The Strange History of WEEZER (they were never “emo”) 

I will never forget about 6 years ago, telling my coworkers I would go to a Weezer concert. And my coworker goes "Weezer makes music for selling HP computers." And it makes me laugh to this day lol

"Get down party anthems for agoraphobics." I would love if someone described my music like this

I saw Weezer and No Doubt at the same show. It was pretty neat.

I loved that Buddy Holly was hidden in Windows 95.

I get wanting to keep the video short, but neglecting to talk about their comeback with EWBAITE and The White Album and chalking everything past Raditude as more of the same feels a bit disingenuous. Weezer had fallen out of popularity pretty hard and are now consistently prominent with most of their newer albums. Pacific Daydream (while not an album I care for personally) was all over the radio when it came out, which had not been the case for the band in the 5-6 years prior. Would have been interesting to at least mention their comeback and transition into a mainstay legacy band.

That SNL skit spoke so much to basically all band fandoms

When I was a sup at a call center I had this 19 yr old hipster kid (maybe a prototype hipster it was 2001) named Shane on my team. He LOVED Weezer so much! We became friends quickly discussing music in our 1-1s instead of his stats. He DEMANDED I listen to Pinkerton, he said it was the best album that had ever been made. That was how I felt about I brought you my bullets, so we traded albums for a week… sadly he died in a car wreck that week… I still have his Pinkerton album.

I taught myself guitar by playing blue album songs every day. Pinkerton is one of the most important albums to me. Those first two albums did a lot to shape my highschool years. Pinkerton is the fucking best.

I remember when Emo wasn't associated with fringes, eyeliner and My Chemical Romance. It was all stripy jumpers, thick rimmed glasses, Dashboard Confessional, Death Cab for Cutie and Jimmy Eat World.

I think i remember that I called weezer “the Beatles if they make depressing shit sometimes”

Man, Weezer' Hash Pipe was my "Stairway to Heaven" when I showed my friends that I play guitar lmao I don't mean to brag, but I can play them 3 chords like a champ 👊

Weezer added the element of what’s now called, “Nerd Culture” to Music. Something I didn’t know that I needed. I thought Nirvana completed my 14 year old self. 😅 Love this band.

I didnt really listen to Pinkerton until about 2004. I was in college and I think I could relate a bit more to the darker themes. But I basically only listen to Pinkerton, Blue, and Green.

I love "Heart Songs" because he talks about how Nevermind got him more interested in making music. Also, you should do a video on Bright Eyes. Conor Oberst is a genius and their music is so varied that it's insane

When Pinkerton was still near universally disliked, it was probably the most played CD in the Death Threat tour van

I had no idea Pinkerton ever had a bad rep. I absolutely loved hearing it for the first time

Weezer is the Tailor Swift of lonely dudes

Jesus man, I really appreciate this channel. I don't have the time or brain space lately to really be in the music scene the way that I once was and how I ideally would want to be. Enjoying listening to stuff about bands and history etc, shit just hits the spot and helps me make space in the ol' grey matter for shit I actually care about. Thanks for the work man.

Can we please talk about how the music video to “Pork and Beans” is the perfect love letter to the early days of the internet? Seriously, if you haven’t watched it since it first debuted, go watch it right now and tell me that it doesn’t make you yearn for “the good ol’ days”. It seriously makes me tear up, wishing to live those early, younger years again, because you never really know how great things were until it’s in the past.

You know, while I liked the Blue album a lot, when Pinkerton came out it instantly became one of my favorite albums of all time. It's still in my top 3 for sure 30 years later. I honestly had no concept that everyone universally hated it until years and years later. Makes me wonder what the fuck my psyche was up to back then as a 15 year old, depressed, punk "freak". And truthfully, it did pave the way for me to get into bands like The Get Up Kids and Saves The Day. So if you want to say Weezer isn't emo, that's fine, but Pinkerton was a perfect gateway into emo music.

As a 46yo WEEZER fan I have to mention the very good "Everything Will Be Alright in the End" album that seems like a bit of a redemption in recent years (2015 ?)

I completely disagree with your point on their albums after Raditude, while Hurley may have disappointed, EWBAITE and White are considered to be huge returns to form, and while there have been disappointing albums like Black or Pacific Daydream, most people agree from what I've seen love their newest stuff like OK Human and SZNZ.

