Superlatives
A Vulture series in which artists judge the best and worst of their own careers.
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Rivers Cuomo has work to do.
We havent done this in a while.
This is a proper Weezer headline, 90-minute set, and its going to be for all Weezer fans.
Its a great opportunity to go deeper and more unusual.
The tour isnt exactly pegged to anything, but it comes at a busy time for the band.
So yeah, that would probably be my first vote.
But as far as a deep, classic cut, theres Longtime Sunshine from theAlonealbums.
That nightly grind of performing and then getting back on the bus was …
I just felt so empty.
I kind of miss being on tour and being with the band.
So then I wrote The Good Life, which is kind of the opposite sentiment.
I was just going to ask, which song reminds you most of your time at Harvard?
Well, most ofPinkertonwas written while I was there.
El Scorcho, The Good Life.
All of that just feeds into those songs.
Most underappreciated Weezer song
I always loved The Greatest Man That Ever Lived fromThe Red Album.
Thats a totally unique song.
Its like what only a cool rock band could do.
It has nothing to do with pop music or computers or anything.
I dont know, its just one of those songs thats totally unique, totally Weezer.
Like, theres really no other song like Undone The Sweater Song or Hash Pipe or Buddy Holly.
I mean, theyre nothing like each other, even.
The best Weezer song you didnt sing
You mean that one of the other guys sang?
Youre gonna make me take sides?
Oh, I know!
I think its pretty obvious because it was recently trending on TikTok.
It was supposed to be inspired by musical theater, which is a medium Ive always loved.
I just needed to get super-direct and simple and autobiographical and heavy.
And its such an awesome song.
So I changed the whole thing toPinkerton.
Its arguably better than some of the songs onPinkerton.
The worst thing about the initial reaction toPinkerton
There was one person who liked it.
I still remember who it was it was Russell Simins from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
No one else on earth liked it.
As often has happened with me and maybe with other artists, you kind of flip-flop.
Just pure fun and catchiness.
Favorite memory of working with Ric Ocasek
The most valuable thing Ilearned from himwas actually technical.
And he had me change guitars.
I had a very grungy, bass-y guitar sound, which I loved.
He had me use his Les Paul Jr. and Ive used it on every record since.
It has a much more biting tone to it.
So you put all that together and its like, Wow, thats the sound of Weezer.
My life would be very different without that contribution of his.
He brought this feeling of incredible excitement.
Nobody else in the music industry got what we loved about our band.
We could tell:He gets us the way we get us.
It gave us so much energy.
He was a very gentle character.
Very funny and a biting wit.
He was always supportive of me.
By this time, I was determined, like I knew what I wanted to sound like.
It was such a trip.
You had already done a video for the song with Marcos Siega.
Was it the labels decision to bring in Spike for another try?
Yeah, it was.
He was such a go-getter.
Hes just like, Lets make a whole nother video!
Lets get Spike Jonze on the phone!
Lets make this happen!
And then we did it.
I mean, theyre both cool.
In the end, I dont think the second one really helped the song still didnt do so well.
That song is incredible, though, because it didnt work on radio and just kind of went away.
It was like, Oh, okay, I guess nobody wants to hear that song.
Fast forward 20 years and its by far our biggest song on streaming.
Its closing in on a billion streams.
I dont know if theres a bigger song from 2001.
At that time, no one would have made that bet.
Best Weezer album
When fans ask me this, I always say, I dont do favorites.
But yeah, Im gonna go with what I said before.
My favorite is the thing I just made, so it would be …
I dont know, I loveSummer,Autumn, andWinterall for different reasons.
They all came out last year.
It would be very hard to choose, so Ill just saySZNZ.
I was 100 percent sincere when I wrote it.
So I was surprised that people took it the other way.
But Im not a young person, so I dont know maybe it sounds old-fashioned.
But its 30 years old, so how could it be?
I think maybe I would go with The Sweater Song.
Theres something about the feel of it when it kicks in.
Its so weird and different and, therefore, timeless.
No, because in Weezers case, we dont really have the one song.
We have a number of songs that are kind of our biggest song in different ways.
Island in the Sun, as we said, is the biggest streaming song.
I guess thats how a lot of people find out about us.
Then you have Beverly Hills, which was by far our biggest radio song.
Depending on the audience some nights, that one would get the biggest reaction.
Then we have Africa, [chuckles] which is like our biggest viral song in recent years.
The strangest place youve ever heard your music
Wow.
I dont know how well I record that stuff in my brain.
Recently, we heard our song Run, Raven, Run in a Baltimore Ravens game on TV.
That was pretty cool.
I can tell you the strangest place Ive seen a picture of us.
It was above a urinal that I had stepped up to in a bathroom in a club.
I felt like I was being watched by Weezer as I was relieving myself.
I guess it means youve kind of made it.
