Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in 2019. It is being re-shared today in light of The Blue Album’s 30th anniversary.
It will shock no one to hear that (despite our feelings about their latest record) many of our writers at Consequence of Sound grew up with Weezer as a central part of their identity. Personally, I spent the majority of my freshman year of college in 2002 rotating between the same five “Keep Fishin’”-inspired Weezer/Muppets t-shirts that I purchased at the Hot Topic in Peoria, IL’s Northwoods Mall. Our love of early Weezer still runs deep and strong and now approaches a milestone: today marks the 30th anniversary of the release of The Blue Album. To celebrate, we’ve asked a few of our favorite musicians (and fellow Weezer fans) to share their own stories about “Undone (The Sweater Song)”, “Buddy Holly”, and all the rest.
First Impressions of Weezer and The Blue Album
Anna Waronker (that dog.): They were our friends. Like classmates that we hung out with except we were in bands that played together and hung out together.
Tony Maxwell (that dog.): My first memory of Weezer was seeing them at a small club in Hollywood — The Dragonfly, I believe — and I was blown away by how instantly appealing and memorable the songs were. Soon after, they saw us play at the Music Machine in West LA, not far from where they lived, and a mutual admiration quickly emerged. When I first heard The Blue Album, I was, first, impressed by the fact that they got Ric Ocasek to produce, and, second, happy to finally have all those great songs to drive around to in my car.
Chris Conley (Saves the Day): I remember seeing the video for “Undone – The Sweater Song” on 120 Minutes one night on MTV at the tail end of eighth grade. Alternative music was massive at that time and it seemed as if every new band that came out was the best band in the world. Weezer was certainly no exception. Right away the vibe of the video was welcoming and weird but different and cool and unlike all the other videos that were coming out around then. Weezer wasn’t edgy or angsty; they were more like Green Day with their irreverent sense of humor and incredible pop sensibilities. Most bands at the time were dark and brooding and snarling or scowling in their songs and images, but this video was different. It felt like some surreal party movie in slow motion with a bunch of weird dudes dressed in clothes they found in their parents’ closets.
The only problem was that I had no idea what the hell they were singing about! Most bands back then, though, had lyrics that rarely made sense, so I went down to Sam Goody the next day and bought the CD. From the first lick of the acoustic intro on “My Name Is Jonas” to the final fading feedback and bass line of “Only in Dreams”, the album was like a sugary dream-pop opus. Ric Ocasek’s production was perfect. There were loud, distorted guitars mixed with acoustic arpeggios, doo-wop background vocals, crucial bass lines over crushing drums, gorgeous melodies, and squealing guitar solos. There were even some songs that betrayed an emotional depth with lyrics about love and loss and teenage daydreams and adolescent yearning. In other words, it wasn’t all about sweaters!
Masanori Christianson (Rogue Wave): Minneapolis had this University of Minnesota radio station, Radio K, and they had played “Undone (The Sweater Song),” and I just remember thinking, “Oh, this is kind of quirky and cool, and I like it. What is this?” I think Weezer basically exploded shortly thereafter. You know, that’s a pretty fiercely independent station, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard Weezer on there again.
Martin Courtney (Real Estate): When we were in second grade, my best friend’s dad worked for a big record distributor, so he had like millions of CDs in his basement. One day, I remember we were hanging out in the backyard or something and he handed it to us and was like, “you guys would probably like this.” And then I remember we both just got super into it. He had his little boombox, and we would like hang out in the backyard and build forts and stuff and listen to The Blue Album.
Then, when I was starting out in high school, someone told me about the existence of Pinkerton. I just remember being like, “Wait, they have another album. What?!” So then I got really into that. It seemed like it was really old when I got into it, but it probably was only like two or three years after that came out.
With that came rediscovering The Blue Album and then like my friends and I kind of like claiming this identity as like, you know, alternative kids. Our whole identity revolved around our fandom of Weezer and being like, “We’re into weird stuff, like Weezer. We’re into music you haven’t heard of, like this multi-platinum album from the ‘90s.”
We formed a band just to cover The Blue Album. We learned the whole record and played a show where we covered it front to back. So yeah, we were deep, deep Blue Album heads, for sure.