Weezers Pinkerton

[mike8902]

Does Weezers album Pinkerton remind anyone else of Pet Sounds meets the Flaming Lips? To me the songs are bursting with the Beach Boy energy, but with the flaming lips combined with pet sounds era production. Also, didn't Rivers Cuomo freak out after this album was released because no one "got it" at first? Kinda like Brian.

[I. Spaceman]

Lotta Pinkerton fans here. You should get a good response on this one.

[mike8902]

good to know.

[Beckner]

  "Pinkerton" is inextricably linked with "Pet Sounds" in my mind. For a long time every crushing defeat in the Beckner War for Love had been met with a salvo of "Pet Sounds" backed with "Pinkerton" with a side round of "Sweetheart of the Rodeo." About five years ago, I once stayed in bed for two days listening to both albums back to back over and over again, heartsick and broken. Unhappy with the answers the records gave me, a few months later I found myself looking to God for salvation again.

Still both albums remain dear to me. I am able to listen to "Pet Sounds" more freely these days but "Pinkerton" is still about that one girl who got away...

[Mitchell]

For me, Pinkerton is more akin to Smiley Smile. I think it's a great record, I love the production and energy in the songs and performance (ok, Smiley Smile kind of lacks this, but the Smiley reference is for other reasons), and that's what makes it such a captivating album. I also love that Rivers' lyrics are so specific that they essentially lose all meaning for me in terms of "connecting" with the album. Where Pet Sounds' lyrics are fairly generic and indeed easily relatable, having never had a crush on a red-headed half-Japanese girl who plays the cello (or even a lesbian), Pinkerton remains a great document of Rivers' own struggles and not my own personal problems.

[Beckner]

Actually Mitch, "Pink Triangle" happened to me.

"Falling For You" and "Getchoo" are other girls too.

[I. Spaceman]

Pink Triangle has happened to me too, but it's worse when you actually sleep with the girl.

[Mitchell]

Actually Mitch, "Pink Triangle" happened to me.

"Falling For You" and "Getchoo" are other girls too.

Well, I am sorry to hear that, but I guess that's the thing... sometimes it will connect specifically and just make it that much more meaningful/painful.

[Beckner]

No it's worse when you aren't sure if the girl is really gay or if you are the reason she won't date you.

[I. Spaceman]

No it's worse when you aren't sure if the girl is really gay or if you are the reason she won't date you.

Yikes.

[Beckner]

Yes that's just one.

Then there's Sharon, the girl who I took to a Weezer show in March 2001. I thought we had a thing, a connection to each other through the music. My heart raced with the hope of possibilities after that awesome night. I worked with her at Rite Aid. I go into work the next day to learn she was dating my coworker Steve and no one told me before the show at all. I wanted to puke. That's the reason that "Pinkerton" is so dear, it's too real to me. At times, the reality of the words becomes my reality and the lines are blurred between my life and the songs.

And btw, Ian, "The Capitol Song" is about that experience except it started out in reverse "can anybody tell me is there a greater blow than a girl who says she doesn't like you but loves your rock and roll?" but it works soo much better as it stands.

[jdavolt]

I've stated on here before that I hear a really similar vibe coming from these two albums ('Pinkerton' & 'Pet Sounds'). I definately hear a connection, and even have a CD-r I made with the two of 'em back-to-back. I wasn't surprised to learn from Mitchell, et al.'s board that Rivers was listening to PS (and SMiLE) a lot during the time in which he was writing those songs.

[Beckner]

Absolutely. Both albums come from the same place of a young man's uncertainties about love, his place in the world and the future. And  it's edifying to the (male) listener that it's okay to be uncertain and not tough, despite what society may impress upon you your entire life.

(I'm not trying to exclude the female populace or say that they don't feel these ways...)

[mike8902]

It reminds me so much of Transmissions from the Satellite Heart. The "big drum sounds" rivers was into must've been inspired by that. I love the way rivers worked with that sound and made it more catchy and accessible.

[Chris D.]

Actually Mitch, "Pink Triangle" happened to me.

I could've sworn "In the Garage" happened to you, as well.

 

Mike, you're right -- Rivers loved the Flaming Lips.  They used Dave Friedman was one of the engineers on Pinkerton, which is partly how they got the same drum sound.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

*Fridmann.

Contemporatneous interviews have Rivers saying they were specifically going for the Flaming Lips drum sound.

[andy]

Rivers also said, in his most recent interview, that the only time he wrote songs while at Harvard was when his frozen dinners were in the microwave. So tracks 5-10...



Pinkerton is my second favorite album, behind Pet Sounds.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

Maybe he was eating those really big microwave dinners that require 12 minutes in the microwave?

[andy]

Had to be...had to be.

[Beckner]

I could've sworn "In the Garage" happened to you, as well.

Yes, but for me, it was Spidey and Led Zeppelin, not the X-Men and KISS.

[Jason]

Pinkerton's a wonderful little album. I don't think Weezer will ever top it. Where's the deluxe edition?

[andy]

Probably won't happen.

[Jason]

Maybe not now, maybe in a few years.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

Maybe he was eating those really big microwave dinners that require 12 minutes in the microwave?

I can never get those timed out right. The box will say 3-4 minutes but I'll end up re-heating seven times before I can eat comfortably.

I have Pinkerton on a CD-R and i've only given it a few listens.

[andy]

It would have to start selling a lot more copies. It's the least selling of the =w= albums, even behind Maladroit and Make Believe.


But it's the album that deserves the DE treatment. It'd be awesome.

H&V, you should try playing it again sometime. FFY will teach you a lot about theory.