Oh no, you didn’t just ask me that. Go back 10 spaces and lose a turn.

Jason is one of the original founding members of Weezer along with Rivers Cuomo (lead vocals, lead guitar), Matt Sharp (bass) and Patrick Wilson (drums). Jason had to leave the band to attend to his pregnant wife, or so the story goes. There's some recent indication that he may have been purposely replaced. Brian Bell (rhythm guitar, vocals) who used to play with the band Carnival Art, and was a band acquaintance took over. Jason went on to form his own band Chopper One.

Da capo supremo Rivers Cuomo writes almost all of Weezer’s songs. A few songs from the Blue Album were co-written by Jason and Pat.

He wanted some co-author and copyright credits to, among others, “Across the Sea”, “El Scorcho”, and “Pink Triangle.” I guess Matt also fell in love with a lesbian, an eighteen-year-old Japanese fan, and a cello-playing half-Japanese wrestling fanatic. Who hasn’t? I say.

Almost two years ago Rivers (and Brian) attended a Matt Sharp solo show. Rivers wore a Matt Sharp shirt, carried a Matt Sharp poster and EP, and offered to help the roadies with the equipment afterwards. Matt said he wasn’t sure what to think of it, but that led to a thaw that culminated in a surprise appearance by Rivers onstage during a Matt Sharp show in Fullerton, playing a few songs including “Undone” and “Say It Ain’t So.” They’ve made up apparently and rebuilding all the burned bridges.

Karl Koch is an old friend and is as much responsible for Weezer's success as any of the band members. So he's often considered as Weezer's fifth member. He’s your liaison, your conduit, your sensei, your Obi-Wan, your Master Splinter. Karl was a friend who started as a roadie for the band, but he’s more than that now. He’s runs weezer.com, provides an online diary for the fans (Karl’s Corner), creates visual art, shoots photos and videos. Karl also directed the “Photograph” video and co-produced the DVD. Karl also records his own music under the monikers Southern Fried Swing and Karlophone. He fills in most of the gaps and is world class “boot-knocka.”

The best-known Weezer spin-off is Matt Sharp’s the Rentals. Other Weezer offshoots include Pat’s The Special Goodness (currently with Atom Willard), Brian’s Space Twins, and Rivers’s short-lived "supergroup" Homie.

Mikey Welsh, who replaced Matt Sharp, played bass for Juliana Hatfield’s band and Juliana’s other project Juliana’s Pony. Mikey went AWOL just before the shooting of Weezer’s second “Island in the Sun” video. Apparently, he had drug problems and went into rehab. He later collaborated with Bosstone Nate Albert to form the Kickovers. That didn’t pan out, so Mikey quit music altogether and is currently trying his hand painting art. There was some bad blood and resentment for a while, but on a recent Weezer show in Maine, Mikey came to visit and Rivers dedicated a song to him.

The current bassist, Scott Shriner, was a metalhead playing for various L.A. bands including Broken when he got the call to audition for Weezer. (He also once played with Vanilla Ice’s metal band)

Huh? Nothing. You’re alright, kid. Never mind that, kid.

Matt  formed and “sang” lead for the Rentals, which once included Pat on drums. They made two albums called The Return of the Rentals (which featured the moderate hit “Friends of P”) and Seven More Minutes. Pat started various incarnations of The Special Goodness, which once included Mikey. It’s now a two-man group with fellow drummer Adam “Atom” Willard, once of Rocket from the Crypt and has filled in for the Offspring. Pat also used couple of aliases while making solo demos: Franklin Mint and Suburban Advantage. Rivers’s Homie project essentially had a one-song career. They made “American Girls” for the soundtrack to the inexplicably Oscar-snubbed flick Meet the Deedles. The "superband" included various former members of Cake and Soul Coughing. The rest went on to form one of my favorite criminally underrated bands Deathray.

"P” is 80’s era supermodel Paulina Porizkova. See, Paulina is Weezer producer and Cars singer Ric Ocasek’s wife. She once jokingly remarked that she was jealous of some of her other model friends who had songs written about them. So Matt took the cue and remembered to give a little nod to Paulina when he penned The Return of the Rentals, and thus, “P” is born.

  этот человек остр.

Sort of… kinda… somewhat...not really… no, though there are some common members. Rivers’s backing band is really just a rotating group of musicians who Rivers played with at bars/clubs in the Boston area. Mikey played in one of the show, which led to his joining Weezer. See the next section The =W= Catalogue for information on their songs.

