Weezer - Raditude

Weezer: Good Times Champions.

Fondue, Fonzie, tube tops, sweet & sticky lip gloss, geeky Sci-Fi water explosions / experiments a la Devo and oh, so much more

Author: Catherine Bochte

I can’t think of anyone I’d rather party with than Weezer.

How could anyone turn down an invite to a party where there would be cheese fondue, pinball machines, Fonzie, chimpies, tube tops, sweet & sticky lip gloss, puppet shows, D&D trolls, for-real cowboys, skating, heavy metal tees and guitar licks, glitter rock, ice cream day dreams, breakfast cereals, plastic glow-in-the-dark fangs, bounce houses, geeky Sci-Fi water explosions/experiments a la Devo and oh, so much more?

(And these are just a few of my favorite things. It would take an arena just to put all of them in there. So keep rockin’ it, boys. ;)

That’s how the West was won.

They are favorite things mind readers.  Rivers Cuomo (with his posse) is the Amazing Kreskin of our generation—and that’s just fucking suave.

The Universe’s Good Times Viewmaster is very happy clicking through the Weezer reels.

In honor of the new year, let’s start it with a little ‘raditude.’

Weezer, Raditude, 2009.
DGC records.
10 tracks, plus 4 bonus tracks on the deluxe edition.

Lord, I’m getting flashbacks of doing naughty things at the roller rink, again, from the wayback machine, but here we go:

1. i want you to

 yes. we want you 2 ;)
BIG props go to the top of this alt pops’ CD…it really rocks. I hear warm elements of The Jam in its bouncy rock beat.

2. i'm your daddy

Who's your daddy?
Nothing is impossible with cheese fondue and the aping of a goombah.
I like the electronic break that slows shortly after the 5th stanza...

3.  the girl got hot

Has the word Dy-No-Myte in it. We hear conversations from the dance floor, begging for response, Gary Glitter-style (before the weird). It lets us in on the scene..like the “Sweater Song”...we are at the party…
And anyone, male or female, that wears white boots is bangin’ in my book…..especially in the form of a girl dressed like one of the models from “Video Killed the Radio Star.”

The title of the lyrics for this track on the CD’s sheet have a Cheap Trick-esque font.

In fact, every title of each song on the CD’s lyric sheet has a different font, to help describe each track/Viewmaster reel’s photo (square).

“I Want You To” ‘s title has a font that indicates reverb (just like the CD’s title, “Raditude”)—and reminds me of dancing, like doing the Smurf or the Pop'n Loc; “In the Mall” ‘s looks like Space Invaders. Sublime, eh?

4. can't stop partying

Robot voice. I can't stop...partying, partying...(last night we partied like it was 2009).
“I've gotta have the cars, gotta have the jewels, and you would too, if you was me...”
Dig the upside down MTV.
Weezer and Lil Wayne? Now, this is really livin’. J

5. put me back together

I see this as an animated video. Dunno why-- but hope to see it that way soonish...;)

6. trippin' down the freeway

That “Shirley Applebee look”....reminds me of that Buddy Holly and Mary Tyler Moore lyric in 'Buddy Holly," from ‘The Blue Album”
I dig the bass line near the end of this track.

7. love is the answer

‘Nuf said…in the two languages in the song…in any language, in fact…

8. let it all hang out

Death match between homies armed with 180 proof vitamin water vs. the recession/shapes of things, before my eyes.

9. in the mall

We hear a dirty sweet fumbling at the start of the track. ”Beth, I hear you calling”.... Death Meatallica begins.

(My drink of choice at our mall was an Orange Julius—paired with a slice of pizza-- when I was a Pre-Teen From Hell.)

This could make for a good accompaniment to a “Shaun of the Dead” sequel’s soundtrack....:)

Then the “Poltergeist” lady, Miss Jingles, the “Pretty in Pink” church organist, calls over the mall intercom for Pat Wilson’s mom.....BUSTED!

10. I don't want to let you go

“Napoleon Dynamite”-flavored.

(I get excited when I think of those puffy sleeves).

This track’s got a nice lonely twang and bee-bops to the end.

Bonus tracks:

11. get me some

Synthesizers at the arcade....nice...

(I know the feeling. I gotta have my rock….and my Ms. Pack Man.)

Oh, yeah. I felt tickled by a mini ELP ending. Wooo!

12. run over by a truck

(One of my favorite expressions.)

Features a hip-hop piano man, er, pianist. ;). Props.

13. the prettiest girl in the whole wide world

(Sounds like a Monty Python beauty pageant intro.
I was hoping to see a bunch of mates in drag.
I'm wanting “The Full Monty”-- I think this would have be an awesome song when the fellas began their strip tease in the finale of the film.)

I hear a bit o'Beatles in there—it begins  with a bit of Beatles, ends with a bit o' Beatles....Sgt. Pepper-esque, perhaps.

14. the underdogs

Co-written with Kazuhiro Hara, who also composed the soundtrack for  "Inuyasha.” (Rivers Cuomo recorded a home demo of Hara's Japanese Christmas song "Meri Curi " (this, by, the by, is real, real purty), which was released as a bonus track on the Japanese Deluxe Edition of The Red Album.)

It's kind of a glossy 'We Are The Champions' for this generation.

And thank you, Weezer, for being champions of Good Times. Happy 2010!