Rivers Cuomo

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Rivers Cuomo
Background information
Born June 13, 1970
New York City, USA
Genre(s) Rock
Occupation(s) Musician
Instrument(s) Vocals
Guitar
Years active 1989–present
Associated
acts		 Weezer, Avant Garde, Zoom, Homie
Website Official website
Notable instrument(s)
Fender and Warmoth Stratocasters
Gibson Flying V
Gibson SG

Rivers Cuomo (born June 13, 1970), is the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter of the rock band Weezer.

Contents

[edit] Youth

Cuomo was born in a New York City hospital of Italian and Bolivian descent, and raised on an ashram run by the late yoga master H.H. Rev. Sri Swami Satchidananda in Pomfret, Connecticut. 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. Cuomo attended Edwin Oscar Smith High School, Santa Monica College[1] and Harvard College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

[edit] Musical projects

One of Cuomo's earliest music projects was a progressive metal band known as Avant Garde. 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, at which point Avant Garde changed its name to Zoom, though the band dissolved in late spring of 1990. After a series of musical projects in L.A., Cuomo formed Weezer on February 14, 1992 which included members from "60 Wrong Sausages," which included drummer, Pat Wilson. The original Weezer cast included Rivers Cuomo on vocals and guitar, Patrick Wilson on drums, Matt Sharp on bass, and Jason Cropper who at first played exclusively on acoustic guitar. Cropper later shifted to playing electric and acoustic guitars depending on the song. Jason Cropper left the band during recording on their first album, and Brian Bell joined in his place. Weezer signed with DGC, a subsidiary of Geffen Records, on June 25, 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 bands, Cuomo has had very close interactions 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) [1] [2]. Since 2003 he has kept a MySpace page in which he has posted many blog entries, including his original admission essay and two subsequent re-admission 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 this Wikipedia entry.

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 began becoming quite talkative onstage resulting in many strange and humorous statements. The first leg of the band's 2005 Make Believe tour saw a return to more reserved stage behavior, but that fall's joint tour with Foo Fighters featured an appreciably more ambulant and emotive Cuomo.[citation needed]

[edit] Musical Output and Techniques

Cuomo has written and recorded nearly 800 songs in his life [3], either with Weezer, earlier bands or self-recorded demos. Of these songs, despite the large amount of unreleased material available on the internet, large chunks of his work remain unheard by fans. These include certain demos for The Blue Album, various songs from the scrapped Songs from the Black Hole project, over a hundred songs he composed and demoed throughout 1999, and well over a hundred songs that didn't make the cut for Make Believe. Recently on Rivers' 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." [4] 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), clarinet, drums, and harmonica.

Cuomo has cited a wide variety of musical influences throughout the years, from artists as diverse as Kiss, 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. [5]

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

[edit] Other bands

Before Weezer, Cuomo played in various music projects, including Avante Garde, Zoom, Sixty Wrong Sausages, and Fuzz. During a Weezer hiatus, Rivers formed a musical project called Homie, or by fans, the Rivers Cuomo Band, on certain dates in 1997 and 1998. 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. [6]

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

[edit] Personal life

Cuomo married Kyoko Ito on June 18, 2006, a woman he has known since 1997, and proposed to in Tokyo shortly before Christmas 2005. 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.

Before Weezer, Cuomo worked as a roadie for King Size on their Guatemala tour before recording The Blue Album. [7]

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 constantly sporting a life preserver-esque vest in early 2001, growing a thick beard in mid-2002 and a brief suit-and-tie phase in summer 2002.

In 2003 he vowed to remain celibate for two years and said in late 2005 that not only has he succeeded, but he has continued past his self-imposed deadline. Cuomo said that his status as a rock star has not made avoiding sex difficult because Weezer "never had any serious groupies, anyway." [8]. Also during this time, Cuomo also began practicing Vipassana meditation. He considers his first Vipassana course in May 2003 to be "the turning point" of his life [9]. He soon after sold his house and car and began volunteering at a food bank serving HIV patients. [10]

Cuomo was born with his left leg 44 mm shorter than the other. 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"[11]. 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: "I'm not a supporter of any side except perhaps the U.S. National Team. I love the geometry of soccer, and the fact that it is something I can enjoy with people from all over the world, but I have a hard time relishing victories without feeling bad for the defeated."

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.

It's a popular misconception that Weezer are named after Rivers' supposed asthma. Rivers himself has openly admitted that although "Weezer" was his childhood nickname, it wasn't because he had asthma [12].

[edit] Discography

[edit] Guest contributions

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Luerssen, John D.: rivers' edge: the weezer story, page 56. ECW Press, 2004

[edit] External links


Weezer
Brian Bell • Rivers Cuomo • Scott Shriner • Patrick Wilson
Former members: Jason Cropper • Matt Sharp • Mikey Welsh
Discography
Albums: Weezer (The Blue Album) • Pinkerton • Weezer (The Green Album) • Maladroit • Make Believe
Extended plays and live albums: The Good Life • The Lion and the Witch • Winter Weezerland
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