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This Weezer trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and follows the band from a Los Angeles rehearsal room in 1992 to their twentieth album: the Blue Album sessions at Electric Lady with the Cars' frontman producing, the Happy Days video that shipped inside Windows 95, the leg surgery and Harvard semesters behind Pinkerton, the hiatus, the Green Album comeback, the self-funded Maladroit and its gag order, Beverly Hills at the Playboy Mansion, the meme-packed Pork and Beans video that won a Grammy, the album named after a Lost character, the fan-driven Africa cover, the orchestral OK Human and the four-season SZNZ project. It is written for people who own more than one colour of self-titled album, but the opening questions are easy enough for anyone who has sung along to Say It Ain't So. The hard end asks who they opened for at their first show, what the Blue Album cost to make and which actor named Raditude. Every answer was checked against a reference source before publishing, and each question shows its citation once you have answered. No lyrics are quoted anywhere in the quiz.
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Q 01In which city was Weezer formed in 1992?
Los Angeles
Rivers Cuomo had moved there from Connecticut in 1989 with his high-school metal band Avant Garde. Grunge-hungry LA crowds were initially unimpressed by the new band.
Q 02Weezer's very first show, on March 19, 1992, was as the opening act for a band fronted by which actor?
Keanu Reeves
Reeves' band Dogstar headlined. Weezer had formed barely a month earlier, on February 15.
Q 03What was the name of the 1992 demo that got Weezer noticed by Geffen Records?
The Kitchen Tape
It included an early version of 'Say It Ain't So'. A&R man Todd Sullivan heard it and signed the band in June 1993.
Q 04Which former frontman of the Cars produced Weezer's debut Blue Album?
Ric Ocasek
He returned for the Green Album and Everything Will Be Alright in the End, and talked Cuomo into keeping 'Buddy Holly' on the record. Van Weezer was dedicated to him after his death in 2019.
Q 05At which famous New York studio was most of the Blue Album recorded in 1993?
Electric Lady Studios
The studio was built for Jimi Hendrix. Sessions ran from August to September 1993, and the band had rehearsed 15 songs in the city beforehand.
Q 06Which original Weezer guitarist was fired during the Blue Album sessions and replaced by Brian Bell?
Jason Cropper
The band felt he was threatening their chemistry. Bell has been the second guitarist ever since, making him the longest-serving member after Cuomo and Wilson.
Q 07Who directed the videos for both 'Undone – The Sweater Song' and 'Buddy Holly'?
Spike Jonze
The Sweater Song video was one unbroken take with a pack of dogs let loose on the set. He later returned to shoot the animal version of 'Island in the Sun'.
Q 08The 'Buddy Holly' video splices Weezer into footage from which 1970s sitcom?
Happy Days
Al Molinaro reprised his role as Arnold's diner owner Al for the shoot. The video reached No. 2 on the Modern Rock chart's parent single.
Q 09The 'Buddy Holly' video reached millions of PC owners bundled with which software?
Windows 95
Microsoft included it as a bonus media file on the launch CD-ROM, so a generation of PC users saw the video before they ever heard the album.
Q 10What incident inspired Rivers Cuomo to write 'Buddy Holly'?
Bandmates mocking his choir friend
The friend was from the Santa Monica College Choir. Cuomo nearly left the song off the album, thinking it too silly.
Q 11How many times platinum is the Blue Album certified in the United States, making it Weezer's best-seller?
Five
It peaked at only No. 16 on the Billboard 200 but kept selling for decades. Rolling Stone placed it at 294 on its 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums.
Q 12Which university did Rivers Cuomo enrol at after the Blue Album, where his songwriting turned darker?
Harvard
He dropped out after Pinkerton, re-enrolled years later and finally graduated in 2006. He also had extensive surgery on his left leg while there.
Q 13What was the abandoned space-themed rock opera Cuomo originally planned as Weezer's second album?
Songs from the Black Hole
Q 21'Beverly Hills' remains Weezer's highest-charting Hot 100 single. What position did it peak at in 2005?
