Category: Weezer

Weezer Filled With ‘Raditude’ This Fall
Although a final track listing is still being fleshed out, Weezer is set to release “Raditude,” the group’s seventh studio album, on October 27 on DGC Records. Rivers Cuomo says that the band is currently choosing from fifteen different songs for possible inclusion, but songs such as “The Girl Got Hot” and “I’m Your Daddy” that the group recently debuted live, will be on “Raditude,” alongside the first single, “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To.”
“The sound of “Raditude” is fun, high energy pop rock,” Cuomo tells Billboard.com. “Which is exemplified in a song like ‘(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To.’ ‘I’m Your Daddy,’ has an up vibe with the same, heavy Weezer guitar riff but with a little electro influence. And ‘The Girl Got Hot’ – that’s kind of a witty, party jam.”
Other confirmed tracks include “Can’t Stop Partying,” which was co-written with Jermaine Dupri and first appeared on Cuomo’s solo release, 2008’s “Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo,” and a song called “Trippin’ Down the Freeway,” which was written weeks after the completion of 2008’s “Weezer” (a.k.a. “The Red Album”).
Weezer remains beloved by its legions of fans. According to Nielsen SoundScan, 2008’s “Weezer” has sold 443,000; the group’s debut, 1994’s “Weezer” (a.k.a. “The Blue Album”) has sold 3.3 million copies, followed by 2001’s “Weezer” (a.k.a. “The Green Album”) at 1.6 million copies. Even what was once considered a commercial flop, 1996’s “Pinkerton” has sold an impressive 852,000. Over the years , Weezer has excelled at writing hook filled rock songs that sound anthemic, while retaining a distinct humor and wit within the lyrics. Songs like “Buddy Holly,” “Undone- The Sweater Song,” and “Say It Ain’t So,” became 1990’s alt-rock staples and this decade, they’ve continued that tradition with “Hash Pipe” from 2001’s “Weezer” and “Beverly Hills,” from 2005’s “Make Believe.” An early leak of “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” is receiving a warm online reception, indicating Cuomo and crew could be well on their way to another hit.
Still, Cuomo says “Raditude” follows in the footsteps of the band’s prior work in terms of the recording process. Although he described it as “going at a relaxed pace,” it still came with its set of challenges. “I think making a rock record is rarely easy or smooth,” he says. “It requires a lot of work and sometimes you have to write more songs that end up on the record; sometimes you have to go back and re-record a song more than once. Sometimes you have to switch studios or producers, you have to go on a bit of an exploration about what it is you’re trying to make. And in those regards, I think ‘Raditude’ is pretty much normal. It wasn’t necessarily easier or harder.”
In related news, Cuomo was in the studio just this week, laying down the final vocal tracks for the “Let’s Write A Sawng” project, where he enlisted the help of fans via Youtube for the material. “I think it’s called “Turn It Up.” It’s not going to be on ‘Raditude,’ but Weezer will release it, sometime in the near future.”
Also in the works is a double-disc expanded version of “Pinkerton,” but Cuomo hasn’t started working on it quite yet. “We’ll include a lot of outtakes, demos and songs from that era that people haven’t heard yet. There’s a lot of material, but I enjoy the process of going through it all and remembering what that time was like.”
As for the album’s title, “Raditude,” Cuomo got the idea from a new friend, Rainn Wilson from the television series “The Office.” “He has a super-rock persona,” Cuomo explains. “When it came time to find a title for the Weezer album, I asked him what he thought the ultimate album title would be and he said ‘Raditude.'”
Weezer joins blink-182 this Sunday (Aug 23) for a three week tour of North American amphitheatres.

Weezer Announce October 27th Release Date For New Album
Weezer announced on their official Website that their seventh album will be released on October 27th, just 15 months after the bandís third eponymous LP, or The Red Album, hit stores. Weezer promise that details regarding their new disc ó like album title (or color) and track list ó will be revealed soon, but the band recently performed three new songs (îThe Girl Got Hot,î ìIím Your Daddyî and ìCanít Stop Partyingî) at the Jisan Valley Rock Festival in Seoul on July 24th. Just last week on the Weezer official site, the band posted that they were in the final stages of mixing the new album.
As Rock Daily reported last month, Weezer were planning a ìto-be-announced special non-physical releaseî of their seventh album. Fans will likely get to hear a couple of the new tracks when Weezer embark on tour with Blink-182 starting on August 25th at Torontoís Molson Amphitheatre. In addition to Album Seven, the band is reportedly also on work on a deluxe reissue of their classic Pinkerton album, but no definitive plans for that release have been announced yet.

