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Songs from the Black Hole: Difference between revisions
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Asked why he "ditched" the album concept in a [[2002]] [[AIM chat with Rivers Cuomo excerpts - January 10, 2002|fan correspondence]], Cuomo simply replied "rotr" (referring to the [[1995]] album ''[[Return of the Rentals]]'' by former Weezer bassist [[Matt Sharp]]), adding "plus it was kind of a lame idea". Cuomo expanded on this in [[2010]], saying "our bass player, Matt, put out his first solo record and I felt like it had a lot of the same musical and lyrical themes that I was planning to explore on the second record. So that would be one contributing factor, my change of heart. Also, I had this really painful surgical procedure on my leg, which lasted 13 months in all and it took me to a place, emotionally, where the whole idea of this whole rock opera started to feel too whimsical for where I was emotionally, going through the pain of the procedure. And so I scrapped the whole idea and went to a more serious and dark place."<ref>Greene, Andy. "Rivers Cuomo Looks Back at ‘Pinkerton’" ''Rolling Stone''. 2 November 2010. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/rivers-cuomo-looks-back-at-pinkerton-107425/</ref> In 2002, several ''SFTBH'' demos were leaked on the internet. These included "[[Blast Off!]]", "[[Oh No, This Is Not For Me]]", "[[Come to My Pod]]", "[[Tired of Sex]]" and "[[Longtime Sunshine]]". Another demo, "[[You Won't Get With Me Tonight]]", was officially released on the [[2003]] compilation ''[[Buddyhead Presents: Gimme Skelter]]''. A very short clip of the band rehearsing "[[Superfriend]]" in Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, in January [[1996]], was released on the Weezer DVD ''[[Video Capture Device]]'' in [[2004]]. | Asked why he "ditched" the album concept in a [[2002]] [[AIM chat with Rivers Cuomo excerpts - January 10, 2002|fan correspondence]], Cuomo simply replied "rotr" (referring to the [[1995]] album ''[[Return of the Rentals]]'' by former Weezer bassist [[Matt Sharp]]), adding "plus it was kind of a lame idea". Cuomo expanded on this in [[2010]], saying "our bass player, Matt, put out his first solo record and I felt like it had a lot of the same musical and lyrical themes that I was planning to explore on the second record. So that would be one contributing factor, my change of heart. Also, I had this really painful surgical procedure on my leg, which lasted 13 months in all and it took me to a place, emotionally, where the whole idea of this whole rock opera started to feel too whimsical for where I was emotionally, going through the pain of the procedure. And so I scrapped the whole idea and went to a more serious and dark place."<ref>Greene, Andy. "Rivers Cuomo Looks Back at ‘Pinkerton’" ''Rolling Stone''. 2 November 2010. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/rivers-cuomo-looks-back-at-pinkerton-107425/</ref> In 2002, several ''SFTBH'' demos were leaked on the internet. These included "[[Blast Off!]]", "[[Oh No, This Is Not For Me]]", "[[Come to My Pod]]", "[[Tired of Sex]]" and "[[Longtime Sunshine]]". Another demo, "[[You Won't Get With Me Tonight]]", was officially released on the [[2003]] compilation ''[[Buddyhead Presents: Gimme Skelter]]''. A very short clip of the band rehearsing "[[Superfriend]]" in Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, in January [[1996]], was released on the Weezer DVD ''[[Video Capture Device]]'' in [[2004]]. | ||
{{Rivers Cuomo quote|I think the whole Black Hole thing has gotten blown way out of proportion in people's minds. It's really like--it's just, like, a third of an album that was sketched out and most of the songs on it weren't really written specifically for The Black Hole; they were written before I conceived of The Black Hole and then I reshaped them a little bit for The Black Hole and then after I abandoned that idea, I unshaped them and put them on Pinkerton, so besides that, there are a handful or two of scraps of mostly interstitial pieces that aren't really songs, and then there may be just a couple of full songs that were written for The Black Hole. So it's really not that big of a deal.|''Alternative Press' interview<ref>Heisel, Scott. "Web Exclusive: A conversation with Rivers Cuomo" ''Alternative Press''. 30 October 2007. https://www.altpress.com/111-2/</ref>}} | |||
