Van Weezer: Difference between revisions

'''''Van Weezer''''' is an upcoming album by Weezer. It is currently planned to be their fifteenth studio album after [[OK Human]].

The title is a reference to the band [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen Van Halen], as the album features a focus on heavy guitars and more arena-rock styled songs. Originally slated for release on [[May 15]], [[2020]], the album was postponed until May of [[2021]] due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

[[Rivers Cuomo]] first mentioned the existence of the album while explaining the existence of ''[[OK Human]]'' in [https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-rivers-cuomo-weezer-teal-album-black-album-20190222-story.html an interview with Los Angeles Times] in February of [[2019]]:

When asked about Weezer's two upcoming albums in [https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8500614/weezer-rivers-cuomo-data-driven-approach-interview an interview with Billboard] published [[March 1]]st, Cuomo said: "One was mostly done before the Black Album. It’s currently called OK Human and was produced by Jake Sinclair, who did our White Album. The other one, I’m depressed thinking about it. I have this huge emotional block. It’s called Van Weezer, and it’s basically a super-rock album. Like the Blue Album, but more guitar riffs."

[[Brian Bell]] acknowledged the album's existence in various interviews throughout [[2019]]. In [https://www.binaural.es/entrevista/entrevista-weezer-nos-funciona-confeccionar-los-discos-de-forma-encadenada/ an August interview with Spanish blog ''Binaural''], Bell suggested that [[Crush]] Management would prefer to release ''Van Weezer'' before ''OK Human''.

In August of 2019, a casting call was posted to backstage.com looking for extras to play "Weezer party goers" in an upcoming music video [https://www.backstage.com/casting/weezer-music-video-extras-for-party-scene-312219/]. On [[August 23]], musician and producer Tim Pagnotta posted [https://www.weezerpedia.com/wiki/File:Timpagnotta_instagram.png a story] to his Instagram page that read "Jammin’ new @Weezer I worked on :)".

The next day, on [[April 10]], Rivers Cuomo revealed that there would be a [[Homie]] song on ''Van Weezer'', as well as an unreleased 1992 song written with former Weezer guitarist [[Jason Cropper]], as a bonus track. It was also revealed that all the album's tracks were fully mastered, with the only track ordering left to be determined. On [[April 14]], Cuomo [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSQgMJulqPs sang a small segment of the song] during [[List_of_Rivers_Cuomo_video_streams#Island_in_the_Zoom|a webinar with fans hosted by Cuomo on the video platform Zoom]], for which Cropper was present. On [[September 2]], Cuomo confirmed via [[Riverpedia archive - 09/02/2020|a Riverpedia entry]] that the 1992 song "[[I've Thrown It All Away]]" had recently been recorded with the band, leading many to suspect that it was the bonus track. The article was later [[Riverpedia archive - 09/06/2020|updated]] on [[September 6]] to specify that it would be on the album. It is possible that the song was turned into a base album track (potentially replacing "[[One More Hit]]"). On [[September 3]], Cuomo confirmed via [[Riverpedia archive - 09/03/2020|another Riverpedia entry]] that "[[Sheila Can Do It]]" was the aforementioned Homie song appearing on ''Van Weezer''.

On [[May 1]], Weezer posted an image to their social media accounts of a piece of paper with the date of [[May 6]] written on it.[https://twitter.com/Weezer/status/1256319393010798593] Many assumed this was signaling the release of the next single, [[Hero]], as the image lined up with an additional request by Karl Koch for the Fanclub to provide videos of people "passing a blank piece of paper from left to right". These suspicions were confirmed on [[May 4]] as Weezer [https://twitter.com/Weezer/status/1257354314802237449 updated the photo] to feature the song's name written above the date.

On [[May 2]], [[Suzy Shinn]] posted [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toBrCApBFXk a snippet of a song] to her Instagram account. It was later revealed in an ''[[Island in the Zoom]]'' conference that same night that the snippet heard was from the track "[[One More Hit]]". On [[August 21]], Cuomo confirmed via a [[Riverpedia_archive_-_08/21/2020#One_More_Hit|Riverpedia entry]] that the song would no longer be on the album, adding that it was "In talks with a video game."

On [[August 14]], a version of the song "[[Beginning of the End]]" (dubbed the "Wyld Stallyns Edit") was released as a track from [[Bill & Ted Face the Music Original Motion Picture Soundtrack|the soundtrack]] to the forthcoming film ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Ted_Face_the_Music Bill & Ted Face the Music]''. The band's official social media accounts also announced that the album would be delayed until May [[2021]] [https://twitter.com/Weezer/status/1294123815954534400] in order to coincide with the also-postponed [[Hella Mega Tour]]. The band additionally commented "More music coming for you Humans real soon, Ok?" [https://twitter.com/Weezer/status/1294124031612989442], hinting at the possible forthcoming release of ''[[OK Human]]'', which was confirmed on [[November 29]] by [[Karl Koch]].[https://www.facebook.com/groups/weezerfanclub/permalink/1946926242123219?comment_id=1947052258777284]

Its new release date was confirmed alongside the official announcement of ''[[OK Human]]''.

A full track listing for the album (see below) appeared on Amazon.com on [[January 28]], but was removed shortly thereafter.

==Other Tracks Recorded During Sessions==