The Rentals began in 1994 by Matt Sharp, the bass player in Weezer, so that he could indulge his affection for Moog drenched pop. Their initial album, 1995’s humorously titled Return of the Rentals, was recorded between Weezer’s first two albums. The album’s third track, “Friends of P.”, cracked the top 10 on the Modern Rock chart and scraped the lower rungs of the Hot 100. After leaving Weezer upon the completion of Pinkerton, Sharp completely shuffled The Rentals’ line-up and recorded their second album, 1999’s Seven More Minutes, which included guest appearances by various members of Elastica and Blur, as well as Maya Rudolph, who had often performed live with them. Yet again, Sharp overhauled the band’s line-up to tour Japan. A long hiatus followed, but Sharp revived the Rentals name in 2005 and began touring with yet another configuration of band members. Their ambitious 2009 project Songs About Time resulted in a multi-media art project that included movies, photography, and a trio of short albums. Their first full-length album in fifteen years, Lost in Alphaville, came in 2014, again featuring a different set of band members that included The Black Keys’ drummer Patrick Carney. They released the single “Elon Musk Is Making Me Sad” in 2018, and two years later came their self-released fourth album, Q36.
