NewFangled Contraption covered it at every show in 20. The Fray, who toured with Weezer in 2005, played a cover version of this song live during 2007 touring. On the last night of the Foozer tour, Dave Grohl came up and played it with the band. This dialogue is frequently ad-libbed during concerts and other live recordings.ĭuring live performances in 2005, the band would often invite a fan up to play the acoustic guitar part of 'Undone' with the band. Instead, the studio version of the song features a spoken introduction by then bassist Matt Sharp and longtime friend of the band Karl Koch, as well as an 'intermission' set of dialogue between Karl and one of the founding members of Weezer's official fan club and early supporter of the band, Mykel Allan. Originally, the band intended to insert various sound clips into the song, but were wary of the cost of licensing them. It was the Spike Jonze-directed video for 'Buddy Holly' that brought Weezer to the attention of the general public, but it was 'Undone – The Sweater Song' that first laid the groundwork at college and alternative radio. Ĭuomo has also said that it was his attempt at writing 'a Velvet Underground-type song,' but later referred to the song as an inadvertent rip-off of Metallica's ' Welcome Home (Sanitarium)', with the band's metal roots showing through. It was supposed to be a sad song, but everyone thinks it's hilarious. 'Undone' is the feeling you get when the train stops and the little guy comes knockin' on your door. Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo has commented on the song, saying: It was released as their debut single in 1994.

“It’s more out of faithfulness to my adolescent dreams that I’m still doing this.' Undone – The Sweater Song' is a song by the American alternative rock band Weezer, released on the band's self-titled 1994 debut album. “I don’t think what I do is original at all,” Cuomo says wistfully. Looking five years down the line, he imagines grad school rather than alterna-rock sainthood. The subsequent success of Weezer seems lost on Cuomo. The son of massage therapists, the 23-year-old Cuomo left his native Connecticut in 1990 and went to Los Angeles to be a rock star. Weezer tread the dangerous line between gimmick and straightforward rock & roll: Anguished love songs like “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here” butt heads with half-assed Cuomo asides: “I look like Buddy Holly … and you’re Mary Tyler Moore.” That night we played - and it went great.” An upbeat statement, considering that Cuomo’s persona and lyrics are more sad than goofy. “I was losing my mind that day,’ he says, “so I jogged for three hours around New York. “We made a video like Whitesnake would make a video.”Ĭuomo comes to the surface a week later, calling from a Howard Johnson’s and apologizing for his absence. “The dogs cost 10 grand,” says Sharp with eerie satisfaction. But with the help of director Spike Jonze, the clip for “Undone – the Sweater Song” featuring an out-of-control herd of dogs, has become an MTV staple. The trio expresses mock horror at the music biz, too - like the very idea of shooting an expensive video. “I’m so happy, “I’m going to quit today,” says Wilson. “Rivers is the guy, and we do what he says,” says Sharp, not unkindly.

Sharp, Wilson and Bell revel in the chance to air their delicate misery. Weezer Cancels Broadway Residency, Citing 'Low Ticket Sales' and 'High Expenses' “We’re going to rip Rivers in this interview,” Sharp says cheerfully, stabbing a vegetable bundle with a chopstick. It’s the day of their New York gig opening for Lush, and the band’s enfant terrible - singer/songwriter Rivers Cuomo - is nowhere to be found. “Everybody in this band is sick all the time,” says Weezer bassist Matt Sharp as he, drummer Pat Wilson and guitarist Brian Bell sit in a Hell’s Kitchen macrobiotic restaurant.

Later in the year Rolling Stone caught up with the quartet for a piece in which Rivers Cuomo says, “I don’t think what I do is original at all.”īut first, feast your eyes on the most amazing gallery of rockers in sweaters you’ve ever seen: Along with Green Day (whose major-label debut Dookie came out three months earlier), Weezer would become one of the biggest bands of 1994. Produced by Cars frontman Ric Ocasek, the tune got loads of MTV airplay with a bizarre Spike Jones-directed video featuring the band playing the song in slow motion while a pack of dogs run amok. Exactly 15 years ago today Weezer released their supremely goofy debut single “Undone – The Sweater Song,” off their self-titled disc fans call the Blue Album.

Sweater song buddy holly