What's that now? Weezer is still releasing music?
Not bad!
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"Pork and Beans"
23 May 2008 01:12 pm
Comments (28)
I don't know, appropriating Internet memes has surely been long, long, past its "sell by" date.
What I really like about Pork and Beans is the interplay of its lyrics and its sound. Sonically, it sounds identical to something from the Blue Album. So, my first thought on hearing it was something like "Wow. I love love Weezer, but they sure haven't changed their sound a bit." Then I realized the theme of the lyrics. Brilliant stuff.
What I really like about Pork and Beans is the interplay of its lyrics and its sound. Sonically, it sounds identical to something from the Blue Album. So, my first thought on hearing it was something like "Wow. I love love Weezer, but they sure haven't changed their sound a bit." Then I realized the theme of the lyrics. Brilliant stuff.
Thank God for a Weezer song that doesn't completely suck!! After to listening to the last album, I almost threw in the towel.
Now Im going to go eat some Pork and Beans
And Keith deal with it. Good song and Good video.
I'm proud to do my part to keep MY atop the leaderboard for comment threads with double-posts. What the hell is it with the software here?
The Internet smells like the Internet, and Weezer is your new bicycle, apparently.
They should have stopped after their masterpiece Pinkerton. And they definitely should have stopped after the Green Album.
Keith, the only thing I would say is that while you're right that internet memes have been appropriated a lot in pop culture lately (including an especially weak South Park episode), its usually for the purpose of further mocking the people involved, mocking the people watching the people, or just plain navel gazing.
This video, on the other hand, seems more like a defense of fellow outcasts and dorks (hampster glance aside); a show of loser-solidarity.
The song itself isn't about Internet-dweeb solidarity. The inclusion of the hamster glance, all your base, etc., indicate to me that the video is more broadly an attempt to get 'net attention by further recycling 'net memes. Which seems pretty lame to me.
And the idea that Internet uses are a minority and are social outcasts is far beyond its "sell by" date, too.
Has someone told these guys it's not 1998?
I agree with some on the video. At the middle of the song, I stopped watching but did continue listening. Not bad, indeed.
A drumstick light saber? I'm in love.
I will say that I wish lead singer Rivers Cuomo would shave off his circa 1970s porn star mustache.
I recognized, in total, about four of the memes in that video ("all your base," "Leave Britney alone," the science-experiment guys and the fat dude at the computer.) Clearly I am too old, or else I need to spend more time on the Internet.
Note: I am only three years older that Rivers Cuomo.
These guys have been mailing it in since Pinkerton. Also, all their videos have on wrong side of the line between stupid and clever. Too bad, they used to write good songs....
Jim,
Completely agree with you. Weezer has always walked that line, and you can hear some of the "stupid/clever" lines here. The video is also goofy as well. However, I think this might be one of the instances where the its more clever than stupid considering that the song never aspires to be more than a sing-a-long.
Referencing internet memes is kinda old hat. But getting all the memesters together for a reunion singalong is verifiably AWESOME.
Referencing internet memes is kinda old hat. But getting all the memesters together for a reunion singalong is verifiably AWESOME.
These guys have been mailing it in since Pinkerton.
Not exactly "mailing it in" in my opinion--that would imply a certain bored productness to their output. "Pork and Beans," however, is exactly the kind of hummable, reasonably clever, uptempo nerd anthem that might well have appeared on the very first Weezer album (1994).
I can't think of a band since Boston that's managed to put out such similar-sounding records for so long. Maybe it's some kind of ironic-1970s-reference thing when Weezer does it.
"I don't know, appropriating Internet memes has surely been long, long, past its "sell by" date."
Sure, maybe, but Weezer's take on it all is so generous, in a way that's extremely uncharacteristic for this culture, that it feels fresh. Even though South Park hit most of the same material last month. I don't know, I was moved.
I am the same age as Matt. I loved Weezer from sixth grade into college. Eventually, I realized that they don't make good music any more. It's like they dumbed down both the music and lyrics post-2000. This particular video concept has been done before. It is not clever. It's boring and only reminds me of how boring the music is.
Since Matt is talking music again, obligatory Corrs post...
The Corrs Live at Glastonbury -Toss The Feathers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHjS8Oz8Gkg
Corrs - Breathless (Live)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fhf_rhhKCw
The Corrs - All In A Day LIVE In London 2001
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bMDVlzXN24
I could never get these guys and Ween apart in my mind.
Damn kids, nothing good was done after the Dead Boys.
Stiv: bite your tongue. Ween is one band that definitely does not mail it in and is worlds apart in sound from the Weez (in every direction depending on the album).
Greg/James Gary: on one hand, this does sound pretty similar to the Blue Album's decent songs, and isn't nearly as bad as their last several singles (the Muppets video song was atrocious). I don't really agree though that their collective post-Pinkerton output sounds like those first two records. They sound bored to me. Recall that they became ultra-popular AFTER they returned with the Green Album, at least in terms of venues they play. There's something that really bothers me about songwriters who get wealthy and write crap mundane music as they age. I'm thinking Aerosmith, Elton John, Metallica as the first three that come to mind. It's everything that's wrong with the music industry.
Funny story: I saw Weezer in 1995 (4?) in Sacramento on one of those early 90s college-rock tours (I was 14 or 15). The Jesus and Mary Chain and the Cramps headlined; Weezer opened. They came on stage and bitched about how their gear never made it to the venue and they were playing on rented stuff. Then they played "My Name Is Jonas" sloppily and then stormed off the stage. Apparently the mailing it in started even before they got famous.
'Island in the Sun' was a prophecy about the Puerto Rico primary. It's true!
I like it!
Whichever producer got both the numa numa kid and the south carolina beauty queen to agree to participate is a steely-eyed missile man.
I can has Weezer?
No Rickroll?
Comments closed June 06, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
Weezer never went away. Rivers went to Harvard and got a degree, but this is their second or third release since he graduated.
Posted by Joe Klein's conscience | May 23, 2008 1:28 PM