Weezer
Band form
1992
September 2021 Favourites: A Stunning Array Of More Than 60 Artists Feature In Our Pick Of The Top 5 New Releases From September
By Andrew Lockwood in Music / Festivals on 03 October 2021
As the summer ended and Fall arrived, some great new releases dropped
In a month that saw 18 year old qualifier Emma Raducanu win the coveted U.S Women's Open Tennis Championship without even dropping a set, Cristiano Ronaldo returned to Manchester United and got off to a flying start as he netted five precious goals. Boris Johnson and his cabinet dropped the ball altogether over Afghanistan, failed to predict fuel shortages at forecourts and did little to allay fears that everything would be fine by Christmas as he desperately reshuffled his cabinet. As he continued his long running spat with Kanye West, Drake released his sixth studio album, Certified Lover Boy and Lana Del Rey quite all social media platforms citing other "jobs", "privacy and transparency". Global Citizen put on a spectacular 24 hour show - 'A Recovery Plan for the World', with the aim of ending CoVID19, curbing the hunger crisis, resumption of learning for everyone, advancing equity for all and protecting the planet. Amongst those who performed on the five world stages was Sir Elton, who, as it happens, appears in two of the five releases we have selected for September.
In the months leading up to Weezer's release of 'Africa', there had been a social media campaign led primarily by a Twitter account called @WeezerAfrica to get them to cover the song. A week before they honoured the fan request, they trolled them with a cover of Toto's 'Rosanna'.
Continue reading: We Can't Wait To Hear Toto's Weezer Cover
Weezer Hit Top 100 For First Time In Ten Years With 'Africa'
By Holly Mosley in Music / Festivals on 13 June 2018
Listening to your fans always pays off.
There's something to be said about giving the fans what they want. Weezer have managed to land a spot in the Top 100 following their highly publicised rendition of Toto's 'Africa', which originally came about at the behest of a young music fan who set up a social media page dedicated to the cause.
Weezer can thank their devoted fans - or at least one in particular - for the fact that they've landed their first spot in the Billboard Hot 100 chart in almost a decade as 'Africa' reaches number 89. It's also their lowest chart position ever in the US; the last time they managed to enter the charts was in 2009 with the single '(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To' taken from their seventh studio album 'Raditude'.
Continue reading: Weezer Hit Top 100 For First Time In Ten Years With 'Africa'
Weezer Honour Fan Request With 'Africa' Cover
By Holly Mosley in Music / Festivals on 30 May 2018
They have finally decided to record the hit Toto song.
After much demand, Weezer have finally caved and given fans - or at least one very persistant fan - what they have desperately been hoping for: a cover of Toto's 'Africa'. This comes after mercilessly teasing them with another cover from the same band, which was admittedly amazing but a very cheeky move.
A Twitter account with the handle @WeezerAfrica has been bugging Weezer to cover the 1982 hit since late last year. Tweeting frontman Rivers Cuomo, they said: 'It's about time you bless the rains down in africa'.
Continue reading: Weezer Honour Fan Request With 'Africa' Cover
Weezer And Pixies Announce Joint Summer Tour In 2018
By Ed Biggs in Music / Festivals on 02 November 2017
Weezer and Pixies will be touring together next summer!
Stand by your beds, ‘90s indie fans – alternative rock legends Weezer and Pixies have revealed details of a joint summer tour together in 2018!
The two bands will link up in late June for a seven-week stint, taking in 29 dates, until mid-August next year. The joint tour begins on June 23rd at Tampa’s MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre, winding up at the AK-Chin Pavilion in Phoenix on August 12th.
English indie-pop act The Wombats will additionally join the tour, opening on the dates through until July 15th. Tickets are on sale next Friday, November 10th – but fans can sign up for Weezer's fanclub to get pre-sale access on Monday 6th.
Continue reading: Weezer And Pixies Announce Joint Summer Tour In 2018
Weezer's Rivers Cuomo Finds Inspiration In Unlikely Places
By Holly Williams in Music / Festivals on 11 December 2015
Sometimes song-writing is all about the preparation.
When it comes to writing music, influences don't always come from other musicians; sometimes it's a movie, a book, a piece of art... or a decorated surgeon. For Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo, it was the latter as he found inspiration in the work of Dr. Atul Gawande.
New York professor and writer Atul Gawande is a self-confessed music-lover who most certainly would have gone on to write music had he not graduated from Harvard Medical School. He's been a ground-breaking figure in the medical industry with his unique outlook on surgery affecting many of his peers; one of his most famous movements was the introduction of the checklist, i.e. the art of proper pre-planning, about which he released New York Times bestseller 'The Checklist Manifesto' in 2009.
Continue reading: Weezer's Rivers Cuomo Finds Inspiration In Unlikely Places
Mash-Up Album Of Kanye West And Weezer Emerges Online - Called 'Yeezer'
By Ed Biggs in Music / Festivals on 08 October 2015
The amusing mash-up emerged on Bandcamp on Tuesday, and quickly went viral.
As everybody knows, mash-up albums are so 2005, right? Well, they might enjoy a little revival with the online release of Yeezer, the work of a university student who has spent three years cross-breeding a selection of Kanye West’s hits with tracks by pop-punk veterans Weezer.
19 year old Alex Hodowance from Ohio spent three years, on and off, working on the 34 minute collection of mash-ups, ranging from the bizarre to the highly entertaining. It was uploaded to Bandcamp on Tuesday (October 6th), and quickly gained attention on Reddit before going viral.
Continue reading: Mash-Up Album Of Kanye West And Weezer Emerges Online - Called 'Yeezer'
Weezer - Everything Will Be Alright In The End Album Review
By Tommy Shotton in Music Reviews on 03 October 2014
Many years ago, I was working in a recording studio with a guy who'd engineered Weezer's classic 1996 album 'Pinkerton'. On learning of his involvement with the record - a longtime favourite of mine - I probed the guy to spill the anecdotal beans on what it was like to work with the band and to be involved in such a project. He said that it was a thoroughly pleasant experience but that one thing he always remembered about it was that when he and Rivers Cuomo were playing around with guitar tones and effects, Rivers would be cranking out old Slayer riffs and doing some serious skiddly-widdle shred. I was very surprised to hear this, mainly due to the relatively straight-forward style of the band's music, and I wondered why Rivers had never let this 'metal-axe-god' element really come through in Weezer's music, particularly since he apparently is highly proficient in this area. I guess he just likes to keep his cards close to his chest.
Irregular Weezer collaborator Ric Ocasek has returned to the producer's chair behind the desk on this one, perhaps to inject the record with some of the spark and vivaciousness they'd lost in recent years. Opener 'Ain't Got Nobody' is pleasant enough - pretty typical Weezer fare - and the production is killer. Really powerful and, in contrast with most major-label rock records made in Los Angeles in 2014, they actually just sound like a band playing in a room. The second jam and lead single 'Back to the Shack' is an early low-point on the album, revisiting the kind of mid-paced 'Weezer arena-arm-waving' vibe a la 'Beverly Hills'. They pull it all back together with 'Eulogy for a Rock Band', however, which hints at the odder, positively Eurovision-istic moments to feature later in the record. There follows, a double whammy of two unprepossessing pop tunes which you wouldn't be surprised to hear in some Jason Segal movie or such.
Continue reading: Weezer - Everything Will Be Alright In The End Album Review