Draft:Weezer Recording Chronology: 1993

<- 1992 | 1993 | 1994-1997 ->
The Weezer Recording Chronology (WRC) is an attempt by Weezerpedia to create a successor to the Recording History, a detailed list of every demo, bootleg, and studio recording by the band Weezer and any directly associated bands, written by Karl Koch from the years of 2000 to 2011. Pages are separated by years. 
This page details the year 1993. It contains the recording sessions of Weezer (The Blue Album), and events and recordings that led up to them.
== January-July 1993 ==
=== Snacktime For Captain Bligh, January 11—January 14, 1993 ===
Snacktime For Captain Bligh is a demo by Pat Finn with Patrick Wilson on drums, recorded from January 11 to January 14, 1993 on a ADAT recorder owned by Spike Jonze. "Building Houses in the Rain" would be remixed in late 1994.
=== Pat and Rivers 8-track recordings, early 1993 ===
=== Club Lingerie concert, March 15, 1993 ===
Weezer played their forty-seventh show at Club Lingerie on March 15, 1993. This show was taped off the mixing board by Karl Koch.
	
=== Rivers 8-track recordings, April 1993 ===
=== Pat and Jason funny 4-track recordings, April 1993 ===
=== Pat Wilson and Pat Finn 8-track recordings (The Blue Diamond Terrace), spring 1993 ===
It is unknown exactly what tracks were recorded, except for a 5-part "Caffeine Saga".
=== Loyola Marymount University sessions, April 1993 ===
Dale Johnson, a student at Loyola Marymount University, had done sound engineering at an in-store performance at Rhino Records in March, and asked Weezer to record at LMU's 24-track studios for his final project in music engineering. They recorded several versions of "Jamie" live to 2-track tape, with Rivers Cuomo recording his vocals and guitar separate from the rest of the band in a small room.Koch, Karl. Weezer (The Blue Album) (30th Anniversary Deluxe) liner notes. Later, a classmate of Johnson's brought Weezer in again as she didn't have a band lined up for her project, and they recorded several takes of "My Name Is Jonas" and "Lullaby for Wayne".
There was an idea to make a indie 7" single of "Jamie" and "My Name Is Jonas" from these sessions, though it never materialized.
==== April 15, 1993 ====
==== April 27, 1993 ====
=== The Central (Club Dump) concert, April 29, 1993 ===
Weezer played a show at The Central on April 29, 1993 as part of Club Dump. This show was recorded on video tape by the venue, in addition to being audio taped by Karl Koch.
=== Matt and Rivers 4-track "Mrs. Young", May 1993 ===
This song (also known as "Jamie II") was intended to be released as a B-side for a planned, but unrealized, independent single release of "Jamie". Matt Sharp wrote most of the song, with Rivers Cuomo helping on additional writing and harmonies. The song was tried out by The Rentals later on and would eventually become "Please Let That Be You".
=== Club Lingerie concert, June 7, 1993 ===
Weezer played a show at Club Lingerie on June 7, 1993. This show was taped off the mixing board by Karl Koch.
=== Rivers 8-track recordings, late spring-early summer 1993 ===
== July-December 1993 ==
=== Rivers 8-track recordings, July—August 1993 ===
=== The Adventures of Super Devil, July 1993 ===
Heretix was a band from Boston, Massachusetts, that was active from August 1983 to June 1995. 
On December 31, 1992, as Mikey Welsh's former band Left Nut was nearing the end, he was invited by Heretix to replace their bassist Eric Hill. After Welsh joined and toured the East Coast with the band in the spring of 1993, they went into Boston's Squid Hell studio that July to record their third album, The Adventures of Super Devil, which was released on October 26, 1993.Archive.org archive of the October 22, 1993 Boston Phoenix 
=== Cole Rehearsals Studios vocal rehearsals, July—August 1993 ===
Running concurrently with band rehearsals, vocal rehearsals are conducted at Cole Rehearsals. At least one session is recorded to microcassette, which includes the band goofing around and covering barbershop songs.
It's likely songs in contention for The Blue Album were also recorded, but this is unconfirmed.
=== Practice at Cole Rehearsal Studios, August 6, 1993 ===
A few days before Weezer went to New York to record The Blue Album, Rivers Cuomo bought a portable DAT tape recorder and taped a rehearsal at Cole Rehearsal Studios in Los Angeles.
=== The Blue Album pre-production rehearsal, August 10, 1993 ===
After the band was flown to New York City on August 8th to record The Blue Album, some time was taken before going to Electric Lady Studios to do some final rehearsals. On this day Ric Ocasek brought his video camera and captured footage of the band rehearsing.
=== The Blue Album pre-production demo, August 11, 1993 ===
After 2 days of rehearsal, the band was recorded onto an Akai 12-track to capture the feel of the band as well as to help narrow down the list of songs. Chris Shaw, who would later go onto engineer the album, would also engineer this demo.
=== Miscellaneous microcassette recordings, August—September 1993 ===
Multiple microcassette recordings are made during the recording of The Blue Album, both in and out of Electric Lady Studios in New York. The contents of these are varied, including impromptu folk songs and "very silly material".
=== The Blue Album recording sessions, August 16—September 24(?), November 1, 1993 ===
==== Recording ====
:For more information, see Weezer (The Blue Album)
The band, alongside Ocasek and Shaw, recorded and mixed 11 songs: the songs that appear on the Blue Album, plus "Mykel and Carli" (which was later released as a bonus track on the iTunes and vinyl releases of Death to False Metal).
