V/A – Rock Music: A Tribute To Weezer
(Deaddroid)

Tribute albums can be tricky things (particularly when the band being worshipped is still together), but the people at Deaddroid Records knew they had a very juicy idea with their Weezer tribute. After all, who doesn’t like Weezer? Just about any band would jump at the opportunity to record their favourite Weezer song, and the terminally obsessive Weezer fans in turn would be virtually guaranteed to buy, buy, buy!

Weezer themselves threw a bit of a monkeywrench into Deaddroid’s plans by announcing their comeback and subsequently releasing The Green Album. The gears, however, were already in motion, and work on the compilation continued, despite the apparent irony of Weezer’s triumphant return. Finally, after two long years of preparation, the end product is upon us. Behold… Rock Music: A Tribute To Weezer.

Now I find myself wondering, if this compilation was such a good idea to begin with, then why does the music on it seem so dull and uninspired? The answer may lie in the fundamental paradox of recording cover songs in general. Attempting to emulate the sound of the original artist is a futile effort as you will inevitably fall short of the mark. Nothing can top the originals, at least not in the minds of the fans. However, if you try to put a different spin on a song, you also risk alienating the fans by diverging too far from the comforting sound of the original.

In the case of Weezer, the beauty of the songs are their simplicity, and any attempt to add more complex instrumentation will surely end up sounding very pretentious. For example, Elliott’s mellow piano ballad version of The World Has Turned And Left Me Here is almost unrecognizable, and ultimately just sounds goofy. Then there is Affinity’s seething rendition of My Name Is Jonas which is equally laughable, irrefutable evidence that Weezer’s pop melodies do not translate into the language of screaming hardcore vocals. The most questionable song on the album comes courtesy of the band My Complex, who basically butcher Tired Of Sex with their shaky and seemingly inexplicable shifts in timing.

Such “experimental” contributions seem to be the exception to the rule, however. Most of the songs on this compilation keep true to the originals, for better or for worse. In fact, some are almost note for note replications, like Piebald’s No One Else, and Further Seems Forever’s Say It Ain’t So. I’m sure these songs were a lot of fun for the bands to record, but personally, if I want to hear a Weezer song being played note for note, I will just listen to Weezer thank you very much. Perhaps part of the problem is that most of the bands on this cd are “emotional” power-pop bands that are heavily influenced by Weezer in the first place.

I think the most successful songs on this cd are the ones that incorporate the band’s own unique style, such as Grade’s raw version of Surf Wax America and Dashboard Confessional’s acoustic reworking of Jamie (originally found on the DGC Rarities compilation). They just seem to work. Also, The Stereo’s quirky performance of the already quirky El Scorcho is fun, and The Good Life, as played by The Impossibles is pretty decent too.

For the most part, though, this compilation is little more than a novelty (as most tribute albums are).There was some potential for a great album here. Even though Weezer are back together again, their first two albums have already somehow become timeless classics, forever etched into the annals of rock. Rivers himself has said that when they play songs from The Blue Album in concert, it feels like they are playing covers of rock anthems that were written by someone else. Well, we may have to wait until Weezer breaks up for good before someone else takes a stab at another Weezer tribute album, but until then, at least we have the best Weezer cover band in the world to keep us happy.– Sean