Rivers Cuomo

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Rivers Cuomo
Rivers Cuomo in Thailand (1997)
Background information
Birth name	Rivers Cuomo
Born	June 13, 1970 (1970-06-13) (age 38) New York City, U.S.
Origin	Connecticut, Los Angeles
Genre(s)	Alternative rock Power pop Geek rock
Occupation(s)	Musician, Songwriter, Vocalist, Guitarist
Instrument(s)	Vocals, Guitar, Drums, Bass, Piano, Harmonica, Clarinet
Years active	1989–present
Associated acts	Weezer, Avant Garde, Zoom, Homie, Goat Punishment, 60 Wrong Sausages
Website	Official website
Notable instrument(s)
Fender and Warmoth Stratocasters Gibson Flying V Gibson SGs Gibson Explorer

Rivers Cuomo (born June 13, 1970) is a Grammy-nominated musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter of the rock band Weezer. He has also worked as a solo artist; he released his debut album, Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, in December 2007, which featured home demos that Cuomo has recorded from 1992-2007. Cuomo mainly plays electric guitar and acoustic guitar, but he can also play drums, bass guitar, clarinet, harmonica, and piano.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Musical projects 3 Musical output and techniques 4 Relationship With the Fans 4.1 Posting on Fan Forums 4.2 Playing with Fans Live 4.3 Let's Write a Sawng 5 Other bands 6 Personal life 7 Discography 7.1 With Weezer 7.2 Solo albums 7.3 Guest contributions 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Early years

Cuomo was born in a Manhattan hospital to parents of Italian and German/English descent and raised on an ashram run by the late yoga master Sri Swami Satchidananda in Pomfret, Connecticut.^[1] It is a myth that the name Rivers originates from his birthplace: his mother, Beverly, was inspired to name her son "Rivers" because he was born between the East and Hudson rivers in Manhattan. Her appreciation of the sound of running water further reinforced her desire for this name. His father, Frank Cuomo, was a musician who played drums on the album Odyssey of Iska by jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter.^[2][3] For his early childhood he attended a private school on an ashram farm where his parents raised him and his brother Leaves.^[4] Cuomo's parents moved to nearby Storrs, Connecticut when the ashram (known as Yogaville) was relocated to a plot of land along the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia.^[5] Cuomo attended Edwin Oscar Smith High School,^[6] Santa Monica College,^[7] Berklee College of Music,^[8] and Harvard University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.^[9] In high school, Rivers played the role of Johnny Casino in the stage production of Grease.^[10][11]

[edit] Musical projects

One of Cuomo's earliest music projects was a progressive metal band known as Avant Garde.^[12] Cuomo played under the name Peter Kitts, Kitts being the surname of his stepfather. The band played several shows in Connecticut. He moved with the band to Los Angeles in March 1989.^[13] In late 1989 Avant Garde changed its name to Zoom though the band dissolved in the late spring of 1990.^[14][15] After a series of musical projects in Los Angeles, Cuomo formed Weezer on 14 February 1992 with members from '60 Wrong Sausages' including drummer Patrick Wilson. The original Weezer cast included Rivers Cuomo on vocals and guitar, Wilson on drums, Matt Sharp on bass, and Jason Cropper who at first played exclusively on acoustic guitar. Weezer signed with DGC, a subsidiary of Geffen Records, on 25 June 1993. They began recording Weezer (also known as The Blue Album) in August 1993 at Electric Lady Studios in New York with producer Ric Ocasek.

Like many other musicians Cuomo has had a very close relationship with his fans online. Throughout 2002 Cuomo frequently posted on Weezer message boards as 'Ace' to discuss music with fans. He once had a website called the 'Catalogue of Riffs' ('COR') in which he shared old demos of songs as well as scans of many personal items (letters, schedules, records).^[16][17] Since 2003 he has kept a MySpace page in which he has posted many blog entries including his original admission essay and two subsequent readmission essays to Harvard. Additionally he uses his MySpace blog as a clearinghouse for clarifications, corrections, and addenda to interviews and press reports about him. (This has included responding to misinformation on his Wikipedia entry.^[18])

For most of Weezer's existence, Cuomo has not been known for his on stage banter, offering only occasional comment or letting then bassist Matt Sharp do all the talking. Yet in late 2001 and throughout 2002 Cuomo became quite talkative onstage resulting in many strange and humorous statements.^[19] The first leg of the band's 2005 Make Believe tour saw a return to more reserved stage behaviour but that fall's joint tour with Foo Fighters featured an appreciably more ambulant and emotive Cuomo.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2007 Cuomo was named as a 'potential inductee' for the proposed Connecticut Music Hall of Fame.^[20]

