Dan Mooney

The first part of this post is a response to a response to a response to a response to a response to an album, so, bear with me:

Last time I spoke about bands and albums, and how bands put out too few albums nowadays.  Much of their energy is spent outside the studio, and I thought it was their creativity that suffers for it.

Joe O’B wrote in to address the benefits of a playful attitude in the studio, a mindset which can ultimately lead to better music.  Seems like a paradox at first, since taking things seriously is what Tiger Woods does, and who doesn’t want to be like him?  There’s obviously much to be said about discipline, in the world and in the arts – just look at poetry, its beauty and its power is derived so much from its form.  The art benefits from its own restrictions.

But then, freedom ain’t half bad some of the time, even if it’s all bad some of the time (I’m looking at you, prose poetry).

Which brings us back to Weezer, who began my side of this discussion.

As advertised, they have an album coming out October 27^th.  Its name: Raditude.

One review of the album doesn’t think too highly of Weezer’s new musical incorporations.  This calls for a close reading of the article (with snide asides – asnides!):

Weezer raised a few eyebrows earlier this week when they announced that their forthcoming album would be called Raditude, which barely even qualifies as a pun.  (1. That barely even qualifies as an insult.   2. Why the raised eyebrows?  Isn’t anyone interested in Weezer’s new album title already too jaded to care about anything, including the title of Weezer’s new album?)

But Spin has the scoop on the title directly from helpful frontman Rivers Cuomo.  (Calling Rivers helpful here is the lightest backhanded compliment I’ve heard in a while).

Apparently (dickish way to start this anecdote), the actor and Cuomo buddy/fellow Joan Osbourne fan (none-too-subtle dig) Rainn Wilson named the album. Quoth Rivers: “[Wilson] has a super-rock persona. When it came time to find a title for the Weezer album, I asked him what he thought the ultimate album title would be, and he said ‘Raditude.’”

That makes sense. Raditude is what happens when you let Dwight from “The Office” name your album.  (Yes, yes it is.  You’re not Stephen Wright, and that’s not its own punchline.)

Cuomo also told Spin a few details about the album, which drops October 27. Abysmal early leaks “I’m Your Daddy” and “The Girl Got Hot” will both make the album, and Cuomo isn’t remotely embarrassed about either. (Nor should he be, unless either is disco.  Life’s too short for Disco.) Here’s how he described the record: “The sound of Raditude is fun, high energy pop rock. ‘I’m Your Daddy’ has an up vibe with the same heavy Weezer guitar riff but with a little electro influence. And ‘The Girl Got Hot’ — that’s kind of a witty party jam.”

Electro influence. Witty party jam. Right.   (That’s right.  That’s Rivers trying to put music into words.  It’s tough to do without sounding precious, which is why Pitchfork reviews sound snottily condescending or just approach the music from left field without getting down to the nuts-and-bolts of it, probably because there aren’t any books on music theory up these writers’ asses.)

Speaking of, the writer for this Pitchfork review of a Spin article about Weezer is a guy named Tom Breihan.  I Googled him, needing to know only one thing: how old he is.  Well, Mr. Breihan’s 29.   [Ed: Well, he was at the time this entry was published.] I’m not surprised, because that puts him at about 15 or 16 when Pinkerton came out, so he probably played it on an endless loop, lost his virginity to it, then turned on Weezer when Rivers became a reclusive genius and the group didn’t put out an album for years, and then proceeded to put out generally poppier music for the rest of their career.  I understand, Tom.  Their older stuff was better.

(Side note: Mr. Breihan indicated that one of his favorite books is Slaughterhouse-V.  What a fucking pretentious little twit.  I totally respect the choice, and the dash is impressive, but don’t give me that damn Roman numeral, because I) it’s not in the real title of the book and II) it makes you look like an asshole, you asshole.)

Back to it: I respect Weezer so much for what they’re doing, even if they have no choice because their album sales are flagging and there isn’t much money to be made in touring in support of an album that doesn’t do well, I’d presume.  So they go back into the studio and create more music, take more chances, give us something to look forward to.  When Weezer were critical darlings, it seemed that Rivers Cuomo was so afraid of making a mistake, of putting out an imperfect album, that he collapsed into his own head for a long time, depriving the world of what he had to offer, which was a lot.

He should have realized that The Blue Album and Pinkerton weren’t technically perfect albums, but that they’re probably if not certainly better for that.  So if they’re having fun and putting out at least a couple of great songs per album, I’ll accept and await whatever else they try to do, open my mind a hair and take the “bad” with the very, very good.

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