Riverpedia archive - 10/13/2022

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Carnival Destiny

The name of the ship Weezer sailed on January 19-23, 2012 from Miami to the island of Cozumel off the Gulf Coast is Mexico.

It was a fun experience for all. I wrote the song “Prom Night” on the boat after inspiration from the 80’s Prom Night themed party we had. I wore a captains hat.

Carnival Destiny Weezer Cruise.jpg Captain Rivers.jpg

( Last edited by TragicGurl at 2022-10-13T04:41:39Z)

DeTour

A 2015 TV show pilot that was inspired by my life, about a rockstar who decides to go back to college. The fictitious band name was originally "Modern Dukes" (from a song of the same name that I'd released to fans in 2001 and that I'd considered for Make Believe); but had to be changed to "Crimson Dukes" due to some copyright issue. (I thought the creators just like that name better?)

I filmed a cameo in it, playing a "Professor Kitts". Professor of what?

The show didn't get picked up. It's weird; in music, if you make an album and your label decides not to put it out, you can bring it to another label to release it. I learned that was not the case with TV, so we ended up with a completely finished pilot that we couldn't show anyone.

Rivers Cuomo as Prof Kitts with red bowtie

( Last edited by TragicGurl at 2022-10-13T00:46:43Z)

Everybody Needs Salvation

"Everybody Needs Salvation" is a single released by Weezer directly and exclusively to the members of the Weezer Fan Club. The song was only released on 7" one-sided red vinyl, with a digital MP3 download of the track for members of the fan club. The 7" features no B-side, meaning this side of the single is smooth. The song was recorded in February 2015, several months after the sessions for their most recent album Everything Will Be Alright in the End, but a version of the song was written prior to and considered for the album at one point. A portion of the bridge lyrics appear in the album liner notes after the lyrics for The British Are Coming.

At a Nerd Night in 2015, Rivers told a fan that the song was picked for the fan club single because it was "something different." Rivers also said that he personally chose the cover.

The cover is a painting by Antonello da Messina called Ecce Homo, painted in 1475. The symbol on the shoulder of Christ is the Om in Devanagari.

ENS ecce-homo-474 painting.jpg ENS cover.jpg

( Last edited by TragicGurl at 2022-10-13T00:42:57Z)

Expatriates In Paris

A song I wrote with the guys from Ozma. This one’s awesome.

You can find a piano sketch of it in Alone XI: The EWBAITE Years, and several full demos of the song in Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers. Both bundles can be found in my demo market.

( Last edited by TragicGurl at 2022-10-13T07:03:14Z)

Rivers in Drag

Riversdrag 08.png

( Last edited by TragicGurl at 2022-10-13T01:03:40Z)

Satchidananda Ashram

In Pomfret, Connecticut in the 1970's. For some reason the buildings were painted pink. I also went to school there from 3rd through 5th grade. I have a good memories of Swami Satchidananda. He felt like a kinder, gentler, slower Gandalf. Also, he had all of us kids doing yoga and meditation and cooking and cleaning every day. For a while I took care of the ponies.

My 1977 class picture at Integral Yoga School on the Ashram. I’m the one in the green shirt on the second row.

Riverpedia Integral Yoga School 1977.JPG

( Last edited by TragicGurl at 2022-10-13T06:38:59Z)

Setlist Generator

A program I created that generates setlists for Weezer shows and for my Island in the Zoom performances. For IITZ especially, it ensures a variety of songs including rarely played deep cuts, b-sides, along with the better known popular hits.

Further Reading:
Avant Garde

( Last edited by TragicGurl at 2022-10-13T05:47:58Z)

Sleep

I go to sleep at 10:45pm every night. Alarm set for 6am.Sometimes I wake up earlier. I'm not a great sleeper.