There were several takes recorded of each song (probably around 4-5), which the band would listen to, especially the drums, and choose one to record on top of. In the case where the drums were the best over multiple different takes, the master reels were spliced together to make a new take.
Cropper was asked to leave the band during recording, and was replaced by Brian Bell, who the band had made acquaintance with during his time with Carnival Art. Cuomo re-recorded all of Cropper's guitars, with Bell re-recording some of Cropper's backing vocals, although in the cases where he was too unfamiliar with the material, Cuomo would sing backing vocals instead. The only track that wasn't changed was "Mykel and Carli", which was abandoned due to time constraints.
Karl Koch filmed a lot of the recording process, as well as the band's time in New York. Some of this footage can be seen on Video Capture Device.
==== Tracking rough tapes ====
Over the course of recording, several "tracking rough" tapes were made with the intention of listening and deciding what needed fixing with them. These tapes are not different takes of the songs, but earlier mixes, often with different guitar parts of scratch vocal tracks.
===== Tracking roughs as of August 22 =====
These recordings contain Cropper's guitars and occasional singing.
===== "Ruffs" as of August 25—27 =====
==== "weezer master mixes", September 11(?), 1993 ====
A short tape of master mixes made right before Jason Cropper would leave the band on September 12.
==== Brian Bell audition tape, September 14, 1993 ====
After Cropper was asked to leave the band, Bell was asked to make an audition tape, so the band could know if he could sing. A tape was sent to Bell from New York City, featuring four rough mixes of Weezer songs, to which he added hastily learned, partially made-up backing vocals and guitar. This audition was well received, and the band flew him out to New York for recording the next week.Knoxville News-Sentinel article - July 23, 1995. Article reads: "The next day Bell received a demo tape with four of the songs the band was recording. He made an audition tape, adding his vocals and guitar to the songs, and shipped it back overnight. A Weezer member called back the next day, told Bell he was in and sent him plane tickets to New York. By the next week, he was in the studio recording with producer Ric Ocasek."
==== Brian & Rivers overdub sessions, September 21—26(?), 1993 ====
Brian Bell arrives in New York on September 16, and begins practicing each song from the next day to September 20, when it's decided that Bell will replace Jason Cropper's backing vocals, and Rivers Cuomo will replace all of his guitar parts. From September 21 to at least September 24, Bell would replace all of Cropper's backing vocals, with Cuomo replacing his guitar parts on at least September 24.
September 25 and September 26 are undocumented, so some backing vocals and overdubs may have been done during these dates.
Chris Shaw would begin mixing partially on September 18, then from September 27 to October 8, where it would then be mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound. Mastering sessions would take place from October 11 to October 15, with Cuomo in attendance. Alongside the entire album, "Jamie" would also be mastered for use as a B-side, and thus appears on internal CDs made after mastering was completed.
==== Undone - The Sweater Song intro, September 10, November 1, 1993====
"Undone - The Sweater Song" originally contained several samples in its intro, collected by Karl Koch. They were mixed so the left speaker would contain cheery, happy samples, and the right speaker would contain the opposite. The samples were added to the master reel, and recording for the album was assumed to be finished, before they were informed in November that the samples would be too difficult to get legal clearance for. The mix with the samples still made it as far as an unmastered cassette tape of the album. The samples included audio from Humphrey Bogart movies, the Peanuts, and "dialogue from the Black Hole".
A mix of the song was made to DAT tape at Electric Lady, which was then sent to Los Angeles, since they had already finished recording, where Cuomo copied it to two stereo tracks on his 8-track recorder on November 1. Crowd noise taken from a sound effect CD, as well as conversations between Koch and Sharp, and Koch and Mykel Allan, were put on other tracks, which were mixed down by themselves to DAT tape and sent back to Electric Lady, to ensure that they weren't talking later than they needed to be.
Due to the new recording, "Undone" would be remastered with the new intro included. Cuomo would travel back to Sterling Sound, where it was remastered on November 3, finally completing the album.
==== Track listing ====
===Pat Wilson & Matt 4-track recordings, September—October 1993===
Pat Wilson and Matt Sharp would independently record demos on Sharp's 4-track tape recorder during sessions for The Blue Album, while they were staying at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York.
Exact songs Sharp recorded during this period are unknown, except one. Most of these recordings are likely destroyed.
===Pat 8-tracks, October 1993===
Upon returning to Los Angeles after completing The Blue Album, Wilson did 2 master tapes worth of 8-track recordings. However, both tapes are almost completely taped over, cut off, or rendered unusable, with several tracks having other songs playing over them simultaneously and also seemingly being used as practice tapes. Early attempts of "I Wouldn't Say It" are audible on both tapes, as well as several tracks with drum machine drums.
===Pat 8-track "My Spine", October-November 1993===
Precursor to the Suburban Advantage EP
===Matt Sharp 4 tracks, October-November 1993===
By November, Sharp had 3 songs that he was fairly pleased with (including the "Friends of P." demo from New York).
===Rivers 8 tracks, November-December 1993===
====Martha V2, November 1993====
This was a more professional recording of the previously mentioned "Martha", recorded by Wilson by Koch's request (apparently the song "lost its silliness" as a result) onto Cuomo's 8-track recorder at 2226 Amherst Ave. Cuomo plays a trumpet solo on this recording, as he was trying to learn trumpet at the time. Wilson plays guitars, and Koch sings.
== References ==