May 26, 2006

American girls get a bad rap

Now here’s an excellent little gem of pop goodness that you may not have heard, discussing the relative merits of everyone’s favorite (and seemingly oft-misunderstood) topic: American girls. And no, it has nothing to do with Farah Fawcett, other than that this picture represented the concept quite nicely to a generation of pubescent boys.

This song “American Girls” was written by Rivers Cuomo (Weezer) during his solo show era (97-98), it was eventually recorded for the Meet the Deedles soundtrack, of all things, under the band moniker “Homie”.

The Homie supergroup line-up included:
*Rivers Cuomo (Weezer) — vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, lyrics, and melody
*Yuval Gabay (Soul Coughing) — drum loops
*Matt Sharp (Weezer) — co-producer and background vocals
*Sebastian Steinburg (Soul Coughing) — upright bass
*Pat Wilson (Weezer) — miscellaneous, drum playing (what got looped)
*Greg Brown (Cake) — electric guitar (lead and solos)
*Brian Bell (Weezer), Justin Fisher, Adam Orth (both ex-Shufflepuck) and Todd Sullivan (Weezer’s A&R guy from Geffen ) — backing vocals

This song has an supremely chill drumbeat (especially after it really kicks in at about 1:03) and some nice harmonica flourishes with playful electric guitar riffs. It ponders the question, “Why are all American girls so rough?” (which we’re not) with golden lines like, “Darlin, I’m afraid to close my eyes when we’re going to bed, afraid you’ll crack the phone down over my head….” I’ve never heard it on the radio except for one cosmically odd time just a few weeks after I was introduced to it, in the middle of the afternoon, in a little pub. Like when you are whistling a song and then it comes on the radio, and it makes you smile.

American Girls – Homie

Apparently, Homie has recorded other material, which has only been performed live. Rivers has said that he may release this material some day – maybe as an extra disk in a Weezer discography. If it sounds anything like this tune, that’d be okay with me.

Tagged with , .

5 Comments

  • the other live homie stuff sounds great. but rivers will never release it. thats just the way he is.

    Don't Need Anything — May 26, 2006 @ 10:38 am

  • Forget the music. That picture of Farrah and one of Barbara Eden are the only two celebrity signings/autographs I ever bothered to get. They remain #1 and #2 on the list of oldest women I’d love to … talk about science with.

    Chief Scientist — May 26, 2006 @ 3:53 pm

  • Oh damn good post, darlin, as odd as it sounds, weezer was my gateway into music….the marijuana of my music world if you will…and the homie stuff is good, some of rivers’ solo stuff he did live is similar to this and just as good. Try and find “hot tub” if you can. If not i’ll send it over, even though it might not be that good of a live recording, it’s worth the listen.

    why did i just say darlin…that’s not my style….other people say darlin way better than i do

    OfJoseph — May 26, 2006 @ 6:59 pm

  • Love love love this song and used to have the mp3 on repeat for far too long. Of course this was many moons ago, but it was still finding its way onto my mix CD’s as of a couple years ago. I’d be interested in hearing more of this Homie stuff if somebody has it.

    Rich — May 27, 2006 @ 11:08 am

  • i really liked it, although there were several alternate takes that came out better, ultimately it’s a very cool track and it was very fun/weird/fun recording it.

    weird running across this discussion by total accident and seeing it talked about so recently. kudos!

    - adam orth
    http://web.mac.com/adamorth/

    Anonymous — July 27, 2006 @ 3:16 pm

Comments RSS

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Subscribe to this tasty feed.
I tweet things. It's amazing.

Bio Pic Name: Heather Browne
Location: Colorado, originally by way of California
Giving context to the torrent since 2005.

"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel."
—Hunter S. Thompson

Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.

View all Interviews → View all Shows I've Seen →