Episode #275 | 5.26.26
Weezer: How a “Dorky” Rock Band Found Their Dark Side
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In this episode
A frontman obsessed with Kurt Cobain. A band trying to outrun its own dorky image. A bass player who burned hot, disappeared, and later seemed to predict his own death. Harvard isolation, hotel-room debauchery, algorithmic songwriting, and a Weezer T-shirt at the center of an LAPD shooting. Listen to find out how Rivers Cuomo’s perfectly controlled rock band found its dark side.
Sources
Close Enough, Welcome Back Kurt Cobain: Rivers Cuomo Humors Popular Conspiracy Theory (Vice)
UNDONE: The Complete Oral History Of Weezer (Phawker)
Rivers Cuomo’s Encyclopedia of Pop (Rolling Stone)
Don’t Believe the Hype (Westworld)
The Strange Birth and Near Death of Weezer (Rolling Stone)
Former Weezer bass player found dead in Chicago of suspected drug overdose (The Guardian)
The Vivid World of Mikey Welsh (Rolling Stone)
Mikey Welsh Trades Rock 'n' Roll Stardom for Outsider Art (PBS)
Mikey Welsh, Former Weezer Bassist, Dies at 40 (Hollywood Reporter)
How KISS changed Rivers Cuomo's life forever (Far Out)
Q&A: Rivers Cuomo of Weezer (Rolling Stone)
Rivers Cuomo Looks Back at ‘Pinkerton’ (Rolling Stone)
Rivers Cuomo (The Guardian)
Former Bassist Sues Weezer (Rolling Stone)
Rivers Cuomo on His Data-Driven Approach to Weezer (Billboard)
Student With a Past (NY Times)
I, Songwriter (LA Weekly)
"Rivers Cuomo" on Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend (Team Coco)
A Mad and Furious Master (Weezerpedia)
Weezer’s Pinkerton (Once, Every Two Weeks)
Shocking new details emerge in police shooting of Weezer star’s estranged wife (NY Post)
Weezer 'offered' $10m to split up (The Guardian)
Weezer: As Dope as Ever (CDNOW)
How He Got the Weezer Gig: Scott Shriner (The SBL Podcast)
Goat Punishment (Weezerpedia)
The Encyclopedia o' Pop (Weezerpedia)
Credits
Hosted by Jake Brennan.
Written by Zeth Lundy.
Copy edited by James Sullivan.
Mixed by Sean Cahalin.
Produced in partnership with the Exactly Right Network and iHeartPodcasts.
DISGRACELAND theme song, “Crenshaw Space Boogie,” written and produced by Jake Brennan. Performed by Jake Brennan, Bryce Kanzer, Jay Cannava, and Evan Kenney. Mixed and engineered by Adam Taylor.
*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak