Last week Rolling Stone chatted up Rivers Cuomo about Weezer’s new album Raditude. Near the end we asked about the 15th anniversary of their debut single “Undone The Sweater Song,” which he now admits is “almost a complete rip off” of Metallica’s 1986 classic “Welcome Home (Sanitarium).”
” ‘The Sweater Song’ was the first Weezer song I ever wrote, back in 1991,” Cuomo says. “I was trying to write a Velvet Underground type song because I was super into them, and I came up with that guitar riff. I just picked up that acoustic guitar and the first thing I played was that condition. And it just feels so classic to me, true now when the band starts to play it, it just takes over the energy in the room and you’re just transported into the world of Weezer. It wasn’t until years after I wrote it that I finished it’s almost a complete rip off of ‘Sanitarium’ by Metallica. It just absolutely encapsulates Weezer to me you’re trying to be cool like Velvet Underground but your metal roots just pump through unconsciously.”
While on the topic of the old days, we also asked Cuomo about former Weezer bassist Matt Sharp who left the band after Pinkerton to form the Rentals and afterwards filed a lawsuit against his former bandmates over royalties. Five years ago Sharp and Cuomo covered the hatchet and played a few songs together at a college show. Sharp even wrote on his blog that there was talk of him rejoining the band as an additional guitarist. What happened?
“We were just beginning to feel it out, and it didn’t pan out for one reason or another,” says Cuomo. Might he work with Sharp again? “I don’t know if there’s a lot of room for it anymore, particularly now that I’ve got a two year old.” How about the possibility of him playing with Weezer again at some point in the future? “Seems unlikely,” says Cuomo. “But you never know.”
” ‘The Sweater Song’ was the first Weezer song I ever wrote, back in 1991,” Cuomo says. “I was trying to write a Velvet Underground type song because I was super into them, and I came up with that guitar riff. I just picked up that acoustic guitar and the first thing I played was that condition. And it just feels so classic to me, true now when the band starts to play it, it just takes over the energy in the room and you’re just transported into the world of Weezer. It wasn’t until years after I wrote it that I finished it’s almost a complete rip off of ‘Sanitarium’ by Metallica. It just absolutely encapsulates Weezer to me you’re trying to be cool like Velvet Underground but your metal roots just pump through unconsciously.”
While on the topic of the old days, we also asked Cuomo about former Weezer bassist Matt Sharp who left the band after Pinkerton to form the Rentals and afterwards filed a lawsuit against his former bandmates over royalties. Five years ago Sharp and Cuomo covered the hatchet and played a few songs together at a college show. Sharp even wrote on his blog that there was talk of him rejoining the band as an additional guitarist. What happened?
“We were just beginning to feel it out, and it didn’t pan out for one reason or another,” says Cuomo. Might he work with Sharp again? “I don’t know if there’s a lot of room for it anymore, particularly now that I’ve got a two year old.” How about the possibility of him playing with Weezer again at some point in the future? “Seems unlikely,” says Cuomo. “But you never know.”
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