From a Sept. 13, 2022 NYT interview I did:

Sleep has historically been a little challenging for me — I’ll often wake up in the middle of the night, wide-awake, and my body and mind have no interest in going back to sleep. But somebody told me if you tape your mouth shut with athletic tape, you’ll get much deeper sleep. I tried it, and it works great. At night, I say good night to my wife and then keep my mouth shut. The first night I was a little panicky, and gasping for breath through my nostrils, but then my body calmed down and I got a great night’s sleep.


Rivers Cuomo mouth taping Nexcare medical tape sleep mask and earplugs

Further reading:
Kyoko

( Last edited by TragicGurl at 2022-10-13T00:30:23Z)

SZNZ

The SZNZ spreadsheet breakdown is here

A planned series of four albums (8 songs apiece, totaling 32 songs), set for release on the first day of each season of 2022.

July 9, 2021 - Interesting convo with JD. SZNZ may not come out as I originally envisioned but cool nonetheless.

August 25, 2021 - JD heard all of SZNZ. He said his fav was Autumn, which surprised him, he thought it would be his least fav. I was surprised too, but now that I look at it again, it is pretty immediately likeable. It's more uptempo. His fav track off of it is What Happens After You. I also just shipped off my SZNZ PowerPoint to everyone.

I think it's going to be five songers digitally at first. Vinyl will have all eight songs each.

Records is the single. I believe I said that before but maybe not. Think of it as the “All My Favorite Songs” of SZNZ. It will come out the same day that Spring is released.

You guys are going to have hundreds of demos for each song on SZNZ. Documenting each step of the writing process. I've learned so much writing this album.

There are hardly any co-writes on SZNZ.

Inspiration:

Each album will feature a specific emotion and musical genre, and musical themes from Vivaldi's 'Le quattro stagioni' will appear throughout.

SZNZ starts out fully Pagan-Narnia in Spring, and ends up crushingly Christian in Winter (increasingly Old and New Testament into Autumn and Winter).

Wow the Dead Sea Scrolls are pretty cool, I came across it while doing research for Angels on Vacation. It's on Spring. Gabriel and Michael take a vacay from heaven, come down to earth, Disney World etc. Halos off, baby.

I'm reading it [Ulysses] over and over until I'm done with seasons. Ulysses is one of the most influential works of art of the 20th Century. But I'm not mining it for specific quotes. More for techniques of composition and just general inspiration. It's pretty mind opening. He did things no one ever thought to do in literature before. Also I'm inspired by how he wanted to make an extremely difficult work of art (I mean difficult to understand).

Ethan says he wants to make Spring feel like optimistic sorrow. That's a bit of a shift from my original thesis happy chill.

• Spring (March 20, 2022): Happy Chill; acoustic & breezy; inspired by Island In The Sun.
• Summer (June 20, 2022): Youthful Indignation; crunchy beach boys; will be perceived as more "Classic Weezer.”
• Autumn (Sept 22, 2022): Anxiety, Fear; dance-rock; inspired by Franz Ferdinand’s Take Me Out and the Strokes.
• Winter (Dec 21, 2022): Sadness, grief over loss; sad-acoustic 90's singer/songwriter Elliott Smith.

Recording:

Each Season will have a co-producer we've never worked with before, in addition to Jake (big picture) and Suzy (vocals). Ethan Gruska is the Spring co-pro.

SZNZ will be the opposite of quarantine recording, as we plan to record with all musicians playing together in the same room with Jake’s version of The Wrecking Crew. We’ll also be working with Rob Mathes (LA Phil conductor we worked with on OKH) and his friends. The recording session will be in September after the Hella Mega tour.

My first deadline for SZNZ is Friday, May 28, 2021.

Pre-production for Spring starts on October 25th. It's the first time we've done pre-production since Make Believe, but I believe all albums need it. I think Jake's gonna work us a lot harder this time.

September 21, 2021 - the SZNZ era begins. Had a meeting with Ethan and Jake today. We *might end up back at Sound City (of Pinkerton fame. And Nevermind fame...he.) Jake's talking about recording straight to tape...8 track tape.

