Retro Video of the Week: "Undone - The Sweater Song" by Weezer

Last Friday marked the 30th anniversary of the release of Weezer's eponymous debut album, which we all know and love as "The Blue Album."  Rightly heralded as one of the best albums of the '90s and one of the best debut albums of all-time, The Blue Album is basically perfect from top to bottom.  In the thick of grunge, this was a little different.  Produced by Cars frontman Ric Ocasek, it was certainly "alternative," but there was a great blending of power pop, hard rock, punk, emo, and alt rock -- sometimes crisp, sometimes feedbacky, sometimes hooky, sometimes gnarly.  And, of course, the album cover is iconic, with the four band members just standing there, not quite smiling, in front of a light royal blue background.  I saw Weezer play The Blue Album in its entirety back in early 2011, and it was awesome.  They're done it again on tour this year, and I'm seeing them in September.

Anyway, I could go on and on about the album, but let's just get to the damn Retro Video of the Week already.  The band released three singles from the album:  "Undone - The Sweater Song," "Buddy Holly," and "Say It Ain't So."  I featured all three on Retro Video of the Week at some point, but it's been a longer time since I featured "Undone - The Sweater Song" than the other two.  In fact, it was ten years and one day ago.  This was the band's first single, and it was the only one of the three that charted on the Billboard Hot 100, though it only reached #57.  It also went to #6 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.  The video is directed by Spike Jonze, who was just getting his start, before going on to become one of the most in-demand video directors of the '90s and then directing, writing, and producing feature films (and winning an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2014 for Her).

It's a single shot video with the band playing on a blue stage in a studio, with Rivers Cuomo looking like a mod wearing a t-shirt version of the Greatest American Hero costume.  And then a bunch of dogs run through.  But there's one thing you won't see in the video:  a sweater.