Out Of The Vaults #19 - Weston - The Massed Albert Sounds

My wife dives into our CD cabinets (The Vaults) and randomly pull out one of the thousands of CDs. The chosen album will then be given to me and I will talk about the CD for awhile no matter how good, bad, obscure or embarrassing the chosen disc is. Where did I buy it, when did I buy it, what was my first reaction to hearing it, do I still listen to it today etc, etc, etc

Out Of The Vaults #19 - Weston - The Massed Albert Sounds (2000)

Weston was an indie rock/pop-punk band from Bethlehem, PA which was liked by punk, pop, rock, and hardcore fans alike. They were also my accomplices in pulling off one of the slickest moves in history.


Shortly before The Massed Albert Sounds was released I was given a promo tape by my friend Eric who worked at Universal Records. On the tape were two songs from the forthcoming album. One of the songs, "Summer's Over", was a typical Weston song with bouncy hooks, awkward melodic vocals, and lyrics about girls. The second song "To Some I'm Genius" was different. It was loud, it had distortion and it was awesome. My girlfriend at the time Jenni and I would play it over and over again in the car, blasting the volume each time. When the album was released a few weeks later all the songs on it were good but none of them could touch "To Some I'm Genius".

A little while later Weston was set to play with the band Samiam at the Black Cat in D.C. Jenni and I, as well as a bunch more of our friends, made plans to attend the show

The day before the show I received a call from Eric. In celebration of The Massed Albert Sounds release Weston was going to come into the Universal Records offices to play a few acoustic songs. Eric said I was welcome to come and check it out.

When I got to the Universal Record office the next day there were about 20 people present to watch the band perform. Weston played about five songs including the Pet Sounds influenced "I Just Quit Rock and Roll" and the laid-back melodic rocker "Radio", tracks 1 and 5 on the new album.

Absent from the performance was "To Some I'm Genius". After the performance was finished a bunch of us were just hanging out talking with the guys in the band. Eventually, someone brought up "To Some I'm Genius". One of the guys said they did not play it because it does not really work acoustically but they were definitely going to be playing it at the show later. That's when I saw my chance.

 I explained to the guys how "To Some I'm Genius" had been such a favorite for Jenni and me. Then I asked if they could possibly dedicate it to Jenni when they play it at the show. "Yes, of course, we can", one of them answered.

Leaving the office I was happy I had asked but the show was still roughly nine hours away. This was plenty of time for Weston to forget my request.

That night at the show I was anxious to see if the band would remember the dedication. A group of people who were at the Universal Records office performance were also at the show. They came up to me, said hello, and expressed how they too were anxious to see if Weston would come through.

Around 9pm Weston took the stage. Their set included many songs from The Massed Albert Hall. The Brit Pop -flavored "Kiss Like And Angel" (Track 3), the keyboard-driven "Liz Phair" (Track 7), the evil-sounding distortion-filled "El Differente" (Track 10) as well as "Radio" and "Summers Over" fit in well with a few songs from the Weston back catalog that were played that night.

The band announced they had one more song to go. Then the beginning keyboards of "To Some I'm Genius" started up. After about 20 seconds into the song the distortion began. I figured the band had forgotten about my request. Then right before the guitars really kicked in the singer James yelled, "This song goes out to Jenni"!

I could see a slight look of confusion come over Jenni's face. Then after a quick look over at me with a smile on my face, Jenni went back to rocking out to the song. One of the guys from the Universal Records show came up and patted me on the back in congratulations. At the far end of the crowd, I could see another one of the guys from the Universal show as he gave me the thumbs up.

On the ride home Jenni kept saying how she could not believe what had happened. To this day I don't think she has any idea how I was able to get the band to dedicate the song to her.

Not too long after the show Weston decided to call it quits. Although most of the Weston back catalog is still in print and available on iTunes and Spotify, The Massed Albert Sounds is nowhere to be found on either. Hopefully, they will be available soon. Except for "Liz Phair", because it had previously been on another album, none of the songs are even present on Youtube. That is until last night when I uploaded "To Some I'm Genius" specifically for this blog. The catch is you must promise me to listen to it at a very high volume.