As the demos from the ''SFTBH'' began being desired by fans, Cuomo stated on his blog that he was unable to release any of his demos (including ''Black Hole'' songs) because of his contractual obligations to Geffen Records: "...Someday that may change but it won’t be anytime soon...Until I can figure out a way to compensate Geffen records (and in the case of covers songs, the songwriters) I can’t give away my recordings." Also on his blog, Rivers mentioned playing his demos to Jordan Schur, the president of Geffen Records: "...when we were starting to work on Make Believe in 2003, I sat down with Jordan and played him hours of my old demos, going all the way back to the beginnings of Weezer. He didn’t think any of them were album-worthy. Neither did I. The one song he thought was good was "Blast Off" but it 'needs a new chorus.' I agreed." In a [[2006]] interview, commenting on speculation that Make Believe would be Weezer's last album, drummer [[Pat Wilson]] stated that he would be interested in releasing a compilation of "lost" Weezer tracks. This fueled rumours that the band would release previously unheard ''Black Hole'' songs or a completely re-worked version of the ''Songs from the Black Hole'' concept album in the near future. A petition for the band to release the ''SFTBH'' demos was launched by Weezer fans on [[November 27]], [[2005]], with the goal of reaching one thousand signatures. The petition reached its goal on [[March 1]]st, [[2006]]. On [[October 3]], 2005 during [[Weezer concert: 10/03/2005 - Rosemont, IL|a Weezer show at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois]], the band invited a fan up onstage to play the rhythm guitar for "[[Undone - The Sweater Song]]". The fan took advantage of this moment to attempt to get the band to play "Blast Off!" by beginning to play the intro to the song and sang the first four lines of the song.<ref>CLme. "Blast Off / Undone" ''YouTube''. 16 October 2007. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNG3RPbxz0M</ref> "Blast Off!" was played live for the first time with the full band on [[August 19]], [[2011]] at [[Weezer concert: 08/19/2011 - Seattle, WA|a concert at WaMu Theater in Seattle, WA]]. It was the encore song after a "Double Memories Night", during which the band performed both ''[[Weezer (The Blue Album)|The Blue album]]'' and ''Pinkerton'' in their entirety. | As the demos from the ''SFTBH'' began being desired by fans, Cuomo stated on his blog that he was unable to release any of his demos (including ''Black Hole'' songs) because of his contractual obligations to Geffen Records: "...Someday that may change but it won’t be anytime soon...Until I can figure out a way to compensate Geffen records (and in the case of covers songs, the songwriters) I can’t give away my recordings." Also on his blog, Rivers mentioned playing his demos to Jordan Schur, the president of Geffen Records: "...when we were starting to work on Make Believe in 2003, I sat down with Jordan and played him hours of my old demos, going all the way back to the beginnings of Weezer. He didn’t think any of them were album-worthy. Neither did I. The one song he thought was good was "Blast Off" but it 'needs a new chorus.' I agreed." In a [[2006]] interview, commenting on speculation that Make Believe would be Weezer's last album, drummer [[Pat Wilson]] stated that he would be interested in releasing a compilation of "lost" Weezer tracks. This fueled rumours that the band would release previously unheard ''Black Hole'' songs or a completely re-worked version of the ''Songs from the Black Hole'' concept album in the near future. A petition for the band to release the ''SFTBH'' demos was launched by Weezer fans on [[November 27]], [[2005]], with the goal of reaching one thousand signatures. The petition reached its goal on [[March 1]]st, [[2006]]. On [[October 3]], 2005 during [[Weezer concert: 10/03/2005 - Rosemont, IL|a Weezer show at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois]], the band invited a fan up onstage to play the rhythm guitar for "[[Undone - The Sweater Song]]". The fan took advantage of this moment to attempt to get the band to play "Blast Off!" by beginning to play the intro to the song and sang the first four lines of the song.<ref>CLme. "Blast Off / Undone" ''YouTube''. 16 October 2007. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNG3RPbxz0M</ref> "Blast Off!" was played live for the first time with the full band on [[August 19]], [[2011]] at [[Weezer concert: 08/19/2011 - Seattle, WA|a concert at WaMu Theater in Seattle, WA]]. It was the encore song after a "Double Memories Night", during which the band performed both ''[[Weezer (The Blue Album)|The Blue album]]'' and ''Pinkerton'' in their entirety. | ||