I appreciate Finn bringing up the beginnings, because they’ve been largely forgotten. I was around 18/19 when Weezer arrived and they were 100% seen as a borderline comedy rock group steering into the alternative rock trend. First the band’s name was Weezer. Then we have sweater song, buddy Holly…was this really going to be received like Nirvana? What amazes and astonishes me now is that we’re still talking about Weezer and people do talk about them in the same breath as Nirvana. Not only that, the reigning champions of alternative rock music the Pixies toured and opened for them! It’s like some alternate reality was created. Some have woken up from this fever dream with questions posed like…was Weezer ever good?…I think these folks weren’t around when the blue album came out and was received similarly to the bloodhound gang, but that’s what it was millennials and Gen z.

pink triangle was a great song

I was 16 when Pinkerton came out. I was a big fan of the Blue Album and I immediately bought Pinkerton at the Target across the street from my high school on release day. I remember feeling how different it was when “El Scorcho” was released as the first single prior to the album’s release and I still felt it was different and weird when I listened to the album for the first time, especially with the first track “Tired of Sex.” However, I didn’t come around to it until the second or third listen and then I fell in love with it.

Beverly Hills is a guilty pleasure of mine. I really hated it at the time but now every time I hear it it brings me back to the summer of 2005. I had to sit through it to get to listen to System of the down’s BYOB.

Excellent closing thoughts about Pinkerton being a one-off and not the identity of Weezer. More on that later. Fans could rejoice that Rivers Cuomo's solo albums (Alone I and II) featured demos from Songs From The Black Hole, which were essentially Pinkerton rejects. Original bassist Matt Sharp was important to the beginning of Weezer. His post-Weezer band The Rentals had some success, and for a little while their keyboard player was Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live). Weezer's subsequent bassist Mikey Welsh passed away at 40. He was released from the band at the time. I think there are two kinds of emo bands: Bands that are power-pop bands disguised as emo bands, and bands that are hardcore/punk disguised as emo. I thought I loved emo for decades, but now I understand I truly love power pop, so I listen to a lot of 1st Wave late 70s early 80s stuff now.

Weezer was the band, that was like your friend, that never scored. You keep him along, cause you like him, but you really dont wanna be seen with him. You laughed at him, but you felt the pain.

My sister gave me the blue album when i was like 11 and it changed my world. At 13 I bought Pinkerton (2003) and it fit right in with my punk/emo/post hardcore taste nicely. 2 of my fav albums of all time.

I just found your channel and I am really enjoying your videos. Here's a list of bands I'd love to see you cover in your videos: Fugazi, At The Drive-In, The Get Up Kids, Cursive, Hot Water Music, Thursday, Braid, and The Velvet Teen. Thx!

Old Weezer ftw. Nr. 1 definetely Pinkerton. Nr. 2 Blue Album Lost interest after the green Album. Sh*t, i'm old...

GREAT video, amazing work. ❤

I saw them in winnipeg a few years ago. They played tight and were heavy with energy for me. They just played the hits and that's all we needed.

I appreciate that you did a Weezer video ❤ I hope you cover more bands like them!

Really enjoyed this one fint. I’ve still never listened to Pinkerton, but you’ve gotten me close a couple times. lol

Great video, agree with most considerations, well thought

good vid Finn! thanks man

Listened them for real in a 90s indie night on a nightclub early this month, they played say it ain't so and everyone was exited singing alone, i loved the energy at that moment, been thinking about it for weeks, it was really something special, i have heard of them but had not payed attention and lived in the moment like i did that time

“Tired of s*x” from Pinkerton is the first song I ever played on drums when I was 14.

To be fair, after the stinkers that were Make Believe and the albums that followed, they did release a couple of gems that are regarded among their fans as some of their very best, reminiscent of the Blue Album era with "Everything Will Be Alright In The End" (2014) and the "White Album" (2016). They have such a vast discographt that there's bound to be a lot of bad albums, but also some good ones in between.

Great video. I highly recommend their later albums, Everything Will Be Alright In the End and The White Album. The later of which has strong Pinkerton vibes. Also, their album OK Human, which is all orchestral, is really fucking great and worth digging into. It’s different but man is it good.

Great video Finn. Love the first Weezer album and then kind of just songs here and there on each record but I actually do think Pinkerton was a cool unique record that was under appreciated at the time but for that record to follow up the blue album with that I kind of get it haha

I enjoyed Raditude, but that was during my high school years so maybe that's why

Great video as always.