October 22, 2021 - Good call with Jake. We're recording SZNZ to 24-track with no click or grid. Even vocals will be done to tape. This profoundly changes how we record. Instead infinite tracks, infinite options to sift through, we'll have 24 (half of which will be drum tracks.) Any cut and paste will have to be done with a razor blade.

October 28, 2021 - We tracked drums for 8 of 9 possible Spring songs. At the last second, OPENING NIGHT was selected in favor of GOOD MORNING, which was voted off the island. ( GOOD MORNING has been almost making =w= records since at least Hurley ).

I renamed the song LOS ANGELES to THE GARDEN OF EDEN. I recorded acoustic guitars and vocals for it today.

Songs/Lyrics:

There’s a song on SZNZ about the pilot of the Goodyear Blimp, although the specific season remains unspecified.

The opening song of SZNZ is a tribute to Shakespeare, called Opening Night.

Maybe Autumn is written from the perspective of an anxious android.

The verse from Hello, Concubine is currently being used as the verse for Basketball. Here's the Coach lyric from Basketball :

"Under the bleachers
Hiding for an hour
Coach is looking for me
Cuz his job is to empower"

I’m happy that I worked the word 'triclinium' into Summer’s Cuomoville.

I’ve also mentioned possible lyrics for The Opposite Of Me (also on Summer). “Somebody's so relatable you feel as if they're your best friend. And when they begin to make a speech you wish that it would never end.”

MNF is the last song on Summer which is weird but technically football starts in Summer.

Across the Meadow is Ethan's favorite song on Spring, which surprised me. It's the most sweet, gentle song on Spring. I was wrong, Ethan's favorite is Wild at Heart.

with RECORDS being added summer, we moved ALL THIS LOVE from summer to spring. So one of the other spring songs will surely get bumped. ALL THIS LOVE is jake's fav. It's a beautiful, effortless =w= song.

Other songs in contention for SZNZ:

Spring:
Opening Night
Angels on Vacation
Wild at Heart
All this Love


Summer:
Dorothy
Cuomoville
The Opposite Of Me
Monday Night Football
Records


Autumn:
Francesca
What Happens After You
Run Raven Run


Winter:
Basketball
I Want a Dog
Tastes Like Pain

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Further Reading:
Jonathan Daniel (JD)

( Last edited by TragicGurl at 2022-10-13T05:48:51Z)

The Truth

A short-lived band for which I played bass. Kevin Ridel was the singer and songwriter. All songs were all Christian pop-rock. We played 1 show at the Whiskey [Whisky a Go Go]

( Last edited by TragicGurl at 2022-10-13T00:49:51Z)

Veracruz

The jersey I wear in The Sweater Song video is from a Mexican soccer team from the state of Veracruz. I got it from a boy who -along with his family- helped me when I traveled to Mexico in my early 20s, I got to the state of Veracruz with no money. I got very sick in Mexico City. I rode a bus overnight. I arrived in the morning. The sun was shining. I stepped off the bus. The boy was there. He was about 10. He took me to his family's home. The father slept on a piece of cardboard. The boy and his mom slept in a small bed. They gave me the other bed. I ate avocados, salt, and bread every day. I've worn it in several shows since as a gesture of gratitude.

Sweater-Song-Veracruz-shirt.gif

( Last edited by TragicGurl at 2022-10-13T05:32:41Z)

Warlock

My metal cover band. I played drums. All metal except no KISS.

Leaves Cuomo - Guitar

Adam Orth - Guitar

Matt Hayes - Vocals

Justin Fisher - Bass


Livin' After Midnite

Victim of changes

Breaking the law

( Last edited by TragicGurl at 2022-10-13T06:43:00Z)

Yoriko Ito

Kyoko's sister. She worked for a bank for most of her adult life. She recently retired. She is a master sensei of the Japanese tea ceremony. She is 3 years older than Kyoko and just a few weeks younger than me. She is a bit more typically Japanese than Kyoko is. For example, she didn't get into western music in the 90s like Kyoko did.

( Last edited by TragicGurl at 2022-10-13T07:05:57Z)