Jason
1 Comment Weezer is the latest big name act to join in on the surreptitious scene.
(LISTEN: Weezer Raditude Preview for the Hopelessly Impatient)
With a new album, Raditude, due November 3, the band has confirmed that it will play a so-called secret show 10/21 at Continue reading »
Weezer “Secret Show” Announcement, Raditude Preview | Music Vixen Blog
Worst album cover ever?
Although Weezer’s new album doesn’t hit stores until November 3, fans are already clamoring over the song previews posted online–although we’re sort of surprised that the horrendous album art and cringe-worthy title haven’t scared people away.
If you’re so impatient that you absolutely need to hear Continue reading »
sierraClear Channel Radio and Front Line Management are coming together in a new venture called artist personal experience (a.p.e.), which will allow music groups to have their own individual 24-hour per day online radio stations, according to a report on Billboard.com. The new venture will launch in July with the Eagles, Christina Aguilera and Weezer, according to the Web site.
The ad-supported a.p.e. radio channels, which will also be open to acts not represented by Front Line, will be heard on Clear Channel’s local radio station Web sites, through the company’s iheartradio iPhone and BlackBerry application, and widgets placed on the artists’ Web sites, reported Billboard.
“We want artists to host the channels, tell stories and turn new fans on to new music,” Evan Harrison, president of Clear Channel’s digital division and CEO of a.p.e. radio, told Billboard. “It’s really a different approach, and we wanted to give the artist the foundation and infrastructure to let them do their thing.”
The new venture comes at a time when musical groups are trying to forge deeper and more personal connections with their fans than are afforded through the traditional radio station airplay of their tunes.
Is there such a thing as trying too hard?
Weezer may be crossing the line from clever to desperate with its video for the new song “Pork and Beans.”
The song is part of the band’s upcoming self-titled album, nicknamed the “red album,” set to be released June 3.
The thing that’s so frustrating about the video is that it is very carefully catered to the YouTube generation, featuring guest appearances from a slew of YouTube “celebrities” who’ve spawned viral video hits of their own.
“Evolution of Dance” video guy? Yeah.
Mentos fountain? Sure.
Star Wars parody? You bet.
Chris “Leave Britney Alone” Crocker? Unfortunately, yes.
“Chocolate Rain” singer? Yup.
All of your viral video favorites are here!
The only thing missing is some sort of rip-off of an Ok Go video.
However, the difference between those videos and this one is that those videos became popular by accident because they were so random and weird and oddly captivating. Weezer’s video on the other hand seems to be a desperate round of coattail riding.
The meeting with the video producer probably sounded something like this:
So, we need to make a music video. Hey what do kids like these days?
I dunno, YouTube?
Cool, let’s take all the popular videos from YouTube, and put them in our music video, that way everyone will already like it.
Genius!
Of course, with a band of smarty-pants dorks like Weezer, they’ll probably explain that the video isn’t lame—it’s supposed to be lame. It’s like postmodernism and irony or some junk.
Whatever. Is it clever or stupid? It’s too soon to tell. But it is catchy.
Hating aside, the new song is an improvement over the pop-emo schlock the band served up with 2005’s Make Believe (admit it, “Beverly Hills” is an awful song—especially coming from a group capable of writing much more clever and catchy tunes such as “Buddy Holly” and “Hash Pipe.”).
What do you think?
Is the new Weezer video clever or stupid?
Leave a comment and tell us what you think.
See the video, here.
Get lots of cool Weezer mp3s and downloads, here.