…

Um…yeah, Goat Punishment...they’re, uh, very cool band. They’re Weezer’s favorite band, in fact. They like to play cover songs of bands like Oasis and Nirvana. Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to see them someday. Maybe they’ll even cover Weezer. <ahem>

That’s not Rivers, Goofy. That’s Rachel Haden, but it IS a Weezer song (part of a series of songs Rivers made with a male/female dialogue exchange; it’ll be further explained in the next section). Rachel and one of her triplet sisters Petra (daughters of renowned jazz musician Charlie Haden) are frequent contributors to Weezer/Rentals material. They also were in that band that dog that broke up. That’s enough of that.

Yes, that very same Maya Rudolph used to play with the Rentals. She sang on some Seven More Minutes tracks and toured with them.

They’re superfans extraordinaire, friends of the band, and wonderful girls who started the official Weezer fanclub and ran the “Weezine.” Mykel and Carli Allan were killed in a car crash on their way to a Weezer show along with their other sister Trysta. Weezer helped organize a benefit concert for their family, and the compilation Hear You Me was created in tribute. The title refers to a common catch phrase they used as a salutation (particularly in the Weezines). Believe it or not, Weezer’s “Mykel and Carli” was not the first song about them (another band M&C supported Black Market Flowers wrote a completely different “Mykel & Carli”). Both were written before they died so Mykel and Carli heard both songs. However, Jimmy Eat World’s “Hear You Me”, also about Mykel and Carli, was made long after their deaths.

"We moved to Hollywood together in 1989 as parents planned another family move. Carli converted Mykel to seeing live music and since then we have spent most of our nights standing too close to thumping speakers and becoming the "jaded-scenesters" that we are. While in Hollywood we saw literally thousands of bands, some good and some not so good. It didn't take long to make a list of favorites and meet the people involved. July 9, 1992 we were at Club Dump (Johnny Depp bought the place, called it the Viper Room, River Phoenix died there) to see a good band Crux (No longer a band). At someone's suggesion we stuck around to see the next band Weezer. We were impressed and put them on the mental-list of bands to go see again. The following night we were at a birthday party for our friend Bryan Ray. Bryan is the bass player in a band called Black Market Flowers, the first band to write a song called "Mykel & Carli". At the party we recognized the guy with long hair sitting alone by the refrigerator. It was Rivers, from Weezer, and he had his eyes for the birthday cake we had brought. We told him we had enjoyed his band the night before, he seemed amazed that we had liked it so much. The three of us sat on the couch and talked about music, food and growing up - we had wierd names and hippie parents in common. Rivers told us when the next weezer show was and we remained anti-socially on that couch wondering how long it had taken some of the people there to get dressed. We made sure he got a piece of the cake and visited until his ride was ready to go. We continued going to Weezer shows (60 at last count) whenever we could. We met the rest of the band and provided a spectator's viewpoint and sideline reviews, whether they wanted to hear it or not. We made cookies and road trips. The band got better and the audience grew. Weezer signed with Geffen and was actually going to release an album! They asked us if we would send lyrics for them so they could include the picture of the garage inside the cover. Not knowing what we were in for we agreed, "Of course, anything for you guys." After all, Rivers had written a sweet song for us called "Mykel & Carli". Just sending lyrics wasn't enough. Stuffing envelopes isn't much fun and we wanted to share what we knew about them with other people who care about them. So the "Fanclub" began. At the end of February we moved out of Hollywood. We left some good friends to come to Portland, Oregon but it's nice to have a garage to spread the Weezer stuff out in and some time to keep up with all the mail. Sometimes we miss seeing Weezer and it's members all the time. However, it's fun to have some people to jump up and down to see the band happy. "
                                                                                                                                  —Mykel & Carli

Dan Gdowski and Anuj Behal started the ol’ cowboy dot-net site known as the Rebel Weezer Alliance (=rwa=). It wasn’t then an official Weezer site; however, Karl’s Corner got its start there. Dan ended up running the early stages of the official site, but both have since moved on. New webmaster Julie has taken over Dan’s duties.

Weezer is an L.A. based band though none of the guys grew up in Southern California. Rivers was from Connecticut, Pat from Buffalo, Matt from Virginia, Brian from Tennessee, Mikey from Boston, and Scott from Ohio.

Yes, Pat’s got the ol’ ball and chain and he's a new dad as well to baby Charlie. Scott recently got engaged.

First of all, no he did not sing or play in a Weezer demo. That’s just some falsely labeled song you found. Leaves is Rivers’s brother, and he’s not in the music business.

It’s an old acquaintance from childhood. It’s technically not an approved photo. Rivers hadn’t kept in touch with her so they had trouble trying to get her permission to use the photo. While they were still in the process of doing that, those blasted Aussies decided to release the Australian version with that sheila’s picture anyway. Yeah, no worries, mate. To this day no one still has gotten a hold of the girl in the photo. Anyway, for the UK version you see on the right, Rivers decided to use a picture with him and Leaves.

RI-vers.

KWO-mo. It’s Italian.

