Here it is: The third and final part of our deep dive on Weezer’s 2001 self-titled “Green Album.” We take one final look at some background information (which includes some lawsuits…yikes!) before getting into a fun debate about the songs themselves. Oh, and did you know that one of the songs on this album was originally offered to another famous musician? Thanks for taking this strange journey with us on the last few episodes. We had an absolute blast celebrating an album that still maintains its relevance 25 years later.

Part 2 of our 3-Part retrospective on Weezer’s 2001 comeback album arrives just days after its official 25th anniversary. Before we get into the album’s tracks proper, we dive deeper into frontman Rivers Cuomo’s state of mind during his songwriting process. This leads us to an examination of how the infamous “Catalog O’ Riffs” shapes each song and the somewhat scientific approach Rivers implements in constructing the perfect pop-rock song. But is this approach considered detrimental to creative endeavors? Does all art need to say something in order for it to be impactful? These are the questions we attempt to answer in this episode. We really hope you enjoy this one!

Oh hai. I feel like I haven’t done a write-up in a minute. Um…how’s everyone doing? Oh me?--I’m Living The Dream–see how my joking tone and desperate chuckle convey the opposite? That’s comedy, baybeeee.  Quick, I don’t want to accidentally reveal anything Too Real™ l about myself–pivot to more questions. How was [your] weekend? Let’s engage in Obligatory Weather Conversation. Try to avoid mentioning climate change–it bums people out. Water Cooler Show? Oh, I haven’t seen it–too many streaming services, amirite? Internally workshop a joke about subscription services on necessary-to-live things, realize we’re probably six months from that, trash it. Awkward Silence. Eh, close enough. It’s been about 90 seconds. Sick, we did it. We have Officially Caught Up, Corporate Office Call Style. We Should Probably Get Started. 

So…what is this?, you may be asking yourself. You guys talk about the list of episode topics being ever-expanding, and yet you’re treading back into Weezer discourse? First of all, that episode was released years ago, thank you Long Time Listener, but the answer is no, this is different. This mini-series is here to learn more about the folks behind what is arguably one of the most interesting and unique bands of that generation. “Interesting and unique?” you ask yourself, unable to hold back your skepticism. “The meme band where people rickroll that one guitar solo into social media videos?” Again, you’re asking the hard-hitting questions, I enjoy that about you, Listener. Thank you for coming to this meeting prepared unlike the rest of these simpletons. Yes, the meme band. Because behind the meme band is a Human** (**cannot actually confirm he is a human, he could be an alien or several small animals stacked comically in a trenchcoat, I would not be surprised) who approaches creative endeavors like they are a science experiment and mundane tasks like they are trapped in an opera. I don’t want to give too big of a peek behind the curtain, but this band’s history and discography are full of strange choices that have kept your hosts up at night (both figuratively and literally) and after having too many conversations about it over the years, we cannot continue to keep this to ourselves and must share the things we’ve learned with you, Listener. So. We hope you enjoy the first part of our presentation. 

Anyway with that, the meeting's over, I’ll email out any takeaways or action items, unless I forget, in which case you weren’t going to read it anyway, let’s be so incredibly for real. Please review our presentation and come to the next meeting with any questions or notes. (or send ‘em to our social media, we can address them there.) Enjoy whatever time period feels appropriate to place here. Hang up call. Turn off face. Disassociate until the next one.

Adrian here! The wait has been a long one, but here it is: Part 2 of our 2025 music playlists. As Ashley mentions in the episode proper, these picks for some of my favorite songs are probably the most "me" they've ever been and that's rad. We have some fun discussions on recontextualizing heavy music in the modern era, women & non-binary artists in music and we introduce Phase 1 of what we lovingly refer to as the Boygenius Cinematic Universe.

Ashley, here! So I’m getting ready to move (again) and moving is a few steps below Hell on Earth and the only thing keeping me from rejecting all of my earthly possessions for a life among the jellyfish has been the fact that it’s spring and I’m allergic to being outdoors when there are plants growing. (I am exaggerating, but like…barely.) I’ve been consuming too many YouTube video essays while searching for tape and sharpies. Did you know Ringo Starr recorded a disco album? That there’s a group of people doing competitive birdwatching? There’s that four hour video about the Star Wars Hotel. DashCon expose. The YouTube Plagiarism/James Somerton expose, that’s a banger in this house. That ANTM documentary just dropped, so I keep getting suggested thinkpieces on Tyra Banks and such. I don’t really have a point, other than video essays are neat and I enjoy learning about random things, even if it’s the fact that Nickelback recorded a song with Flo Rida. (It’s just as awful as it sounds, look it up.) Anyway. We’re doing our 2025 music wrap up episodes and these episodes always end up being a good time. So, please enjoy. I gotta finish shoving books in boxes while consuming a four hour video about Animorphs. Be jealous.

60 episodes. Can you believe we’ve made 60 of these? Hopefully the kids still find “6-7” funny once we reach that point. We’re pretty excited about hitting another milestone, so it’s only fitting that we spend this episode listing “10 Hype Movie Moments That Make Us Black Out.” From massive cinematic franchises to a few hidden gems, we try our best to maintain our composure and not “run through a wall,” as Ashley would often say. Oh, yeah. This is Adrian. I guess the secret’s out. Please enjoy this episode and don’t tell Ashley I was here!

