When I was 17, I listened to Weezer’s 1996 record Pinkerton, the record that made public Rivers Cuomo’s fascination with Japan, every day. If I wasn’t listening to Pinkerton, I was probably listening to Alkaline Trio or the 2003 Warped Tour compilation CD. That compilation contained a song by the pop-punk group Allister called “Somewhere on Fullerton.” While I enjoyed that song at the time, I have never thought of Allister outside of that particular context.
As Pitchfork reports, Rivers Cuomo and Scott Murphy, formerly of Allister, have made a self-titled Japanese-language record under the name Scott & Rivers, released by Delicious Deli (a Universal Music Japan imprint). Clearly, Rivers Cuomo has gained possession of my high school diary. How did he get it? Actually, my high school diary was just a LiveJournal page. How does Rivers Cuomo know about my high school LiveJournal?
Anyway, the record is out now in digital format through Delicious Deli and Universal Music Japan. You can watch the video for the record’s first single “Homely Girl” below. It sounds basically about how you might expect, while also probably being better than every Weezer song of the past five years. There’s also a tracklist, which you can see below. You might note that “Butterfly” is on that tracklist and, also, that “Butterfly” is the name of the last song on Pinkerton. Is it the same song, but in Japanese? I have no idea.
Scott & Rivers tracklist:
01. Break Free
02. Homely Girl
03. Freakin’ Love My Life
04. おかしいやつ
05. 朝は近い
06. 終わりのないこの詩
07. 遠く離れても
08. I Need Somebody
09. はじける
10. ほどけていたんだ
11. Butterfly
12. 君と二人で
• Scott & Rivers: https://www.facebook.com/scottandrivers
• Rivers Cuomo: http://riverscuomo.com
• Delicious Deli: http://www.universal-music.co.jp/delideli
More about: Rivers Cuomo, Scott & Rivers, Weezer
