Weezer Blog and Journals

You've got FIVE months to make travel plans if you don't live near Jersey, because the first weekend in May brings The Bamboozle! Saturday's headliner is PARAMORE and Sunday WEEZER will be bringing their Ratitude to the stage. More, plz...

I was not a Weezer fan. I openly despised them and their stupid song titles (namely Pork and Beans). Now, I am in love. I've been converted. Read more...

Buzznet has caught up with Rivers Cuomo of Weezer to play a little game of word association. You know, the game where we say something and Rivers responds with the first thing that comes to his (very special) mind. Watch and see ...

Taking Back Sunday: Awesome.

Weezer: Phenomenal.

Blink 182: there are no words.

It was unfortunate that the weather was dreary and Blink 182's hearts were heavy. But the guys played through it and gave it their all.

R.I.P Adam Goldstein (DJ AM)

Best Concert Ever.

Found on Pitchfork, felt like commenting. So let's do this...

Hey Everyone!

I need your help. It will just take 2 minutes maxium.

Vote for This Providence!

So they can open for Blink 182 and Weezer at the Virgin Mobile FreeFest on August 30th.

Vote as many times as you want.

Or text  PROVIDENCE to 59907

It's on Dan's birthday.

Wouldn't you want the chance to meet Blink and Weezer on your birthday?

 Make his wish come true!

Please?

Thank you so much!

<3Jenny

By: Tyler Davidson

Des Moines, Iowa may be partially known for being home to the nine-man metallic mayhem that is Slipknot, but these days, it's also playing host to Hold for Swank, a three-man pop-rock group. The guys' impressive ability to overlap saccharine lyrics about love and a feel-good style of powerpop have earned them a spot on a recent episode of MTV's "True Life." SKRATCH recently conducted an e-mail interview with vocalist/guitarist Eric Nelson to figure out just who or what "Swank" is, and what is being held for him, as well as some music he just couldn't do without.

Hold for Swank is Eric Nelson (vocals/guitar), Max Kenkel (bass/vocals), and Nick Talley (drums.)

SKRATCH MAGAZINE: Is there any significance behind the name of the band?

ERIC NELSON: Of course; with a name this stupid, how can there not be some unique story to follow? I was working at a record store in high school when a customer called in. My friend Scotto answered the phone, and the guy asked if we could hold back a copy of the double-live Meat Loaf CD. Scotto said yes, but that he needed to put a name on the CD. The dude said, "just hold for Swank." When he came into the store to pick up the disc, he was dressed super swanky – to the nines, at least for our old hometown. That probably just means washing his gold chains in the sink and unbuttoning his shirt a little bit. Anyway, word of that story spread, my other friend Sparks suggested it for a band name, and I ran with it. I don't think there are any bad feelings, as Scotto and Sparks are Hold for Swank Fans No. 1A and 1B. But how perfect is that: a Meat Loaf CD? It wouldn't be the same story without that huge, crazy man.

SKRATCH: How does the songwriting process typically work for you guys?

ERIC: I do all of the lyric and music writing. Which comes first always depends on the song – sometimes I think of a hook first and build a song around it, sometimes I come up with a melody line and write chord progressions around it, or sometimes I have a topic, usually a girl, and just say stupid things to myself, or about myself, until something turns into intelligble lyrics. I generally have everything produced in my head – bass parts and basic drum parts – when I bring new songs to the table. If something needs tweaking, we play with it in practice until it sounds as good as it can. I've written a few songs that have just spilled out of my head in 15 minutes, but I take pride in crafting pop songs, chiseling and whittling and carving until I have a cute little deer made out of soap. Er, I mean, a radio-friendly tune.

SKRATCH: Any disasters/horror stories from live shows?

ERIC: Oh, the disastery-est! Our old drummer went ahead and skipped a show completely. The venue was the Reverb in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the place where we got our first break and to which we will be eternally grateful. The date was July 2006. The circumstances? Depends on who you ask. What we were told was that our drummer was out having a drink with two guys named Mario and Carl, and doggone it if someone didn't slip something into his drink, and he started feeling terrible, but he toughed it out, started driving, saw an old lady trying to cross the street so he helped her, saw a school bus on fire and saved 20 kids, and just made it to the club in time to...pass out behind the steering wheel in the parking lot. What we assume happened reads a little differently than that, but I'm sure if I divulge that story, we'll never, ever get our cymbals back. We actually kept him in the band after that...until he did it again.

SKRATCH: What have been some of the highlights of your time in the band?

ERIC: Well, would it sound weird if I said the show our drummer missed was a highlight? We decided to play a two-man show anyway – and we were headlining, too, making the whole thing an even bigger mess – but we kicked out the proverbial jams, and we were told afterward by crowd members and bartenders alike that it was one of the coolest shows they'd seen. Everyone in the club even sang along with the slow, pretty part of our song "Blinded By Her Glasses;" that was a magical moment. Of course we've had a lot of fun shows, and we've killed during a set and knew it right after we got off the stage, leading to high fives all around. But just recently we ran through a set during a practice with our new drummer, Nick, and he knocked it out of the park and into the river. We were stunned, not at his ability to play but at the speed with which he picked up 11 songs and could fly through them with ease. I have the feeling that will lead to a lot more highlights.

SKRATCH: What, if any, genre of music could you definitely not live without?