Hey, gang! Adrian here. Ashley’s busy checking our Halloween candy at the behest of G.U.A.P.A. and didn’t have time to do a write-up. Apparently she’s requesting all of the fun-size Snickers bars. Who knew rogue computer programs ate chocolate? News to me! Anyway, this was a fun episode to record. We decided to share stories of past Spooky Season wackiness including being radicalized by trick-or-treating, party-going woes and we weigh in on whether or not primetime television created the concept of Mischief Night.

[The episode’s about Invader Zim, CW: Mild spoilers for a few episodes of a cartoon that is almost 25 years old. Enjoy the following barely related rant below.] 

So I had this idea of doing a riff on some ‘90s commercial about Hungry Man TV dinners or something about potatoes (listen to the episode, it’ll make sense), but I found this article today about how this potato chip company (the biggest one, they make most of the chips but I’m also not advertising for them so no name drop, the article’s linked below) is doing a “drastic rebrand” after finding out that 42% of consumers “didn’t know their chips were made out of potatoes” and to that I say, “…Huh? How?!”

Ok, so: A slightly sneaky play that some corporate leadership will do, especially new leadership, is to futz with the branding or logo. If you’re a job-hopping Sweaty Executive who’s looking for a line item to put on their LinkedIn page or whatever, you spearhead a logo or branding change. You as the executive don’t have to do much (marketing and your art departments are doing most of the work), but it’s still a project you, Sweaty Executive, led. So, credit taken. This potato thing sounds like the absolute flimsiest excuse to do a rebrand ever. Either that, or American education is so in the toilet that we don’t know stuff about snack food, the thing that we should obviously be best at. And we are Too Good At Snacks for me to believe that. 

It sounds like, among other things, that the logo is going to look more “like the Sun”, we are redoing the packaging to look “like the wood planks of a potato crate”, and that obviously we’re doing to shout out that the chips are, in fact, made from “real potatoes”. I cannot believe that marketing is a real thing. This truly is the darkest timeline. 

Also what other questions were asked on this survey?!?! Idk, I’m spiraling out (like spiral cut potatoes, ayyyyy). At any rate, I will be thinking about this 500 word pseudo-press release for the next several hours. Enjoy the episode. Next time I’ll just stick to rewriting the Doom Song or something.

[Thanks to Ro Panuganti, we got a new theme song, it’s almost as catchy as “Yvan eht nioj”! His socials and stuff are below, go show him some love plsthnx]

Oh, say can you cry?

There's trouble in a far off nation

Time to get in Emo formation

Lyrics more deadly than Jets to Brazil

That's why I gotta ring da bell!

Secrof Laiceps TALT!

Secrof Laiceps TALT!

Secrof Laiceps TALT!

‘Secrof Laiceps TALT!’

You gotta love that crazy chorus

What does it mean?

Uh, it doesn't mean anything.

It's like "Soco Amaretto Lime" or "L.G. Fuad"

The mission’s happening

It's no basement on the hill

So here’s a tissue

Secrof Laiceps TALT

So, nostalgia for commercials is weird, right? 

I was listening to the episode edit, trying to figure out an angle for this write-up that you’re reading (hi hello welcome) and thought maybe it’d be fun to find a super niche piece of media from 2005 and write about it. So I head to YouTube to brainstorm, type in “2005 things” in the search bar and so many of the results were just commercial compilations. Which….struck me as strange, and now I’m doing an Overthink about it and dragging you along. 

Commercials are a strange sort of pop culture time capsule. I have used them several times as fodder for write-ups: The Mc DLT commercials, KC Masterpiece, [a third thing that I’m too lazy to research], the list goes on. Some of the longest running TLAT references are just old commercials: Bagel Bites, Crossfire, you know ‘em. They’re strange because they do capture the vibe of a time, but also…they are * just* selling you stuff. Bagel Bites Guy is wailin’ into a mic trying to get you to buy a box so you can do your own bagel bites draft meme and he can get his royalty check. But also I can’t help but think about how back in 2005, commercials were memes before we had a term for memes! They were these tiny weird little pieces of media that everyone experienced because we all had more or less the same basic cable package and options were limited. But because they were doing Catchy Capitalism, everyone that was watching TV at a certain time is now  just a sleeper agent walking around waiting for the activation phrase “education connection” ,“800-588-2300”, or “structured settlement”. (Also why were there so many contraptions that allowed you to add filling inside a cake?!) And now we’ve circled from “annoying things that interrupt my show” to apparently “Thing on YouTube that I am actively seeking out to do A Nostalgia.” The commercial [is] the show. And for someone who traffics in nostalgia for occasional content, I don’t know why this hits me as strangely bleak today. Maybe commercials are art, and I’m the problem. The question at the beginning that started as a leading question is now…just a question, I guess. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m Grandpa Simpson, yelling at cloud.

The world is weird now, who am I to judge you for sitting down to watch all nine versions of the free credit report dot com commercials? They are bangers.

Anyway, here’s part two of our 2005 music episode. Hope you enjoy it.