R.I.P. Christopher Reimer

I was saddened to hear that Women's guitarist Christopher Reimer had died in his sleep yesterday. I really loved the band's fresh take on what I consider mundane; post-punk. Their two albums were arguably the most original sounding noise/post-punk albums of our current generation, so it's really heartbreaking to pretty much assume the band is now done. But besides the music, it's crushing to think how quickly life can cease. You just never know when it's your turn.

Here you can visit a memorial site made by his sister: http://christopherjohnjosephreimer.com/

Here's a bootleg of one of Women's last performances: http://www.mediafire.com/?oq3lb19n8qc8kk1

Is Cuomo Going to Get His Groove Back?

Weezer is classic band. Their first self titled album also known as the Blue Album, hit the sound-waves with a new sound that Rivers Cuomo often calls a mixture between "Sonic Youth and the Beach Boys". Their singles "Buddy Holly" and "Sweater Song" brought out hordes of fans and pressures from record companies for the next album.

Their second album ,called "Songs From the Black Hole" , was supposed to be a space rock opera ,but over time chief songwriter, Cuomo went through tons of emotional turmoil which lead him to scrap majority of the project, taking "Tired of Sex" ,"Why Bother?", "No Other One" and "Getchoo" , which in turn was used on the new infamous project, Pinkerton.

Pinkerton, now considered to be the highest point of Weezer's career ( I have not ventured further myself, for I am afraid that my love of the band will diminish with each album) ,but at the time of its released it was considered to be garbage. The critics panned it calling it "juvenile" and even "aimless". The fans didn't come out for the dark lyrics about loneliness, sadness, mindless sex, drug abusive girlfriends and the effects of fame.  They released four singles:  "Tired of Sex", "El Scorcho", "The Good Life","Across the Sea" and lastly "Pink Triangle" ,each of them rarely played on the radio due to the lyrics leaving their album dead on arrival.


After Pinkerton's flop, Cuomo once again turned into a deep depression where he tried to discover a new sound and that is the sound that was present on the Green Album. The Green Album was a heavy departure Pinkerton's sound taking out the personality and emotion that was present in their first two albums. The Green Album launched them once again launched Weezer into the limelight ,but at a large expense. During this time Cuomo refused to play any songs from Pinkerton mainly because of the emotional connection to the past.

Today, Pinkerton is now widely considered their greatest album. Receiving perfect scores from (lol) pitchfork, metacritic and was even listed as the greatest albums of the 90s from Rolling Stone, Spin and Guitar World. Weezer recently re-released Pinkerton in 2010 which ranked 6th on the Billboard Album Catalog. Cuomo has come to accept and love Pinkerton as a great album. Just last year (was on my best of 2011 list) Cuomo ended his Alone: Home Recording series with the rest of Songs of the Black Hole and just this year Cuomo published his diaries from the Pinkerton years titled The Pinkerton Diaries.


With all this love of the past and retrospection, is there a possibility that Cuomo will release a Pinkerton II? Is it possible that the next Weezer project not to suck? Is it possible that Cuomo will re-record Songs of the Black Hole?  Will Cuomo become depressed again and make a masterpiece that is not relying upon their  formed image? I can only hope.... I can only hope.

New Release/Upcoming: How Scandinavian - The Woods/Caves

Hey everyone! Big news for the rest of the month for How Scandinavian, we're planning on releasing a brand new single for each Tuesday in the next three weeks, starting today! They will all be compiled into a collection EP at the end of the three weeks for the sake of convenience as well. So whether you prefer to hear them as they come along or if you want to save it all for a giant listening single experience, you can. Listen to the first single, The Woods/Caves, below!