Seven 9s and 10s

Please Let That Be You - The Rentals
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Track:
Please Let That Be You

Artist:
The Rentals

Album:
Return Of The Rentals

90 plays

The Rentals - Please Let That Be You

Move On - The Rentals
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Track:
Move On

Artist:
The Rentals

Album:
Return Of The Rentals

Download 51 plays

The Rentals - Move On

4:21 for 4/21.

Back in the late 90s this song resonated with me. I hadn’t yet realized that Rochester is one of the best places a person could choose to live.

Now I just think it’s a really pretty song.

essdogg:

cocktailstraw:

Want to see NYC through the unique and eccentric eyes of a professional tour bus guide? Here you go.

One of the absolute highlights of living in New York was getting to take a city tour with Timothy “Speed” Levitch (the guy with the crazy hair on the bridge in Richard Linklater’s Waking Life). My wife knew him through Sundance and he would do by-referral-only tours around different areas of the city (he may have gone legit since then). He took us all around the West Village and we ended at the White Horse Tavern for some beers on a perfect spring day. I have no idea if he still does the tours but The Cruise is a great movie if you can’t experience it in person. Also, if you can track it down, Live from Shiva’s Dance Floor is a bittersweet short in which Speed gives a tour of the area around the World Trade Center after the towers came down.

Matt Sharp (of weezer & The Rentals) developed a nice relationship with Speed and penned a song in his honor (“The Cruise”) for the second The Rentals album. Also, Speed famously joined weezer on stage for some spoken word during an acoustic performance of Undone for the Y100 Sonic Sessions in Philly back in ‘97. It’s a magical performance.

essdogg:

cocktailstraw:

Want to see NYC through the unique and eccentric eyes of a professional tour bus guide? Here you go.

One of the absolute highlights of living in New York was getting to take a city tour with Timothy “Speed” Levitch (the guy with the crazy hair on the bridge in Richard Linklater’s Waking Life). My wife knew him through Sundance and he would do by-referral-only tours around different areas of the city (he may have gone legit since then). He took us all around the West Village and we ended at the White Horse Tavern for some beers on a perfect spring day. I have no idea if he still does the tours but The Cruise is a great movie if you can’t experience it in person. Also, if you can track it down, Live from Shiva’s Dance Floor is a bittersweet short in which Speed gives a tour of the area around the World Trade Center after the towers came down.

Matt Sharp (of weezer & The Rentals) developed a nice relationship with Speed and penned a song in his honor (“The Cruise”) for the second The Rentals album. Also, Speed famously joined weezer on stage for some spoken word during an acoustic performance of Undone for the Y100 Sonic Sessions in Philly back in ‘97. It’s a magical performance.

Sweetness And Tenderness - The Rentals
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Track:
Sweetness And Tenderness

Artist:
The Rentals

Album:
Return Of The Rentals

60 plays

The Rentals - Sweetness and Tenderness

You know it’s just like Judas said:
“I been your right hand man all along. 
“My admiration for you hasn’t died.
“I haven’t forgotten how put down we are.”

This song makes me feel ways about Moogs.

Editing to add: I fell asleep listening to Jesus Christ Superstar and woke up with this song in my head. You win this round, Matt Sharp. Well played.

She Says It's Alright - The Rentals
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Track:
She Says It's Alright

Artist:
The Rentals

Album:
Seven More Minutes

106 plays

The Rentals - She Says It’s Alright

When I think of Spain, I think of The Rentals’ Seven More Minutes album - just as Matt Sharp intended; it’s a love affair with the country (as well as with an anonymous Spanish beauty).  Much of the music was written there, recorded there, and produced there.

No summer is complete without a evening drive, windows down, singing along to this song.  I’ll do the Petra parts; you can be Matt.

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Download 227 plays

The Rentals - Please Let That Be You

You know you are my fav and I love you.

weselec:

merlin:

Weezer - “Pink Triangle”

Pinkerton is a special goddamned record.

