Maladroit: Difference between revisions

With Shriner freshly in the lineup, Cuomo began to turn to a harder rock. At the time, he was reading lots of Nietzsche. He said in a magazine, "I want to conquer far and wide in the name of Weezer." Determined to make them the greatest band in the world, Rivers ironically took an approach that upset many fans and the rest of the band. He took complete control of Weezer in a way that he previously never had. He was writing new songs a furious pace, as evidenced by their BBC performance that summer - rather than the standard re-recording of released songs, all new songs were recorded, which included many songs that would eventually appear on their next album.  As the touring wore on, the material became progressively heavier, as new song after new song was debuted.  Live soundboard recordings of new songs were posted on the official website throughout the [[Midget Tours]].

Also around this time, Rivers became very interested in what fans had to say about Weezer. To Rivers, the fans on Weezer boards acted the same as a record producer, but their insight was often better. They knew Weezer better, they were not motivated by money, and they were easy to talk to. Setting up a message board, Rivers began corresponding with fans, first through Karl, and eventually on his own under the username [[Rivers Correspondence Board|"Ace"]] (a reference to [[Ace Frehley]]). During a given day, Weezer would go into the studio, record all new songs, post them online for fans to download and critique, then the next day they would take the advice into consideration and attempt new lyrics, bridges, arrangements, etc. Eventually, the relationship between Rivers and the fans grew less and less friendly. Rivers, angered with the fans attacking his new songs and loving only his old ones, wrote the song "[[Space Rock]]", which chronicles the relationship he had with his fans. Still, overall, Rivers and Weezer did indeed take the opinions of fans into consideration. Even the album's name, ''[[Maladroit]]'', was a fan suggestion.

''Maladroit'' was released on [[May 14]], [[2002]], and was self-produced like ''[[Pinkerton]]'' (Rivers would say 'unproduced').  As with all Weezer albums, it was an album of firsts.  It was the first album to contain a booklet with lyrics (which included a special message thanking Weezer boardies), and the first to venture beyond ten tracks.  The first 600,000 copies of Maladroit have a limited edition gold number on the bottom corner. The album received strong reviews at the time, but remains the band's lowest selling album. The album's only singles, "[[Dope Nose]]" and "[[Keep Fishin']]" received respectable radio play and MTV circulation, propelled by popular music videos, but failed to really get the album off the ground.