weezer was founded in los angeles on february 14, 1992 by rivers cuomo, jason cropper, matt sharp, and pat wilson. the band began writing music and playing local clubs. despite not having much success at first, the band pressed forward. after 16 months together, playing shows and recording demos in los angeles, dgc records (geffen) signed weezer. the band moved to new york to record at the famed electric lady studios under producer ric ocasek (of cars fame). during the recording of weezer, jason left the band to take care of his future wife, who was pregnant with their first child. jason was replaced by brian bell, a then bassist from a band called carnival art.

weezer's self-titled debut album was released on May 10, 1994, and was a hit from the start. they released three singles from weezer: "undone - the sweater song", "buddy holly", and "say it ain't so". "buddy holly" won several mtv awards that year, and weezer eventually went double-platinum. after several tours around the u.s. and the world, the band settled back in; rivers went to school at harvard, matt and pat worked on a new band named the rentals, and brian resumed work with a former band of his, the space twins. in the early winter of 1995 and the summer of 1996, weezer once again commenced into the studio, but this time they were to produce the album themselves.

on september 24th 1996, weezer's much-awaited second lp, entitled pinkerton, was released. it is quite the opposite of weezer; the guitars are more gruff, the lyrics have a deeper meaning, and the band's talent and style has matured considerably. weezer released three songs from pinkerton: "el scorcho", "the good life", and "pink triangle". pinkerton went gold in record sales and has been a steady seller since. in the band downtime after pinkerton, matt sharp has left the bassist position (under good terms) to pusue his ever more notable band, the rentals. filling matt's place is mikey welsh, of boston, and formerly of juliana hatfield's band. during 1998 rivers & mikey played a few shows together in boston (dubbed "the rivers cuomo band"). the following spring rivers and mikey joined brian and pat in los angeles and had on/off rehearsal sessions over the next couple of years. rivers devoted some time to "homie" which released one song, brian released a couple of records with his spacetwins, and pat and mikey toured with the special goodness.

fast forward to spring 2000. after playing unannounced shows under secret names, in addition to more frequent rehearsals, weezer booked dates on that summer's warped tour, and subsequently a nationwide club tour. much to the band's surprise the dates sold out instantly. juiced by an overwhelming fan response and a wealth of new material, weezer was back. following another sold-out tour in the fall the band continued writing and practicing new material in los angeles into 2001. a christmas song e.p. was distributed to fans and radio stations and shortly before the new year weezer began recording their 3rd effort, dubbed "the green album" in los angeles, again with producer ric ocasek. with the album finished the band got back on the road for much of the rest of 2001. Mid summer saw another line-up change, with Mikey replaced by bass heavyweight Scott Shriner. The band continued their relentless touring through 2001, finally pausing to record their 4th album, Maladroit, which was released in May 2002. The band continued touring till september, when they took a break and intermitently worked on new tunes for a 5th album.

Weezer is an American rock and roll band. Their genre of music is related to alternative rock. Formed on February 14, 1992, they have released five full length albums, an EP, a DVD, and a two-disc set, deluxe remastered edition of their debut album with the addition of b-sides and imports. Their latest album, entitled Make Believe, was released on May 10, 2005.

Some consider Weezer to be one of, if not the most influential American rock bands in the past 10 years, due to both their ability to write great music and create infamous music videos.

History

The band formed on February 14, 1992 in Los Angeles, California with original members Rivers Cuomo (pronounced KWOH-mo), Patrick Wilson, Matt Sharp, and Jason Cropper. Five weeks later they had their first gig, opening for Dogstar (featuring Keanu Reeves) at Raji's Bar and Ribshack on Hollywood Boulevard. Weezer began playing clubs to small audiences around L.A. and recording home-demos. Soon the band began to receive attention from various A&R reps, and were signed on June 25, 1993 by Todd Sullivan, an A&R rep from Geffen Records. The band were signed onto the DGC label (which later became Interscope).

The Blue Album

Weezer began recording their debut album in late August 1993 at the Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Ric Ocasek, former singer/songwriter for The Cars, was chosen as producer. After the recording of the album, guitarist Jason Cropper was fired from the band by Cuomo. Cropper was replaced by guitarist Brian Bell, a former member of the band Carnival Art. Cropper's guitar parts were rerecorded by Cuomo, and Bell replaced Cropper's vocals. The recording of the album finished in early October 1993, and the band headed back to L.A.