Love this mix.

Dammit that’s good. You know, I never liked Matt Sharp. There was something about him that bugged me, and I think it was his face. Those eyebrows are a problem. But he had rock instinct in spades.

Weezer is such a strange band. They seem happy now, and good for them, but remember when they didn’t release an album for like five years, and somehow that just made sense? Rivers had that wicked beard going during Pinkerton, and somehow that just made sense? He handled fame very poorly, always looked high, and seemed on the edge of nervous breakdown in every vocal and somehow that just made sense?

Nobody can or should maintain that forever, I suppose. But Lord, how I do miss that Weezer. There was such passion in that record, by all of the players. Every performance on every track dripped with personality and heartache and it somehow managed to be so dynamic that none of the genius ever felt calculated. Gorgeous.

Ah, the Pink Triangle radio mix.  Among the rarest of weezer rarities, it was the abandoned 3rd single from pinkerton that never received much airplay or attention because by that point most radio stations had given up on pinkerton due to the overwhelmingly negative reviews from some major critics (all of whom have been eating their words for well over a decade).  It’s one of my most prized weezer posessions (of far too many).  The mix itself is superior to the album mix in many ways, but in particular the drums are a lot more punchy and in your face here - and that’s really saying something because one of the trademarks of the pinkerton mix is how wild, loud, and live the drums sound.

As for Shane’s analysis, it’s pretty much spot-on.  In terms of Matt Sharp, it doesn’t take a genius to listen to post-Sharp Weezer compared to with-Sharp Weezer and realize just how much a driving force he was to the band.  Just as McCartney made Lennon better, Sharp made Cuomo better.

This video was snipped from their 2004 DVD release “Video Capture Device.”  It’s chock full of amazing content, most of it from pre-2000.  I highly recommend it as a way to kill a day in front of the TV.

High-res Here’s me with Matt Sharp of The Rentals back on November 26, 2002.
He was touring the country in support of his solo release and I drove to Syracuse to see him play.  It was a quiet show. We all sat cross-legged on stage around him as he played acoustic for us. He passed out sparklers and we all lit them and swayed and sang along. It was a great, calming night.
After his performance I talked with him for a bit about weezer and other things (he mentioned that the recording sessions for pinkerton were some of the most fun and exciting times of his life) and then I manned his merch booth for about an hour while he went and talked with fans.  At the end of the night he gave myself and my then-girlfriend free t-shirts.
All in all, he was a fantastic, friendly, warm, down-to-earth guy.  I’ll never forget that night.

Here’s me with Matt Sharp of The Rentals back on November 26, 2002.

He was touring the country in support of his solo release and I drove to Syracuse to see him play.  It was a quiet show. We all sat cross-legged on stage around him as he played acoustic for us. He passed out sparklers and we all lit them and swayed and sang along. It was a great, calming night.

After his performance I talked with him for a bit about weezer and other things (he mentioned that the recording sessions for pinkerton were some of the most fun and exciting times of his life) and then I manned his merch booth for about an hour while he went and talked with fans.  At the end of the night he gave myself and my then-girlfriend free t-shirts.

All in all, he was a fantastic, friendly, warm, down-to-earth guy.  I’ll never forget that night.

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Download 20 plays

The Rentals - My Head Is In The Sun

Seven More Minutes to hide away
Far from everyone
Seven More Minutes slide away
Somewhere in the sun
(Somewhere far from everyone)
My head is in the sun
(Somewhere far from everyone)
My head is in the sun

Matt Sharp of The Rentals : Films About Weeks - May 19th

“This is a nuclear awkwardness.”

So, if you think it’s difficult taking one picture per day for some Flickr/365 project, imagine shooting an entire roll of film, everyday, for a whole year.

That’s what Matt is doing.  He’ll be sending those rolls, undeveloped, to the people who order the deluxe edition of the “Songs About Time” box set.

I love this project so much.  It’s the best use of the web as an instrument I’ve yet to see from any band or artist.