Great video! I am a die hard Weezer fan since I really started listening a decade ago. They were that band on the radio but I finally bought a few albums and I was hooked. My frequent saying is "Weezer has a song for that" because Rivers is so prolific in his content. In a sad mood and want to stay sad? Weezer has a song for that. In a sad mood and want to feel better? There's a song for that! Can't tell someone something, there's a song for that, too! My personal favourite album is 'Make Believe' and I think the whole thing is well paced and solid. Can't wait to see them in September! =w=

I love all of Weezer. Do i like their older stuff more? Yes. But their newer stuff? The white album? All my favorite songs? FUCKING INCREDIBLE! Thanks Weezer. Thanks Rivers!

I remember seeing Hash Pipe on mtv and i loved the guitars on that so much i wnwt and bought the album the same day i wanted to hear the song again. Simple pages, Glorious days, Island in the sun among the best was such a vibe, felt like a fever dream like Nirvana went on a Spring break.

Love the new intro!

The "Blue Album" and "Pinkerton" is really more like Radiohead's "The Bends" and "Pablo Honey" respectively. Moments in time that the bands and artists moved away from. If you do like "The Bends" check out a band named kent (yes, kent) in their album "Isola" as that is pretty much the spiritual successor of that album. Also check out Gene's "Olympian" as well as it definitely touches that same vein of Alternative music.😉👍✨

Great video as usual. I also never thought of Weezer being emo, or even pop punk, as some others claim. I never even considered them any specific genre, other than alternative rock. To me, they were always their own, unique thing that had pretty much created their own genre no one ever tried to copy. Also, I always loved that they seemed to be the nerdy, normal-looking, glasses-wearing anti-rockstars, who were a bit the US equivalent to Blur in the UK in that regard. But with that said, I'm rather surprised that they were actually rooted in the hardcore and metal scene and that they never aspired to be the funny nerd band, but actually tried to be serious. I never knew that and it changes my picture of the band completely.

Ok that intro with the hardcore music with pinch harmonics accompanied by the Island in the Sun video was pure genius lol.

another great video

Finn, you should check out the album everything will be all right in the end. It may be their best work with that blue album, pop, and a little bit of darkness.!

This makes me want to take another listen to some albums. Thanks

My band is doing a 30th anniversary tribute for the Blue Album in May. One of the greatest albums of all time, unironically.

I got into weezer this year they are really good

Rivers did a video series called "let's write a sawng" It was a really interesting experiment in song writing via his fans. If I remember he never finished the song, but if you are a fan, it's worth checking out.

I never at any point until now ever heard of Weezer being called emo. Have I just been living under a rock?

I remember that the install disk for windows 95 had the video for buddy holly on it.

The first time I found out about Weezer was I when I first installed Windows 95. The video for Buddy Holly was included to test Windows media player in the original win95 cd.

Props on starting a video and going right into it. Was not into waiting 4 minutes of ads and crap. Thanks. Now do a beatdown video

I remember freaking out when I found out when the blue album was released, I figured because of “Beverly Hills” coming out when I was a teenager they were younger lol

I love that weezer just does whatever they want to do. They do what I do except that millions of people hear it and it's not available for free on soundcloud collecting 10's of views.

I saw weezer right before the green album came out, got to hear Hash Pipe and Island in the sun before release - drove through a blizzard to get there it was a top 10 shows of my life and I have seen thousands.

Please do an Everclear video. Probably one of the most compelling and real backstories I've ever heard about

That part about him being disappointed the “Buddy Holly” video resulted in them being looked at comedically while instead hoping to have the same kind of impact as Nirvana makes me wonder if they took inspiration for the “Buddy Holly” video from the video for “In Bloom”.

Island In The Sun is not my fav song but was the hit of the spring & summer of 2001 and gives me all the vibes of going from jr high to high school and saying goodbye to many friends at a grad party I went to while it played in the background. So there's something to be said about that I suppose.

I loved "Sweater" as a kid but didnt understand or contemplate its deeper meaning until I became a middle aged adult. Re-Reading the lyrics again and trying to understand its Symbolism (Sweater, pull tread, naked on the floor, undun, etc) and what those metaphors mean, it hits way different. I truly think most listeners (including myself) just liked it as a juvenile simple silly song but its actually a Very Deep Emotional and Existential song of the human condition. Weezer in my opinion (without sounding too pretentious) is a very misunderstood band [almost by design] which speaks to its genius as a band.

I'm glad a went to a concert where they perform they played the Pinkerton album in its entirety.

My first concert was Weezer in 1996. Pinkerton tour at La Luna in Portland Oregon. I was what.. 10 years old? Absolutely lit. GOAT’d band

I discovered them from a windows 95 CD way I found in my cousin's drawer well after it had come out. There was the video of Buddy Holly on it, such a cool and random thing to put on there.

