California Kids

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"California Kids"
California Kids cover
Album track by Weezer
Album Weezer (The White Album)
Released March 9, 2016
Recorded 2015
Length 3:25
Label Crush Music/Atlantic Records
Writer(s) Rivers Cuomo, Daniel Dodd Wilson
Producer(s) Jake Sinclair
Status officially released
Stream Play on spotify.png Spotify
Play on Apple Music.png Apple Music
Professional reviews
Weezer (The White Album) track listing
"California Kids"
(1)
"Wind in Our Sail"
(2)
"カリフォルニア"
カリフォルニア cover
Single by Scott & Rivers
Released December 2014
Format digital
Length 3:02
Label Universal Music Japan
Writer(s) Rivers Cuomo, Scott Murphy, Daniel Dodd Wilson
Producer(s) Dan Wilson, Daniel Brummel, Jake Sinclair
Status officially released
Stream Play on spotify.png Spotify
Scott & Rivers singles chronology
"Homely Girl" (2013) "California"
(2014)
"Doo Wop" (2016)
"カリフォルニア サンシャイン"
カリフォルニア サンシャイン cover
Album track by Scott & Rivers
Album ニマイメ
Released April 12, 2017
Length 3:13
Label SMJ
Writer(s) Rivers Cuomo, Scott Murphy, Daniel Dodd Wilson
Status officially released
Stream Play on spotify.png Spotify
ニマイメ track listing
"Fun In The Sun feat. PES (RIP SLYME)"
(3)
"カリフォルニア サンシャイン"
(4)
"風吹けば"
(5)

"California Kids" is the lead track on Weezer's eponymous White Album. The song was first released as "California" (Japanese: カリフォルニア), a standalone single by pop/rock duo Scott & Rivers (consisting of Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo and Scott Murphy of the band Allister) on iTunes in December of 2014. The song was later reworked in English as "California Kids", for inclusion on The White Album in 2016. A new recording of the original Japanese song was later released under the title "California Sunshine" (Japanese: カリフォルニア サンシャイン) on Scott & Rivers' sophomore album, Nimaime, in 2017.

Appearances

Overview

"California Kids" was co-written by Rivers Cuomo with songwriter Dan Wilson (of the band Semisonic). Wilson previously collaborated with Cuomo on the song "Ruling Me" from Weezer's 2010 album, Hurley. The phrase "California kids" was inspired by Cuomo spending time on the beach in Santa Barbara with his family and being struck by the realization that his children were growing up in California and how that contrasts with his East Coast upbringing in Connecticut.[1]

In early 2015, Cuomo told fans that an English version of "California" was being considered for inclusion in the pilot episode of DeTour,[citation needed] a television series—loosely based on Cuomo's life—pitched by Psych creator Steve Franks for the Fox network in 2015. Though the show was not picked up and did not air, the pilot (which leaked online in 2023) features the song (within the diegesis of the show), performed acoustically by series protagonist Michael Sturges (Ben Aldridge).

"California Kids" was the only song kept from a group of 235 demos that Cuomo and producer Jake Sinclair listened to in early 2015 when beginning work on what would become The White Album[2], and it was the inspiration for the album's "beach/nautical theme." The lyrics feature a "pack of heroic slackers," according the the album's iTunes description. The song was accidentally made available for streaming on Apple Music in the US on February 25, 2016 and shared among the fan community before it was taken down again by Apple.

"California Kids," performed live and acoustically, was released on the band's Spotify Sessions EP in 2016.

Reception

The song received a middling review from Teenage Victory Songs, representing the moderately positive reception that band's more diehard fan base has shown the song. NPR ranked the song as the 55th best song of 2016.[3]

