SOW: El Scorcho by Weezer

December 05, 2003 | 12 Comments

The Artist: Weezer
The Song: El Scorcho
The Album: Pinkerton
Released 1996

I’m going to do something a bit different for the month of December. I’ll call it “Song of The Week - Classic Editions”, how’s that?

What I’m going to do is choose some of my favorites songs of all time, from some of my favorite albums and favorite artists. It should be fun and I’ll get back to the new stuff at the start of the year.

This week I’ve chosen one of the best rock bands of all time. Weezer. Many of you might be laughing right now and asking yourself “Best rock band? Is he kidding?” If so my guess is you’ve never seen them in concert.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw them. It was back in 1995 or so and I’d only heard a few of their songs and didn’t own anything by them. Like many people who haven’t really listened to a whole lot of Weezer, I liked them, but I didn’t really know what they were all about.

I was blown away. I expected something really mellow, maybe a bit “Cure-ish” or something and here were these nerdy looking dudes rockin’ harder than just about any band I’d seen before. I couldn’t believe it. Obviously I loved it and have been a huge fan ever since.

Everyone of their albums is a parade of rock hits and anthems and in my mind they are one of the best bands to come out of the 1990’s. The song-writing and lyrics are amazing, clever and catchy as hell. I still jam “My Name Is Jonas” on a regular basis, after almost 10 years. Yeah, I think Rivers Cuomo is a genius. Ever listen to “In The Garage” or “Pink Triangle?” Now that’s classic song-writing.

Weezer is power-pop and geek-rock at it’s finest.

They are also one of those unique bands that lots of other bands remind you of and at they same time they remind you of no other bands. If that makes any sense? I guess what I’m saying is that they’re often imitated, never duplicated. Or something. Anyway.

In my mind these guys have to be much of the inspiration for modern Emo rock. Bands like Saves The Day, Dashboard Confessional and the like all have a bit of Weezer in them.

For this weeks song I chose “El Scorcho” from Weezer’s best, and least known, album — Pinkerton. It’s a sing along number like most of the songs on the Weezer album so if you’ve only heard what they play on the radio, chances are you’ve not heard “El Scorcho” and will enjoy it.

The rest of Pinkerton is great as well. It’s not easy for me to understand why this album was ignored the way it was. In my mind this is probably the most underrated album of all time. If you love Weezer (and why wouldn’t you?) you’ll love Pinkerton.

“Goddamn you half-japaneese girls, do it to me every time…”

Recommended if you like: Weezer, Saves The Day, The Pixies, The Get Up Kids, Built To Spill, Dashboard Confessional

Filed under: Song of The Week