Santa’s going to have to back the sleigh up to the garage now that Rivers Cuomo has busted open the vault on his online market. The Weezer singer/guitarist made the holidays bright on Tuesday (Dec. 8) when he announced that for his web programming class final project he’s offering 2,655 previously unreleased demos for sale.
The wide-ranging demos cover both Weezer albums and Cuomo’s Alone solo home demo compilations, with Cuomo narrating short previews and explanations of the $9 bundles. The collections range in length and girth from Alone XI: The EWBAITE Years, which has 1,113 demos and runs more than 38 hours to the 15-minute master session for “Gravity Will Bring You Down.” The nine Alone compilations take listeners from the singer’s pre-Weezer era through the band’s 2016 White Album.
Cuomo also offers a caveat emptor, asking that fans don’t share the songs or post them and to “please let me know if it doesn’t work as expected. Or if you find you have access to something you shouldn’t.” Explaining that none of the songs have any co-writers or other performers, Cuomo also warns buyers that any demo might be silent, have “wildly inappropriate” content, have “super low sound quality,” or could be just the sound of “me rambling, talking, making sounds.”
In addition, your money could buy you something that’s already been shared or leaked, just a drum beat with no vocals, a duplicate of another demo or an inferior version of a different demo. The upside is that because the collections are in the Dropbox format, Cuomo said he plans to keep adding material that fans can tap into by re-downloading without paying a second time.
In addition to brief audio previews, each collection features a short description you can unlock by hovering over the title, including the Alone V: The Blue-Pinkerton Years, on which Rivers says he “found a more true and unique identity. Some of this already had a limited release in Alone III,” as a preface to a collection with demos of “American Girls,” “Superman,” “Say It Ain’t So,” “Please Pick Up the Phone” and “Getchoo,” among others.
Alone IV: Before Weezer is described as: “Haven’t found my voice yet. But not for lack of trying,” while compiling “Happy Trails,” “Gimme My Money,” “Christmas in L.A.,” “Anything 4 You” and “PE Rap.” The other collections include Alone VI:The Black Room, Alone VII: The Green Years, Alone VIII: The Maladroit Years, Alone IX: The Make Believe Years, Alone X: The Red-Radtitude-Hurley Years, The Best of the Demos and Alone XII: The White Year.