Weezer's Rivers Cuomo Talks <i>Pinkterton</i> Reissue: "I Think It's a Brilliant Album"

BY Ian GormelyPublished Sep 15, 2010

Weezer may have just dropped their latest disc, Hurley, on Tuesday, but the band already have their sights set clearly on the past. Pinkerton, their much loved sophomore album that tanked upon its initial release back in '96, will get the deluxe reissue treatment on November 2, adding a litany of B-sides and unreleased material to the original ten-track disc.

"It's tracks from the Pinkerton sessions that didn't make the cut for one reason or another," explained frontman Rivers Cuomo in a recent interview with Exclaim!. "Like this one song, 'Tragic Girl,' that I think is at least as good as anything on that album. But I got stuck. There were a couple melodies that I couldn't figure out if they were supposed to go up or down. But you get away from it for ten years and I look at it again and it's real clear how to finish the song up. So we did that with a couple of things and they sound great." He did note that these were not songs from the band's aborted second album, Songs from the Black Hole.


Cuomo also wanted to set the record straight as to his feelings about the album. "Right around 2001, when we put out the Green Album, I said a lot of negative, inflammatory things about Pinkerton and about a lot of things. I said a lot of crazy stuff. And those quotes have lived on for the last nine years. And people get confused and they think I still feel that way even though it was something I said in an off-handed way nine years ago. But ever since I've been trying to make it clear that, of course, I think it's a brilliant album. I love it. I love the songs and I love playing those songs and I hope the positive message gets through."

He went on to blame "people in the music community" for perpetuating this belief despite the fact he freely admitted to being the source of the rumours. "They love the idea that an artist has disavowed one of their most popular albums," he said. "For some reason that's perversely satisfying to some people."


Regardless, Cuomo said the band are keen to go ahead with a tour that would see them playing both Pinkerton and the Blue Album in their entirety, noting that while no dates were confirmed, the band were ready to go ahead and start rehearsing.

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