No, he actually is an Ivy Leaguer. He enrolled in between the Blue Album and Pinkerton releases and returned for a semester in 2004. Most of his Pinkerton experiences were at Hah-vid yaahd.

No. Or to quote Lisa's own song, “I’m only hearing negative, no, no, no.” It’s some odd rumor going around circa 1997.

No. And he didn’t burn any master tapes. It’s some odd rumor courtesy of Spin magazine.

It’s some odd rum—no, wait… Truth is certainly stranger than fiction because that one is actually true.

He likes. He plays. Something he has in common with his half-brother Gabriel, who plays semi-pro ball.

Not really. He’s mentioned it a couple times before and confirmed it in a couple of sources including in a Kerrang! interview.

You got it. Check if it's raining outside. Do some jumpin' jacks.

While at Harvard the first time, Rivers underwent an operation to lengthen his leg (one leg was shorter and caused him to limp). He wore a leg brace until the end of his Harvard stay, and you can see the X-ray of the leg with the brace in the track listing of “The Good Life” single.

He went through some kind of phase in 2002 when he wore only dapper three-piece suits to shows and other events. It all started when he went to a store in South Korea and was persuaded by some charming saleswomen to purchase several sets of suits. Rivers’s former assistant Sheeny Bang also said he was inspired by Christian Bale’s character in American Psycho, who wore business suits during the day and went on murdering sprees at night. Good times.

It's apparently a Thai phrase, a semi-derogatory term for foreigners.

He's written a few very personal entries as well as posted essays he's written for his Harvard classes in his MySpace journal. Very fascinating stuff if you can find them.

Pat and his wife Jennifer while in Los Angeles lived in a hotel-like apartment complex close to the Tonight Show lot. Jay Leno was doing one of his oh-so-hilarious knee-slapping bits that twelve-year olds, grandmas, and the mentally handicapped love so much. This one was about Elvis’s birthday and he ended up knocking on Pat’s door. So Pat played along and dressed up and sang like Elvis.

It's about 25% true. Actually, it was just Mikey. They played in a radio promotional show in which Weezer and the Offspring played for a group of highschoolers who won a contest for the bands to play in their prom which was held (exlusively to them) in Magic Mountain. So Mikey got in the spirit of things and donned a hot little pink number.

Affirmative. Semper fi. Motivate.

Nobody knows, but the assumption is that it’s an anagram of Jason (i.e. Cropper), who co-wrote “Jonas.” Somebody emailed me this alternative x-files theory: Jonas was supposedly the real name of the Skipper in Gilligan’s Island. So the line “I’m carrying the wheel” sort of goes along with that theory (i.e. the ships navigating wheel). Personally, I think the “wheel” refers to a wheelbarrow (building, construction theme), but what do I know? According to the book Rivers' Edge, it may have to do with an insurance company bilking the Cuomo family when a driver injured Rivers's brother in an accident. Anyway, it's certainly one of the more interesting Weezer lyrics.

It's not his sled! Damn you people, I give you a subtle hint about Citizen Kane, and you completely interpret it literally. Okay, I'm gonna explain this again. It's a nickname and it's supposedly his preferred final word. It's also allegedly another item, but it's not a sled! Man, I think I've gone insane, just ignore me.

Drop that calculus book, and go pick up some comic books, you delinquent.

Members of KISS.

Jack Kerouac, famous beat generation author.  He wrote On the Road, the primary allusion in “Holiday.”

Jamie (Young) was the band’s lawyer (“you’re the best lawyer in town”). Susanne worked with the band as well.

Wayne is a reference to Wayne Lo, a college student who went on a school shooting spree that killed two people in Massachusetts in 1992. A book called Gone Boy: A Walkabout was written by Gregory Gibson, the father of one of the victims.

Ric Ocasek of the ace 80’s band the Cars produced both self-titled albums. Weezer self-produced both Pinkerton and Maladroit. Rick Rubin produced Make Believe.

Let’s just say Rupert “starred” in Maladroit.

Peter Kitt's is the pseudonym Rivers used while in grade school. His brother leaves was known as Jimmy Kitts. Other pseudonyms: E.O. Smith and Ace. Pat likes to use the pseudonym Franklin Mint.

No, their good friend Spike just directed 3 (the seminal “Undone” and “Buddy Holly” and the 2nd version of “Island in the Sun”). British director Sophie Mueller (No Doubt videos) directed “Say It Ain’t So.” Mark Romanek (NIN’s “Closer” video) directed “El Scorcho”, and Valerie Farris and Jonathan Dayton (Korn’s “Freak on a Leash”) directed “The Good Life.”  Marcos Siega directed “Hash Pipe”, “Dope Nose”, one version of “Island in the Sun, "Keep Fishin’", and "Beverly Hills". And as previously mentioned Weezer kept it in the family and had Karl direct the semi-guerilla video for “Photograph” as well as the DVD-only “Slob” video. Justin Francis directed the second version of "We Are All on Drugs."

