The mindblowing musical phenomenon known as Weezer came to be on February 14, 1992. Four guys (Rivers Cuomo, Matt Sharp, Jason Cropper and Pat Wilson) held their first practice that day and then began playing gigs in the LA area. They were signed by DCG Records and began working on their debut album. During the recording of Weezer, Jason Cropper left the band to be with his pregnant girlfriend, and was replaced by Brian Bell.
The Blue Album hit double platinum, and its three singles ('Buddy Holly', 'Undone', 'Say It Ain't So') were played...a lot. They were radio golden boys for a while, and won a buttload of awards for 'Buddy Holly'. Eventually they took a break from the band for a couple years. Rivers went to Harvard, Matt and Pat worked on their band The Rentals, and Brian did some work with The Spacetwins.
They released Pinkerton in Sptermber 1996. Evidently people expected the same sunny alt-pop songs from Weezer, because the record didn't sell well at all...at least, not compared to the Blue Album. The record was more mature both lyric and melody-wise, and while the die-hard Weez fans loved the record, it was bashed by the music critics and generally left alone. Pinkerton, however, went gold in record sales. Go and figure.
Around 1998, Matt left the band to go full-time with The Rentals. Mikey Welsh, who was touring with Juliana Hatfield, was brought in to replace Matt on bass.
After a good (oh my god) 5 years, Rivers and friends have returned with the Green Album (it's really named 'Weezer'). The first two singles, 'Hash Pipe' and 'Island In The Sun', were in heavy rotation on MTV and Much.
Around August 2001, Mikey left Weezer with a medical condition. The verdict as of date is: Mikey is pretty much out of the band, while a Mr. Scott Schriner is pretty much in. Some love him, while others are still holding out for Mikey and want to give Scott some more Turtle Wax for his forehead. Either way...Weezer's awesome, kids, regardless of who's shredding the bass.