Weezer releases holiday music from iPhone app
Weezer has digitally released six Christmas songs that originally were featured on the iPhone application “Tap Tap Revenge Christmas With Weezer.”
The music was recorded specifically for the iPhone app, but demand from non-iPhone users was so great that the band decided to make the songs available at digital retailers, including Apple’s iTunes store and Amazon.com, according to a press release.
The digital EP features Weezer’s interpretations of six classic holiday songs–“We Wish You A Merry Christmas,” “Silent Night,” “O Holy Night,” “The First Noel,” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “O Come, All Yet Faithful”–which are the first songs ever specifically recorded for an iPhone app.
Weezer also contributed a song, “Troublemaker,” to Warren Miller’s latest ski film, “Children of Winter.” The film also is featured in the video for the band’s latest single, “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived.”

Weezer Raids Vaults, Records Xmas Carols
On the heels of the release of the second volume of Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo’s home recordings, the group is now taking a look back into its own vaults.
Cuomo tells Billboard he has “no idea” when the tentatively titled “Odds and Ends” will be released, but describes it as “just another fun project to do. They’re great songs, but for some reason they didn’t make the final cut for [a] record. They span a vast period of time from the very beginning of our career in the early ’90s right up to the present day.”
Meanwhile, Cuomo says Weezer may tour next spring with Oasis, and is hoping to enlist Spike Jonze to direct a video for the song “The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived” from its recent “The Red Album.”
And while the next Weezer studio album appears to be a ways off, the group recently recorded six Christmas carols that will be downloadable for the iPhone game “Tap Tap Revenge,” including “Oh Holy Night.” Says Cuomo, “They’re the classics.”
In addition, Cuomo recently wrote a song with sibling pop duo Aly & AJ, although it’s unclear when it may see the light of day. “It was such a blast to remember how teenagers approach songwriting,” he says of the experience. “Their minds just work so fast and they have no fear and no ego.”
Cuomo’s “Alone II: The Home Recordings” was released earlier this week by Suretone/Geffen. The first installment came out in December 2007.

New Weezer Album Coming Early
The release date of Weezer’s sixth album has been pushed up from June 24 to June 3. The album, which will be the band’s third self-titled CD, is being released a few weeks early due to popular demand and the intense reaction to the first single, “Pork and Beans,” according to a statement on the band’s website. However, some speculate it’s being released three weeks early because several songs from the album have been leaked online, according to published reports.
The standard and deluxe versions of “Weezer”–which is being referred to as “The Red Album” to differentiate it from the previous self-titled releases–can be pre-ordered at Apple’s iTunes store. The deluxe version will initially be available in digital form only. The release date for the physical deluxe version has not been announced.
The video for “Pork and Beans” is expected to surface in the coming weeks.

Cuomo Keen On Archival Releases, New Weezer CD
Rivers Cuomo hopes that his new solo set, “Alone — The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo,” is not the last the world will hear of the prolific stash of material that hasn’t made it onto Weezer albums.
“I would love to put out at least one more,” Cuomo, who chose the albums 18 songs from seven CD’s worth of potential tracks he’s recorded over the years, tells Billboard.com. In fact, the possibility exists for a series not unlike Who leader Pete Townshend’s “Scoop” albums, so Cuomo says that “I’m talking with the record company (now) to figure out what’s the best way for me to get more of this stuff out, and if they’re gonna be involved or not. But it’s certainly my hope to put out as much of this stuff as I can.”
For the moment, however, future vault-raiding will have to wait in line behind Weezer’s sixth album, which Cuomo says is “almost done” and that he hopes to release in April or May. “I’m listening to the songs every day, trying to figure out which order they go in and understand what the spirit is behind this album,” he explains. “It’s still changing every day a little bit. It’s still evolving.”
Cuomo describes the new songs, which are being co-produced by Rick Rubin, as “dark and deep and beautiful,” and “definitely more sophisticated and adventurous. You’ll hear very long songs … and non-traditional structures.”
Cuomo says Weezer fans will also hear more from Weezer’s other band members, who also wrote songs and even sing lead on some tracks. On one unnamed cut, drummer Pat Wilson sings and plays lead guitar while Cuomo takes over the drum stool.
“It was a blast,” Cuomo says of the all-in approach. “It definitely feels like there’s a lot more of our energy that over the years has been kind of pent-up and now has been released and is flowing freely between the four of us. It’s really exciting.”
Cuomo’s other major project is a “deep and detailed” memoir tracing the period from Weezer’s formation in 1992 to the release of its first album. He anticipates another year of writing before he’s ready to turn it over to a publisher.