[edit] Musical output and techniques

Cuomo has written and recorded nearly 800 songs in his life,^[17] either with Weezer, with earlier bands, or as self-recorded demos.^[21] Of these songs, despite the large amount of unreleased material that has been made available by Cuomo on the internet, large chunks of his work remain unheard by fans. These include certain demos for The Blue Album,^[22][23][24] various songs from the scrapped Songs from the Black Hole project,^[25] over a hundred songs he composed and demoed throughout 1999^[26][27][28] (songs which he has described as ranging from "drone-y Romantic," "abrasive dissonance" and "riffy pop-rock"^[16]) and well over a hundred songs that didn't make the cut for Make Believe.^[29][30] Recently on Cuomo's MySpace he began satisfying fans need to hear these unreleased demos "in the most legal way" he could by posting sheet music and lyrics for the Songs From the Black Hole tracks "She's Had A Girl", "Oh Jonas" and "Who You Callin' Bitch?" as well as the Blue Album-era demo "Getting Up and Leaving."

He has been known to use experimentation to inspire his writing, for example, fasting for a day and then writing a song, as he did on "Hold Me."^[31] Cuomo has familiarity with a wide array of musical instruments: besides the guitar, he is also skilled at the piano, bass guitar (he frequently demoed songs on his own, a la the 1995 Fort Apache Studios Pinkerton demos, and can be seen playing the bass in the Weezer DVD Video Capture Device). Rivers also plays clarinet (as heard on Alone and SFTBH track "Longtime Sunshine" and the .com-released demo "Clarinet Waltz"), drums (as heard on Alone, in concerts during "Photograph" and the new album), and harmonica.

Cuomo has cited a wide variety of musical influences throughout the years, from artists as diverse as Kiss, Nirvana, Lou Barlow, Pixies, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Brian Wilson, and Giacomo Puccini. He took it upon himself to become a student of rock and pop music when in the late 90s, Cuomo created "The Encyclopedia of Pop" for himself, a three-ring binder which broke down the mechanics of pop and rock songs featuring songs by Nirvana, Green Day and Oasis.^[32][33]

He is known to perform with customised Warmoth Stratocasters. Throughout his career he has frequently played Warmoth stratocasters that are covered in stickers.^[34] Cuomo also notably played Gibson V's^[35]and Explorers onstage in late 2001 and throughout parts of 2002 . Today, he almost exclusively plays a red epiphone Gibson SG with the Thai word Farang on it, meaning "a white foreigner."^[36] The sticker is found on his epiphone SG with E flat tuning; a second SG, tuned to E, does not have this sticker.

[edit] Relationship With the Fans

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[edit] Posting on Fan Forums

Rivers Cuomo has, in recent years, had a very unique relationship with his fan base. Beginning in the early Maladroit recording era, Rivers would post on several Weezer fan message boards under the name Ace, which was inspired by Ace Frehley. Rivers would ask for the fans advice treating them often as a Producer and often exchanging emails through Karl Koch, and eventually posting on boards himself. Some of the correspondence boardies were even invited backstage during tours to play Foosball with him. Some of the relationships with the fans pushed Cuomo's temper causing him to once refer to them as "little bitches", Cuomo being upset with the fans' demands for an older sounding Weezer rather than letting the band explore new sounds. The stale relationships could possibly be the reason for an absence with the fan base between 2003 and 2005.

[edit] Playing with Fans Live

Starting on the Foozer tour in late 2005, Rivers Cuomo would invite fans onto the stage to play Undone—The Sweater Song on acoustic guitar. After the performance, fans were allowed to keep the guitars they played.

In 2008, coinciding with the release of Weezer's new self titled album, The Red Album, Rivers and Weezer announced an MTV performance in which fans were allowed to bring any instrument of their choice and perform in a Hootenanny with the band.

[edit] Let's Write a Sawng

In March 2008 Cuomo started a video series on YouTube called "Let's Write a Sawng."^[37] Cuomo plans to write a song in collaboration with YouTube users suggestions.^[38] Cuomo has made it a multi step process. Installments of the series (thus far):

