With a roster that included Liz Phair’s Whip Smart, Grant Lee Buffalo’s Mighty
Joe Moon, Guided by Voices’ Bee
Thousand, Pavement’s Crooked
Rain/Crooked Rain, and The Cardigans’ Emmerdale,
1994 may have been the best year for rock and pop since the sixties. Yet those
“alternative” albums didn’t yield much in the way of smash singles. Weezer was
a very notable exception from the Class of ’94; the rare band to make terrific,
organic pop and be rewarded with a several hits singles. Ace of Base may have
ruled the airwaves, but everyone still went around whistling “Undone—The
Sweater Song” and “Buddy Holly” (and into 1995, “Say It Ain’t So”). With
infectious stuff like “My Name Is Jonas”, “The World Has Turned and Left Me
Here”, “Surf Wax America”, and “In the Garage”, most of the rest of Weezer (aka: “The Blue Album”) could
have made the grade as singles too. And Weezer’s excellent mid-nineties output
didn’t even end there. On the B-sides and various artists comps was such A-material
as the folky “Jamie”, the fifties-ish “Susanne”, the crushing “Mykel and
Carli”, and the Stack-O-Vocals “My Evaline”. The band also managed to capture terrific live versions of more
familiar stuff such as “My Name Is Jonas” and “Surf Wax America” on tape too.
Along with some spare demos (including a bizarre version of
“Undone” that slows the tempo to a sloth’s pace and makes room for a bit of
rapping and a Nirvana pastiche called “Paperface”), these stray tracks were compiled
onto Dusty Gems and Raw Nuggets, the
bonus disc of the deluxe edition of Weezer
released to commemorate its tenth anniversary. Now on its 25th anniversary
(we’re old!), Universal Music is giving Dusty
Gems and Raw Nuggets its first vinyl release. Isolated from the album its supports,
this disc is still very much worth a listen, and a real treat for fans of Weezer
and fans of vinyl (I’m certain there’s a major overlap between those particular
groups). The vinyl is marbled blue and limited to 4,000 units.
