Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

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Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

Post by torchindy » Tue May 29, 2018 8:51 am


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Re: Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

Post by spacecadet » Tue May 29, 2018 7:23 pm

I'm probably not the first to say it, but man, Rivers Cuomo sucks since he got happy.

I admit this song's always been a guilty pleasure of mine, and I'm not against Weezer covering it. But does anyone think this is how they would have done it 10 or 20 years ago? It's literally just the Asia version. You could play them back to back and probably not be able to tell the difference. There's just no creativity at all; they're just trying as hard as they can to copy the original note for note and sound for sound.

I don't see a reason for this cover to exist other than to say "oh look, Weezer can sound like Asia".

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Re: Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

Post by Haddock » Tue May 29, 2018 11:01 pm

Showing my age and trade, but I can only think of Weezer as "that band with the Happy Days vid on the Windows 95 cd".
Toto ? Not much interest in their hits but their soundtrack for David Lynch's Dune was great, it featured heavily in my tracklists for roleplaying nights.
So yeah I'm a nerd, sue me. :jacked: :D

As for "Africa", ever heard the Low cover ? :-*
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Re: Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

Post by mezcalhead » Wed May 30, 2018 12:43 am

^ Beautifully stripped back. It's perhaps my favourite version of that song, if you don't count the "played in an empty shopping mall" versions.

But yeah, I don't think that Weezer's attempt deserves the hype ladled on it there - "it is so beautiful that our entire staff started crying in unison" - really? Sounds stiff and workmanlike next to Low.

spacecadet wrote:
Tue May 29, 2018 7:23 pm
I'm probably not the first to say it, but man, Rivers Cuomo sucks since he got happy.

I admit this song's always been a guilty pleasure of mine, and I'm not against Weezer covering it. But does anyone think this is how they would have done it 10 or 20 years ago? It's literally just the Asia version. You could play them back to back and probably not be able to tell the difference. There's just no creativity at all; they're just trying as hard as they can to copy the original note for note and sound for sound.

I don't see a reason for this cover to exist other than to say "oh look, Weezer can sound like Asia".
Asia covered this as well? Aren't they just uber yacht-rock like Toto themselves? That seems so redundant as to be deliberately ironic .. I can't keep up with all the self-referential hipsterism happening these days.
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Re: Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

Post by shadowplay » Wed May 30, 2018 1:35 am

For the last few weeks, we’ve been asking—begging, basically—for Weezer to cover the song “Africa” by Toto.
I find myself literally unable to get beyond this line, I mean I know ironic down the student union whoopee cushion whacky japery is the internets stock in trade but really...is that your big musical dream?
mezcalhead wrote:
Wed May 30, 2018 12:43 am
I can't keep up with all the self-referential hipsterism happening these days.
now this is interesting and proof to me that the word hipster much like 'vintage' has lost all meaning, It's not 'hip' in any way, it's wanting some superannuated dad band to play a song from the goode olde dayes of MTV, it's Ordinaryster.
mezcalhead wrote:
Wed May 30, 2018 12:43 am


Asia covered this as well? Aren't they just uber yacht-rock like Toto themselves?
I think this is one of those Omar from the wire; 'Africa, Asia...one of those 'A' continent' moments. Could be wrong though because all I really know about Asia is that they were the records in the Roger Dean sleeves that seemed to be present but never actually purchased in every crappy secondhand record shop.

D
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Re: Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

Post by stevejamsecono » Wed May 30, 2018 5:09 am

Weezer sucks, man. By this point I don't even like the Blue Album anymore.
And you find out life isn't like that
It's so hard to understand
Why the world is your oyster but your future's a clam

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COYS

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Re: Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

Post by Larry Mal » Wed May 30, 2018 6:38 am

I was struck by what a professional sounding outfit Weezer has become.

I've never been into Weezer. I don't dislike them or anything.

Maybe we can all finally admit that "Africa" is a great song, though.

Anyway, I remembered that this guy had an episode on Toto, when I checked I remembered that it was "Rosanna".

His name is Rick Beato, I don't know a lot about him except I like his stuff a lot. Very classic rock oriented but a well written song is a well written song, and I always enjoy hearing about how music works. Might be interesting to some. He breaks down all the tracks and talks about the instrumental and vocal parts in some depth and how they come together to make songs you know be what they are. I eat that shit up, if you do too, it's worth a listen. He's engaging and interesting.
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Re: Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

Post by Pepe Silvia » Wed May 30, 2018 7:14 am

Good cover, but nothing to make it their own.

Too bad weezer broke up in 1997 and we were left with this cover band.

It's been 10 years since I gave Weezer a chance, but really I should have given up once they came out with Beverly Hills.

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Re: Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

Post by shadowplay » Wed May 30, 2018 7:50 am

I wonder if Toto would be up for covering The Anal Staircase by Coil.

