Karl's Corner / News
2010/02/09 Bonnaroo!!!
...People, heres the scoop - Weezer is playing the 2010 Bonnaroo festival, coming June 10-12 in Manchester, TN! Tickets are going onsale at www.bonnaroo.com at 12PM EST! Weezer is playing on the 12th. Also on bonnaroo.com, fans can get the full lineup as it develops, details on the festival and an interactive community with other people attending the festival. But most importantly to you and I, weezer will be there!
...REMINDER: New Weezer Track "The Rat Race" avail via donation to TargetCancer!
***New Weezer song "the Rat Race" (and many other great songs by other artists including Ween and The Donnas) available at http://www.righttracktunes.org/ for a minimum .99 cent donation each!***
Reminder: Rivers did an interview with CapCom's Games Radar podcast. Rivers' part starts at 31:30 into the podcast.
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2010/02/03 New Weezer Track "The Rat Race" avail via donation to TargetCancer!
...It's an exciting day folks, as now you have the opportunity to get the previously unreleased weezer track "The Rat Race", AND help fund research for treatment for rare cancers, all at the same time!
***New Weezer song "the Rat Race" (and many other great songs by other artists including Ween and The Donnas) available at http://www.righttracktunes.org/ for a minimum .99 cent donation each!***
...and now, the rest of the story. The older I get the more the phrase "everyone knows someone who has been affected by cancer" resonates. Just within my own family there have been numerous scares and tragedy. And just about everyone I can think of has a similar story, be it with family or friends. But one area most people may still not be aware of is the field of rare or 'orphan' cancers, cancers that are little understood and underfunded due to their extreme rarity - and therefore particularly lethal.
I went to high school with a guy named Paul Poth, and he was one of the coolest and funniest people I knew then and since. Once i started touring with Weezer, every time I came through Boston, Paul was sure to be at the show and it was so fun to keep in touch with him over the years. To think that he went from perfect health at 37 to gone at 39 is chilling and terribly sad. But Paul fought like few have, scouring for clues about his rare form of cancer, and upon realizing how little is known about such cancers still, he started TargetCancer with the goal of raising awareness and money to fund this desperately needed research.
Paul was a huge music fan and was always one step ahead of the curve back in the day - I remember how he went to a Husker Du concert back in late '84 - before I had even heard of them! And he was a very early fan of weezer from the get go back in the early 90's. So today, weezer and I are proud to be a part of TargetCancer's Right Track Tunes program, where your donations get you unreleased music, and help a critical need in the fight against cancer. Your ears and your heart will thank you!
"The Rat Race" was recorded in the summer of 2003 at Rod Cervera's studio in L.A., in sessions originally planned for an acoustic release. This great song has never seen the light of day until now. Check it out! And be sure to check out all the great tracks now available on the site!
Find The Right Track: Tunes To TargetCancer
...So thats the dealio, but here are some more details from the press release. Thank you in advance for whatever you may give to get the music and help in the fight!
TargetCancer - a non-profit organization devoted to helping fund research into rare and lesser known cancers - has launched a new download series called 'The Right Track: Tunes To TargetCancer.' The series features exclusive downloads of new and rare music from Weezer, Ween, The Donnas, Cowboy Junkies, Dean & Britta, Buffalo Tom, Linda Thompson, Drug Rug and others, with more artists to be added in the coming months. In addition to these exclusive pay-what-you-wish downloads ($.99 minimum), The Right Track will sponsor a series of concerts and events, with 100% of proceeds from all its initiatives going directly to research funding.
"We jumped at the chance to give an exclusive track for TargetCancer Charity," said Weezer. "We feel this is an extremely worthy and urgent cause and are all too happy to help out."
"Like so many others we have had friends and loved ones deeply affected by cancer," added Dean & Gene Ween. "We believe everyone should stand together in the hopes that we someday might find a cure."
"We are happy to be able to support TargetCancer, especially its goal to find better treatments for rare cancers," agreed The Donnas. "Contributing one of our unreleased songs is a good way for us to combine raising awareness about a cause that matters to us, and sharing new music with our fans and new people too."
Songs Currently Available from 'The Right Track: Tunes To Target Cancer'
Weezer- "The Rat Race"
Ween - "DC Won't Do You No Good"
The Donnas- "Can't Keep It a Secret"
Cowboy Junkies- "In My Time of Need" (Ryan Adams cover)
Dean and Britta- "International Velvet Theme" (Caledonia Mix)
Buffalo Tom- "Thrown" (Live From Somerville Theater)
Linda Thompson- "Never the Bride"
Mike Viola- "This is Love, This is Life"
Drug Rug- "Coffee In the Morning" (Alternate Version)
The Gravel Pit- "Yellow Light Purple"
Happy Ending- "Through Your Eyes"
http://www.righttracktunes.org
http://www.targetcancer.info
http://www.shorefire.com/clients/therighttrack
2010/02/01 Happy Birthday to Patrick Wilson!
