I knew I was late to the Matt Sharp party. Apparently, I was
so late everybody was going to bed.
In 2002, the former Weezer bassist and Rentals lead singer was
performing a solo show down the road from my place. I tied on my pink
Chucks, pulled on my drawstring pants, and loaded the iPod with all
things Rentals—Moog-charged pop classics like “Friends of P,”
“The Man with Two Brains,” and the other cult hit songs I’d discovered
only a year earlier. Charged and excited, I slapped the door open when
I arrived.
The club stared me down. The crowd was silent, sitting cross-legged
on the normally cigarette-lined floor. Sharp was sans mic for his solo
acoustic set, surrounded by candles. These people were Friends of
Percodan.
I had missed the part of the story where the Rentals disbanded,
Sharp escaped to Tennessee for a breather, and emerged as a solo
songwriter. His former Weezer cronies had since gone arena with their
sound; Sharp couldn’t exactly be blamed for the reverse
direction—as he puts it, “as warm and fuzzy and fireside
chat-tish as possible.”
Five years later, I’m still cautious. Sharp laughs from his house in
LA when I ask if people need pillows at his latest concerts. “I think a
pogo stick would be better,” he says.
The return of the Rentals isn’t just an album title this time
(unlike their debut in 1995). The re-formed band celebrated their first
full year of touring last month, and Sharp is shocked that people are
still coming to the gigs and “acting like a bunch of football
hooligans.” But they have good reason to jump and dance again. Even
though only Rachel Haden returns from the band’s early days, this
lineup is faithful in concert, pumping clubs full of synthesizers,
multipart vocal harmonies, and horn-rimmed glasses.
This return started not with Haden, however, but with Sara Radle, a
relatively unknown punk-rock singer out of Dallas, Texas. Like Sharp,
Radle had recently changed songwriting gears, reborn as a piano-pop
solo artist, and they met while Sharp was touring with Goldenboy in
2005. Sharp called their songwriting compatibility “effortless.” At the
time, he was mentally juggling a few options: a new solo album, or
perhaps a return to Weezer, thanks to his rekindled friendship with
Rivers Cuomo. But after further meetings with Radle in both Texas and
LA, he re-listened to recent songwriting demos and noticed something:
“That sounds like the beginnings of… like I’m making another Rentals
record.”
Sharp continues, “The fact that anybody comes out to support
anything that I’m involved in, whether it be something like the
Rentals, or what I’ve done in the past with Weezer—I don’t take
it for granted.” He adds, “I’ve learned that from doing as many low-key
solo tours as I’ve done after the second Rentals record. You really
have to be appreciative of the fact that people don’t have to spend
their time with you.”