Known recordings

Performer(s) Title Filename Date of recording Recording location Length Appeared on Notes
Rivers Cuomo Untitled2 9.mp3 2015 8:40 Alone XII: The White Year Practicing intro melody
Scott & Rivers カリフォルニア ? ? 3:02 Digital single
Rivers Cuomo California Kids CALIFORNIA KIDS - V1 - NOV 20.mp3
Rivers Cuomo California Kids California Kids 3.mp3
Rivers Cuomo California Kids California Kids 4.mp3
Rivers Cuomo California Kids California Kids 5.mp3
Rivers Cuomo California Kids California Kids 5 2.mp3
Rivers Cuomo California Kids California Kids 6.mp3
Rivers Cuomo California Kids California Kids 7 bgvs.mp3
Rivers Cuomo California Kids california kids regular chorus vocal up guitar clarity.mp3
Rivers Cuomo California Kids california kids doubletime chorus vocal up guitar clarity.mp3
Rivers Cuomo California Kids California Kids JS 6-8.mp3
Weezer California Kids 2015
  • Infrasonic Sound, Los Angeles, CA
  • The Lair, Los Angeles, CA
  • Studio X, Sonoma, CA
  • United Recording, Los Angeles, CA
  • The Village, Los Angeles, CA
3:25 Weezer (The White Album)
Weezer California Kids April 2016 Spotify offices, New York, NY 3:10 Spotify Sessions
Scott & Rivers(?) California Sunshine [check] california sunshine_[mix0223].mp3
Scott & Rivers California Sunshine 04 カリフォルニア サンシャイン -Mastered 44.1Khz 16bit.wav
Scott & Rivers カリフォルニア サンシャイン ?
  • The Lair Recording, Los Angeles, CA
  • Radio Moscow
  • Harmony Music Studios
  • 4th Street Recording
  • Crush Studios
  • studio studio Den Den
  • Maruni Studio
  • prime sound studio form
  • Sony Music Studios Tokyo
  • Sound Arts
  • Patrick Lounge
  • Doris Land Studios
3:13 Nimaime
about this table

Video/Audio

The music video was directed by SCANTRON and Jade Ehlers and premiered on YouTube on March 9, 2016.

Scott & Rivers

Personnel

Weezer

Scott & Rivers

Icon - 3 books.png This section requires expansion.

Lyrics

California Kids

When you wake up
Cobwebs on your eyelids
Stuck in rigor mortis
Just get going
Till you hit the ocean
And you turn Californian

You don't have to have the answers
Don't you worry, don't you worry

It's gonna be alright
If you're on a sinking ship
The California kids
Will throw you a lifeline
And if you're up all night
Thinking 'bout something you did
The California kids
Will show you the sunshine

In your bare feet
In mid-January
Swimming in the mystery

Second guessing almost everything
Don't you worry, don't you worry

It's gonna be alright
If you're on a sinking ship
The California kids
Will throw you a lifeline
And if you're up all night
Thinking 'bout something you did
The California kids
Will show you the starlight

All your old friends
Chilling back in Boston
You never forgot them

It's gonna be alright
If you're on a sinking ship
The California kids
Will throw you a lifeline
And if you're up all night
Thinking 'bout something you did
The California kids
Will show you the sunshine
The California kids
Will show you the starlight

California/California Sunshine

Japanese

ため息 凍る窓に 白い世界
遠くに 海を仰ぎ カリフォルニアに
見えない ゆく未来 不安を ぬぐうと

It's gonna be alright 沈みかけても
カリフォルニアの 陽を浴びたら
くじけそうで 眠れない日も
カリフォルニアの そこにサンシャイン

真冬に 素足でビーチ まわるフリスビー
水際 波たてば 潮風 ふきつけて

It's gonna be alright 沈みかけても
カリフォルニアの 陽を浴びたら
くじけそうで 眠れない日も
カリフォルニアの そこにサンシャイン

誰にも わからなくても 僕だけの場所

It's gonna be alright 沈みかけても
カリフォルニアの 陽を浴びたら
くじけそうで 眠れない日も
カリフォルニアの そこにサンシャイン
カリフォルニアの そこにサンシャイン
ショー ミー ザ サンシャイン

English translation

Translation courtesy of AllThingsWeezer user Swede

Intro:
My breath freezes on the window, the world is white (i.e. snowing outside)

Verse:
Looking across the ocean, far away, to California
An unseen future to clear away anxiety

Chorus:
It's gonna be alright, even if you're about to sink,
if you bathe in the California sun
Even on days when I can't sleep
there is sunshine in California

Verse:
A frisbee's spinning while we're barefoot on the beach in the middle of winter
The waves roll in at the water's edge, the sea breeze blows

Bridge:
A place just for me that no one else knows

Outro:
Show me the sunshine

See also

  1. "Guest DJ: Weezer's Rivers Cuomo" All Things Considered 10 May 2016. https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2016/05/10/477368704/guest-dj-weezers-rivers-cuomo
  2. see Wannabeezer
  3. NPR. "Top 100 Songs of 2016" https://apps.npr.org/best-music-2016/list/top-songs/