On May 10, 1994, Weezer released their self-titled album, which became known as The Blue Album (see 1994 in music). The Blue Album included the hit singles "Buddy Holly," "Undone (The Sweater Song)," and "Say It Ain't So." The video of "Buddy Holly" was included on the CD-ROM of Windows 95.

In late December 1994, Weezer took a break from touring for the Christmas holidays. Rivers Cuomo traveled back east to his home state of Connecticut, and using an eight-track recorder, he began piecing together demo material for Weezer's next album. Cuomo's original concept for Weezer's sophmore effort was to be a space-themed rock opera, Songs from the Black Hole. The album would feature songs that flowed together seamlessly, and end with a special coda that briefly revisited the major musical elements of the piece. The band began demoing and working on Cuomo's concept through intermittent recording sessions in the spring and summer of 1995. Ultimately, the Songs from the Black Hole album concept was dropped, but many of the songs from the sessions were used on their second album.

Many consider this album to be Weezer's best album.

Pinkerton

Weezer's sophomore effort, Pinkerton, was released on September 24, 1996 The album received generally positive reviews by critics (see 1996 in music), but sales of the album were low compared to their debut. The title of the album was inspired by a character in the opera Madame Butterfly written by one of Cuomo's favorite operatic composers, Giacomo Puccini. Cuomo wrote songs like "The Good Life" and "El Scorcho", which feature personal reflections on the change from anonymous student to rock star, during his time at Harvard. From an industry perspective, the album was not originally seen as a critical or financial success. Over the years, the album grew in popularity and is now considered an alternative rock masterpiece by many critics. In 1996 Rolling Stone magazine gave the album only 2.5 stars and Pinkerton received the second most reader votes for the Worst Album of the Year. Rolling Stone updated its view in 2004 and inducted Pinkerton into its Album Hall of Fame, giving a brand new five-star review rating.

On Hiatus

Weezer completed their touring for Pinkerton in the summer of 1997. The members of the band took a break, with drummer Patrick Wilson returning to his home in Portland, Oregon to work on his side project, The Special Goodness, Matt Sharp left to complete the follow-up album for his group The Rentals, and Brian Bell went to work on his group, Space Twins.

Rivers Cuomo returned to Boston, but dropped out of Harvard to focus on songwriting. He formed a solo group, The Rivers Cuomo Band. Cuomo used the group to try out songs intended for the next Weezer album. The band played their first show at T.T. the Bear's on October 8, 1997. Future Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh was part of the solo band's line-up. The Boston songs were later abandoned and not used on the next Weezer album, but live recordings of the Boston shows are openly traded on the internet. In February of 1998, Rivers left Boston and Harvard academia behind and returned to Los Angeles.

Pat Wilson and Brian Bell joined Cuomo in L.A. to start work on the next album. Matt Sharp did not rejoin the band and officially left the group in April of 1998. The group decided on Mikey Welsh as Sharp's replacement. Weezer continued rehearsal and cut demos until the fall of 1998. Frustration and creative disagreements led to a decline in rehearsals, and in late fall of 1998, drummer Pat Wilson left for his home in Portland pending renewed productivity from Cuomo.

The band would not reunite until April of 2000, when the Fuji Fesitval in Japan offered Weezer a high-paying gig to play in August, 2000. The festival served as a catalyst for Weezer's productivity, and from April to May, 2000, the band rehearsed and demoed new songs in Los Angeles. The band returned to live shows in June, 2000, but without the Weezer name. Instead the shows featured the group's first use of the pseudonym Goat Punishment.

On June 23, 2000, the band, now back under the Weezer name, joined the Warped Tour for eight planned dates. Weezer were well-received at the festival, leading them to book more tour dates for the summer.

SS2K - The Summer Sessions

In the summer of 2000, Weezer (now consisting of Rivers Cuomo, Mikey Welsh, Pat Wilson, and Brian Bell) were back on the road. Weezer's setlist consisted of 14 new songs, but 13 of them were later scrapped and replaced with what was to become Weezer. The fans collectively labeled these songs the Summer Songs of 2000 (commonly abbreviated, SS2k), and are all fan-favorites. Three SS2k songs, "Hash Pipe", "Dope Nose" and "Slob," were recorded properly for studio albums (with "Hash Pipe" appearing on the Green Album and "Dope Nose" and "Slob" appearing on Maladroit).

