Under the Radar shines a light on lesser-known cover artists. If you’re not listening to these folks, you should. Catch up on past installments here.
What do you call an all-female Weezer tribute band? Sheezer, obviously. They already knew they had the perfect name, but when Rivers Cuomo tweeted their existence to his followers before the band had even played their first show last New Year’s Eve, that’s when they knew that maybe it was time to put in some practice. Classically trained pianist and kalimba extraordinaire Laura Barrett (check out her kalimba cover of Weird Al’s “Smells Like Nirvana”) found herself having to suddenly learn how to play the bass. Not that the girls were not already accomplished in their own right, being made up of members from Toronto’s indie rock scene. The group consists of Barrett (The Hidden Cameras), Dana Snell (The Bicycles), Magali Meagher (The Phonemes), Robin Hatch (Sports: The Band), and “shreddingest awesome lead guitarist” Alysha Haugen.
Weezer’s upcoming Memories Tour confirms that even the band realizes people only really care about their first two albums. They know it, we know it, and Sheezer knows it. Sheezer proudly proclaims they only play songs from The Blue Album and Pinkerton. So really, every short-lived Sheezer tour is a Blinkerton tour. They’re currently embarking on a brief tour of southern Ontario plus a date in Montréal. See the full tour dates on their MySpace site. While a world tour is unlikely unless Rivers invites them as tour openers (which actually sounds like something Weezer might pull these days), most of us will have to settle for these two videos shot for Southern Souls. Check out Sheezer’s takes on “El Scorcho” and “Holiday” below.
Sheezer – Holiday (Weezer cover)
Check out more Sheezer at MySpace.
