Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Is Weezer Emo?

Ahhh Weezer. . .

Both of us agree on many things when it comes to this former enigma of a band, loving them throughout Grade School straight through College. In those several vacant years following Pinkerton's release, we pined away for a new Weezer album, cherishing any sort of live song, b-side, random cover (or what have you) that surfaced on Napster and Kazaa. However, despite Weezer's absence of "new" material, we still managed to find solace within The Blue Album and Pinkerton, becoming attached to other songs on each album that we might have ignored in our "younger" years (ie - moving on from "Buddy Holly" to "Only In Dreams").

Fast forward to this very day, when their latest effort, The Red Album, has been officially released. Three albums (and 12 years) since Pinkerton, we find ourselves revisiting the material we have held so dearly to our hearts.

While each of us happily sipped red wine, reminiscing about our favorite Weezer songs (Kelly's being "The World Has Turned" and Jose's being "You Gave Your Love To Me Softly") a somewhat sore subject seemed to make its way into our conversation:

The fact that Weezer is often associated with Emo -- whether it is their music fitting into that "genre's" framework in earlier years, or happening to influence forthcoming emo bands, or simply being a part of emo culture (whatever that means).

So, after mere minutes of discussing this topic, we quickly realized that both of us have very opposing views regarding whether Weezer should (or should not) be considered Emo.

Anyone???


Then:
[Mp3] Weezer - Say It Ain't So
[Mp3] Weezer - El Scorcho
[Mp3] Weezer - Jamie (acoustic version)

Now:
[Mp3] Weezer - The Greatest Man That Ever Lived

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

weezer was my first favorite band. i loved all the shit from their first two albums, the b-sides, and the summer songs 2000. i really stopped caring about them 2 terrible albums ago. their last 4 are so painfully bad.

pinkerton is untouchable though.

Anonymous said...

acoustic version of jamie and ygyltms are up there as far as b-sides go

i would add mykel and carli

man i used to be so into them. they started making awful albums around when i started listening to radiohead, who made much better b-sides by the way (not to mention a ton of them)

Anonymous said...

i forgot to mention "waiting on you", which is another great b-side

Anonymous said...

alright i'm done

CB said...

No way is Weezer emo.

I agree about the drop off in quality, though. I get the impression from your post the new album is more Green/Pinkerton sounding? If so, I'll get it for sure.

Now that I think about it, though, maybe the reason I started not liking Weezer as much is because they became more emo. I don't like emo, and I don't/didn't like late-Weezer. Hmm.

Still, the Weezer I love(d) is not emo.

Anonymous said...

i am totally sure that beverly hills is not emo

Kelly and José said...

Anon - Agreed. That is not the Weezer we are referring to.