea for the demo collection was made 10 years ago, when Cuomo had brought up the idea to his record company. However, they discouraged him from the idea because they didn't want to "dilute the Weezer name" by putting out less polished material. It wasn't until 10 years later that Cuomo pushed harder for the collection and it gained enough support for a release.

Revision as of 00:40, 29 November 2008

Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo
Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo cover
Studio album by Rivers Cuomo
Released November 25, 2008
Recorded 1992-2008
Genre Alternative rock
Label Geffen Records
Producer(s) Rivers Cuomo
Rivers Cuomo chronology
Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo
(2007)
Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo
(2008)

Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo is a compilation album by Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo. It is a sequel to 2007's Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo. On July 24, 2008, a spreadsheet entitled "The 4 and 5 star demos of river como" was posted on riverscuomo.com, with certain songs designated as songs that either appeared on Alone, Buddyhead's Gimme Skelter compilation, or the then unreleased Alone II. Soon after the list was posted, the site was redirected back to Cuomo's MySpace. On October 27, 2008, final tracklist was posted on Pitchforkmedia.com at the end of the interview with Rivers.

On October 15, 2008, Alone II appeared on Amazon with a release date of November 25, 2008.

On October 22, 2008, the cover appeared on interpunk.com

Background

Rivers Cuomo has long been known by fans to have recorded a great deal of unreleased material, nearly 800 songs in his lifetime. This material was recorded with Weezer, earlier bands, and self-recorded demos. Of these songs, despite the large amount of unreleased material that has been made available by Cuomo on the internet, large chunks of his work remain unheard by fans. These include certain demos for The Blue Album, various songs from the scrapped Songs from the Black Hole project, over a hundred songs he composed and demoed throughout 1999 (songs which he has described as ranging from "drone-y Romantic," "abrasive dissonance" and "riffy pop-rock") and well over a hundred songs that didn't make the cut for Make Believe.

The idea for the demo collection was made 10 years ago, when Cuomo had brought up the idea to his record company. However, they discouraged him from the idea because they didn't want to "dilute the Weezer name" by putting out less polished material. It wasn't until 10 years later that Cuomo pushed harder for the collection and it gained enough support for a release.

There were some legal issues between Cuomo and Geffen about releasing the album:

[Legal issues] [were] a big part of it because the record company owns all of my demos under Weezer's contract, and my argument was that they aren't Weezer recordings; they're not part of the Weezer record deal, this is my own stuff, I should own this. So we had to negotiate for a long time to reach an agreement as to the legal ownership of the records but we agreed enough that we were able to move forward and put it out.

During promotional interviews for Alone in 2007, Cuomo mentioned the possibility of releasing more demo albums through Geffen records. Of the reported 15 hours of demos Cuomo has made, he believed that one or two more solid albums on the level of Alone could be created.

College radio leak

The album was first played in it's entirety on November 18, 2008 by Albumsix users Gecaj and Giggens on their college rock radio station: WSIN.

Alone II jam session

See [[Main article: Alone II hootenanny]]

On November 25, 2008 Rivers organized a jam session for him and 80 fans at the Fingerprint record store in Long Beach, California. Participants brought their instruments and voted on what songs they wanted to play with Rivers singing.

Track listing

  1. "Victory on the Hill"
  2. "I Want to Take You Home Tonight"
  3. "The Purification of Water"
  4. "I Was Scared"
  5. "Harvard Blues"
  6. "My Brain Is Working Overtime"
  7. "I Don't Want to Let You Go"
  8. "Oh Jonas"
  9. "Please Remember"
  10. "Come to My Pod"
  11. "Don't Worry Baby" (The Beach Boys cover)
  12. "The Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World"
  13. "I Can't Stop Partying"
  14. "Paper Face"
  15. "Walt Disney"
  16. "I Admire You So Much"
  17. "My Day Is Coming"
  18. "Cold and Damp"
  19. "I'll Think About You"

Track list changes

Since Cuomo put his demo spreadsheet online on July 24, 2008, the track list for Alone II has changed.

Songs added

Songs left off

Track origins

  • "Victory on the Hill" is an all-trumpet instrumental written and performed by Cuomo in late 1993. Its all-trumpet sequel, "Defeat on the Hill", was written and recorded between touring for Weezer (The Blue Album) in mid-1994.
  • "I Want to Take You Home Tonight" was recorded in 2002.
  • "Paperface" was recorded in 1992. A full-band demo was released on the deluxe version of Weezer (The Blue Album).
  • "Don't Worry Baby" and "The Purification of Water" were recorded in 1992 and 1993 before the release of the band's debut album, Weezer (The Blue Album).
  • "I'll Think About You" was originally recorded in 1994 and later a contender for the never-released Homie album.
  • "Walt Disney" and "Harvard Blues" were recorded in 1995.
  • "Come to My Pod", "Oh Jonas" and "Please Remember" were recorded for Songs from the Black Hole, recorded in 1995.
  • "The Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World" was recorded in 1997 during the band's hiatus as an early contender for 2001's Weezer (The Green Album).
  • "I Was Scared" was recorded in 2003 as an early contender for Make Believe.
  • "My Day is Coming" and "I Don't Wanna Let You Go" were recorded in 2006 and 2007, before the release of Weezer (The Red Album).
  • "I Can't Stop Partying" was written by Jermaine Dupri and demoed by Cuomo in 2008.

See also