A collection of these is located on the referenced site below available for free downloads.

The Comeback

Eventually, the band went back into the studio to produce a third album. Weezer (2001) was self-titled again to signify a sort of rebirth for Weezer. This album quickly became known as The Green Album. Shortly after the release of The Green Album, Weezer went on another American tour, attracting many new fans along the way. A fourth album, Maladroit, was released in 2002 (see 2002 in music) with Scott Shriner replacing Mikey Welsh on the bass, and served as a harder-edged version of their trademark catchy pop-influenced music. Although critics and fans generally liked the album overall, its sales were not as strong as those for The Green Album. As soon as Maladroit had wrapped up, the band immediately began work on their fifth album, recording numerous demos between tours for Maladroit (often recording as much as 24 songs in a day). These songs were eventually scrapped and Weezer took a well-earned break after their one-two punch of The Green Album and Maladroit.

Make Believe

From December 2003 to the summer and early fall of 2004, the members of Weezer recorded a large amount of material intended for a new album to be released in the spring of 2005 with producer Rick Rubin. That album, entitled Make Believe, was released on May 10, 2005 to strong reviews and sales.

The album saw a change of writing style from Weezer's previous albums. Rivers Cuomo — having previously written many songs about his failures in life due to his shyness — decided to avoid that kind of song in the new album, conceding that only the second track "Perfect Situation" fits into the old Weezer writing style. The album has attracted many new fans to the band with the single "Beverly Hills".

General Info

Weezer have also played several shows under the pseudonym Goat Punishment. Their first shows under the pseudonym featured the new Weezer lineup (now featuring Mikey Welsh) playing covers of songs by Nirvana and Oasis. Later the name Goat Punishment was used while the members of Weezer recorded a show for the HBO concert series, Reverb.

Weezer are also renowned for their music videos. While "Undone (The Sweater Song)" was big on MTV, it was the Spike Jonze-directed "Buddy Holly" video, which used footage from various episodes of Happy Days, that made them pop icons. The video is akin to other defining videos of the 90s such as Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Smashing Pumpkins' "Tonight, Tonight," because all three of these videos helped the artists reach an audience not often reached by alternative rock bands. However, Weezer's Pinkerton videos didn't obtain as much airtime compared to the videos on their major label debut album. The music video for "Hash Pipe" (from the The Green Album) featured sumo wrestlers. They then recorded two videos for "Island in the Sun," the first focusing on a Mexican wedding, and the second involving Weezer with animals in a wildlife reserve. Their video for "Photograph" had heavy rotation on Much Music USA (now Fuse). Maladroit's "Dope Nose" featured people riding motorcyles, and was put into regular rotation. The following music video for "Keep Fishin'" combined Weezer with The Muppets, and had heavy rotation on MTV.

In March of 2004, Weezer released their first DVD. Entitled "Video Capture Device", the DVD contains all of their current music videos, live concerts, and homemade movies. The DVD hit hard on the DVD compilation charts and was declared "Gold" on November 8, 2004.

As of July 2002, Weezer had sold more than 5,000,000 copies of their albums in the US.

Genre: Alternative/Punk, Emo, Grunge-Pop, Post-Grunge, Power Pop, Punk-Pop

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA, US

One alt rock enthusiast asked another, "Whatever happened to Weezer?" "Label hassles, dude," replied the latter. "The 'UniGram' merger got 'em. It's a bummer, too. They were criminally underappreciated." His friend burst out laughing and said, "What are you talking about? Those guys were soooo made for MTV!" "To the naked eye and ear, yeah. Dig a little deeper, though, and you'll find they put together some incredible songs. Sure, 'Buddy Holly' had that zany Happy Days video, but it's a Power Pop masterpiece. And 'No One Else' and 'Surf Wax America'? High on the kooky-meter, but still, amazing melodies." His friend wasn't convinced. "That 'Sweater Song' is ridiculous! It's off this little kooky-meter of yours," he surmised. "You never heard Pinkerton, did you? Their sophomore masterpiece?" alt rocker number two shot back. "It stiffed, right?" replied number one. "Completely, which is a damn shame, because that record took their debut's Ric Ocasek-sponsored production sheen and threw it in the dumpster. It's not pretty around the edges at all. 'Tired of Sex' has a drum sound that would give Steve Albini nightmares. 'The Good Life' is catchier than syphilis. The record's brutally depressing and yet, at the same time, insurgently emphatic and ingeniously funny. I mean, 'Pink Triangle'? Hilarious and tearful all at once. Pinkerton is pure ragged glory."
"Alright fine, loan it to me," said the second curiously.

