realweezer

k | she/her | 23

[realweezer]

free throw

ft. hot mulligan

4/12/2023. richmond, va.

this show was actually pushed back a week because the band’s van broke down. turns out, hot mulligan was passing through RVA at the same time as the new date, so they gave a lil surprise appearance during two beers in

[realweezer]

NEW FREE THROW HOT MULLIGAN COLLAB

THE PROPHECY HAS COME TO FRUITION

[poppunkhiker]

fucking funniest review of those days are gone by free throw

[realweezer]

the happy fits.

09/23/2023. fete music hall. providence, ri.

this show marks the 10th!! time i've seen the happy fits live AND the 5th state i've seen them play in. even though my tastes have definitely changed since 2018, thf will always have a place in my heart. they're also just like,,, so sick live and such genuine people.

[realweezer]

hot off the press, new learning to swim EP!! this shit is so extremely good

unfortunately the band broke up like a week before this came out but... get obsessed anyway

[realweezer]

i've seen so much live music this year but all of my photos/videos are borderline unwatchable. it's like i was possessed by someone who's never used a smartphone before. or a camera that doesn't use a literal explosion for the flash.

pls give tips for how to be even incrementally better at concert photography

[realweezer]

just bought tickets to see the crew in pitt 👀

i wanted to go to fauxchella that same weekend soooo badly, but it just didn't make any sense to go all the way to bowling green after having just been to chicago for riot fest

as like a fun lil compromise, my friend and i are going to spend the weekend in pittsburgh at the cheapest airbnb of all time PRIMARILY to see anxious (my beloved)

i've already seen 3/4 bands on this bill in 2023, but anxious was just such a standout when they opened for the p daddy/drug church show + call from you will without a doubt be my top song of the year

also,,, why would i turn down the opportunity to see sweet pill and twy again

[realweezer]

i’m on vacation in providence and it’s been raining pretty much the whole time i’ve been here, so i try to be brave today and be a good little pedestrian while also trying not to drown. i make it across town to dave’s coffee, and as i walk up i’m like

……. that guy looks like sam from mom jeans/just friends/graduating life/whatever

and lo — it was sam from all of those things. the rest of just friends was standing in front of the store when i went in

i didn’t go up to them or anything but i saw them again !!! all the way across town at an antique store about an hour later

[bymcr]

anthony and his crowd surfed meal

[realweezer]

free throw

9/17/2023. bottom lounge. chicago, il.

RIOT FEST!! day 3 had a rain delay, so the free throw/microwave sets got canceled. to make up for it, there was a free late-nite show held downtown for the first 500 or so ppl to show up. i was #101.

is this the third time i've seen free throw this year? yes. did i skip the cure for this? yes. was it worth it? also yes.

[realweezer]

origami angel

9/15/2023. chicago, il.

[killiansteinerphoto]

Anxious

Mohawk Place, Buffalo NY, 3/28/23

[realweezer]

i would sell both of my kidneys, drop my firstborn child down a well, pay at least triple my monthly rent just for the chance to be at one of these shows. this is my joker, and i refuse to be anything other than an insufferable maniac about it until i walk through the gates of thompson-boling arena.

on a realer level -- i grew up with 49 winchester. when i was a teenager, the boys worked as line cooks in the same little restaurant i waited tables in. they spent most of every shift joking around, made milkshakes from scratch for my birthday, and snuck me my very first beer. 49 has always been cool, and it's so special to see the world catch onto that.

anyway -- do your civic duty and go stream russell county line.

[kerulix]

This is what car seat headrest would like if they were evil and fucked up, tis just a glimpse into my sick and twisted mind

[realweezer]

CSH, Identity, & Change (800 words)

A while ago, I saw a post on r/CSHfans asking what it means to write about deeply personal or private things – how that can shape our relationship to someone else’s art and what regrets an artist might have because of this. I came up with this huge response from the lens of a master’s student (read: huge nerd) studying celebrity persona and authenticity, particularly how those components can create community and identification within musical subcultures. I felt like I didn’t really capture the essence of the question – my response sounds more like formal writing than anything else – but I wanted to share here just in case anyone might be interested in my rambling opinion piece.

