I am one of those Weezer fans mentioned above that upon hearing Ozma thought "man, this is Weezer" but after a thorough listen realised it was much more than just a Weezer-like band.
It all started when I found Iceland, a song that used the wah wah pedal liberally to tell us about the woes of a long distance relationship, which was included in Hear You Me! a tribute to Myke and Carli. It was cool, no big deal, but listening to If I Only Had a Heart, Domino Effect, Apple Trees and Maybe in an Alternate Dimension there was no coming back, Weezer had to cede the seat reserved for my favorite band to Ozma. And Weezer is Weezer (The Blue Album and Pinkerton are masterpieces), but after Maladroit (or The Green Album maybe) you could realize Weezer needed a heir, and it was Ozma.
It was born in Pasadena, California and in its last form their members were Daniel Brummel (bass), Ryen Slegr (guitar), Jose Galvez (guitar), Star Wick (keyboards) and Kenn Shane (drums). Ryen and Daniel do most of the singing.
So, up to 2001 all nice and good, they had released Songs of Inaudible Trucks and Cars (kind of a demo-compilation album), Rock and Roll Part III and The Doubble Donkey Disc, as AU mentioned earlier (and when I say "earlier" I mean ten years ago). But you might be wondering what happened after that, and I'll tell you, my friend.
Spending Time on the Borderline came out in 2003, adding one more coat of matureness to their previous work, including, besides their classical unrequited-love theme, lyrics about requited love, political issues (disguised as metaphors, of course), and reflections on life, death and time. The tracks are listed as follows:
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Your Name (things you can't change, or you can, but remain there anyway)
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Spending Time (Q: Where has time gone? A: We don't know, and we don't care.)
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Come Home Andrea (an admitted tribute/parody to rock ballads about girls)
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Bad Dogs (who said iraq?)
- Utsukushii Shibuya (it means "beautiful Shibuya", and it's about love in its purest form)
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Turtleneck Coverup (witty critique of government surveillance)
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Gameover (sometimes you lose at Super Mario Bros., sometimes you lose your girlfriend)
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Curve in the Old 1-9 (about what happened on 9/11)
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Restart (you spent your life climbing up the corporate ladder, and then realized you forgot to live)
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Eponine (read Victor Hugo's Les Misérables and you'll understand - I did so)
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Wake up (happy couples also fight)
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Light Years Will Burn (time? space? physics? relationships? I don't know what it's really about, but it rocks)
Things started to go bad, and the band broke up in 2004. But wait! don't go away, the game wasn't over yet.
In 2006 they got back together, but with a new drummer (the previous one was
Patrick Edwards), and in 2007 they released their latest album,
Pasadena. It has a darker and rustier sound than the other three, but that doesn't mean it isn't awesome:
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No One Needs to Know (it is a remake of a song from The Doubble Donkey Disc. It could be about not wanting to formalize a relationship, or it could be about an affair - I don't know, and I don't need to)
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Barriers (it seems that within the Ozma community this is one of the most unremarkable songs, and its meaning is kind of blurry. The good things is it has a reference to the very first song on Rock and Roll Part III)
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Eponine (yet another remake. See Spending Time on the Borderline above)
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Fight the Darkness (uhmm... Be charitable?)
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Heartache Vs. Heartbreak (explains the difference between the two - one of Ozma's sweetest songs of all time)
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Incarnation Blues (so bad I couldn't be with you in this life, see ya on the next one!)
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Lunchbreak (from Pasadena with love)
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Motorology (this is what happens when you put together Back to the Future and 1984)
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I Wonder (let's calm down and get dreamy)
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Underneath My Tree (it's upbeat, it's melancholic, it's happy - It's great)
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Straight Flush (it's about poker - Just kidding, it's about being fulfilled... and poker)
To get it out of the way I'll list some of the differences and similitudes between Ozma and Weezer:
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Ozma was born in the late 90s, and was influenced by Weezer, who was born in 1994.
Both were born in California.
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Weezer were always four guys. Ozma were always four guys and a girl.
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They both do a heavy use of distortion in most of their songs.
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Ozma incorporates keyboards, and it shows. Bass shines, beautifully played by Daniel Brummel, and it plays an important part in guiding the melodies. In most Weezer songs you can't notice if it's there or not.
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I think Ozma never mentions sex, drugs or alcohol on their lyrics. Weezer does, generously.
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Both of them have many references or winks to other artists, songs and popular culture elements (think of Buddy Holly, Green Day, Public Enemy, Dungeon Master and Nightcrawler on Weezer's songs; and of Back to the Future, Macintosh, Videogames, Wesley Willis and Eponine on Ozma's).
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Ozma doesn't have a weird and excentric guy like Rivers Cuomo. It could be good, or it could be bad.
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They both have a song about Japan.
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Like it or not, they're both big geek rock exponents, at least on their first two or three albums.
And now, some of my personal picks:
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Rock and Roll Part III: Baseball, If I Only Had a Heart, Shootingstars, Battlescars, Domino Effect
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The Doubble Donkey Disc: Immigration Song, Continental Drift, Maybe in an Alternate Dimension, Landing of Yuri Gagarin
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Spending Time on the Borderline: Utsukushii Shibuya, Restart, Game Over, Light Years Will Burn, Turtleneck Coverup
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Pasadena: Hearthache Vs. Heartbreak, Underneath My Tree, Motorology 3:39, Incarnation Blues
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B-Sides: Lorraine, Rain of the Golden Gorilla