Karl's Corner - 05/21/2002

5/21/02 Sole Meuniere or in Gratin

Japan World Cup Tour: Travel/day off
...took the bullet train up to Osaka today...

...Maladroit Rising!!!: The numbers are coming in! "Maladroit" has hit the charts with a nice big bang! In the USA, the album debuted on the Billboard top 200 album chart at #3!, which is the highest chart position that any weezer album has ever held! ...Now thats big time football!

...updated 5-22...
Meanwhile, the numbers are trickling in from around the rest of the world...

• UK: #16 (highest ever in the UK) (was #8 at midweek; note 'Green' debuted at #35 last year)
• Ireland: #15 (highest ever in ireland)
• Japan: #7!! (wow)
• Australia: #11! [#3 in the 'alternative' album chart] (Green debuted at #25 last year)
• Germany: #29
• Canada: #2!!!
• Norway: #4!!
• Finland #23
• France [waiting for]
• Iceland #7!!

these international numbers are all the more impressive because there is no new commercial [for sale] single out in these countries, which is ordinarily a requrement for a new album to make a splash there...

Meanwhile, in the US Modern Rock singles chart, "Dope Nose" has started to falter a bit, and is now perched at #12. Remember that if you want to hear the song on your radio station, it pays to request it! Thanks in advance, and thanks again for all your support to date! ...Meanwhile, speculation has begun as to what the next single from "Maladroit" might be. Since the band sent out the 8 song sampler disc back in March, many stations have been playing all sorts of different tracks off the album. Various stations here and there have been trying out "Keep Fishin'", "Take Control", "Fall Together", "Slave" , and "Burndt Jamb", so the brainstorming has begun...

"Dope Nose" the video is faring better, with continued plays on both Mtv and M2, both of which are using the pink "Spankin' New" intro logo when the video gets played. On M2, the video is listed at #14 on their top 20 list! Meanwhile in Canada on MuchMusic, The Dope Nose video is #27 in its second week on the MuchMusic top 30.

...in other weezer video news...
MuchMusic Canada held a top ten "Best Animal Videos" countdown, and the Spike Jonez 'Island in the Sun' vid was #1. This video is also up for a Much Music award for "best international video". And over in the UK, MTV2's most wanted chart, voted for by viewers in the UK, included 2 weezer videos: #14 was Buddy Holly, and #7 was Hash Pipe, censored as "Half Pipe".

...Listening Party/Weezer-fest update! updated 5/21
NOT a tour! No band appearences! These are events either hosted by people from the record stores and record label, or organized by fans for fans. Some of these will have weezer cover bands playing. Some of these are for charity. Most will have a lot of weezer music playing. There may be free snacks and stuff, and weezer givaway items. Each event is unique. If you have mors info on any event listed here, or if you are organizing a grassroots "weez-fest" in your local area, send me the details and ill add it to this list.

• Buffalo, NY...The event is on June 13th at The Screening Room. "fans come together for free food and music. also, a tribute band will be playing." .For more details, E-mail this address: Andik@wzrd.com
• UK Weezerfest: (grassroots fan party) Daytime, Friday July 26th, Hyde Park, London. "There will be the promise of weezer cakes, accoustic guitars and other cool things." (more info TBA)

...Listening party/Weezer-fest reports!
All over the country in the wee hours on May 15th, Various record shops around the country had special Maladroit events. While some were quite modest, others were major bashes. Here are some stories and pix courtesy of Gerald L, and Doug O., local record company dudes.

• Boogie Records, Toledo OH: "Got there, record was on, pizza was served. Fans were milling about the store...and indeed very excited. We set up an Enter To Win box and there was line to fill out ballots. Our presale included a free poster, sticker and 8x10. In the end we had 22 presales. WRWK came down and hung out all day. Now this is the cool part...Weezer bass player Scott Shriners's dad came down and preordered 2 copies of Maladroit. He was so excited about everything we had put together that he called Scott! So the phone was passed around (pics included) and everyone was excited to be able to say hi. Scott was very excited to hear about this event....in a store he tried to get hired at but never did."

• Record Time, Roseville MI: "Had a good turnout at Record Time Roseville for the Weezer listening party. 20 kids were there to hear the record , eat pizza and to win Poster Prize Packs. We had about 100 people through the store during the party. A couple kids already had the record due to the 89x giveaways, but came out to support, the ones that didn't were excited about the release and plan on buying it.

• Desirable Discs, Detroit, MI: "Hit Desirable Discs at 10:40, in time to set up Enter To Win boxes, drop off the Added Value items, check in with Jones Soda and say "hi" to the cover band. As we arrived, kids were already hanging outside the store.....NO 'Spinal Tap' tonight! As we looked in the store, there were easily 100 fans waiting. I knew this night would be great. Our band "Hot Paws" took the stage at 11 and played a selection of original songs and Weezer covers. Jones Soda was hanging out passing out energy drinks and stickers....I kept thinking "Oh great, Weezer fans hopped up on energy drinks". 89X made their presence felt, they were an amazing help with this. After the set Doug and I jumped behind the register like Batman and Robin (trying to help you visualize) and helped the staff pass out the [extra free weezer stuff]. We had two registers running non stop for 30 minutes....in the end we sold 99 copies of Maladroit. This breaks Desirable's midnight sale record set by Tori Amos. SWEET!"