The first version "We Are All on Drugs" that was shown on European and Canadian TV was a hilarious re-editted version of 80's British hair metal band Grim Reaper's "Fear No Evil" video-- big hair, werewolves, slavemasters, the grim reaper, leather, chains and all.

There are varied accounts, but there’s some truth to it. Mark Romanek, who also directed Johnny Cash's last video, was brought in to direct the video but almost walked away when the band rejected his first treatment, preferring a Spike Jonze treatment that involved Flavor Flav. Rivers, however, opted out of Spike’s idea because he thought a straight video would better spotlight the song. Eventually, Romanek walked out again during the editing process, leaving Rivers and then-manager Pat Magnarella to finish up the edit. The band members were also stewing in interpersonal issues stemming somewhat from Pat and Matt’s dissatisfaction with Pinkerton and their unwillingness to do a performance video. Couple that with Rivers’s desire to have more screen time than the rest of the band (according to some rumors, even stipulated actual percentages), and what you got was one strange shoot. In fact, Weezer almost broke up right then and there!

No, what you perhaps saw was Rivers making an appearance in the Crystal Method’s “You Know It’s Hard” video directed by Siega. He wanted to put in some cast from his previous videos, so Rivers and his sumo pal from “Hash Pipe” made the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo.

Yeah, there’s a strange video/short film made by the band The Warlocks around 1997 in which Rivers plays a small part, half-naked with a couple of Asian lesbians. That’s not a joke.

Oh, various movies of staggering genius, including Mallrats, Angus, American Pie 2, Out Cold, Mr. Deeds, and “Starlight” performed by kiwi band Zed, can be heard in The Hot Chick. Hey, they just make the songs, not the movies, Ebert. Well, one song came close to making it to a good movie, a Weezer version of the Turtles classic “Happy Together” almost made it to Spike Jonze’s Adaptation, which featured the song very prominently. Spike considered Weezer’s version but stuck with the original. "My Best Friend" was considered for the Shrek 2 movie, but was deemed too "Shrek-ish" even though it wasn't written intentionally for the movie.

Something strange must be in the craft service water or something since three cast members from the brilliant but short-lived The Ben Stiller Show have mentioned liking Weezer: Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick, and Ben Stiller himself. Janeane Garofalo was a particularly big fan. She wore a Weezer cap when she was a cast member on Saturday Night Live and has incorporated Weezer in her standup act (She said she attended a Weezer concert and realized she must be getting old because she wanted them to not play so loud). Jack Black and the comedian Dane Cook are fans as well. Matt Sharp once joked that Weezer’s fan base was made up entirely of ten-year-olds and comedians. Other musicians who’ve given Weezer some props include Ben Lee (Australian rocker, and Clair Danes’s ex), Chino of Deftones, Tim Wheeler of Ash, and Muse.

Not counting festival-type settings, they’ve played with No Doubt, Ozma, the Get Up Kids, Rooney, Live, Placebo, Lush (who later made a song that poked fun at Matt Sharp), Nerf Herder, Dynamite Hack, Sparta, theStart, Cold, Dashboard Confessional, Jimmy Eat World, the Offspring, Blink 182, Saves the Day, AM Radio, Remy Zero, Ash, Green Day, Pete Yorn, Superdrag, Tenacious D, Guided by Voices, Tegan and Sara, Ben Folds, Cake, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pixies, and Guns-N-Roses.

Yeah, while in a Japanese festival where they both headlined (during G-N-R’s mini-comeback in 2002), Axl watched Weezer perform and talked with Rivers. Axl then invited Weezer to open for G-N-R in a London gig. Rivers once stated that G-N-R is one of the only bands (along with Metallica) that Weezer will ever open for. And, of course, “Izzy, Slash, and Axl Rose” made it into “Susanne” (a line that replaced “Kurt Cobain” apparently after Kurt killed himself).

Deathray: (=W= + the Cars + Rentals) I highly recommend their self-titled debut.
Superdrag: (=W= + Cheap Trick) They’ve got a little bit of more classic rock sensibility.
Fountains of Wayne: (=W= + Randy Newman) a less aggressive, more melodic Weezer
Rilo Kiley: (=W= + Juliana Hatfield) Jenny Lewis-fronted indie-rock
Grandaddy: (=W= + Yo La Tengo + Pavement) spacey, fuzzy, lo-fi.
The Shins: (=W= + The Byrds + Wilco) Jangly, with folk elements and harmonies.

Weezer fans have also been known to like the Ozma (broken up), Rooney, Nada Surf, Jimmy Eat World, Bright Eyes, Pixies, Phantom Planet, and Ash.