I love the drains down in Africa!

D
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Re: Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

Post by Jaguar018 » Wed May 30, 2018 9:19 am

Larry Mal wrote:
Wed May 30, 2018 6:38 am
His name is Rick Beato, I don't know a lot about him except I like his stuff a lot. Very classic rock oriented but a well written song is a well written song, and I always enjoy hearing about how music works. Might be interesting to some. He breaks down all the tracks and talks about the instrumental and vocal parts in some depth and how they come together to make songs you know be what they are. I eat that shit up, if you do too, it's worth a listen. He's engaging and interesting.
Appreciating things as a sound engineer/producer is probably essential for people in the industry to maintain their sanity. If you break down songs like that and appreciate all the bits and effort that went into it-- it all makes sense. Pop music as craft. I find a lot of that really interesting too, though I shudder in horror (and jealousy) at the amount of studio time some of these bands burned through to get their perfect tracks.

Despite all that glorious knowledge, it's still a fucking annoying cheesy song that I heard way too much growing up and learned to loathe.

The same thing happens with films. Think of all the hundreds of professionals that made franchise movies like the Transformers. You can break down the cool explosion effects and expert camera work to a point where you can appreciate it, but Transformers movies are still stupid pieces of shit.

Think of all the amazing effort that goes into making McDonalds cheeseburgers taste the same across the world. It's truly incredible if you think about it, and I'm sure a documentary showing the international supply chain, environmental devastation, food lab testing, employee training, and corporate dynamics would be fascinating, but they are still shitty cheeseburgers. (That I still kind of like.)

Liking the song Africa is this new Internet twee thing to do. It's a catchy song. They will move onto some other classic song soon enough. I suggest The Alan Parsons Project "Eye In the Sky."

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Re: Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

Post by Larry Mal » Wed May 30, 2018 9:37 am

I met Alan Parsons.

Here's an interesting fact: a lot of people have met Alan Parsons. I'm one of them.
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Re: Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

Post by Singlebladepickup » Wed May 30, 2018 10:04 am

"Think of all the amazing effort that goes into making McDonalds cheeseburgers taste the same across the world. "

That's the idea, but as someone that buys McDonald's for my kids more than I'd like, I can tell you they are a complete rainbow of suck. The one closest to me is the worst food and the shittiest service. On the other side of town, it can be a decent chain burger. All fast food in Texas is superior to our Louisiana fast food. It's like they care to try over there...

"Liking the song Africa is this new Internet twee thing to do. It's a catchy song. They will move onto some other classic song soon enough."

It's like that Neil Diamond song "Caroline" now. Just another bar song to chant along with at the chorus. Don't know what's next.

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Re: Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

Post by mezcalhead » Wed May 30, 2018 8:47 pm

shadowplay wrote:
Wed May 30, 2018 1:35 am
mezcalhead wrote:
Wed May 30, 2018 12:43 am
I can't keep up with all the self-referential hipsterism happening these days.
now this is interesting and proof to me that the word hipster much like 'vintage' has lost all meaning, It's not 'hip' in any way, it's wanting some superannuated dad band to play a song from the goode olde dayes of MTV, it's Ordinaryster.
Maybe it isn't hipster, I suppose it all depends on the irony level, in the way that bland ordinary dad clothes worn with ironic intent somehow become "normcore".

Asia covering Toto would be like .. I dunno .. Shed Seven covering Menswear?

Jaguar018 wrote:
Wed May 30, 2018 9:19 am
Liking the song Africa is this new Internet twee thing to do. It's a catchy song.
I've liked that song since I first heard it in my early teens, and I say that completely without irony.
Distance-crunching honcho with echo unit.

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Re: Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

Post by Embenny » Thu May 31, 2018 3:07 am

mezcalhead wrote:
Wed May 30, 2018 8:47 pm

I've liked that song since I first heard it in my early teens, and I say that completely without irony.
You mean you liked it before it was cool?

Fucking hipsters, man.
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Re: Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

Post by Jaguar018 » Thu May 31, 2018 8:16 am

mezcalhead wrote:
Wed May 30, 2018 8:47 pm
I've liked that song since I first heard it in my early teens, and I say that completely without irony.
When I refer to internet twee people, I am generally talking about people that were not born when that song came out. Most of the folks that were around for the original don't feel the need to harass Weezer via social media to do a cover. I could be wrong. :mellow:

As a person who grew up listening to a lot of classic rock and top 40 music in the 80s, the song Africa is fairly harmless in my subjective judgment. I think it's decent, but I never felt compelled to own it or put it on mix tapes.

I think liking things ironically is something that happens to a certain type of people in their late teens and twenties before they know better. I know I have done it in the past, but now I just find it tiresome. With that said, I watch a lot of B-movies and marvel at how bad some of them can be. I don't know how ironic that is.

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