Date	Step #	Description
March 19, 2008	Step 1 (Attitude) and Step 2 (Song Title)	Cuomo stated the attitude would be "fun." "Poppy, but gotta be tough at the same time."[39]
March 21, 2008	Step 3 (Chords)	The song ended up being titled "80s Radio" by user songsforsongs. Cuomo asked for chords to put the song to. Cuomo stated that it will be about an "outcast character" with a certain "relationship to this music" and doesn't care what anyone else thinks about it.[40][41]
March 31, 2008	Step 4 (Arrangement)	Rivers asked for users to "lay down the drums, the synths, the strings, guitars, flute, oboe, harmonica...whatever you want. make it bumpin'"[42]
April 07, 2008	Step 5 and 6(?)	Cuomo asks fans to write melody and possibly lyrics as well.[43]
April 14, 2008	Step 7	Cuomo asks fans to write lyrics for user danthewelch's melody.[44]
April 22, 2008	Step 7b	Cuomo "steps to the side" as he asks fans to break in to two teams to refine work on RichieStarkey and CapNCrunchitize lyrics. [45]
April 28, 2008	Step 8	Cuomo displays his progress on the song and asks fans to "Develop" the song further. The name of the song is changed to "We're Turning Up the Radio"[46]
May 6, 2008	Step 9	Cuomo asks fans to rework the chorus - namely to change up the chords[47]
May 19, 2008	Step 10	Cuomo decides that the original chords for the chorus are best, citing the maxim "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" and while he praises TayloR2D2's suggested bridge, Cuomo feels that the lyrics don't have enough meaning and urges fans to write some new lyrics for the bridge [48]
May 27, 2008	Step 11	Cuomo picks lyrics from user bleedOrange for the bridge, and asks fans to tighten the track, fixing its tempo variations. [49]
May 31, 2008	Step 12	Cuomo asks that viewers make a "Wish List" of what they want done to the song. He asks them to state what they want and why they want it. [49]
June 6, 2008	Step 13	Cuomo takes a suggestion to add more to the chorus to give the song "more lyrical substance" and make the song less generic. He asks that viewers to come up with a "post-chorus" hook.[49]
June 13, 2008	Step 14	Cuomo asks that viewers revise the bridge lyrics for a second time. The name of the song is changed to "Turnin' Turnin'"[49] -

[edit] Other bands

Before Weezer, Cuomo played in various music projects, including Fury, Avant Garde, Zoom, Sixty Wrong Sausages, and Fuzz. During a Weezer hiatus, Rivers formed a musical project called Homie, consisting of what he called "goofball songs" or his "country band". An album was planned, but only one studio recording, a song entitled "American Girls", has been released. Cuomo has contributed to recordings by various other musicians (Crazy Town, Cold, Mark Ronson). He also briefly managed the band AM Radio in 2002 and 2003.

In early 2004 he made a surprise appearance onstage with ex-Weezer bassist Matt Sharp at his California State University, Fullerton show to play two old Weezer favorites ("Say It Ain't So" and "Undone"), a rare Weezer demo that they worked on together ("Mrs. Young"), and a new song they wrote together, "Time Song." Also, Sharp announced that they might work on a collaborative record together. But later that year, Sharp announced on his website that although they had come up with "15 or 16 new song ideas, some good, some not so good" for their new album, their "special brand of dysfunctionality" kept them from finishing the project.^[50]

Additionally, Cuomo has had cameos in a number of music videos. These include Crystal Method's "Murder" and the video for The Warlocks' "Cocaine Blues."

[edit] Personal life

Cuomo married Kyoko Ito on June 18, 2006, a woman he had known since March, 1997. He proposed to her in Tokyo shortly before Christmas of 2005.^[51] The wedding was held at a secluded beach on Paradise Cove in Malibu and was attended by over a hundred people, including six of the seven members who played in Weezer (Mikey Welsh being the only no show) as well as notables Justin Fisher, Kevin Ridel and Rick Rubin.^[52]

Before Weezer, Cuomo worked as a roadie for King Size on their Guatemala tour before recording The Blue Album.^[16]

Some of Cuomo's fashion trademarks include his horn-rimmed glasses and his lightning bolt guitar strap. He has sported a bowl cut, most notably in the music video for "Undone - The Sweater Song." Other notable fashion trends include sporting a life preserver-styled vest in early 2001, growing a thick beard in mid-2002^[53] and a brief suit-and-tie phase in summer 2002.^[54] Rivers has also recently been seen with a short mustache, like in the new video for Pork and Beans and on the Red Album cover. Rivers has said that he grew the mustache in honor of his daughter and that his father wore one just like his when Rivers was born.

Cuomo recently helped acquire music rights and provided financial support to a documentary titled The Dhamma Brothers about Vipassana mediation being instituted in an Alabama State Prison.^[55]

Cuomo was born with his left leg 44 mm (1 3/4 in) shorter than his right leg. After the success of The Blue Album, Cuomo underwent a procedure to correct the condition. This involved the surgical breaking of the bone in his leg, followed by several months of wearing a steel brace which required self-administered "stretching" of the leg 4 times daily; Cuomo likened the ordeal to "crucifying (his) leg."^[56] An x-ray of the leg is part of the album art for "The Good Life" single, and the experience inspired him to write the song. Cuomo can be seen wearing the brace on an episode of The Late Show with David Letterman, which can be found on their DVD "Video Capture Device".

