Weezer: Difference between revisions

In April of 2007, Weezer fans were treated to their first bit of new material in nearly two years when the song "[[Pig]]" leaked as an acoustic home demo on music blogs. It is still entirely unknown how the song managed to get out, but Karl did post a link to the song briefly on [[Karl's Corner]]. It is unknown why the link was taken down hours later. The metadata for the track revealed it was a twelve track album entitled ''[[Deliverance at Hand!]]''. Nothing related to this mysterious demo album would be spoken of, or known of, for another year. Around this time, a mysterious website entitled [[Albumsix]] popped up with an image saying "Album 6" that redirected to Weezer.com. At the time, Karl was rather unaware of Weezer happenings and truthfully reported that he had "no idea what this albumsix stuff is about". Also around this time, Rivers wrote a letter on the official website stating that recording for the new Weezer album would begin shortly. Eventually, Albumsix posted information saying Weezer's sixth album would be called ''[[Tout Ensemble]]''. They also provided a release date. Many major news outlets picked up on and reported this as the truth. Karl was responded with the statement: "Please note that Weezer and Geffen Records have no affiliation with www.albumsix.com. The new Weezer record is not called Tout Ensemble and there is no official release date yet for the album. Remember, when it's on Weezer.com, it's for sure. (Though I will say, 'well played', to the authors of that site.)"

Weezer's new album sessions began shortly after Rick Rubin received a copy of ''Deliverance at Hand!'' in Spring 2007. The material was somewhat more experimental than anything Weezer had previously done. At the beginning of the album's creation each Weezer member asked themselves what they wanted to get out of the album. With that in mind, they set out to record. Recording was done in three sessions. Half of the album was recorded during the Spring of 2007 with Rubin overseeing production. Interestingly, Ruben was far less involved with the album than he was with ''Make Believe''. It is uncertain if the band and he had a falling out, but the band did comment later that he "just sort of stopped showing". Weezer went on to finish the production of the album themselves in a second recording studio. Finding themselves with an abundance of experimental (by Weezer standards) material, Geffen told Weezer that the album lagged and was too slow. This forced Weezer to enter into a third session in which two new songs were recorded with [[Jacknife Lee]]: "[[Troublemaker]]" and "[[Pork and Beans]]". The album is unique in recording because it is the first album to have multiple lead vocalists.

Rivers posted on his official MySpace blog that the new single was a 12 letter word starting with T and ending with R. Fans quickly set out making lists of possible names. It was assumed the song was called "Troublemaker", although some speculated it was "Tranquilizer" and "Turbocharger". Later, Rivers published on his blog that he was wrong about the first single, and that it would now be a song about a "four legged pink farm animal". He then said "you ain't gonna figure it out boy!!" Most fans assumed Rivers was referring to Pig and that his latter statement was a sarcastic comment that it was obviously Pig.

On [[April 1|Aprils fools day]], [[2008]], Rolling Stone reported that the new Weezer album (then scheduled for April 22) was a self titled "Red" album, with the lead-off single called "Pork and Beans". Most people, if not everyone, assumed it was one of many April Fools Day pranks. Rolling Stone updated the article saying "...the Weezer news...that was real". Amazon.com updated their website with a thirty second sneak preview clip of "Pork and Beans" which began with a fade in of "...you lost your cool" and went through the chorus to "...me inside." Reactions to the clip were almost unanimously positive from fans and boardies. A few days later, KROQ played "Pork and Beans" back to back on the radio. Fans were quick to bootleg the recording, and within minutes, Pork and Beans was leaked. "Pork and Beans" was also the #1 rock song in America for 19 weeks, a record for Weezer. In late April, the new album's first eight tracks leaked. Geffen quickly changed the album release date from [[June 18]] to [[June 11]]. Fan opinions were mixed, but still more positive than the last three albums (in general).

''Weezer (The Red Album)'' was released on June 11 in two available versions: standard and deluxe. The standard edition of Red contains 10 tracks, a throwback to the roots of Weezer. The deluxe edition contained four bonus tracks that were completely recorded, but omitted from the final track list for reasons relating to preference of the band and Geffen. The standard edition was a jewelcase; the deluxe edition was a digipak which also contained a lyric booklet with band commentary.

Reviews of Red were mixed, but still fairly positive. It's first single, "Pork and Beans" was #1 for 19 weeks, a record for Weezer. The second single, "Troublemaker" did fairly well, but paled in comparison to the success of "Pork and Beans". No third single has been announced yet, but are speculating it to be "[[Everybody Get Dangerous]]".