Over the last 10 years, Rivers Cuomo has been the most recognizable and notorious nerd rock star on the planet. The Weezer frontman has been a walking contradiction, from a devastatingly brilliant, heart-on-his-sleeve poet with an Asian fetish to a bland and boring Limp Bizkit fan sipping Mountain Dew while private messaging his cyber girlfriend on the band's online message board ... with an Asian fetish. Or, so it is according to "Rolling Stone" and "Billboard" contributor John D. Luerssen, who has taken it upon himself to chronicle the life of Weezer's oddball eccentric frontman.
The anything-but-cleverly-titled "Rivers' Edge" is a better read than its cheesy cover suggests. But Luerssen paints a picture of Cuomo that all hardcore Weezer fans know too well. It fails to offer any answers about this enigma wrapped in a collared shirt and sweater hiding behind "ooo-wee-ooo he looks just like Buddy Holly" glasses and an occasional wacko Brian Wilson beard. This is probably due to the fact that Luerssen got approval, support and interviews from virtually everyone in the Weezer world except Cuomo himself, who - as Luerssen's book proves - is Weezer (The book is called "Rivers' Edge" for cryin' out loud).
Luerssen's novel is well-researched and succeeds as an extensive chronicle of all things Weezer. However, Weezer is notorious for their extremely plugged-in and technically savvy fan base, and a vast majority of the information within "Rivers' Edge" can be attained through the rabid online Weezer community, or the massively expansive Weezer.com "Super Chrono," written by the band's unofficial fifth member, webmaster and longtime friend Karl Koch. Despite this, Luerssen's novel just may fill a role in spreading the knowledge of Weezer due to the recent drought of Weezer fan Web sites after the closing of several highly popular sites like "Weezer Island," "Weezer Empire" and "Weezon."
The main quandary, though, with "Rivers' Edge" is that anyone who would take the time to read the 500-page account of Weezer's - and all of its seven member's - history will already know 90 percent of the information. Luerssen does not bring a voice to the book, and lets the band, its closest friends and its comrades tell the story through quotations - most of which Luerssen dug up from previous interviews with the band in magazines. To his credit, Luerssen was able to score interviews with all of the band members, past and present, with the exception of the notoriously difficult-to-deal-with Rivers Cuomo. The biography therefore remains unauthorized and provides little insight into who Rivers really is, other than presenting just how weird it is that Cuomo is so weird, while he constantly confirms and denies this fact. Also, the book reuses several quotations throughout, which makes it seem unprofessional.
"Rivers' Edge" paints an interesting picture when putting the story in chronological order. Luerssen speaks of Cuomo's youth growing up in a "hippie commune" in Yogaville, Conn., and how the ashram shaped his childhood. All those unaware of Rivers' love of big hair-metal and Kiss will be surprised at Rivers', at the time going by the name Peter Kitts, outrageously big hair and role as the axe-man of Avant Garde - the hair band that spawned Kevin Ridel of AM Radio and Justin Fisher of Nerf Herder. Luerssen's description of Rivers in Avant Garde is extremely different from his later description of the increasingly bizarre, introverted Weezer frontman.
Luerssen describes the formation of Weezer accurately, but when the band begins recording its self-titled debut record, affectionately referred to by fans as "The Blue Album," Luerssen makes some questionable assertions. Luesserman implies that Weezer guitarist Brian Bell, a last-minute replacement after founding guitarist Jason Cropper was asked to leave or quit himself depending on what interview you read, did not play guitar on the record. Luesserman's assertion is unfounded and taints the accuracy of the rest of his book.
Despite this misstep, "Rivers' Edge" puts the fall and rise of Weezer's sophomore album, "Pinkerton," into an entirely new perspective for fans who discovered the album after its initial commercial failure. Cuomo's disdain for the album that is responsible for Weezer's cult-status is expressed by the singer as: "It's a bit like waking up the morning after a party where you got drunk and spilled your guts - you feel kind of stupid the next day." You begin to see why Cuomo didn't want to go out and play these songs every night five years later.
Also, Luerssen sheds new light on former Weezer bassist Matt Sharp, who left the band in 1998 to focus on his semi-successful side project the Rentals. Though many fans attribute Weezer's declining album quality to Sharp's departure, "Rivers' Edge" hardly supports this argument. An interview with former Rentals singer Cherie Westrich suggests that Sharp was a selfish prima donna whose excessive ego fell flat on its face after the failure of the second Rentals album "Seven More Minutes" in 1999. Westrich claims that Sharp didn't pay her for her touring work and didn't properly credit her for writing the lyrics to the Rentals' song "My Summer Girl."
The second half of "Rivers' Edge" is more interesting than the first, as Rivers grows increasingly more eccentric and the band frustrates its label by giving away its music for free. Luerssen lets producers Ric Ocasek and Rick Rubin tout Cuomo as a songwriting genius, then quotes Cuomo describing himself as a big fan of Fred Durst and a big hater of Bob Dylan. On his albums, Rivers seems like an innocent, heartbroken, indie-rock God. In actuality, Cuomo seems more like a metal-head who has foursomes with Japanese groupies on tour. But, this is perhaps the never-ending allure of Rivers Cuomo. He is constantly changing and evolving his image and persona.
The love/hate relationship between Cuomo and his fans is a big part of "Rivers' Edge." Luerssen quotes Rivers as calling his fans "little bitches," but the singer-songwriter also conducted an ongoing correspondence with Weezer message board member "Asschun" about what "Asschun" believed to be a decline in the quality of Weezer's music over the past few years with the band's two most recent albums.
Despite its problems, "Rivers' Edge" remains a good resource for Weezer fans not plugged in to the online community to learn more about the band. However, if you already consider yourself a Weezer expert, then you probably know almost everything in this book, but will find a few surprises. Really, the bottom line is that there won't be anything worth discussing until we get the story from Rivers ... but at the time when Luerssen was writing "Rivers' Edge," Cuomo was too busy taking shots of scope, coughsyrup or tequila and Ritalin (the inspiration behind the hit song "Hash Pipe") to let his obsessive admirers in on the action. But if you want the real, most-updated scoop on Rivers Cuomo, check out his blog over at MySpace.com, where he reveals his newfound minimalism, his hatred of his own political apathy and his love for his current nonfiction writing class at Harvard with professor Kyoko Mori, author of "The Dream of Water." Did I mention that she's Japanese?
