How Weezer & The Blue Album Briefly Made Geekery Cool

Weezer were a revelation for 90s alternative rock. Heavy metal and comic books were how Rivers Cuomo was raised. Kiss and the X-Men were the Gods that he praised. And while Kurt Cobain also loved 70s Arena Rock and Marvel Comics, he never admitted to it in song. Devo and They Might Be Giants had set the groundwork, but Weezer proved definitively that nerds could indeed rock. As well as saving the hair metal guitar solo from obsolescence, on the band’s first album Cuomo wove tales of unravelling mental health, absent fathers and romances never attempted, told through the lens of personal minutiae and pop cultural obsession. Intimate and arena rock in equal measures, this is the story of how Weezer made The Blue Album.

#weezer #alternative #MusicDocumentary

Fact-checking by Chad Van Wagner.

00:00 Introduction
00:48 The Early Days of Rivers Cuomo in LA
07:24 The Creation of Say It Ain't So
13:35 Recording The Blue Album
20:03 Releasing The Blue Album
27:26 After The Blue Album

Soundtrack
Jesse Gallagher - The Golden Present

You can also follow me here:

Or support me on Patreon:

Rivers’ Edge by John D Luerssen, 2004, ECW Press
“Rivers Cuomo Interview” Lÿndsey Parker, Porkchops & Applesauce, 1994
“Weezer sings about breakup” Fred Shuster, The Greenville News, Aug 1994
“Rivers Cuomo returns home with Weezer” Roger Catlin, Hartford Courant, Oct 1994
“Smells like teen spirit” Chip Midnight, MOO Magazine, Nov 1994
“Rock Candy” Jac Zinder, Spin Magazine, Jan 1995
“Weezer” Simon Witter, Sky, Feb 1995
“In the beginning was the nerd” Emma Forrest, The Independent, Mar 1995
“Revenge of the Weezer Nerds” Mim Udovich, Rolling Stone, Mar 1995
“Weezer: Nerds No More“ Paul Gobicheau, Boston Globe, Mar 1995
“Man of Steel” Tom Beaujour, Guitar World, Mar 1995
“It's not easy being Weezer“ Sam McDonald, Daily Press, Mar 1995
“Weirder by the Day“ Al Muzer, Aquarian Weekly, Apr 1995
“Weezer: The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth” Max Bell, Vox, Apr 1995
“Tourbus Tales: Weezer” Vox, May 1995
“As Funny as They Wanna Be : Who’s laughing now?” Steve Appleford, LA Times, May 1995
“Weezer's Uncomfortable Success” Clare Kleinedler, Addicted To Noise, Dec 1996
“Weezer's Uncomfortable Success, part 2: The Rivers Cuomo Interview” Clare Kleinedler, Addicted To Noise, Dec 1996
“Happy [cancelled] Days” David Daley, Alternative Press, Jan 1997
“Ol' Nerdy Bastard” Mark Lewman, RIP Magazine, Jan 1997
“Weezer: 50,000,000 Weezer Fans Can’t Be Wrong” Erik Himmelsbach, Request, May 2001
“Odd Man Out” Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, Jul 2001
“Tantrums. Beards. Paranoia. Teenage cyber girlfriends.” Ben Mitchell, Kerrang!, Apr 2002
“Odder Than Hell” Tom Beaujour, Guitar World, May 2002
“Rivers Cuomo's Encyclopedia of Pop” Jenny Eliscu, Rolling Stone, Jun 2002
“Burner - Greatest Songs Ever: "Buddy Holly"” Ryan Dombal, Blender, Nov 2008
“Pat Wilson on The Blue Album at 25” Hardeep Phull, Billboard, May 2009
“Weezer’s ‘Undone – The Sweater Song’ Turns 15: A Look Back” Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone, Jun 2009
“Rivers Cuomo: We Ripped Off “The Sweater Song” From Metallica” Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, Aug 2009
““I know some people think I'm a weirdo. I'm working on it.”” Paul Brannigan, Kerrang! Magazine, Sep 2010
“Welcome to The Family” George Garner, Kerrang!, Sep 2013
“UNDONE: The Complete Oral History Of Weezer” Jonathan Valania, MAGNET Magazine, 2014
Weezer Turns 20, Chris DeVille, Stereogum, May 2014
“‘The Blue Album’ at 20: Looking Back at Weezer’s Debut, Track by Track” Grantland Staff, Grantland, May 2014
“Rivers Cuomo Is Trying to Be All Right” Simon Vozick-Levinson, Rolling Stone, Sep 2014
“How Weezer’s ‘Pinkerton’ Went From Embarrassing to Essential” Laura Marie Braun, Rolling Stone, Sep 2016
“Weezer’s Blue Album: 10 Things You Didn’t Know” Jordan Runtagh, Rolling Stone, May 2019
“Bitter Sweet: The Blue Album By Weezer Revisted” [sic] Michael Hann, The Quietus, May 2019
“Artists Reflect on 25 Years of Weezer’s The Blue Album” Tyler Clark, Consequence, May 2019
“Weezer’s The Blue Album Turns 25: Track-by-Track Retrospective” Billboard Staff, Billboard, May 2019
“The Strange Birth and Near Death of Weezer” Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, Aug 2019
“The 250 Best Songs of the 1990s” Pitchfork Staff, Pitchfork, Sep 2022
“Weezer’s Blue Album at 30: The inside story of the debut that launched L.A.’s nerdiest band” Mikael Wood, Los Angeles Times, Mar 2024
“Weezer’s ‘Blue Album’ at 30, the scene reflects: “It’s timeless”” Ian Chaddock, Rocksound, May 2024
“Why the Big Dumb Feelings of Weezer’s ‘Blue Album’ Still Hit Hard” Eli Enis, Men's Health, May 2024
“Why Weezer's 'The Blue Album' Is One Of The Most Influential '90s Indie Pop Debuts” David Silverberg, The Grammys, May 2024

