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Artist News Digital
Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo releases over 2500 demos as part of programming course
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 10 December 2020
Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo spent lockdown learning programming languages Python and JavaScript, like you said you were going to but didn’t. Now he’s done that though, what to do next? Well, obviously, build a website selling over 2500 previously unreleased demos and other random audio snippets.
“For my web programming class final project, I made a web market stocked with 2655 previously unreleased demos”, he tweeted nonchalantly earlier this week.
The tracks all feature Cuomo alone (apart from one collection with Weezer drummer Patrick Wilson), so are far from every demo he’s ever recorded, but they’re probably enough to be getting on with. The tracks are collected into compilations of various sizes, selling for $9 each. The largest includes over 1100 tracks with a duration of nearly 38 and a half hours.
Obviously, it’s going to take some time for anyone to listen through all of these, and in a blog post explaining the project, Cuomo notes that even he does not know what is contained on every track.
“Please let me know … if you find you have access to something you shouldn’t”, he says. “I really appreciate it when you alert me to stuff that shouldn’t [be] in a given bundle or shouldn’t released at all. Also, please let me know if there’s anything I wouldn’t want public in all the voice notes. I never thought I would be releasing those. I don’t know what’s in them”.
He also warns fans that tracks could turn out to be silent, “wildly inappropriate”, “just a drum beat”, “rambling, talking, making sounds”, “an inferior version of another demo”, or be listed with incorrect information.
On a more positive note, he adds that further tracks may be added to the compilations over time, which will be accessible to anyone who has previously purchased them.
Obviously, this isn’t going to be something for anyone who’s not a particularly hardcore Weezer and Cuomo fan. He and Weezer already have a history of releasing demos and works in progress too. However, an artist releasing this amount of music, especially tracks he admits could be embarrassing for him, is an interesting project. I hope he gets a good mark from his teacher.
