In the Garage

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"In the Garage"
In the Garage cover
Album track by Weezer
Album Weezer (The Blue Album)
Released May 10, 1994
Recorded August-September 1993 at Electric Lady Studios, New York, NY
Length 3:55
Label DGC
Writer(s) Rivers Cuomo
RC# 168
COR# N/A
Producer(s) Ric Ocasek
Status Officially released
Live debut August 1, 1993 in West Hollywood, CA
Weezer (The Blue Album) track listing
"Say It Ain't So"
(7)
"In the Garage"
(8)
"Holiday"
(9)
Rivers Cuomo song chronology
"Port O' Jonas"
(RC# 167)
"In the Garage"
(RC# 168)
"I Swear It's True"
(RC# 169)

"In the Garage" is the eighth track from The Blue Album.

Appearances

Overview

In the original press kit for The Blue Album, Rivers Cuomo identifies "In the Garage" along with "Holiday" and "Buddy Holly" as having been "written in a sudden burst of confidence and optimism right after we got a record deal."[1]. The song was likely first recorded in July of 1993, and was catalogued by Cuomo on his personal demo tape Don Slacks.[2]. Weezer debuted the song live at the Roxy in West Hollywood, CA on August 1, 1993[3], the last concert they would play with Jason Cropper.

Photo of "the garage," as included in the booklet of The Blue Album CD release.

The garage named in the song is one that the band used for early rehearsals and recordings, next to a home that many of them lived in. It is located at 2226 Amherst Avenue in Los Angeles, California and referred to as the "Amherst House." This location is depicted in the "Say It Ain't So" music video.

The song was recorded with the rest of Blue at the end of August 1993, though the itineraries of individual recording days are not known[4]. On August 11, a few weeks before these formal sessions, the band worked with Ric Ocasek on a "reprise" of "In the Garage" that Karl Koch termed "a weird mellow vocal harmony thing"[5]. This recording has not surfaced, and it is not known if or where it would have appeared in the Blue tracklist otherwise. In January of 1995, Weezer recorded a new in-studio version of the song featuring an organ in place of harmonica. This was aired on the BBC Radio 1 program The Evening Session.

Alongside "My Name Is Jonas," "Garage" makes prominent use of a harmonica. Weezer would not return to this instrument on an official recording until 2005's Make Believe, on the song "Freak Me Out." Though Cuomo initially performed the harmonica parts for "In the Garage" in live shows, Brian Bell has performed it as well.

The song's lyrics were referenced in much of the early press that the band received, helping to associate the band with labels like geek rock and nerd rock.[6][7]. Writing in a retrospective 2017 review of The Blue Album for Pitchfork, Jillian Mapes described the song as "an homage to that happy place where no one judges you for your comic books, D&D figurines, and Kiss posters... The hopeless ambition of “In the Garage” would make it the defining song of nerd-rock."[8]. Mapes juxtaposes the autobiographical qualities of "Garage" ("a hyper-detailed song about himself") with the fantasy-driven "Surf Wax America."

Known recordings

Performer(s) Title Filename Date of recording Recording location Length Appeared on Notes
Rivers Cuomo In the Garage 10 In The Garage.mp3 July—August 1993[9] 4:01 Alone IV: The Blue-Pinkerton Years
Weezer In the Garage August 6, 1993[9] Cole Rehearsal Studios, Los Angeles, CA Rehearsal session. Recorded on Rivers Cuomo's portable DAT.
Weezer In the Garage August 11, 1993[9] S.I.R., New York City, NY Blue Album pre-production demo. Engineered by Chris Shaw.
Weezer In the Garage August—September 1993 Electric Lady Studios, New York, NY 3:55 Weezer (The Blue Album)
about this table

Video Capture Device live video


Karlifyhead.png
Shot in Denver in the afternoon, at a different venue from the that night's gig at the Ogden, which was with a seated audience-for reasons we never figured out... Oh yeah, it was for the Weezer DVD 9 years later!


- Karl Koch, Video Capture Device booklet, 2004


Audio

Lyrics

In-the-Garage-lyrics.jpg

I've got the Dungeon Master's Guide
I've got a 12-sided die
I've got Kitty Pryde
And Nightcrawler too

Waiting there for me
Yes I do, I do

I've got posters on the wall
My favorite rock group Kiss
I've got Ace Frehley
I've got Peter Criss
Waiting there for me
Yes I do, I do

In the garage I feel safe
No one cares about my ways
In the garage
Where I belong
No one hears me sing this song
In the garage

I've got an electric guitar
I play my stupid songs
I write these stupid words
And I love every one
Waiting there for me
Yes I do, I do

In the garage I feel safe
No one cares about my ways
In the garage
Where I belong
No one hears me sing this song
In the garage, in the garage

In the garage I feel safe
No one cares about my ways
In the garage
Where I belong
No one hears me sing this song

In the garage I feel safe
No one laughs about my ways
In the garage
Where I belong
No one hears me
No one hears me
No one hears me
No one hears me
No one hears me sing this song

See also

External links

References