if I'm a dog...

Rivers Cuomo is a fascinating person. Had he been born about a hundred years earlier, he'd likely be regarded as a tortured genius of an artist; but in contemporary terms he's a messed up rockstar. Funny how that works.

The song posted above is Butterfly from the 1997 release, Pinkerton, which is unarguably (you could try to argue that the blue album was, but you'd just sound like a dummy) their best album. This record was received quite poorly by Weezer's populist audience, but was so personally important to Rivers that he gave up music for several years and pursued a degree in literature from Harvard. After that, he lived in house with blacked-out windows and dark walls for a year before returning with the green album, which, though well-received and very commercial, lacked the intensity and depth of Pinkerton. Hard to reproduce, but I'm still holding out.

Three albums later (Raditude just came out), Weezer is still one of the most successful blends of commercial pop and angsty grunge since the 1990s.