...Happy Birthday to Pat, the man for all seasons except possibly winter. As a nice suprise nice birthday gift Pat's Declaration of Independence-signing ancestor James Wilson made the news again, as his early draft of the US Constituion turned up in Philadephia. Pat said "I love it, and it probably belongs to me!" Well... good luck with that one, Pat. Heh heh.
...Rivers did an interview with CapCom's Games Radar podcast. Rivers' part starts at 31:30 into the podcast.
...Reminder! WEEZER: CONTEST OF AWESOME!
Rivers knows that a balanced breakfast can lead to on stage pushups. And now you know that a balanced, or imbalanced nomination, submitted by YOU, can lead to YOU getting in a weezer music video! In case you didnt know... check it out.
Go to http://www.barelydigital.com/weezercontest and submit your nomination for the funniest music video of 2009. The winner will get to cameo in a Weezer video! For real!
...Weezer Tribute band alert!!
SoCal's once defunct now back Endicott 8 "is having a reunion show/Weezer tribute at Big’s Bar & Grill in Fullerton, CA on Saturday, 2/6/2010 at 10pm. The show will be over two hours, with over 31 Weezer tunes, from all albums! Endicott 8 used to play with Ozma and Rilo Kiley a bit in the OC and LA until we all went off to med/law school and the like. Fortunately, we are looking to rock again. We are dedicating the show to our hopes for complete and full recovery for Sarah & Rivers." -Bill Frazier, Endicott 8
...coming soon! Unreleased weezer song for a special charity! Details will be here on weezer.com!
2010/01/25 Dont sleep on the CONTEST OF AWESOME
...WEEZER: CONTEST OF AWESOME!
Rivers knows that a balanced breakfast can lead to on stage pushups. And now you know that a balanced, or imbalanced nomination, submitted by YOU, can lead to YOU getting in a weezer music video! In case you didnt know... check it out...
Go to http://www.barelydigital.com/weezercontest and submit your nomination for the funniest music video of 2009. The winner will get to cameo in a Weezer video! For real!
2010/01/20 Raditude Tour: Tallahassee, FL: FSU Leon Civic Center
Well, all I can say is wow! What a crowd, what a show. Incredible energy tonight at the T-Mobile Moto Cliq Concert. No one quite knew what to expect for tonights show, with the band off of the scene since early December, and Rivers returning to the stage for the first time since the bus accident that 86'ed the December and January tour dates. Not even Rivers knew what to expect. He knew he was still in some pain despite the doctor's green light, and wasnt sure of what his limitations were nor how hard he should push against them.
One thing we were hopeful for was a big stoked crowd, which FSU delivered in spades! The press release said: "FSU’s student body and fan base rallied together to win the T-Mobile Motorola CLIQ Challenge, beating out over 1,000 schools including rivals University of Florida and University of Central Florida. The competition allowed students, faculty, alumni and fans to vote for the four-year school or university of their choice between Nov. 2 and Nov. 30, 2009. Hundreds of thousands logged onto T-Mobile’s Facebook page to build the largest online fan base and the Seminoles emerged victorious."
Because they were the victors, they got all that Weezer could deliver, including the FSU Pep Band playing the Seminole War Chant on stage to segue into the shows opening song, Hash Pipe. From there the fun escalated, with special guests Jermaine Dupri on 'Cant Stop Partying' (fresh from the VIP lounge downstairs where he was the star DJ), and Hayley Williams from Paramore guesting on her fave Weezer track 'Say It Aint So'!. That left "(If you're wondering if I want you to), I want you to" needing a duet partner, so Rivers selected some kids from the front row to help out. It was a bit chaotic, but tons of fun (like the whole night!) Then there was DJ Aoki warming up the crowd, the toilet paper, the fake snow, the beach balls, the hand held spotlights, the high fives with the front row, The Pink Floyd, The Van Halen, The Led Zeppelin (in passing), filming footage for use in the next Weezer music video, and some only lightly scaled down feats of Raditude! Asked later if he felt he had ever pushed things too far for his healing body, Rivers said "yes, many times! But once I got out there and saw the crowd... I couldnt stop." Feats of Raditude, people.
Mtv.com: Weezer's Rivers Cuomo Talks About Returning To The Stage Tonight
...WEEZER: CONTEST OF AWESOME!
