Weezer: Difference between revisions

While Rivers contemplated the band's new direction, Matt began to form a band of his own, [[The Rentals]]. The Rentals were a band focused on strong male/female harmonies, synths, moogs and even featured lyrics about space and machinery. It is perhaps simply fan speculation that Matt purposely borrowed elements of the Black Hole concept, but Rivers himself seemed to believe that Matt had copied him. Rivers did not wanting to appear a copycat of Matt's new side project. Although he was uncertain of the Black Hole's future, he was certain that he wanted to disappear for a while. Rivers grew a beard, had a painful leg surgery to correct the length of his left leg and enrolled at Harvard.  

Karl wrote of the time, ''"A lot of stuff was happening all at once. The Blue album touring had finally been wrapped up. Rivers had gotten himself accepted at Harvard for the upcoming fall semester, and was looking forward to escaping the limelight for a while. The band was up for 5 different Mtv Video awards and the awards show was coming up on the 7th in NYC. I was to help the still leg-braced Rivers move to Boston immediately after the awards (which he ironically ended up not attending.) Studio time was booked, in order to get a head start on the new album, which was only partly written at this point. Rivers was still holding out a torch for his "Black Hole " idea, but as recording got underway, the songs were laid down as before, one at a time- no story, no theatrics, no characters."'' Songs practiced during these sessions were made up mostly of songs intended for SFTBH, but still songs that could stand independent of the Black Hole such as "Tired of Sex", "Waiting on You" and "Getchoo".

At last, Rivers went to Harvard while Pat Wilson began to work on his own side-project, tentatively unnamed. In the wake of the Black Hole writing spree, Rivers found himself struggling with writer's block. While at Harvard, his ego suffered greatly. Each day, Rivers walked to class hid behind a beard and limping with a walking cane. One day, Rivers received a letter from a Japanese girl who was a fan of Weezer. Karl recalls this being a turning point in the direction of the second album. Rivers obsessed over the letter and even went so far as to sniff it and lick it (although it is uncertain if this is simply hyperbolic for the purpose of a song). Rivers used the event to write his first new song, [[Across the Sea]]. Finding himself heavily influenced by the themes and melodies of ''Madame Butterfly'' and being feeling very insipred from his Harvard classes in English and Music, Rivers slowly continued to write new songs about his experiences at Harvard such as "[[Pink Triangle]]" and "[[El Scorcho]]". With ''Madame Butterfly''-esque themes and recurring characters (the Japanese girls, the cellist), Rivers new songs began to create a concept of their own. Additionally, Rivers wrote "[[The Good Life]]", which all-too-intimately told the tale of a crippled Rivers walking around Harvard and "[[Falling for You]]", which continued where El Scorcho left off. Between breaks, Rivers and Weezer would reconvene to rehearse new songs. Slowly, SFTBH died off as the new songs came to the forefront. Finally, Rivers wrote "[[Butterfly]]"-- a song which placed Rivers into the shoes of [[Colonel Pinkerton]] from ''Madame Butterfly''. The song closed up the themes of the as-of-yet unnamed album.