Formed: Jan 1, 1993

As one of the most popular groups to emerge in the post-grunge alternative rock aftermath, Weezer received equal amounts of criticism and praise for their hook-heavy guitar pop. Drawing from the heavy power pop of arena rockers like Cheap Trick and the angular guitar leads of the Pixies, Weezer leavened their melodies with doses of '70s metal learned from bands like Kiss. But what set the band apart was their geekiness. None of the members of Weezer, especially leader Rivers Cuomo, were conventional rockers -- they were kids that holed up in their garage, playing along with their favorite records when they weren't studying or watching TV. As a result, their music was infused with a quirky sense of humor and an endearing awkwardness that made songs like "Undone (The Sweater Song)," "Buddy Holly," and "Say It Ain't So" into big modern rock hits during 1994 and 1995. All the singles were helped immeasurably by clever videos, which may have made the songs into hits, but they also made many critics believe that the band was a one-hit wonder. Perversely, Cuomo began to feel the same way, and decided that the band would not rely on any visual gimmicks for their second album, 1996's Pinkerton. Simultaneously, Cuomo took control of the band, making them into a vehicle for his songwriting. While the album didn't sell as well as their 1994 eponymous debut, it did earn stronger reviews than its predecessor. Cuomo's assumption of the leadership of Weezer wasn't entirely a surprise, since he had been the band's primary songwriter since their inception in 1993. Raised in Massachusetts, Cuomo moved out to Los Angeles to go to college in the late '80s. During high school, he had played with a number of metal bands, but once he arrived in college, he became interested in alternative and post-punk music. By 1993, he had formed Weezer with bassist Matt Sharp and drummer Patrick Wilson. Over the course of the next year, they played in the competitive Los Angeles club scene, eventually landing a deal with DGC during the post-Nirvana alternative signing boom. Three days before the band began recording their debut with producer Ric Ocasek, they added guitarist Brian Bell. Upon completing the record, Weezer went on hiatus temporarily -- Cuomo was studying at Harvard when their eponymous debut record came out. With the support of DGC and a striking, Spike Jonze-directed video, "Undone (The Sweater Song)" became a modern rock hit in the fall of 1994, but what made Weezer a crossover hit was "Buddy Holly." Jonze created an innovative video that spliced the group into old footage from the sitcom Happy Days and the single quickly became a hit, making the album a multi-platinum hit as well. By the time the album's final single, "Say It Ain't So," was released in the summer of 1995, the group had gone on hiatus, with Cuomo returning to Harvard. During the time off, Sharp and Wilson formed the new wave revival band the Rentals, who had a hit later that year with "Friends of P." During the hiatus, Cuomo became a recluse, disappearing at Harvard and suffering writer's block. When Weezer reconvened in the spring of 1996 to record their second album, he had written a loose concept album that featured far more introspective material than their debut. Ironically, the band sounded tighter on the resulting album, Pinkerton. Released in the fall to generally strong reviews, the album failed to become a hit, partially because Cuomo did not want the band to record another series of clever videos. Grudgingly, the remainder of the band contented themselves to be a supporting group for Cuomo, largely because each member had their own solo project scheduled for release within the next year. DGC, however, had the band make one last chance at a hit with "The Good Life," but by the time the single was released, MTV and modern rock radio had withdrawn their support not only to Weezer, but their style of guitar-driven punk-pop in general. Shortly after the tour in support of Pinkerton was completed in 1997, it appeared as though Weezer had fallen off the face of the planet. Stung by the public's initial dismal reaction to their sophomore effort (ever-fickle ~Rolling Stone named Pinkerton the Worst Album of 1996), the band took time off to regroup and plan their next move. Unhappy with the sluggish rate of the reassessment period, Sharp left the group to concentrate more fully on the Rentals, fueling rumors that Weezer had broken up. But a funny thing happened during Weezer's self-imposed exile -- while their copycat offspring were falling by the wayside (Nerf Herder, Nada Surf), a whole new generation of emocore enthusiasts discovered Weezer's diamond-in-the-rough sophomore effort for the first time, and their audience grew despite not having a new album in the stores.

