Categories
Live music galleries

Live music galleries: Weezer [2023]

(I got the idea for this series while sifting through the ‘piles’ of digital photos on my laptop. It occurred to me to share some of these great pics from some of my favourite concert sets from time to time. Until I get around to the next one, I invite you to peruse my ever-growing list of concerts page.)

Weezer at Bluesfest 2023

Artist: Weezer
When: July 7th, 2023
Where: RBC stage, Ottawa Bluesfest, Lebreton Flats Park, Ottawa
Context: I’ve read somewhere that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the release of Weezer’s self-titled debut album and that they will likely be doing a special tour in hour of said anniversary. I think a show honouring their debut album would definitely be worth seeing and would be interested in taking pains to do so, in spite of the fact that I’ve seen the group three times already. Granted, the first two times were almost by accident*, but for the third time, I made sure to catch their headlining set at last year’s Bluesfest. I remember being amazed at the age range in crowd and even more so at the kids singing along word-for-word to Toto’s “Africa”** when it blasted from the festival speakers to announce the onstage arrival of Weezer. Once there, they treated the blissed-out crowd to a set that pulled from their entire career, playing all their hits, making full use of the technicolour stage design and backdrop displays. It was pure fun from the opening notes to the crowd pleasing encore that finished with the song below.
Point of reference song: “Buddy Holly”

Rivers Cuomo of Weezer
Brian Bell and Patrick Wilson of Weezer
Scott Shriner of Weezer
Brian and Patrick in front of the cartoon set
Scott with the crazy double neck guitar
Rivers at the steering wheel
Rivers, Brian, and Scott all acoustic

*I first saw them opening for Lush at The Warehouse in Toronto when they were touring in support of their debut album and the second time I saw them was because someone I was at Bluesfest with really wanted to see them and I found myself pleasantly surprised.

**The revival of the song is something we can thank Weezer and whoever it was on social media that lobbied for their cover of it.

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: The Strokes “Is this it”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The Strokes
Album Title: Is this it
Year released: 2001
Year reissued: 2024
Details: Original cover, transparent red vinyl

The skinny: Here’s my most recent vinyl purchase, having just received it in the mail a few weeks ago. The Strokes’ debut album “Is this it” has been on my wishlist for a while but every time I saw a copy in stores, I already had something else in my hands. And of course, it always seemed to be the US version of the cover, which I did not want. The album probably up there with some of the best debuts ever, certainly ranking amongst those released in the 2000s. I distinctly remember that there was a lot of excitement with its release, breathing new life into American indie with its blistering take on garage rock. I wasn’t as enthused with the albums that came after, however, with the exception of The Strokes’ most recent release, but I never lost the love for “Is this it”. So when I caught the news of its reissue on transparent red vinyl with the international cover art, I didn’t second guess – I put in the order.

Standout track: “Last nite”

 

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 1993: #3 Cracker “Euro-trash girl”

<< #4   |    #2 >>

Digital music has certainly changed the way we consume our favourite songs and albums*. First, with the mp3 and illegal downloading in the late 90s and early 2000s and then, with music streaming services in the late 2000s to present. I know a great many people who have stopped buying physical music altogether and some who have been offloading their collections in order to make room for other… stuff. Indeed, I am thinking that there may be some in the younger generations who have never owned a record, a cassette tape, or a compact disc. It’s these folks that I worry may never know the joys of physical music: album artwork, liner notes, gatefold and other foldout sleeves, and of course, the hidden track.

Yes… the hidden track.

For those who may not know of what I speak, hidden tracks are songs that were typically tacked on at the end of the official track listing on records, tapes, and CDs, the song titles weren’t listed on the sleeves and sometimes on CDs, would be “hidden” on tracks far later on in the disc. I personally have enjoyed a great many of these over the years** but I do believe my all-time favourite example would be Cracker’s “Euro-trash girl”. It appeared at track 69 of 99 on the CD version of the band’s sophomore album, “Kerosene hat”, and was apparently put on there by the band unbeknownst to the record company, who wanted them to keep it for a future release.

I had gotten into Cracker with their self-titled debut album and the hilarious debut single, “Teen angst (What the world needs now)” and when I started hearing new singles “Low” and “Get off this” on alternative radio, I recognized their country-twanged alt rock right away. But when I started hearing “Euro-trash girl” on the radio, I knew had to get the new album. Of course, when I first picked up the CD in the stores and didn’t see the song listed, I was quite disappointed but I picked it up anyway. And yet the story had a happy ending, unlike our protagonist in the song.

“Yeah, I’ll search the world over
For my angel in black
Yeah, I’ll search the world over
For a Euro-trash girl”

“Euro-trash girl” is a fan favourite at live shows that was as such before it was ever put to tape, which is reportedly why it ended up as a hidden track. It starts with a gentle strum and a forlorn electric guitar and it doesn’t really kick in to a higher gear than that, even when the drums join the fray and things get louder. It’s a lackadaisical eight minutes of meandering and reminiscing, David Lowery weaving a tale, true or no, of a backpacking trip through Europe, a search for European love and the misadventures that are found instead. It plays on all of our collective schadenfreude, amusing us to the point that we don’t want it to end, singing along with our narrator as he gets robbed, arrested, shaken down by border cops, is forced to sell his ‘plasma’ after his parents refuse to wire him money. And at the end, he is still searching for his “angel in black”.

*In fact, I’ve seen more than few writers posit whether the ‘album’ has seen its day.

**“Train in vain” by The Clash, “Blue flashing light” by Travis, and “All by myself” by Green Day are just a few fine examples.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 1993 list, click here.