Things have been pretty quiet lately with everybody's favorite band that used to be great and now just releases stuff that makes us long for the old days. They released a bunch of unfinished studio records as mp3s on their website back in July, 2002, but these have yet to see any official release. I had planned on writing a review of those albums at the time, but since I assumed Rivers and Co. were going to stick to their "new album every year" plan, I decided to wait for the real thing to come out. Word on the street is they've scrapped that stuff and the new album will eventually be produced by Rick Rubin. Hopefully, he can pull a Johnny Cash on their asses, and not a Donovan. (As much as I love Donovan, Sutras is not a good album. And I may be the only person who really gave it a chance.)
Karl has even stopped updating his "Korner" on weezer.com, which had been the single most informative site of any band ever. But we recently received an update of what's happening in the land of Weez.
1. Weezer guitarist Brian Bell has finally released his first "Space Twins" album! See spacetwins.com for a listing of stores carrying the album, and an online store to order the album from. There's also other info including the cover art, tracklisting, etc.
2. On July 1st, a very special double 7" record is being released, which includes an exclusive weezer track. The record includes a live recording of "Why Bother?", recorded last summer in Atlanta on the Enlightenment Tour. It also includes exclusive tracks from Phantom Planet, Ben Kweller, and Rivers' faves AM Radio. Proceeds from this record go to benefit Petra Haden. Petra, an original member of weezer buddies That Dog was the victim of a hit and run back in 2000, and lacks the insurance to cover her massive medical bills. So weezer and some fellow bands have contributed tracks to help out one of the coolest gals in music! See vegasrecords.com for the full details, as well as an online store where the 7" can be ordered from come July 1st.
3. While there isn't a release date set yet, a previously unreleased weezer track [not even available in mp3 form!] will be featured on an upcoming compilation cd called "Gimme Skelter", on Buddyhead records. This comp is gonna be sweet. Besides the exclusive Pinkerton-era weezer track, it has excellent cover art by legendary Black Flag cover artist Raymond Pettibone, and is jam packed with cool exclusive music and spoken word by such artists as Iggy Pop, Primal Scream, and Le Tigre, amongst many many others.
4. Weezer DVD info: No, NO release date has been set yet. But, a LOT of progress has been made at last. The molasses-slow legal muck has been swum through, and we're at the stage where we're cleaning the mud off our boots, looking ahead towards nice clean video studios to get this darn thing assembled at. So much material was thrown into the mix that the legal team at Geffen was bogged down for a while. They ended up shutting down some cool stuff unfortunately, but we came back with a right and a left and replaced the "outlawed" material with different, possibly even cooler footage - and more of it! The DVD will cover everything from 1992-2002 as best it can. You'll get all the band's music videos, several new videos created for the DVD, several different live performances from all different time periods, rare alternate take video footage, lots of behind the scenes album making stuff, and plenty of previously unseen backstage/in-the-studio craziness! When a release date is known, it will be announced on weezer.com. Unfortunately the hoped-for springtime release came and went, so we're looking to summer now. The good news is that even though you'll have to wait longer for the DVD, its gonna be full of even more cool stuff.
-karl
I'm very excited about the Pinkerton-era song on the Buddyhead comp. And I'll buy the 7" to benefit Petra Haden. And that DVD could actually end up being pretty cool. We'll see.
Coincidentally, it was exactly two years ago today that we ran my article, Weezer vs. the Record Industry: Guess Who Won.
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Boy, it's tough when a band goes from releasing one of your favorite debut albums of all time to breaking up... then actually reforming and putting out progressively worse albums... I don't know... I'm very skeptical. sigh. But I Do want to believe they can pull it together... is it a dream? Is it all just a pretty dream?
Petra Haden is a stone fox. I'll buy anything to get her back to her playing weight. Also, her album 'Imaginaryland' is one of the coolest flights of fancy ever put to tape.
JTL
Weezer came and went with Matt Sharp.
is there anywhere i can still get those mp3's of demos. i cant seem to find them on the weezer site
Craig, try http://www.weezer.ca/
It is true that they were better with Matt Sharp and now they kinda dissapoint me... They're still the best because of their awesome past and I still believe that they can bust out great things... Weezer, don't let me down.
They rock - they always will. My only question, if I had but one "why such poor guitar for the 3rd one?" Cmon admit that dope nose and maladroit kicked fat ace and rocked this place. And we can all admit against so many hopes but were not gonna see another blue, its just not going to happen. weezer is better than your mom and most all bands ever and to me will always be.
These guys are soooo overhyped. They should have NEVER gotten back together.
THEY NEVER BROKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't know what you all are belly-achin' about. Weezer ROCKS! Albums are SUPPOSED to sound different from each other. The Green is my favorite with Blue right behind, and Dope Nose rocks on the latest!
I think you are all wrong about weezer getting progressivly worse.. if you give pinkerton a good listen you will find it is the best weezer album... and that maladriot is a great album... w/ a few bad tracks... eliminate 3 tracks and the album would have been perfect... blue is a great album yes.. for non-true weezer fans... if you really like weezer you respect everything and anything they do
weezer is the best band, every album is awesome i cant place one before the other, they are the only band where i like every song....they are awesome! i cant wait for the 5th album
i hate it when people talk about weezer all of the sudden sucking. they're the best band in the world. yes blue was awesome, but pinkerton was even better. it was, is, and always will be the best in my eyes. and saying that weezer gets worse progressively is pathetic. people who say that have never heard pinkerton.
Darron, Pinkerton is definitely the high-point of Weezer's career so far. But the difference in quality between the first two albums and the recent stuff is tremendous, you have to admit. But Pinkerton was released seven years ago and they haven't done anything even close to that solid since then. There are a handful of good songs on Green and Maladroit, but not enough to deny the appearance that Weezer has peaked out.
I am excited about the upcoming album with Rick Rubin. He's been known to pull good albums out of people who haven't made one in years...
weezer rocks and they keep on rocking and the next album with rick rubin is gonna be ultra awsome you guys are stupid if u dont like wTHE MUSICAL PATH RIVERS is taking cause when all is said and done Weeeeezer is gonna be one of the greatest rock bands of all time u know hwy cause mr cuomo is a geniuse oh and maladriot kicks assss let the boy shred every album cant be all EMO weezer is greater than that stupid trend.
jakes a bitch