[NANA-dncq]

This has me feeling so many ways. The irony is, when I saw the Say It Ain’t So video at the age of 11, I thought Wheezer were the coolest dudes on the planet. They were the very first major influence on me both in how I dressed and I how played guitar. I made my mom take me thrift stores to find shirts like they wore on the Blue cover, got my grandfather to hang ugly carpet in the barn me and friends played music, and played along with that first album (💿) over and over again.

At 41 years old, I wish I could tell Cuomo that Weezer was and is my rock and roll heroes. They are MY “Ace Frehley”.

Thank you so much for this video!

[bookaufman]

I was a part of that pre- Nirvana sub pop alternative hard Rock scene for years and years. I think what can't be understated is the giant effect that the Pixies had on this scene. I know it seems simple when you describe the fast then slow, then fast again concept but the Pixies perfected it and Nirvana really used that sound perfectly in their sound. Weezer especially shows the same lineage of bands like the Pixies and even Fugazi who seems to always get left off of the list of influences. I really love this era of music and it's kind of a forgotten one. People think that it started when Nirvana got signed to a major label but it had been going on for many years. Most of us thought that Mudhoney would be the band that would break big but it didn't go down that way.

[anenglishmaninsandiego]

Jesus, that montage at the 30-odd min mark is staggeringly damning of the period - it's only when you get all those those back-to-back that you realise that the industry really did just squeeze that sound to death. Brilliant video as always, sir.

[SmallBlogV]

If you want to talk about Weezer being a "meme band" then there has to be mention of _Pork and Beans_ whose music video was both a very early example of pop culture properly acknowledging internet culture and, when watched nowadays, a meme museum.

[Randomcomicsfrommyspinne-xtkq]

Weezer's debut album is one of the rarest of debut albums because all the songs are good and it's timeless. Just as good in 2024 as it was 31 years ago. Because they weren't tied to Grunge, except for the soft-loud-soft style of The Pixies, which everybody borrowed from. Why aren't The Pixies in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame for that very reason?

[schmonsequences]

The fact that Cuomo's dad was NOT an alcoholic blew my mind

[vicekwad]

I'm looking to that story another time. Pinkerton has always had a special place in my heart and I'm sure the Trash Theory treatment will shine a deserving light on it's history and influence.

[Aubee]

Still hands down one of the best channels on YouTube. Nothing but class content. Thank you brother

[yrmucem]

0:18 I am so glad you mentioned my all time favourite band, and one of the pioneers of alternative music, They Might Be Giants. I highly recommend their albums Lincoln, John Henry and The Spine.

[jake_butcher]

_"Why not the Beach Boys but loud?"_ is arguably the best way to describe Blue album era Weezer

[Alfred_English]

Weezer never clicked with me personally, but this video helped me to understand and appreciate their influence. The bit where Cuomo realizes his Sweater Song chord progression is just Metallica’s Sanitarium is quite funny and relatable

[aledandrian]

This is the perfect video for you to drop on the week of me going to see Weezer perform the Blue Album live

[apparaoapparao]

PS…please produce one of your always thorough deep dives into Flaming Lips. It’s fascinating that this diverse experimental proggy artsy band was founded and nurtured in Oklahoma of all places.

[PotatoPirate]

I was a teenager when I first got the Blue Album, on cassette tape. The weirdest memory for me is that I found it so raw and close to my heart that I found a lot of the lyrics really cringe, and they presented the same sort of feelings I might have had if it were my album that people were listening to. To this day the album reignites intense feelings of awkwardness and memories of my teenage years. It's a sad but also reassuring feeling.

[SynthiaVan]

No way are they just a "meme band, " what a ridiculous way to end the video. Blue hasn't aged a day in 30 years.

[fromulus]

If Weezer stopped and left it after Pinkerton, they're not a meme band today.

Having said that, I love those two albums, particularly the Blue, there's just this magical quality to it that's hard to find. Only In Dreams is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard, every time I listen to it I get transported back to my early teens. The Buddy Holly video too, man, was that a sensation when it came out.

[martinsteib]

Another great video. I saw Weezer the first time they played London at the Underworld, I was working with the support act. The audience were mostly Americans who could not believe they were playing such a small venue, Weezer were amazing.

[UnsungUnderground]

17:42 It's okay, Rivers, Metallica stole that riff from a band called Bleak House. Specifically, their 7" Rainbow Warrior

[danielfreeman]

Just saw them in Philly, when they played this song the first two times they hit the chorus they stopped on the first line so the crowd could belt out "SAY IT AIN'T SO!" in unison. Really cool moment.

[riklovan]

I’ve watched practically everything you’ve put out and you are, hands down, the best when it comes to covering music history on YouTube. Not only are you skilled when it comes to covering all the finer details of the subjects, but the artists and genres you choose to cover somehow manage to align with all of my musical taste, while opening me up to so many incredible bands that I’ve simply never heard of or bothered to listen to.

I guess what trying to say is thanks for all your hard work and keep it up, man!