Cuomo is a big fan of soccer. He can be seen as he is shown playing in the "Photograph" video and even planned his band's 2002 "World Cup Tour" around World Cup games. In 2006 reportedly wrote a song titled "Our Time Will Come" in tribute to the U.S. men's soccer team.^[57] He claims his favorite player is Landon Donovan, enjoys watching the Premier League and is both a Los Angeles Galaxy and New England Revolution fan.^[16] In early 2008 he played in the Mia & Nomar Celebrity Soccer Challenge and scored a goal in the game. His video for "Lover in the Snow" off of his Alone album dealt with this game and his love of soccer.

During Weezer's hiatus between the albums Pinkerton and Weezer (Green Album), Cuomo had gotten braces on his teeth. They were evidently removed before the release of the Green Album.^[58]

It's a popular misconception that Weezer is named after Rivers' supposed asthma. Rivers himself has openly admitted that although "Weezer" was his childhood nickname, it wasn't because he had asthma.^[59]

Cuomo famously demands sole song-writing credits, despite the fact that fellow band members often contribute to the songs. This was first revealed by Rolling Stone when an email exchange between former bassist Matt Sharp and Cuomo was made public. The emails revealed Cuomo apologising to Sharp for song-writing royalties for Pinkerton not being paid. According to the emails, Sharp co-wrote every song on the album except Butterfly.

Cuomo has announced that he is working on "an amazingly cool creative project that is just as much musical in nature as it is literary. It may or may not be released by a book publisher. It is not a 'memoir'."^[60] Rivers has since revealed that the multimedia project will be an extremely detailed account of Cuomo's life from 1992 to May 10, 1994 including photos, journal entries and poems. This period of Cuomo's life will document the formation of Weezer through the release of their debut album. As of October 2007, the tome is already more than 400 pages in length.^[61]

Cuomo is a vegetarian and a supporter of PETA.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Discography

[edit] With Weezer

Main article: Weezer discography

• 1994 - Weezer [Blue]
• 1996 - Pinkerton
• 2001 - Weezer [Green]
• 2002 - Maladroit
• 2005 - Make Believe
• 2008 - Weezer [Red]

[edit] Solo albums

• 2007 - Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo

[edit] Guest contributions

• 1998 - Homie - "American Girls," from the Meet the Deedles soundtrack: vocals, guitar, songwriting and melody^[62]
• 1999 - The Rentals - "My Head is in the Sun," from Seven More Minutes: (co-written with Matt Sharp, does not appear on the track itself).^[63]
• 2002 - Crazy Town - "Hurt You So Bad," from Darkhorse: guitar solo^[64]
• 2003 - Cold - "Stupid Girl," from Year of the Spider: vocals, songwriting^[65]
• 2003 - Mark Ronson - "I Suck," from Here Comes the Fuzz: vocals, guitar, production^[66]
• 2007 - The Relationship - "Hand to Hold," co-written with Brian Bell, a reworked version of the early Make Believe era outtake "Private Message."^[67]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Interview with The Harvard Crimson about his Harvard years
• Rivers Cuomo discography at MusicBrainz
• Rivers Cuomo at the Internet Movie Database
• The riverscuomo.com Archive
• Rivers Cuomo Archived MySpace Postings
• Rivers Cuomo on his creative career

v • d • e Weezer Brian Bell · Rivers Cuomo · Scott Shriner · Patrick Wilson Jason Cropper · Matt Sharp · Mikey Welsh Albums Weezer (The Blue Album) · Pinkerton · Weezer (The Green Album) · Maladroit · Make Believe · Weezer (The Red Album) EPs The Good Life · The Lion and the Witch · Winter Weezerland DVD Video Capture Device Singles "Undone - The Sweater Song" · "Buddy Holly" · "Say It Ain't So" · "El Scorcho" · "The Good Life" · "Pink Triangle" · "Hash Pipe" · "Island in the Sun" · "Photograph" · "Dope Nose" · "Keep Fishin'" · "Beverly Hills" · "We Are All on Drugs" · "Perfect Situation" · "This Is Such a Pity" · "Pork and Beans" · "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" · "Troublemaker" · "Dreamin'" Related bands The Rentals · The Special Goodness · The Relationship · Avant Garde · Homie · Karlophone · Space Twins Related articles Discography · Karl Koch · Songs from the Black Hole · The Kitchen Tapes · Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo  · Foozer

Persondata
NAME	Cuomo, Rivers
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	American musician
DATE OF BIRTH	June 13, 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH	Manhattan, New York
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH