New Single Bad, But Weezer Very Good

I don’t think that I’m alone by admitting that I have long struggled to describe, even to myself, what it is that impresses me about Weezer. I’ve always kind of fallen back on my appreciation of their ability to be one of the bands that can actually make something out of nothing. Like Nirvana and John Lennon before them, a Weezer song can consist of literally a mere three or four chords, last for two and a half minutes, and sound like something you haven’t heard before. “Undone (The Sweater Song)” goes G-C-D-C, but “The Sweater Song” has nothing to do with “Louie, Louie.” However, upon a recent listen to Maladroit, after a lengthy hiatus from listening to Weezer, it struck me what is was that had alluded me, and perhaps the rest of the listening public, in the already almost 15 years since the release of the blue album: Weezer fucking rocks.

Weezer also rocks some pretty heavy nerd connotations. Rivers Cuomo makes himself out to be a total pussy, which he probably is. He’s the rock star who disappears just as he peaks to go to Harvard and then drop out with one semester remaining to graduate. He’s the 24-year-old who decides to become abstinent while on a Buddhist retreat. This aggressively passive-aggressive act of image construction, has gotten Cuomo linked with that singer-songwriters who are somehow able to come across as cool despite being total tools; Elliott Smith, Jeff Buckley, etc. However, while Rivers Cuomo calls his band “Weezer,” and dresses like a Gap Kids model, he is also rocking a Flying-V with a huge band logo behind him that is by all measures more Van Halen than Neil Young. “Undone” features earnestly inserted dialogue in the beginning of a song, in which collegiate-aged kids discuss the logistics of attending a party. Weezer rhymes “ass-wipe” with “hash-pipe.” Weezer is a hard-rock band.

It has always been there, albeit underrated. On their first single, “Buddy Holly,” Cuomo’s muscular guitar tone and glaring lead lines were completely burred by the song’s cutesy (but awesome) video, in which the band performed for the superimposed cast of Happy Days. The electric guitar that enters “In The Garage” after the song’s 10-second finger-picking and harmonica intro, is as heavily grinding as any Alice in Chains tone. “Holiday” ends with 20 seconds of Guns ‘n Roses-style feedback.

Weezer’s latest single, “Pork & Beans,” just came up on shuffle on iTunes, leading to this column. “Pork & Beans” big time sucks. I also one time skipped several days of high school in a failed attempt to win Weezer tickets from DC 101.