Weezer

From: Los Angeles, California

Active: 1994-present

I first heard them: on the radio, when that song about the sweater became a big thing

Sound: Oh, I dunno. They seemed like pretty standard alt-rock, perhaps with a bit of a nerdy bent, when their first album was generating a bunch of singles. Then I lost track of them. When I moved in the mid-'00s to a metro area with a modern rock station I heard "Hash Pipe" and thought that its heavier sound was awesome even as its lyrics were pretty bad. But the other contemporaneous Weezer stuff I heard did not mine the same musical vein, and I don't know what they sound like now.

Further listening: The one track I have for you has less to do with Weezer than with the songwriters and Hayley Williams, but I can't not include this:

"Rainbow Connection" (ft. Hayley Williams, 2011)