This video doesn't do Weezer justice! You stop talking about the albums and just say "the rest of their albums disappointed fans who were looking for a return to Blue and Pinkerton". But you stopped just two albums shy of the albums that DID do that: Everything Will Be Alright In The End and The White Album. You're leaving out one of the most interesting parts of their history. Also, playing a short clip of "If Your Wondering" and writing off Raditude as car commercial music is a huge disservice to an already stigmatized Raditude. The rest of the album is very pop-punk and was the most emo thing they'd done since Pinkerton. Plus, they've done an orchestral masterpiece in OK Human, did the whole hip-hop infusion thing better than any pop-rock act in Pacific Daydream and most recently a year-spanning art project with SZNs. In reality, saying they just went on to release more pop rock albums is far from the truth.

I would love to see you do a deep dive into They Might Be Giants a weird band with a weird history.

Oh Pitchfork… its all good as they have now polished off the practice to returning to old reviews and giving new scores where often in hindsight they magically lift the rating lol.

I just recently decided to start getting into Weezer, I absolutely love the blue album cause it’s a part of my childhood and my dad introduced me to it, I’ve been listening to it my whole life and I wanna start listening to their other stuff now too

I remember hearing the sweater song for the first time. It was a cold, rainy day, and i was getting ready to go to school, 2nd grade. And still a huge weezer fan. I didnt really follow any of the news or reviews, just liked what i liked. I think blue album will always be my favorite, but i actually love raditude, make believe, and red as well.

Rise Against video? Also, never was a big Weezer fan, but they played a great show when I saw them with Fallout Boy and Green Day.

Listening to Pinkerton for the first time right now. I’m 40. It just sounds more like a demo than an album.

"Simple Pages" and "Crab" are such good songs on the Green Album.

Please do a video on Saves the Day!

I loved that the Windows 95 install CD rom had the vid for buddy holly in like 144p 😂👊

Have you talked about Taking Back Sunday?

I got my hash pipe! (Very strange lyrics in that one lol, not about hash, but the other lines lol). But it gives me a Metal-ish vibe. Also In Utero is great

😂😂 this has always been a contentious topic

They peaked in 2008 with christmas with weezer

devoted punk rock fan asking for finn's take on "SAVIORS" album from green day especially bobby sox

Take a listen to California Kids. I think they still can do a Blue album sound. Still, is a relative term though as Their white album came out in the mid teens. I just discovered the album after years of disenchantment following Beverly Hills

loved the blue album and pinkerton ... green album was a nice change , little 2 1/2min. songs ... some of the rentals stuff is pretty cool as well

Do you have a Death Cab mini doc?

im looking up all those demos Finn mentioned from Make Believe. Rivers really was meticulous

Can you do a special on one of the most overlooked artists in nerd culture: mc chris.

i honestly didnt remember critics hating pinkerton back in the 90s when it came out i was like 14 in 96 i remember getting the cd as a gift from my aunt it was definitely popular with teenagers at the time.

I saw Weezer in January 97’ in Columbus, OH at the Newport Music Hall a few months after Pinkerton released. I personally COULD NOT STOP listening to Pinkerton when it came out. It wasn’t as “radio friendly” as the Blue Album but I was in college and couldn’t care less! They were phenomenal live in such a small place and Matt Sharp really stole the show!

Pinkerton is their best album by far, it's incredible. Blue album and Pinkerton are still by far their best works....they lost something when they reformed.....

Finally! Another weezer video for me to watch!

Weezer was always geek rock to me... that had a weird diversion into what some call emo on Pinkerton but were never an emo band

I’m very much in the “Blue album and Pinkerton were the best things they ever made” category, but their song “memories” coupled with the Jackass music video is triple S tier. It makes me so sad and happy and nostalgic at the same time. Also when Modest Mouse strange history video?

I think one detail worth mentioning is their original bass player Matt Sharp left after Pinkerton to form his own band, the Rentals. I feel like that's why their first 2 albums are very different, he helped write them.

From the later albums - The White Album, Everything Will Be Alright In The End and OK Human are really good.

I think you're underestimating Island In The Sun - yeah, it's kinda mellow ballad, but is is also an odd remnant of the Blue/Pinkerton era in 2000s: it's a catchy pop song, quite Beach-Boys'y, and there's a mass of guitar distortion and feedback boiling just under the surface, but never quite break, but you know it's there if you listen carefully, and it's kinda beautiful.