Weezer Rallies The ‘Ensemble’
Weezer has christened its sixth album “Tout Ensemble,” and will release it April 22 via Geffen.
“I have never been so excited about a project in my life,” bassist Scott Shriner says. “Weezer fans truly have something to look forward to. The entire band has accomplished some of its most challenging goals as a group and as individuals. It’s all coming together on this album.”
No other details have been made available about the project, which is the follow-up to 2005’s “Make Believe.” But there is new music from Rivers Cuomo coming before the end of the year, in the form of the Geffen album “Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo.”
Due Dec. 18, the set includes “my favorite home demos from ’92 to ’07 featuring a lot of never heard before songs, a few covers, a few songs from my unfinished rock musical ‘Songs From The Black Hole’ and my original demo for ‘Buddy Holly,'” Cuomo says.

Weezer: The Beer Lawsuit
Divided they stand, together they sue.
Looking for a cure for what ales them, the apparently still-together members of Weezer sued Miller Brewing Co. Friday, accusing the Milwaukee-based institution of unlawfully using the band’s image in a series of print ads to promote beer and other alcoholic beverages.
According to the alt-rock quartet’s complaint, the three ads that showed up in 2004 on the pages of Rolling Stone misappropriated the band’s name and image by stating that Weezer–along with “other bands and musical performers with whom [Weezer] do not wish to be associated in any advertisement”–endorsed Miller products.
Not wanting anyone to destroy their image, Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo, drummer Patrick Wilson, guitarist Brian Bell and bassist Scott Shriner are seeking actual damages (they feel the misappropriation of their good name has cost them millions); all profits received by Miller and fellow defendants from the ads in question; punitive damages amounting to three times either the actual damages or the defendants’ profits, whichever is higher; and an injunction against any further use of the band’s image.
Weezer has also targeted marketing firm Young & Rubicam and production company Giannini Creative Imaging in the lawsuit.
Although following the platinum-level success of 2005’s Make Believe Cuomo told MTV News in July that Weezer’s latest break may be a break-up, an Aug. 12 posting on the band’s Website referred to the members’ current state as “one of positivity and growth.”
“Now please, take those ‘Weezer split?’ headlines and place them firmly into the ‘Don’t believe the hype’ bin,” read the site a week later. As of last weekend, a live DVD project was on hold, however, and while cover art has been created for a greatest-hits album, no new songs have been recorded yet. “It if happens, it will definitely have some new tracks,” the band said, adding that Cuomo has been working on some fresh material.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Maladroit boys are keeping busy while Cuomo cleanses his aura and enjoys married life after almost three years of self-imposed celibacy (he tied the knot with Kyoko Ito in June).
Bell and Wilson went retro to play Lou Reed and John Cale in the upcoming Edie Sedgwick biopic Factory Girl, starring Sienna Miller as the Andy Warhol muse. The Weezer mates also recorded a cover of Velvet Underground’s “Heroin” for the film’s soundtrack.
Wilson has a side band, too–The Special Goodness, with The Offspring drummer Atom Willard–and Bell fronts his own group, Space Twins, as well.

Weezer frontman says band is ‘done’
NEW YORK (AP) – Rivers Cuomo says that, for now, Weezer is “done.”
Cuomo, the band’s bespectacled songwriter and frontman, told MTV that while he remains in touch with his bandmates, “We’ve never mentioned getting together.”
“Really, for the moment, we are done,” he said. “And I’m not certain we’ll ever make a record again, unless it becomes really obvious to me that we need to do one.”
Weezer has released five albums since forming in 1993. The group took a considerable break between 1996’s Pinkerton and 2001’s self-titled disc (typically called “The Green Album”). The band’s last release was Make Believe, in 2005.
The liner notes of that album led to conjecture that it was Weezer’s last. They included a quote from a parting soliloquy in Shakespeare’s Tempest, his last play.
Cuomo, 36, said he has been writing songs, but added, “I don’t know what’ll happen with these songs – if anything. . . . I certainly don’t see them becoming Weezer songs, and I don’t really see the point of a solo career. So we’ll just have to see.”
Jim Merlis, a spokesman for Geffen, said Thursday the label had no official response, but added that Cuomo has made similar statements in the past.

BACK TO SCHOOL
After finishing promotional duties for its latest disc, Make Believe, Weezer taking a timeout while frontman Rivers Cuomo heads back to Harvard in February to complete his degree in English. He’ll graduate in June, eight years after he first started.