Once Weezer's members wrapped up work on side projects (Bell: Space Twins, Wilson: the Special Goodness), the band recruited former Juliana Hatfield bassist Mikey Welsh to take the place of Sharp and began working on new material. Before they could enter the recording studio to record their third release, Weezer tested the waters by landing a spot on the 2000 edition of ~the Warped Tour, where they were consistently the day's highlight. Hooking up again with the producer of their 1994 debut, Ric Ocasek, Weezer recorded what would be known as "the Green Album" (a title given by fans since it was their second to be self-titled). Issued in May of 2001, the album was an immediate hit, debuting at number four on ~Billboard and camping out in the upper reaches of the charts for much of the spring/summer, during which such songs/videos as "Hash Pipe" and "Island in the Sun" became radio and MTV staples, reestablishing Weezer as one of alt-rock's top dogs. During their tour that summer, Welsh fell ill and was replaced by Scott Shriner, also of the band Broken. That fall and winter the group busied themselves with touring with bands like Tenacious D and recording their next album Maladroit, which arrived a year after "the Green Album." Just before Maladroit's release, former bassist Matt Sharp sued Weezer, seeking compensation and songwriting credit for songs such as "Undone (The Sweater Song)," "El Scorcho" and "The Good Life." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Greg Prato, All Music Guide

Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Biography for
Rivers Cuomo

Nickname: Ace, Varz
Height: 5' 6" (1.68 m)
Mini biography
After many big ups and downs, Rivers has locked into a massively productive and busy schedule, both in music and band business. Constantly pushing himself to write new material, and record it at the best quality available at the time, he rarely has much time to spare. Has taken over management of Weezer and is doing a fine job, which has loosened and limbered him up in the music department.
IMDb mini-biography by: Karl Koch
Trade mark: Sticker covered guitar and his unique punk rock style. Buddy Holly style glasses.
Trivia: Is the lead singer and guitarist for the rock band Weezer.
Went to Harvard University and dropped out within a year of graduation.
"Weezer" the name of his rock band, is actually his childhood nickname.
He grew up with divorced parents and that was his inspiration for the song "Say it ain't so" on the "Weezer" album
The name of his 4th album "Maladroit", was inspired by a fans e-mail.
Does not have a middle name because his parents wanted him to chose it, but he never got around to it.
Is a vegetarian. He has been voted "sexiest celebrity vegetarian" on Peta.com
Claims that his mom named him Rivers because she gave birth to him near a river but also claims his dad named him that after two famous Italian soccer players, Rivera and Riva, and a Brazillian soccer player, Rivelino.
When he was born, his left leg was 44 mm shorter than the other. When he made enough money, he got a leg brace in which he wore for quite some time. Everyday he had to turn it to fix his leg. He also got surgery for it.
Attended Harvard University where he wrote most of the famous "Pinkerton." Just a few months before graduation he dropped out.
Personal quotes:"Your brain is always searching for reasons to doubt yourself; I'm pretty experienced with that."
"I love getting older, though. I just feel like I have more control over the universe -- or my small corner of it, at least."
"I had rock-star dreams from 8 or 9 almost nonstop. I thought it was going to be like being a God on earth: having as many women as you want whenever you want them, having super powers, being incredibly wealthy, never doing laundry. Instead I found myself in the dead of winter in Boston with a long beard, no friends and a bum leg. It was pretty disillusioning..."
"I've sold two million records, I've toured around the world singing in front of thousands of people. And there's a girl sitting across from me in English 101, and I just look up at her every once in a while and put my head back down. I'm still a pathetic fool. No matter how many records I sell, I'm never going to be in Kiss."

