WEEZER - The Black Sessions 1995 and KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas 1994

Sorry for the long break; too much work and not enough rock...

Since it's been a while, let's mix it up and post something relatively recent, to mark this week's release of Weezer's new album, which I might as well nickname the Big Red One. The disc seems to be getting mixed reviews, but to my mind it's their best since the classic 1994 debut. (Sure, the three tunes by the other boys in the band don't quite measure up, but the four bonus tracks on the deluxe version make up for it.) I especially adore "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived," a 6-minute epic which may well stand as Rivers Cuomo's peak moment of demented pop genius, his "Good Vibrations" or "Bohemian Rhapsody" or "Paranoid Android."

Anyway, I haven't found a whole lot of the Weez online, but these two are the best, no question...

You got yer pristine FM broadcast, originally on Paris radio station France Inter, from a series called the Black Sessions. The performance is spot-on, and between songs DJ Bernard Lenoir pronounces the band's name "Wee-zair" (I mean, when is a French DJ not funny?)

Then you got yer quick-n-dirty FM broadcast, originally on L.A.'s own KROQ, a station I haven't listened to in nearly 10 years (Korn, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park killed it for me, permanently.) It's from the '94 Almost Acoustic Christmas show, just as the band was really taking off. They're introducted by Mr. Henry Winkler, The Fonz himself, and the show includes an early airing of the magnificent "Jamie", arguably my most beloved B-side of the '90s (besides a few stray Jellyfish and Ben Folds tracks, that is). Rivers even slips a few lines of "Creep" into "Undone—The Sweater Song"...who'da thunk, back then, that both Weezer and Radiohead would still be on top of the rock world 15 years later? (I wish their lesser contemporaries, like the dreaded Live and Oasis, would retire already, but no such luck.)

Nerd on, brothers and sisters!

WEEZER "The Black Sessions"
France Inter Radio - Paris, France - February 12, 1995 (FMB)
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WEEZER "KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas"
Universal Amphitheatre - Universal City, CA - December 11, 1994 (FMB)
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