WEEZER’S RIVERS CUOMO USED TO BE IN A HAIR METAL BAND
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 3:17pm by Vince Neilstein
From the Deciblog archives, dredged up via vintage Metal Sludge: Rivers Cuomo — or, um, should I say “Peter Kitts,” above right — used to be in a shred-tastic, poofy-haired spandex band called Avant Garde. Apparently Cuomo has been a good sport about his past, but it’s still too hilarious not to poke fun at. The band made a run at it from 1987 to 1990, but thanks to the Interwebs we can experience their demos even today courtesy of a bunch of over-zealous completist Weezer fans.
And you know what? Shit ain’t bad. Cuomo’s Iron Maiden fetish is first and foremost, and with the galloping beats, twin guitar harmonies, and Bruce Dickinson Grim Reaper’s Steve Grimmett styled vocals the whole thing is a smorgasbord of ’80s metal influences. There’s also elements of Slayer in Cuomo’s playing with chromatic runs and whammy dive-bombs, and even some catchy Ratt guitar licks… hell, they tried it all. We’re not quite sure when and why Cuomo ditched the hairspray and spandex for thick-rimmed glasses and corduroys, but we’re guessing it had something to do with a band whose name rhymes with Birvana.
Check out the Avant Garde demos on the fan-created MySpace page.
-VN
He took guitar lessons from Jim of Fates Warning.
Metal sludge archives? Must be a slow week.
What’s with these homies dissing my girl???
Actually I think it had more to do with him going to college and starting to listen to the Pixies (I Bleed vs. Buddy Holly).
Agreed with McWeen. Rivers Cuomo himself actually said: “…I remember just being totally shocked at how little people responded to us, because I thought we were so good. I mean, we were playing the same songs that eventually became big hits, like ‘The Sweater Song’ and ‘Say It Ain’t So,’ and we’d play ‘em out in the L.A. clubs would just be like, ‘Go away. We want a grunge band.’”
I happen to like Weezer. You can definitely hear a melodic metal, somewhat Iron Maiden-esque approach to some of their riffage.
that shit was awesome, too bad theres not a good version of it. definately hear the maiden influence, also alot of yngwie in the solos
they’re like fates warning meets early queensryche. I don’t hear that much steve grimmett in the vocals. much more like whatsisface from fates warning.
MGrqKW comment1 ,
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they look stupid the 80s was a funny time