Name: Rivers Cuomo
Birthday: June 13th, 1970
Sign: Gemini
Hometown: Yogaville, CT / Boston, MA / Los Angeles, CA
Status: Single
Spare time: Meditation, Songwriting
Band duties: Lead vocals, guitar
Rivers Cuomo was born June 13, 1970 in upstate Connecticut. The best way to describe Rivers' parents would be as hippies. Rivers had one sibling, a brother named Leaves (here's where we realize his parents were hippies). While in high school, Rivers went by the name Peter Kitts, which was in reference to the drummer of Kiss, his favorite rock group.

At 18, Rivers moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of becoming a rock star. After trying it out, he realized that he wasn't cut out for it (or, at least so he thought), and gave up. Around this same time his girlfriend broke up with him. These events made Rivers depressed, and he started writing songs. He felt that most of them 'sucked', but he continued to do this because this was the only way he knew how to express himself. Eventually, Rivers met up with Matt Sharp, Jason Cropper, and Pat Wilson and began playing shows under the name Weezer. Soon after, they were discovered by Geffen and started production on "Weezer", or more formally known to fans as "The Blue Album". Before they had recorded "Weezer", however, Jason Cropper had been replaced by Brian Bell. Cropper left Weezer to be with his pregnant wife.

With the money Rivers received from "Weezer", he went off to school at Harvard, something that he had never been able to afford before. While there, he also used some of that money to undergo a procedure to lengthen his left leg by 44 millimeters.

After Harvard, Rivers and the rest of the band came back together to record Pinkerton. The songs on this album came from Rivers sad thoughts. He opened his feelings to the public, and they didn't like it. Pinkerton was a bust. After the failure of Pinkerton, the band members all went their different ways and worked on their own side projects.

When Pinkerton was released, many fans had thought the band was done for. But in 2000, Weezer came back together to record new material. With that happening, both fans and Weezer themselves were surprised. For the fans, this was great. Weezer was back in the studio and planning to release a new album (minus Matt Sharp, who had been replaced by Mikey Welsh). For Weezer, it was amazing. Pinkerton, which at the time it was released had been deemed a failure, had now created a huge fan base. Weezer went on to create their second self-titled album, this time to be dubbed "The Green Album" by fans.

After seeing that Weezer could still be successful, Rivers and the rest of Weezer started work on the fourth album, Maladroit. They periodically posted samples of the new songs in the Audio/Video section of there website, keeping all of the members informed. During this time, Rivers also began to converse with some fans over message boards on the internet, mainly looking for suggestions, but sometimes just chatting with them or answering questions. Maladroit was released, and the fans took a keen liking to it.

Name: Patrick Wilson
Birthday: February 1, 1969
Sign: Aquarius
Hometown: Buffalo, New York / Portland OR /Los Angeles, CA
Status: Married and father to Charles Patrick Wilson, born 30th November 2004.
Spare time: Works on his own band The Special Goodness
Band duties: Drums
Pat was born February 1st 1969 in Buffalo New York.
He started to play the drums at age 19, before the a drum kit entered Pat's musical expertise he played the bass. Patrick was a fan of classic rock when he was a young lad until high school when he got into Devo and The Clash. Pat quit his job and moved out to Los Angeles when he was 21 with his friend Pat Finn.

confused pandas: When Pat is not on tour he lives in Portland Oregon with his wife. Pat is known for his "explosive" sense of humor and his various videos of scootering around venues. Patrick fronts his own band The Special Goodness that has released two CDs. When asked what movie Pat wishes he could've been in he said, "Clerks. Kevin Smith is a genius."

"I had a beer once. It was weird." -Patrick Wilson

Name: Brian Bell
Birthday: December 9th, 1968
Sign: Sagittarius
Hometown: Knoxville, TN/ Los Angeles, CA
Status: Single
Spare time: Plays in his own band The Space Twins
Band duties: Guitar, backing vocals
From his 1994 bio: "raised in tennessee, little brian knew he wanted to be a rock star at an early age. lucky enough to catch and elvis (presley, that is) concert at the age of four, he wanted nothing else but to be a hounddog. studying "geetar" pickin' on tv from such fine eastern tennessee programs as "the barneyloo and buster show" and, of course, "hee haw," little brian learned how to pick 'n' grin on a ukelele his grandma won at a bingo game. brian's dad, a wacky absent-minded professor and ex-college dj, turned him onto cool music he had from the 50's and 60's. so, armed with his first turntable, a fisher price lo-fi stereo system, little brian managed to scratch and destroy most of dad's valuable 45's.