Car Seat Headrest piqued my interest first because the music is just amazing (what other band would let me listen to a furry monologuing about weird sex for 5 minutes straight), then because I think the relationship between Will Toledo, his personal thoughts and experiences, and the public is an interesting one. The contents of Twin Fantasy are deeply personal; we hear Will sing about an idealized, but ultimately harmful relationship, the fantasy he’s created of his partner, and his struggles with being queer. For a lot of listeners, myself included, his self-disclosure in this album is part of what makes it great. The ideas we gather about who Will is and what he’s gone through guide our own interpretations of the music and form the basis for a fan culture that’s sprung up around CSH (See: Hansen).

But when you reach Will Toledo’s level of fame, it gets more difficult to navigate opening up about your private life. Your experiences are no longer purely your own; they’re left to the interpretation, analysis, and re-imagining of the general public. Will has expressed frustration with how personal narratives in TF have been interpreted, calling out a Rolling Stone writer for disseminating “a weird, gross, inaccurate representation of [his] personal life” (See: New York Times), and seems to be pulling back from the open approach of his earlier albums (the newest CSH drop is literally called Making a Door Less Open).

From an audience perspective, it seems like TF Face-to-Face might’ve been a turning point for Will, as nearly all his original works produced since then (with the exception of MADLO) have been from his jokey EDM side-project, 1 Trait Danger. With three concept albums out to date, the music of 1TD doesn’t follow the personal thoughts or actions of Will, but rather the fictional high-school antics of characters including Stoney Bologna, Cossett the bitcoin-stealing bully, and a derisive caricature of journalist Tim Schenectady. 1TD members Will and Andrew even perform as two of their characters (1 Trait and Stoney Bologna respectively), causing them to walk the line between musicians and character actors.  

You can clearly see the influence of 1TD on CSH’s 2020 album, Making a Door Less Open. I mean, come on – Will performs MADLO as Trait, an extremely recognizable bunny thing wearing a gas mask and neon orange jumpsuit. From the criticisms I’ve seen of MADLO, it seems that some people perceive the lyrical content as vapid or gimmicky, Trait as a redundant alter-ego of Will himself, and the project as a whole as an example of CSH “cannibalizing itself” (see: Pitchfork). But, to relate this to your topic, Toledo has clarified that the contents of MADLO/Trait character are meant to “take the focus off Will Toledo for once.” Even though some MADLO entries can be viewed as autobiographical (“Hollywood”), they just don’t provide the same level of personal disclosure as earlier works.

I think a key takeaway from this is that any deeply personal work of art will be subject to audience dissection, analysis, and at times, horribly incorrect interpretation. Will Toledo – who has essentially built his musical brand as intimate and authentic through CSH’s disclosive lyrics – will never be able to prevent audiences from conflating the ‘real Will’ with the idea of Will derived from his music. Because audiences genuinely believe they have access to the ‘real Will,’ the introduction of the Trait character could’ve been an attempt to form a stronger boundary between Will as himself and Will as Car Seat Headrest.

Obviously, posting these 800-some words of speculation make me no different than the rest. I can’t pretend to understand the motivations behind Trait, or MADLO, or Will’s interest in fursuiting (a different, but related, conversation) any more than any other fan of CSH. I just think it’s interesting to examine how Will might be renegotiating his personal disclosure and public persona as time goes on, particularly from an academic standpoint.

If anybody has any related thoughts, please drop a response or DM. I’m super interested in other perspectives on this topic, or even related thoughts on celebrity and fandom identity.  

[bedupolker]

Objectively the funniest profile picture the frontman of weezer could have picked

[realweezer]

joyce manor

7/12/2023. harrisburg, pa.

genuinely shocked this video is as steady as it is, bc the rest of what i took from this show is borderline unwatchable lol

[poppunkhiker]

Really? by Prince Daddy & the Hyena