May, 2016 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 13
OLD SCHOOL
Cuomo last year in
Burbank, California
Rivers Cuomo
aims to reclaim
his early magic
on new LP
By Andy Greene
[Cont. on 14]
FIVE NOTESPRIMAL SCREAMPG. 19 | PROFILE URTHBOY’S PERSONAL ALBUM PG. 22
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A
s rivers cuomo
began writing his lat-
est batch of Weezer
songs, his producer, Jake Sin-
clair, asked what it would take
to get back into the mindset
that produced the band’s clas-
sic fi rst two albums. “I need to
get out of the house,” Cuomo
replied. He ended up doing
way more. He grew back the
beard he wore when the band
recorded 1996’s Pinkerton. He
started watching young surf-
ers at Venice Beach in hopes of
fi nding lyrical inspiration. He
even signed up for Tinder – for
purely platonic
Weezer
Find the
Spirit of
the ’90s