Weezer

It's hard not to root for Rivers Cuomo and the rest of the geek-chic icons in Weezer. Horn-rimmed glasses and thrift-store duds aside, the boys flat-out know how to rock — churning out crunchy, bored-out pop goodness like some quirky bastard child of Pavement, Cheap Trick, and the Cars. Whether they're as gloomy yet liberating as "Say It Ain't So" or as cheery and ridiculously catchy — like two-seconds-and-you're-hooked catchy — as "Island in the Sun," "Beverly Hills," and "Buddy Holly," Weezer's finest cuts are what happens when smart plugs in and goes for broke.

More than a decade into their career, they also have more than enough music to keep our Next Steps bursting at the seams.

"Tired of Sex" is easily one of the greatest Track One moments of the mid-'90s — an anthem of pent-up frustration, funneled into a fuzzy and frantic mix of buzz-saw guitars, speaker-smearing synths, and sucker-punch drums. But it's only a small fraction of Weezer's impact from college campuses to arenas. "In The Garage" drops us off at band practice among borrowed Marshall stacks and a raging game of Dungeons & Dragons, "American Gigolo" grinds along like a metal band that just discovered power pop, and "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" drops the pocket protectors for tight leather pants and lines like "I'm the baddest of the bad" and "all the girls get up when I sing."

Which leads us to Deep Cuts, where Weezer's rarities and unreleased tracks stud their catalog like brilliant, little diamonds.

Anyone who's heard the deluxe, tenth-anniversary edition of Weezer's self-titled debut (a.k.a. "The Blue Album") will tell you that the band's outtakes and b-sides are often just as strong as their prime cuts. That goes for eerie "Kitchen Tape" renditions of "Undone (The Sweater Song)" and an epic "Only In Dreams," the smoky harmonica lead and wall of distortion within "Mykel and Carli," and the completely unexpected doo-wop detour of "My Evaline." And then there's Alone, an entire album of solo recordings that Rivers Cuomo scrapped for some reason. (Dude, what were you thinking?) The handclaps at the heart of "Lover In the Snow" and the robotic vocals in "Blast Off!" have the word JAM written all over them.

Talk about a true revenge of the nerds tale. It all started when Weezer released its 1994 debut, an album so perfect it demands a front-to-back listen — from the twangy, twitchy opening of "My Name Is Jonas" to the eight beautiful/brutal minutes of "Only In Dreams." In the years since, the band's done nothing but defy expectations. And no, we're not talking about the years Rivers Cuomo buried his head in the books at Harvard; we're talking about the prickly, bloodletting pop of Pinkerton, the silver-lined storm clouds of Make Believe, and two other self-titled albums that flesh out their red and green sleeves with such chart-invading singles as "Hash Pipe," "Island in the Sun," and "Pork and Beans." No wonder why these guys are not only godfathers among the indie/emo set, but absolutely legends of alternative rock.