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Rivers Cuomo (born June 13 , 1970 ) is a Singer , Songwriter and Guitarist . He is most well-known as the lead singer of Weezer . YOUTH Cuomo was born in a New York City hospital, and raised on an Ashram (run by the late Hindu guru Sri Swami Satchidananda ) in Northeastern Connecticut . Cuomo's parents decided to stay in Connecticut when the ashram (known as Yogaville ) was relocated to a plot of land along the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia . Rivers attended and graduated from E.O. Smith High School in Storrs, Connecticut . MUSICAL PROJECTS Cuomo, who began his musical endeavours with the pseudonym "Peter Kitts" ("Kitts" being the Surname of his stepfather), formed a Progressive Metal band known as Avant Garde , and played several shows in Connecticut. He moved with the band to Los Angeles in March 1989 , at which point Avant Garde changed its name to Zoom , which dissolved in the late spring of 1990 . After a series of musical projects in L.A., Cuomo formed Weezer on February 14 , 1992 with bandmates Patrick Wilson , Matt Sharp , and Jason Cropper . Jason Cropper left the band during recording on their first album, and Brian Bell joined in his place. Weezer signed with DGC, a music publisher of Geffen Records, on June 25 , 1993 . They began recording '' Weezer '' (also known as '' The Blue Album ''), in August, 1993. EDUCATION Cuomo started college at Harvard University as an undergraduate in 1995 , studying music, but eventually switched his major to English and dropped out two semesters short of graduation. In the fall of 2004 , he re-enrolled at Harvard to complete his degree. After another break for the release of Weezer's fifth album, '' Make Believe '', Cuomo has recently stated on his MySpace blog that he intends to return to Harvard in Spring 2006 to finish his degree. His living situation in his second stint at Harvard could be considered odd for a rock star in his mid 30s, as he lives in an undergrad dormitory and eats at the school's dining hall {Link without Title} . Throughout his life he has pursued higher education not only at Harvard, but Los Angeles Community College , Santa Monica College , The University Of Southern California , and Berklee College Of Music where he took summer courses as a teenager. Cuomo is slated to graduate from Harvard in Spring 2006 with a Bachelor Of Arts in American Literature. MUSICAL TALENT Musicially, Cuomo is best known for his guitar solos, melody compositions, and orchestration of distinctive harmonies. He is also a prolific songwriter, having written and recorded nearly 800 songs in his life, either with Weezer, earlier bands or self-recorded demos. Of these songs, despite the large amount of unreleased material available on the internet, large chunks of his work remain unheard by fans. These include certain demos for '' (as used on the unreleased demo "Blast Off!"), synthesizer, Talk Box , bass guitar (he frequently demoed songs on his own, a la the 1995 Fort Apache Studios ''Pinkerton'' demos), clarinet, drums, and harmonica. Cuomo has cited a wide variety of musical influences throughout the years, from artists as diverse as KISS , Lou Barlow , Pixies , Stevie Ray Vaughan , Brian Wilson , and Giacomo Puccini . He took it upon himself to become a student of rock and pop music when in the late 90s, Cuomo created "The Encyclopedia of Pop" for himself, a three-ring binder which broke down the mechanics of pop and rock songs. {Link without Title} SIDE-PROJECTS Rivers fronted a band called Homie on certain dates in 1997 and 1998. In 2003 he went through a phase in which he contributed to recordings by various other musicians ( Crazy Town , Cold , Mark Ronson ). He also briefly managed the band AM Radio in 2002 and 2003. The frontman for that band, Kevin Ridel , is quoted as having said ''"I was actually giving up hope the summer of 2001. Right before Rivers called me... he’s done everything. He’s our manager, he’s our record label. He’s pretty much guided us through everything we’ve had to do."'' He also sang on the AM Radio song "Inspiration." [http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=626103883&n=2 In early 2004 he made a surprise appearance onstage with ex-Weezer bassist Matt Sharp at his California State University, Fullerton show to play two old Weezer favorites ("Say It Ain't So" and "Undone"), a rare Weezer demo that they worked on together ("Mrs. Young"), and a new song they wrote together, "Time Song." Sharp announced that they would be working on a collaborative record together. Yet later that year, Sharp announced on his website that although they had come up with "15 or 16 new song ideas, some good, some not so good" for their new album their "special brand of dysfunctionality" kept them from finishing the project. {Link without Title} Additionally, Cuomo has had Cameos in a number of music videos. These include Crystal Method's "You Know It's Hard" and the video for The Warlocks' "Cocaine Blues." VARIOUS FACTS
DISCOGRAPHY Guest Contributions
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