Indieobit: Mikey Welsh

Mikey Welsh, former Weezer bassist, has died, according to a post on his Facebook wall:

We are deeply saddened to announce that Mikey Welsh passed away unexpectedly today. He will forever be remembered as an amazing father, artist, and friend. May he rest in peace.

Born in New York in 1971, it was in Boston that Welsh thrived as a musician. He was a spine to a number of Boston scene acts, gaining the experience which would see him join first Juliana Hatfield's touring band, and then The Rivers Cuomo Band. When Matt Sharp quit Weezer in 1998, Welsh made the move from Cuomo's side-project to main band.

He was with Weezer for four years - although the band spent some of that time on hiatus - and appeared on the album The Green Album. He left in mysterious circumstances in 2001, a mystery finally cleared up in an interview with now-defunct music website Rock Salt Plum:

Basically, a lifetime of doing drugs and being undiagnosed as having Bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and borderline personality disorder finally caught up with me when I was 30 years old.

At the beginning of a 3-month European tour with Weezer, I started slowly falling apart. Without getting too graphic, by the time the tour was winding up, my weight had gone down to about 140lbs (I'm 6'2") and mentally completely wiped out. When I returned to the states, my family had made plans for me to see a psychiatrist in Boston. First though, we had to play a few dates around the U.S., and perform on The Tonite Show (which ended up being my last performance with Weezer).

By the time I got to Boston, I was having a complete nervous breakdown. It ended with a severe suicide attempt (an overdose). I was found and rushed to the hospital where I had come to within minutes of my heart completely stopping. I was in a coma for a few days, and woke up in a lockdown psychiatric ward.

There was a happy ending, though - Welsh left music behind to start a second career as a visual artist, in which he enjoyed some success. He would even return to play bass with Weezer a couple of times, guesting on a couple of tracks during gigs in Vermont and New York.
Mikey Welsh died in Vermont. He was 40.

Weezer retain their privacy

Obviously, it's their choice, but Weezer electing not to be filmed by the BBC during Reading does have a smack of the prima donna about it.

Rock sick list: Rivers Cuomo

Yesterday, Rivers Cuomo's tour bus had a smash and he got all injured. Three cracked ribs after the bus had skidded on the ice.

Today, with his ribs hurting, Weezer have pulled all their December dates.

You can still buy their stuff in SuperPoke Pets, should you wish.

Dedication

Weezer get in touch, via their press team, to announce they've broken lots and lots of records:

Weezer and friends gathered to play the song together and break Guinness World Records during the shooting of the video. Guinness World Records official, Stuart Claxton, was in attendance to monitor and certify these record attempts during the day long shoot in Los Angeles, where new records were set for Largest Game of Dodgeball, Most People in a Custard Pie Fight, Most People Riding on a Skateboard, Largest Air Guitar Ensemble, and Longest Guitar Hero World Tour Marathon. (See below for more details on these records.) The band's Pat Wilson is also shown in the video playing the World's Smallest Drum Kit in a Video...a record the band is petitioning to get in the book as an official record.

Norris McWhirter writes Well, Roy, there's not actually a record for the most desperate attempt to make up for a lack of musical ideas, so it's hard to say if this IS a world record or not, but I suspect they're masturbating communists so it's not like anyone should look up to them, is it?

More viruses than an unpatched XP machine

We're still unsure if this incredibly smart, or just fascinatingly lazy: the Weezer Pork and Beans video attempts to go super-viral by packing in references to 24 other viral videos.



Valleywag lists all 24 memes being mined; we can't help being reminded of that health check Monty Burns had where he was told he had so many diseases, they were keeping him alive by canceling each other out.

Weezer breathe again

The cult-like believers that Weezer had broken up - unquelled by Rivers Cuomo saying they weren't splitting up - will probably not be shaken in their resolve by news of the the band going back in to the studio. Together, says River:

"Weezer is just polishing up a batch of songs for a recording session that is going to start at the beginning of July. This will be the final recording session for our 6th album which we aim to put out in the first half of 2008. We hope you are all having good times."

Apparently, Cuomo is now styling himself R Dawg. There aren't many people who could adopt such a name and end up with a styling less awful than their original one.

Poll time

The Spin Readers Poll results are in - or is it out? Anyway, here's the juice:

Best Band: The Strokes;
Worst Band: Creed;
Best New Band: The White Stripes;
Best Solo Artist: Beck;
Worst Solo Artist: Britney Spears;
Best Live Act: Weezer;
Best Song: "Fell in Love With a Girl," the White Stripes;
Worst Song: "Complicated," Avril Lavigne;
Worst-Dressed Lifetime Achievement Award: Christina Aguilera;
Best Dressed: Gwen Stefani;
Best Hip-Hop Jam: "Hot in Herre,"
Nelly; Coolest New Trend: Garage Rock.

Jesus. Garage rock the "coolest new trend?" - what next - skiffle? But then, what else would you expect from a magazine which has the category "best hip-hop jam" in its poll anyway? Generally, the readers seem to have better taste than you could hope for - especially taking the opportunity to call Creed for the useless tykes that they are. But they better leave off Britney, mmmkay?

The most sensational... inspirational... muppetnational... this us what we call a joke, you Weezer fans

This is possibly the best thing we've come across on Blogcritics so far - a survey of the response of Weezer fans when someone posted a spoof article about the ramifications of Miss Piggy-Weezer drummer sex. It's scary mainly because we've always had Weezer pegged as one of the brighter acts in the pop firmament, and so have always asumed that their fanbase would be drawn more from the bookcase end of the classroom rather than down in the sandtray. Shows what we know, doesn't it?