as brian grew older, he began to feel isolated and out-of-place with the other reindeer. while the "normal" tennessee boys were out hunting possum, chewing tobacco and making up fish stories, he preferred to stay home and watch billy mumy movies. ah, movies, music and show biz. Why was it all based in one glorious place -- los angeles? so, just like the clampetts, brian packed up my bags and moved to yucca St., hollywired (cause everyone he met at first was on crystal meth.) not at all like the movies."
currently: brian continues putting his good natured slightly southern style into his life and music. often found deep in a guitar playing trance, pulling his quirky musical inventions out of the ether. loves a good shopping trip, has an uncanny eye for unique fashion. Released the Space Twins album "The End Of Imagining" in May, 2003.
right now he's: listening to an old tyrannosaurus rex album, or watching "Rosemary's Baby".

Name: Scott Shriner
Birthday: 7/11/65
Sign: Cancer
Hometown: Toledo, OH/Los Angeles, CA
Status: Single
Spare time: Video games, movies, naps, exersizing
Band duties: Bass, backing vocals
Born on July 11th 1965 Scott grew up in Toledo Ohio. In the early 90's he moved to Los Angeles California and played with many bands, such as Vanilla Ice's "rock" band and Broken. When Mikey Welsh, Weezer's former bassist, entered himself into a psychiatric hospital Scott was called upon to sub for the missing Mikey. When Mikey made it clear that he quit Weezer Scott took the duty of full time bass player. "Rivers got my number thru a mutual contact, but I didn't know about it. So when he called me I thought it was a practical joke! 'Yeah right, you're Rivers Cuomo, uh huh'. But it sort of dawned on me: this guy's being too serious to be making a joke!"

Scott played the trumpet in the fourth grade and when he figured that the trumpet is not one of the coolest instruments in the world he asked his dad while in high school, "what is that instrument that makes that low bump bump pop?" And from then on he has played the bass. Scott's a big fan of Elvis Costello, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. He likes to eat steak, play video games, watch movies, and take naps. Unlike most Weezer men Scott has a large collection of tattoos.

Scott brings a different, harder sound to Weezer. He's here to stay. "The rock saved my life as a kid, and ill do anything for rock, bro!"

Name: Mikey Welsh
Position: Bass, backing vocals; 1998-2001
Birthday: April 20, 1971
Sign: Taurus
Hometown: Syracuse, NY / Boston, MA
Status: Married
Currently: A full time visual artist, lives in Vermont.
Other info: Joined weezer a few months after matt sharp left in 1998. had played in numerous bands before, including juliana hatfield's band, chevy heston, jocobono, left nut, and the heretix. played with rivers at his late 1997 'solo' shows in boston. also played with verbena in 1999 during weezers down-time, as well as the first incarnation of pat wilsons' special goodness in late 1999 and early 2000.

Name: Matt Sharp
Position: Bass, backing vocals; 1992-1997
Birthday: Sept 22, 1969
Sign: virgo
Hometown: Arlington, VA / Barcelona, Spain / Los Angeles, CA
Status: Single
Currently: Lives in L.A., touring in 2003 in a solo acoustic format.
Other info: An original member of weezer. started his own band 'the rentals', while still in weezer. released 2 albums on maverick records, the second sometime after he left the band in early 1998. rentals last known activity was some touring in 1999. Made a solo album in 2000-2001 [unreleased so far], released EP in 2003.

Name: Jason Cropper
Position: Rhythm guitar, backing vocals 1992-1993 (left during the recording of weezer's 1st album, probably since he's wife was pregnant)
Birthday: June 27, 1971
Sign: Cancer
Hometown: Oakland, CA / Los Angeles, CA
Status: Divorced, 3 kids
Currently: Runs a vintage music gear rental company
Other info: An original member of weezer. after leaving weezer, started his own band "chopper one" with his wife; released 1 album and did some touring in '97-'98. Currently, Jason is "tinkering with new music but no current band project to play shows with."

Karl Koch: Webmaster, band photographer; archivist.
Has known the band since '91 and has been tricked into doing virtually every possible job for them since then. Hates to cause so much trouble, but what are ya gonna do?