Rivers Cuomo and The Cathy Santonies- “In the Garage/Heartsongs (Live on ‘Sound Opinions’)”

“Sound Opinions” is the public radio show and podcast hosted by Chicago rock critics Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis. Their commentary on current music trends is honest and sometimes righteously angry. Their reviews—which sometimes skew a bit too old—are thoughtful and objective. The best part of the show, however, is the interviews, which, because of Kot’s and DeRogatis’ O.G. statuses, are often high-profile. A few weeks ago, they welcomed Rivers Cuomo of Weezer into the studio, and they didn’t pull any punches with their questions.

They stood in for many fans of Weezer by halfway accusing Cuomo of pandering with his more recent records. While the first two albums came from a place of unique underdog affirmations—“Teenage Victory Songs” as a better-known B-side put it—it doesn’t make sense to try to recreate that stance when a songwriter is in his forties. Or, I guess more accurately, it would make sense if he Cuomo still did it well. Wouldn’t it be more interesting to hear about what his life is like now instead of hearing him pretend to be fifteen?

Cuomo, although he had heard these questions before, sounded baffled by the suggestions. He even went to the extent of explaining that the idea for “Beverly Hills”—kind of the last in the row of nails in the coffin for the band’s credibility—came from reading the playbill of a Wilson-Phillips show at the Hollywood Bowl and envying how glitzy the bios were. He was genuine, and it’s interesting how uncalculating he seems to be, even though the music sounds like the opposite of that. He’s so genuine that people read it as irony, and he’s so earnest that he doesn’t even understand how people would do that.

At different points in the Q&A, he performed songs with Chicago punk group The Cathy Santonies (yes, named after the oft-referenced but never-seen Full House character). The performances are rough and reveal the lack of rehearsal, but the  medley of “In the Garage” from The Blue Album and “Heartsongs” from The Red Album kind of forces us to consider Cuomo’s songwriting as a whole. The lyrics are almost interchangeable. At the very least, it makes you admit that Cuomo’s approach hasn’t developed much in fifteen years. The tones are different: “In the Garage” is stifled and intimate, “Heartsongs” is admiring and reflective. But the voice in both is clearly the singer himself, outside looking in, at peace with music. It’s interesting to hear how Cuomo’s career has gone, in every conceivable way, full circle.