ERIC: Whatever you would classify bands like Weezer and Fountains of Wayne into. I guess it's fair to call them pop-rock; they have rock line-ups and they write pop songs. Same with Reel Big Fish, even with the drums – we're big ska fans, too. And there's the Get Up Kids, Jimmy Eat World, a lot of Saves the Day [type] stuff... they all write such good songs! It's catchy, it makes sense, it makes you want to sing along. Of course there are a ton of bands who do all of that but throw in wacky time signatures – the Dear Hunter, Coheed and Cambria, early Mock Orange – so I guess it's all in how you squeeze bands into genres. Not that we're all angsty and hating on genres, like, "You can't define meee, maaaan." More like there's a lot of stuff in a lot of music we like that you could lump together and just call "pop" if you wanted to.

SKRATCH: If a movie were to use ONLY your band's music as its soundtrack, what type of movie do you think it would be?

ERIC: It probably wouldn't be a movie as much as it would be one of those cartoons they used to show before movies. You know, the old black-and-white cartoons from the 1920s where the cow with the huge eyes is walking down the lane on two legs, whistling and strutting away, the flowers dancing in the background in time, and old Farmer Brown waving and tending to something agriculture-like. I wish I could say we'd fit perfectly behind a John Cusack movie since he's so awesome, but if one were to call a spade a spade, I'd say we'd fit one of those National Lampoon movies with the punny names like "College Daze" or "High School Daze" or "Dopes Looking at a Woman's Chest." Those things have "good times" stamped all over them. But hey, if they help Eugene Levy collect a paycheck, more power to them, he's hilarious.

SKRATCH: If you weren't involved with music, what would you be doing?

ERIC: If I weren't out playing music, I'd like to think I'd still be writing it and playing it for no one. If I wasn't even capable of writing songs, I'd still love music and would probably be doing something to promote the local scene. Which, by the way, is amazing in Des Moines and in Cedar Falls, Iowa. There are so many incredible bands in those two areas that no one's heard about yet. I would love to see the day – especially if we're still a band – when Iowa gets the same magazine covers that Omaha did, or that Austin did, or that Seattle did. They're both really supportive scenes – bands, fans and venues alike – and there's a lot of good, interesting music to be found here. See? This is what I'd be doing! Scenester. I would actually have a scoreboard in my house with scene points and everything. And if you didn't come to my basement shows, you could just turn in your tight pants and go work at a Virgin Megastore.

SKRATCH: What do you think is the biggest problem with music today?

ERIC: Today? I know there are problems, and I'm sure one of them is the "biggest," but it's getting harder and harder to answer that question seriously with the typical "there's nothing good on the radio" or "independent bands aren't getting the exposure they deserve" tripe. The fact is, there is a lot of good stuff on the radio, especially if you're like us and the good rock station near your hometown has a local show. And I'm not just saying that as a musician – as a fan, I love the fact that I can hear my friends and peers on the radio. Same with college stations, and those aren't too difficult to get onto, either. And as far as exposure goes, that's what MySpace and a little elbow grease are for. When I find a new band on MySpace and see how many profile views they have – for what those are worth – if it's a high number, I'll look to see what label they're on. And I've seen tons of bands with between 250,000 and 750,000 profile views and no label. That's because they're working their asses off. I'm not gonna lie, though: one problem is that there just isn't enough money to go around. We know a lot of bands with a lot of great music who can't afford to get to the studio, or whose albums are being held hostage by a studio because the band can't afford the mastering fees. If more people were willing to take a chance on a random live show or a couple of tracks on iTunes, it could go a long way.

SKRATCH: What is your favorite thing about playing live?

ERIC: Making stupid faces. I guess those just come naturally, but I get a kick out of hearing people laughing in the crowd and having a good time. Max and I are always talking to each other and posturing for the crowd, and people seem to like it. We always hear that we're a lot of "fun to watch." We take that as a pretty high compliment. The whole point of getting out and performing is to give paying customers something to enjoy. So we bounce around a lot and say goofy things and drop to our knees stick our tongues out and just try to do something more than simply stand there. And if we're entertaining ourselves, which is a main goal, then we're pretty sure we've entertained other people, too.

SKRATCH: What is the last book you read, cover to cover? How was it?

ERIC: Hey, I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I'm certainly not the dumbest. I mean, I've read books like [Milan Kundera's] The Unbearable Lightness of Being and [Gabriel García Márquez's] Love in the Time of Cholera, and I think I've understood them. They're about girls, right? Just kidding. But I have to say my all-time favorite book is Johnny Cash's autobiography, Cash by Johnny Cash. And if you're a pretty girl and you got that reference, I have a promise ring for you. For more info on Hold for Swank, visit them on the 'Net at www.myspace.com/holdforswank.

Weezer will forever and always remain in my heart as a great band that has influenced modern alternative rock and emo over the years.  But lately, they've been putting out some real crap.  And I'm so distraught about the state of Weezer that I've decided to guide you through the best of the band and briefly commenting on their current state.  This is the good, the bad and the ugly... of Weezer.

For a while now, the White House has been calling young folks to action, urging them to volunteer for the betterment of their communities.  Volunteering comes with a lot of benefits, including the respect of fellow humans, restored faith in humanity, and a feeling of inner peace.  But sometimes, it's nice to get a little recognition for the hard work you've put in.  Find out how Blink-182 and Causecast are showing their appreciation for your good deeds.

weezer es uno de los mejores grupos que han rockeado mi vida en mucho tiempo, te hacen sentir geek, felizmente looser hahaha. bueno, hoy tenia pegada happy together, originamente de the turtles, y bueno encontre el cover.

also, you can hear (and watch) the real song here. it's a classic, and, whoa i kinda love it.