Today, we are thrilled to premiere a video a new music video that’ll transport you straight back to the ’90s and should’ve been a hit. But before we get into that, let’s take a step back and set the scene. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Weezer’s Blue Album. While it’s a perfect time for an anniversary tour or reflective essays about its legacy, we’re more interested in a less explored narrative.
In the ’90s, the Hollywood music scene that birthed Weezer was vibrant. It was teeming with talented bands playing a style of alternative music characterized by catchy guitar-driven tunes, often referred to as Geek Rock. Though they didn’t achieve Weezer’s level of fame, for a decade or so, bands like Shufflepuck, Supersport 2000, Cockeyed Ghost, Nerf Herder, Ridel High, Chopper One, Ozma, and Psoma had quite the moment. It’s a chapter worth revisiting, not just for the tunes, also to understand how these musicians reflect on that specific point in their lives and careers.
This is precisely what Big Stir Records and SpyderPop Record aim to deliver with their upcoming retrospective of the ’90s Geek Rock scene. On April 26, the labels will jointly release the Generation Blue compilation. The LP features 11 vintage, rare or unreleased tracks by Baby Lemonade, Ridel High, Ozma, Nerf Herder and many others and comes with an accompanying book called An Oral History of the Hollywood Geek Rock Scene in the 1990s & 2000s. Generation Blue is curated by author S.W. Lauden (drummer for Tsar, Ridel High, The Brothers Steve), who also edited the book for which he interviewed members of a lot of the bands mentioned before, as well as representatives from labels such as My Records, Side One Dummy, Geffen and Restless Records. We had the unique opportunity to interview S.W. Lauden about this project.
But first, let’s circle back to that video premiere. It’s for the opening track of Generation Blue, Shufflepuck’s Where The Hell Is She. Shufflepuck’s Justin Fisher used to play in bands with Rivers Cuomo and the band rehearsed in the West LA home rehearsal space immortalized by Weezer’s In The Garage. Where The Hell Is She is a super catchy rockin’ track, with an irrestible hooky chorus. And the video? Well, it’s a trip down memory lane, filled with live footage, old photos, and flyers that’ll make you feel like you’re back in the ’90s SoCal scene.
Hit play, crank up the volume, and join us as we dive headfirst into the world of ’90s Geek Rock! And while you’re at it, stick around for our chat with S.W. Lauden below, where he shares insights on all things Generation Blue, including some unexpected connections with ’80s hair metal.
A Q & A with S.W. Lauden, who curated the Generation Blue comp and edited the accompanying book An Oral History of the Hollywood Geek Rock Scene in the 1990s & 2000s.
Who came up with the idea of the Generation Blue compilation?
“Thanks for having me back at Add To Wantlist. Generation Blue started out as an idea for a book about ’90s Geek Rock, but something about the concept wasn’t clicking. So, I refined it several times until it eventually became a love letter to the ’90s Hollywood music scene that I was a part of as the drummer for Ridel High. The compilation is ultimately the soundtrack to the oral history, not some definitive document of the Geek Rock subgenre.
In some ways, the origins of the concept started in 2019 when I saw Weezer again at a big festival in LA. Their cover of Toto’s Africa was huge at the time, but that night I also watched lifelong Weezer fans and their kids singing along to Blue Album songs like Buddy Holly and Say It Ain’t So. It made me think that they didn’t get enough credit for the massive influence they’ve had on rock music over the last 30 years. In my personal experience, that influence was most immediate in the Hollywood scene they helped create.”
How did the project come to life?
“I had already done some broad interviews when I thought this would be a Geek Rock book, so I just refocused my attention on the musicians, bookers and music industry denizens who were around Hollywood back then. Once I had about 25 interviews done, I realized that this oral history absolutely needed a compilation to go with it. So, I went to the cool people at Big Stir Records and SpyderPop Records and they loved the concept. It took off from there.
Weezer and The Rentals ended up being the framing device, but Generation Blue is really about the Hollywood Geek Rock scene that sprang up after The Blue Album and Return of the Rentals exploded—when those bands were off touring the world. There were some great SoCal bands playing LA clubs back then, many more than I could have possibly included in this oral history or on the compilation, but most of them are overlooked these days. I wanted to share some of that music and tell a few of those stories. It was fun reconnecting with many of these people who I knew pretty well once upon a time.”
You are one of the most prolific writers on power pop. Like power pop, geek rock appears to be a fuzzy concept that will evoke different associations among music fans. How would you define geek rock?
“I can definitely tell you that not everybody quoted in the oral history loves the term Geek Rock! And when that was the case—as with Kevin Ridel from Ridel High or Marko DeSantis from Popsicko, for example — I let them explain why they dislike it. So, I’m definitely not some champion for Geek Rock, but I do think it neatly encapsulates the long-gone scene I was trying to spotlight.
