Awesome Weezer

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Blue Album, the prolific masters of garage rock stopped by Spotify Studios in L.A. and performed four tracks from their debut record. Rivers and the guys chatted about each song’s story and were joined by 5th Weezer Karl Koch, producer/songwriter Suzy Shinn, and Barry Johnson from the band Joyce Manor.

The 1992 Weezer track Undone – The Sweater Song was a pretty stripped-down song, to begin with. But the original did at least have instrumentation. Not so much with Shonkywonkydonkey’s version of the tune, which he performed entirely with his voice (and a brief guest appearance by Ava Moutzouris.)

Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo shows off his multitude of talents in this wild music video by director Peter Quinn. The tricky visual effects shots make it appear that Rivers has cloned himself and performed all of the instruments on the track What Happens After You? from the band’s 2022 seasonal release SZNZ: Autumn.

Musician and impressionist Steve Welsh imagine what it might have sounded like of the Nirvana classic Come as You Are were performed by another band that hit it big in the early 1990s, Weezer. He totally nails the layered pop vocals and garage rock sounds of Rivers Cuomo and gang.

We recently learned what it might have sounded like if Weezer recorded Nirvana’s Come As You Are. Now listen to a Weezer song bestowed with a heavy metal growl, courtesy of resident metalhead Leo Moracchioli. What’s with these homies dissin’ his girl?

Recording the video on what can only be described as a potato-cam, Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo turned in a heartfelt solo performance of Nirvana’s 1993 classic Heart Shaped Box. The clip is a lead-in to his Island in the Zoom project, which aims to bring remote Weezer fans together for interviews, music, and fun.

The music video for the single Hero from the now delayed Van Weezer is packed with video footage shot by fans of the band, each performing a single task – passing a letter from the left to the right of the screen. The payoff is a heartfelt message from Rivers Cuomo and the band at the end of the clip.

Weezer’s power pop hit Buddy Holly paid tribute to the 1950s, and was released in the 1990s, but musician Mick Mazz decided to see what the song might have sounded like had it been released a decade earlier. Between the synthesizers, electronic drums, and saxophone, we think he nailed the sound of the era.

Tenacious D documents their off-stage antics on tour in Bogota, Colombia, as they attempt to stowaway on a plane; challenge Foo Fighters and Weezer in anexplosive game of Tejo, Colombia’s national drunken sport; and the heavy heavy-metalheads demonstrate the workout that keeps them “obese instead of morbidly obese.”

(PG-13: Language) During their recent tour dates in Brazil, Weezer performed a great cover of Nirvana’s 1991 track Lithium. It’s a great tribute to a fellow band who achieved fame in the 1990s, but with a very different outcome. On a related note, we came across this little gem while researching this story.

We all know Weezer loves to cover classics. Musician Jenn Champion pays it forward with a remake of Weezer’s The Blue Album, replacing the original’s garage rock with chunky synth rhythms, and smooth, feminine vocals. Her cover of Undone streams for free, while the full album is exclusively on vinyl from Turntable Kitchen.

Rivers Cuomo and gang dropped by the NPR office and turned in a wonderfully underproduced, all-acoustic set, including Longtime Sunshine, a rare 1994 track, the Pinkerton classic Across the Sea, and two tunes off of their recent Black Album.

Weezer dropped by The Tonight Show and performed their remake of the A-Ha classic Take on Me along with Jimmy Fallon and the Roots. The low-fi instrumentation included multiple kazoos, tambourines, spoons, a melodica, and a toy piano.

The music video for Weezer’s remake of A-ha’s Take on Me time travels back to 1985, with a young Rivers Cuomo portrayed by Finn Wolfhard, also known as Mike Wheeler on Stranger Things, along with the members of his band Calpurnia. From The Teal Album.

Following up on the success of their hit cover version of Toto’s Africa, Weezer dropped a surprise release featuring that track, and nine other solid cover versions, including songs from Eurythmics, A-ha, ELO, and Michael Jackson.

We’ve already heard Weezer cover Toto’s 1982 hit Africa, and now we have an official music video. But Weezer is nowhere to be seen. Instead, “Weird Al” Yankovic stands in for Rivers Cuomo, lip syncing lead vocals, while poking fun at Undone – The Sweater Song.