No. 10
It was the band's first Hot 100 entry of any kind since 'Undone' in 1994 and earned their first Grammy nomination, for Best Rock Song.
Q 22Where was the 'Beverly Hills' video filmed, with the property's owner making a cameo?
The Playboy Mansion
Hugh Hefner appears at the start. Strictly speaking the mansion is in neighbouring Holmby Hills, not Beverly Hills at all.
Q 23The video for Weezer's 2008 "Pork and Beans", packed with YouTube stars, won which award?
A Grammy
It took Best Music Video at the 51st Grammys. Cuomo wrote the song after Geffen executives told the band to record more commercial material.
It was conceived as a metaphor for his mixed feelings about touring in a successful band. Several of its songs surfaced later as B-sides.
Q 14Pinkerton is named after a character from which opera?
Madama Butterfly
B. F. Pinkerton is the naval officer who marries and abandons Butterfly. The album was initially voted one of the worst of 1996 by Rolling Stone readers, who six years later ranked it the 16th greatest album ever.
Q 15In what year was Pinkerton finally certified platinum, two decades after its poorly-received release?
2016
Its cult status grew steadily through the emo years, and its songs are now regulars in Weezer setlists after being ignored for most of the 2000s.
Q 16Which founding bassist left Weezer after the Pinkerton tour and went on to lead the Rentals?
Matt Sharp
Return of the Rentals came out in 1995 with Patrick Wilson on drums. His departure sent Weezer into a hiatus that lasted until 2000.
Q 17A lucrative offer to play which overseas festival prompted Weezer to reunite in April 2000?
Fuji Rock
The booking became a catalyst: the band spent April and May 2000 rehearsing and demoing new songs in Los Angeles, which led to the Green Album.
Q 18Which bassist played on the Green Album before leaving for health reasons after its tour?
Mikey Welsh
He had earlier played in Cuomo's side project Homie. His last Weezer video was the Mexican-wedding version of 'Island in the Sun'.
Q 19Before joining Weezer in 2001, Scott Shriner had played bass with which unlikely artist?
Vanilla Ice
He joined in 2001 and by the 2020s had been in the band longer than any other bassist, anchoring a four-piece line-up unchanged for over two decades.
Q 20Which self-funded 2002 Weezer album leaked to radio so early that Geffen issued a gag order?
Maladroit
Cuomo sent 8 of the 13 songs out himself. The label demanded the tapes back and an apology to every station that had played them.
Q 24How many weeks did 'Pork and Beans' spend at No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart?
11
It was the band's third chart-topper there. The Red Album it came from cost around a million dollars to make, against $150,000 for the Blue Album.
Q 25Roughly what did the Blue Album cost to record, according to Patrick Wilson?
$150,000
He contrasted it with the roughly $1 million spent on the Red Album fourteen years later.
Q 26Which actor suggested the title Raditude for Weezer's 2009 album?
Rainn Wilson
The Office star's word made the cover, alongside a National Geographic contest-winning photo of a jumping dog named Sidney.
Q 27Weezer's 2010 album Hurley is named after a character from which TV series?
Lost
Jorge Garcia, who played Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes, is on the cover and called it one of the biggest honours of his career. It was released through the punk label Epitaph.
Q 28The video for Hurley's single 'Memories' features backing vocals from the cast of which film franchise?
Jackass
The song was on the Jackass 3D soundtrack in 2010. Two months later the band released Death to False Metal, a set of re-recorded outtakes from 1993 onward.
Q 29In January 2012 Weezer headlined a four-day music cruise from Miami to which port?
Cozumel
The Weezer Cruise became a recurring event. The following year the Memories Tour took the band to Australia for the first time since 1996.
Q 30How many tracks were reportedly considered for Weezer's Everything Will Be Alright in the End?
Over 200
The 2014 record was the band's return to their 90s sound and reunited them with the Blue Album's producer. Its closing suite deals with father figures.