In terms of how I define Geek Rock? I’m not sure I have a general definition, because I was really focused on a specific local scene from the ’90s and early 2000s. I chose it based on an early Blue Album review in Entertainment Weekly that started with this sentence: “Weezer? The name conjures up images of high school losers with runny noses and head colds, not MTV’s hottest new Buzz band. But with the out-of-nowhere success of Undone—The Sweater Song that’s exactly what the L.A. foursome has become. Don’t think they’re not recovering geeks, though.
According to Matt Sharp of Weezer and The Rentals, who I interviewed for the oral history, Geffen’s PR team ran with the Entertainment Weekly quote, which is likely how Weezer became the poster children for ’90s Geek Rock. And that’s why it seemed like an appropriate description for all the Hollywood bands who followed in their footsteps, in one way or another.”
You once described power pop as rock-‘n’-roll’s debate club, does that make geek rock rock-‘n’-rolls math and physics club?
“First of all, I’m stealing that line. Thanks! In the context of Generation Blue, one of the most fascinating things about the ’90s Hollywood Geek Rock aesthetic is that it came out of the same LA clubs that gave us an endless stream of hair metal bands in the ’80s and early ’90s. Rivers Cuomo from Weezer—along with Justin Fisher of Shufflepuck/Nerf Herder/Psoma and Kevin Ridel of Lunchbox/Ridel High/AM Radio—played in a Sunset Strip metal band called Avant Garde that later changed its name to Zoom.
Talk about a total transformation! They went from teased hair and spandex to bowl cuts and soccer jerseys in less than three years—but you have to remember, rock music was evolving really fast back then thanks to the rise of college rock, grunge, pop punk and mainstream alternative rock. Weezer seemed to take cues from bands like Pixies and Nirvana, but mixed them with polished Beach Boys pop hooks and big, crunchy guitars.
Mike Randle from Baby Lemonade/Love blew my mind the first time he played The Blue Album for me. It was an amazing formula that gave musicians permission to create great pop rock without having to look like Poison. So, bands like Shufflepuck, Cockeyed Ghost, Ridel High, Nerf Herder, Phantom Planet, Ozma and many others took parts of that (ahem) blueprint and made it their own—while certain elements of it were also embraced by indie bands like Supersport 2000, Black Market Flowers and Campfire Girls who came up in the clubs with Weezer or were somehow connected to the band.”
Why did you opt for the oral history format?
“I was all over the place in terms of how to format this book, but by the time I had done 30+ interviews an oral history made the most sense. I also had a good experience doing the Popsicko Off to a Bad Start vinyl reissue and oral history last year, so I felt comfortable with the format. In a lot of ways, Generation Blue feels like a companion piece to the Popsicko project since there’s a ton of overlap there.
But the main reason I chose the oral history format is because it lets all the different people who were there tell the story from their own perspective and in their own words (curated and edited by me, of course)—which I have always thought was a pretty cool way to approach a subject this broad.”
Okay, final question: Why did you choose Shufflepuck’s Where The Hell Is She? as the first single from the compilation?
“First and foremost, it’s a fantastic track. It was always one of my favorite Shufflepuck songs in the ’90s, so we were thrilled to have it on the comp.
Beyond that, I can’t think of a better band to introduce the Generation Blue concept. Adam Orth (guitar/vocals) and Justin Fisher (guitar/backing vocals) grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons, listening to KISS records, and starting metal bands in Connecticut with Rivers from Weezer. And Shufflepuck formed and rehearsed in the West LA home rehearsal space made famous by Weezer’s In The Garage. The band also has an incredible story of their own, including quickly headlining Hollywood clubs, getting signed to Interscope Records, making a tremendous record that never got released, and ultimately breaking up on stage during the annual Poptopia festival (my band Ridel High was also on the bill that night, so I was there).
Side note about the Where The Hell Is She? video: It was put together from old footage by Paul Covington, a super talented film editor who was part of the ’90s scene. He was at a lot of the shows back then and he even paid for the first Ridel High T-shirts that were ever made because we were too broke. Having him involved in this project made it feel even better. He also published a great rock and roll crime novel called Last Song of the Death Birds that is a really fun read. Check it out!”
S.W. Lauden (aka Steve Coulter) drums in The Brothers Steve and used to play in Tsar and Ridel High. He is an author of power pop crime fiction, and has edited several books on music. He runs a substack called Remember The Lightning on all things power pop (or hooky guitar pop), and he edits a bi-annual guitar pop journal that goes by that name.