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"Rivers went to college in the middle of when things were really rolling," Sharp says, "and I was not interested in sitting around and waiting. If I was gonna do something else, why would I do exactly the same thing? Why would I get three other guys and go and try to start another band and sit in our garage and have fart jokes and do exactly what Weezer was doing?"
And so began the Rentals.
Before hitting paydirt with "Undone—The Sweater Song" and "Buddy Holly," Weezer frequently crossed paths with the girl-driven pop band That Dog on the L.A. club circuit. Enamored with the group's sisterly duo—Petra and Rachel Haden—and their mastery of draping the bittersweet vocal harmonies and lilting violins over giddy, fuzzy power pop, Sharp championed the group on- and offstage, until the Hadens joined him in the studio. The result was 1995's Return of the Rentals, a slick synth-pop roller coaster of a record whose first single, "Friends of P.â, piggy-backed perfectly on Weezerâs runaway alt-rock radio success.
Sharp defected to Europe and followed up with 1999's Seven More Minutes, this time employing Elastica's Donna Matthews to fill the role the Haden sisters occupied on the first record. (Around this time, pre-SNL Maya Rudolph also had a stint in the band.) The record was a letdown for Weezer fans who looked to the Rentals for a more satisfying Blue Album sequel than Pinkerton, which turned out to be Sharp's final interaction with the group besides a 2002 court battle over unpaid royalties. Sharp was largely absent during the emo boom of the early 2000s, which saw bands like the Get Up Kids and the Anniversary gain substantial followings with introspective, synth-heavy guitar rock that owed considerable debts to both Pinkerton and Return of the Rentals.
It wasn't until Sharp revisited Barcelona after years of obscurity in a remote town outside Nashville that he was compelled to stir the Rentals from a 15-year hiatus. While last year's Lost in Alphaville, featuring Patrick Carney of the Black Keys on drums and Jess Wolf and Holly Laessig of country-rock quartet Lucius, feels more ambitious, Sharp says it's the potential personnel available to work with that stokes him to revisit the project after all these years.
"As time went on, the Rentals became an excuse to work with people I really wanted to collaborate with who I was excited about in the moment," he says. "Since then it's carried on to a point where working with women who inspire me is a through line in my life."
The current touring version of the Rentals is now a who's who of Portland's indie scene, with Shawn Glassford of Starfucker on bass and Elisabeth Ellison and Patti King of Radiation City on vocals and keys. Considering his old band toured as a glorified cover band on the 2010 "Memories Tour," Sharp is keenly aware of the hesitation savvier music fans may have in approaching a group as unequivocally '90s as his resurrected synth-pop group. He laughed loudly before declining to comment on said Weezer tour, before insisting that the Rentals 2.0 are all about the future.
"I have no interest in going back to recapture the feeling of records I've made before in the past," Sharp says. "It's all about the people who I really desire to work with now, like Patrick Carney or the girls from Lucius, who've made the most extraordinary debut album I've ever heard. Now it's all about getting on to this thing and going some place none of us have ever gone.â
SEE IT: The Rentals play Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd., with Radiation City and Rey Pila, on Sunday, May 10. 7 pm. $15 advance, $18 day of show. 21+.
WWeek 2015
