Weezer have reflected on the 30th anniversary of ‘The Blue Album’ and have shared original home demos.
READ MORE: Rivers Cuomo on building an online community of fans who “like big guitars and weird lyrics”
‘The Blue Album’, which is the alternative name of Weezer’s self-titled debut album, was released on May 10, 1994. The album spawned a string of hits such as ‘Buddy Holly’, ‘Say It Ain’t So’ and ‘Undone – The Sweater Song’.
Taking to the Weezer official X/Twitter account, the band shared a statement reflecting on their debut LP. “On May 10, 1994, DGC Records released “Weezer”, the self-titled debut album by Weezer,” they wrote.
“The story has been told and re-told many times, but the crux of it was that no one thought it would do very well, even though all the band and the band’s small inner circle felt they’d made a really good album. The assumption was that people would say “who?” and laugh at the audacity of a new band putting out a debut album on a major label, with no fan base, no single out, nothing.
“And… that’s exactly what happened for a while anyway. 90 copies sold the first week (just who were the 45 people we *didn’t* know who had bought it knowing nothing about the contents?), and a steady trickle after that, as we drove around in our van playing such illustrious gigs as opening up for a screening of Rollerball, playing an actual battle of the bands (and not winning), and playing for less than 0 paying customers (it’s unclear how we got to “-2 sold”, but that’s what the promoter said…)”
Happy 30th birthday to The Blue Album!
Read a special note from Karl below #karlscorner
We’re working on a special release to celebrate, but more on that soon. For now, go listen to this demo of “My Name Is Jonas” off the Kitchen Tapes https://t.co/06Dkgi2bf6
And we’ll see… pic.twitter.com/PAX1rJkixA
— weezer (@Weezer) May 10, 2024
They continued, sharing that after a few months, the radio station 107 The End in Seattle began playing ‘Undone – The Sweater Song’ and quickly after that, things began escalating, with the track being added to Kroq Los Angeles, it getting a video which received air time on MTV, opening for bands like Lush and more.
“The blue album was Weezer’s first album of course, but it wasn’t their first *attempt* at making an album,” they added, sharing the demo of ‘My Name Is Jonas’ from ‘The Kitchen Tape’ which was recorded in the summer of 1992 at the band’s home/rehearsal space in west LA.
“Most of the self-produced kitchen tape songs have never been officially released including this song. Happy 30th birthday to ‘The Blue Album’. The band then added that they are working on a special release of the LP to celebrate and that details on that will be available soon.
Weezer frontman and guitarist Rivers Cuomo took to his own X/Twitter account to celebrate the album, tweeting: “Today marks 30 years of The Blue Album. To celebrate, check out my original home demos on Weezify—the app I made for a CS course final in 2020 and have been debugging ever since.”
The music videos for the LP’s singles became MTV hits and the album received critical acclaim, reaching number 16 on the US Billboard 200. In 1995, the album was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
It remains Weezer’s best-selling album, having sold at least 3.3million copies in the US and over 15 million copies worldwide by 2009. It is often listed by critics as one of the greatest albums of the 90s.
Later this year, the band are set to embark on their upcoming ‘Voyage To The Blue Planet’ North American tour. Weezer will play the record in full at the shows and have also promised rarities and “very special guests”. They will be supported by The Flaming Lips and Dinosaur Jr. Find any remaining tickets here.
The ‘Voyage to the Blue Planet’ tour dates are:
SEPTEMBER
4 – Saint Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center
6 – Rosemont, IL – Allstate Arena
7 – Columbus, OH – Nationwide Arena
8 – Toronto, ON, Canada – Scotiabank Arena
10 – Boston, MA – TD Garden
11 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
13 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center
14 – Washington, DC – The Anthem*
17 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena
18 – Greenville, SC – Bon Secours Wellness Arena
20 – Orlando, FL – Kia Center
21 – Hollywood, FL – Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood*
27 – Austin, TX – Moody Center
28 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center
29 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center
OCTOBER
1 – Loveland, CO – Blue FCU Arena
4 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena
5 – Vancouver, BC, Canada – Rogers Arena
6 – Portland, OR – Moda Center
8 – Sacramento, CA – Golden 1 Center
9 – San Francisco, CA – Chase Center
11 – Inglewood, CA- Intuit Dome
NME spoke to Rivers Cuomo last year on building his new Discord community for his fans, saying that his fans may predate the platform, but see to have shared the same musical values over time: “Our musical tastes are very consistent even from the ’90s, really,” Cuomo said.
“We all still like super emotional songs with great melodies that are catchy and yet somewhat progressive and challenging and complex musically. We like big guitars and weird lyrics. It’s still true.”
In other news, they recently played a set of rarities at a one-off show in Santa Ana, California last week, as well as a cover of Hole’s ‘Celebrity Skin’.
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