LOST TREASURES: Weezine

By Jim Shearer on 04/30/2008

I've been a Weezer fan since the beginning. Because of this, I was not only able to interview them for my college radio station on their first tour of the U.S., but I also knew about them early enough to join their fan club, which gave me the privilege of being sent a homemade, photocopied fanzine.

(left: Issue #1 of Weezer's long out-of-print fanzine.)

Not too long ago when I was reorganizing a box of old magazines and mementos, I came across Weezine, Issue #1.

LOST TREASURE: Weezine

Long before bizarre Rivers-Cuomo-stories flooded the internet and years before the band had a pyrotechnic-spitting onstage =w=, Weezer was the little-band-that-could, trying to make a name for themselves in the alternative 90's. Assisiting with the efforts were the founders and organizers of the Weezer fanclub (who also happened to be superfans of the band themselves), Mykel and Carli Allan. Sadly, the two, along with their other sibling Trysta, were killed in a car accident driving home from a Weezer concert in Denver, Colorado (July 1997).

Weezer later put on a tribute concert for the sisters, and with the Allan parents in attenedance, Cuomo performed, "Mykel and Carli," a song he had actually written about the two before their death. The performance can be seen on Weezer's Video Capture Device, which still chokes me up to this day.

(left: From the desk of the Weezine editors.)

Mykel and Carli worked diligently to send out homemade photocopied packets of the bands' lyrics and the early installment of Weezer's fanzine, featuring scribbled drawings and handwritten prose from both the band members and Allan sisters. Receiving something from Mykel and Carli meant something--more so than a record label sending you a glossy corporate-looking postcard. The Weezine was charming in it's simplicity and honesty. And as I've said before, 'zine's were what blogs have become today--although it took a little more time, effort, and elbow grease to put out the former.

Flipping through the Weezine now, makes me very nostalgic. I still can't believe it's been 14 years since Weezer released their amaizingly-catchy Blue Album. I also find it sad that the era of homemade fanzines have passed us by. In today's speed-of-light digital world, why would anyone photocopy and staple a mountain of paper when you could just as easily reach twice as many people by posting a simple blog? Although--there's a good chance you'll never find a blog in an old memory box.

(below: Weezine, page 1 of Issue #1)