Draft:EWBAITE monster
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The EWBAITE monster, known also by the fan-given name Smooch, is the creature seen on the cover of Weezer's 2014 album Everything Will Be Alright in the End. It was designed by artist Chris McMahon, who is best known for his Involuntary Collaborations series of paintings.
Origin
The EWBAITE painting, titled Mountain Monster, was first uploaded online in November 2009 onto DeviantArt.[1] It was the third piece in an ongoing series of paintings by Chris McMahon titled Involuntary Collaborations — so named because they involve painting over thrifted landscapes by unknown artists with fantasy monsters. The piece attracted moderate viral success when it was uploaded to Reddit alongside two other paintings on March 10, 2011.[2][3] The original landscape painting used for Mountain Monster was not preserved and its artist remains unknown.
Weezer reached out to McMahon about using the artwork in early 2013.[4] McMahon, a fan of the band, was "elated." The artist said in an interview with Karl Koch in 2015, "I've been listening to their music for quite a while ... [that] was part of why I was so excited to be involved. I kept thinking to myself that I was so lucky that it was them. It could have been a band I wasn't that into, or even a band I didn't like, but it was Weezer." Koch has said that Rivers Cuomo chose the painting while searching online for concept art. Said Koch, "... [Cuomo] felt an immediate pull. The Monster was both on a terrifying rampage, and yet the painting was peaceful and dreamlike. And most importantly to Rivers, it was clear the monster wasn’t angry — it was upset, sad, searching for something it was missing. Which paralleled the dual tales of The Scientist and The Artist being woven into the album’s developing songs."[3]
The album artwork was revealed on July 2, 2014 in a teaser video uploaded to YouTube.[5] The Mountain Monster landscape was extended by artist Johannes Gamble for some elements of the album's artwork, seen in full in the CD booklet.
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"Smooch" name
The name "Smooch" for the Mountain Monster character was first proposed by All Things Weezer user gpl on July 2, 2014 in the thread "Name the Weezer Monster". Some other proposed names included "Bill" and "The Pain Incarnate". "Smooch" won a poll in the follow-up thread "ATW names the Monster (For Real)" and McMahon posted approving of the name. Fans unanimously adopted the name shortly thereafter. McMahon has retroactively used the name to refer to the creature in Mountain Monster and refers to visually similar monsters in later works as "Smooches". The band has still not recognized any official name for the character.
Other works featuring the monster
McMahon has created a number of other works featuring the Smooch character, including variants on its design. Many of these have been curated on his website's portfolio page. Some of these pieces reference songs from Everything Will Be Alright in the End, including Forgive Your Foolish Neighbor (2015) and Is This the Shack? (2019).
Merchandise
Chris McMahon prints
Custom plush dolls
References
- ↑ Christ McMahon [as CHR15T0PH3L35] (November 20, 2009). "Mountain Monster". DeviantArt. Archived from the original.
- ↑ Chris McMahon [as chr15to] (March 10, 2011). "Involuntary Collaborations: I buy other people's landscape paintings at yard sales and Goodwill and put monsters in them.". Reddit post. Archived from the original.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Adam Pockross (May 11, 2020). "Bob Ross-style paintings look way better with giant, 'derpy' monsters. Just ask Weezer.". SYFY. Archived from the original.
- ↑ Chris McMahon (January 19, 2015). "Interview by Karl Koch". Reddit post. Interviewed by Karl Koch. Archived from the original.
- ↑ Weezer (July 2, 2014). "EWBAITE 11 "My Mystery"". YouTube.
See also
External links
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