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Chillin' with the Weez-er
Author: Dawne Brooks (The Daily Aztec)
Published: April 6, 1995
DGC's pride and joy embark on a truly stony tour, bu-ddy
Rivers Cuomo, singer and guitarist of Weezer, probably described the band's first album best when he wrote, "The record sounds kind of weird, but if you turn it up extremely loud and lie down, it can be rewarding."
And if there ever was an album that critics wore certain would never be a success, it was Weezer's self-titled debut. According to bassist Matt Sharp, Weezer was branded by almost every major label in the industry as a band with no future.
"None of the big labels wanted to sign us at all," Sharp said. "They all told us that the songs weren't good enough. Every big label basically just said 'We listened to you and we're going to pass because we don't think you're ready, or they'd say 'Keep writing songs and send us your next batch.'
"They were all basically pretty rude about it, which is fine because it's what they thought. But they all said the same thing. It was 'Oh, this guy that's coming to see you, he's got the ears,' or 'This guy signed this stupid hair band and he can smell a hit' and all this really gross talk. So many people said there's no future for the band."
However, Weezer quickly proved all those ponytailed and cellular-phoned label rats wrong when they signed with DGC, a subsidiary of Geffen Records.
"The reason we signed with Geffen though, wasn't really just because of (all the other major labels passing on us), because we looked at other smaller labels too," Sharp said. "The people at Geffen are really nice. They give us a lot of freedom and let us be involved in every level of promotion. Also, they gave us just enough money to record, which we couldn't have done at the time without them."
"Our motto would have to be 'Never sell yourself." Sharp continued. "I know that sounds terrible because people think we do because of the whole MTV thing. But we pretty much have the most anti-sales pitch. [Geffen] did not understand it at all, but they let us do it. We told them we didn't want any angle or slogans or gimmicks or phrases to sell our record, just let it sit."
"So we basically just play our music like we want to play it and don't push ourselves on anybody and don't try to sell anybody and just hope that it does well. And if it's good, hopefully people will like it."
Assisting them on the production of their album was former Cars' lead singer, Ric Ocasek. The band chose Ocasek to produce the album because of his individual production style, and also because they are big fans of The Cars.
"We didn't really want to do it with anybody who was a really popular guy at the time," Sharp said. "There's just a list of guys - Steve Albini, Gil Norton, and so on - we just didn't want to do it with any of those people. It's not that we don't respect their work. It's just that those producers have their stamp and Ric doesn't really have that yet."
Sudden stardom wasn't something Weezer was accustomed to, After Rivers, Matt, Brian and Patrick each made their way to L.A. from Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Tennessee and Buffalo, New York, respectively, the almost accidental formation of Weezer occurred. The band didn't just jump to shopping labels, but started the traditional L.A. way - playing the club scene for next to nothing, night after night.
"We got paid 17 bucks at Raji's when we played our first show," Sharp said. "We did our first show with Keanu Reeves' band (Dogstar). We played after them at about 1 a.m. and the place was just packed with women wanting to look at Keanu. And the second show we played there, there was nobody in the place but about 10 friends just watching us. And we still got paid 17 bucks because they all felt sorry for us so they paid to get in."
Sharp's happy to say that Weezer has gained quite a following since then. He also feels the music has improved over time, only complemented by the falsetto vocals he sings in most of the songs on the album.
Sharp began his falsetto singing with the song "Say It Ain't So," which was written to have someone sing one octave above the lead.
"After I did it for that song, I wanted to do it on every song," Sharp said. "I don't know why I like it, but I do. I guess it gives me somewhat of a personality and individuality in the band."
And as far as his bass playing goes, things only seem to be improving for Sharp and his sound in Weezer.
"The first record doesn't have much of a bass style on it at all," Sharp said. "I think how the bass is recorded or how it sounds or how I play it doesn't have much of a personality. But I think it does on the new songs. I think the bass playing is just better now, my sound is better. I'm trying to play somewhere between Kim Gordon and Paul McCartney."
Weezer fans will surely be eager to hear Sharp's self-defined improvement on the bass on the next album. However, while Sharp said the band is about half-way to the recording process, he predicted the band will take a break for awhile before going back into the studios. And for the band's plans even farther in the future, Sharp could only hope he and his band mates realize when it's time to throw in the towel.
"I think after awhile, a band only has a certain great life," Sharp said. "Like the Pixies, they sort of disbanded at a proper time. Even the thing that happened with Nirvana - it's so short, but it tends to be best."
Weezer will play on April 7 at SOMA. Call 239-SOMA for more information.
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