Go to http://www.barelydigital.com/weezercontest and submit your nomination for the funniest music video of 2009. The winner will get to cameo in a Weezer video! For real!
(click on any photo for a full size version)
01/19/10 To Tallahassee we go
People, tommorrow at the TMobile FSU show we will be rolling video on everything, capturing footage to use in the upcoming "I'm Your Daddy" video! And we will be looking for Weezer Fans to do what Weezer Fans do - get stoked, get creative, get crazy - what will you do? make signs? wear costumes? spell out weezer with your bodies? make human pyramids? We dont know - but we havent been to Florida in a long time, and we've NEVER been to FSU before - so WHATS THE BEST THING YOU GOT? We'll be filming it!
Get your ticket to see tomorrow's FSU show in Tallahassee!
...We had an interesting adventure tonight in Tallahassee, called "searching for food after 11 PM". Not easy! After a lot of walking around going from red herring to red herring ("oh, no, you were misinformed, we stop serving food at 11", or "oh, no, this club has no food, it is rather a vortex of hellish nightlife, replete with Crazytown's "Butterfly" playing at 140 decibels and overpriced bad beer"), and then cabbing around with similar poor results, we finally struck gold at the 4th Quarter, serving food till 2, which oddly had over 25 TVs full of sports, yet a perfectly decent bar food menu with surprising variety, including tasty homemade potato chips hot and fresh out of the deep fryer.
...In historical news, no joke - a real ancestor of Pat Wilson, and the dude signed the Declaration of Independence!
...todays photo courtesy Mike J., whose cat Coco demonstrates one of the many benefits of the Weezer Snuggie.
01/15/10 there we were, now here we are
Jigga wha - 2010! Holy cow. With a new year comes healing, growth and change. Or at least the ambitions for those things! The weezer machine is being dusted off and oiled after a winter holiday nap. Renewed efforts are now underway to finish up both Pinkerton Deluxe as well as Odds And Ends, both of which should be out before or by spring the way it looks now. For both, its mostly down to the details like sequencing and finishing up the packaging etc. Speaking of rare weezer, The "Rarities Edition" of the Blue Album is out now. This is part of Universal Music's series where they take the second disc of a deluxe edition and release it as a stand alone, for those who want a bargain alternative to the Deluxe. You dont get all the sweet packaging and extended booklet this way, but you do get all the rarities found on Disc Two of the Blue album Deluxe.
And people, its with relief that I can announce that Rivers' recovery has gone well so far, and he is feeling up to rock and roll once again - not ready to fly through the air, but ready to play and sing at least. (Sarah is on track to a full recovery too - definitely no trampolines for her though). Well, as you know due to the bus crash back in early December, most of the winter weezer rock and roll was cancelled, but the T-Mobile contest show is now looming - it's next Wednesday the 20th, at Florida State university in Tallahassee! Rivers has been given a cautionary clean bill of health - so long as he takes it easy and is careful - and feels up for the show, so off we shall go to Florida, for the one and only remaining Raditude show before Spring/Summer '10.
FSU Tallahassee won the T-Mobile / Motorola CLIQ / Facebook contest by having the most votes from the student body, and its those voters who get first dibs on the tickets, followed by the rest of FSU. If you are a student there you've probably gotten word about the show by now. This show is gonna be cool, theres some suprises in store and a very special DJ guest opening up. FSU - see you soon!
The Raditude single campaign was disrupted by December's sudden change in plans, but that should be back on track with a second Raditude single to be released shortly. In addition, the band was in the studio in recent days working on weezifying a cover tune for an upcoming major motion picture soundtrack, which shall remain nameless for now.
Meanwhile Radio Weezer is getting some fresh content now, with greatly a expanded playlist being instituted as we speak featuring new music, classic tracks and straight up rares from all walks of life, and more stories and such from the guys too. Keep your, uh... dial(?) locked to Radio Weezer!
Pictured here is the Weezer Raditude photo book, for now available only to those who ordered the deluxe package with snuggie + book. The book turned out really cool, 10"x7", 140 pages of full color Weezer madness as seen thru the lenses of Daniel the bands manager and myself.
(click on pic for larger photo)
...DJ Annie from FM 100.1 The Planet in new Hampshire writes to report that they have started a "daily Weezer-fix for the early morning Weezaholics", featuring all sorts of live cuts, demos, B-sides, "stuffs galore".
...Follow up article on the Warren school kids, whose "You Take The Bus To School" book project inspired a Weezer Webisode.
...Weezer tribute band reunion: here's Weerez back in action after a 4 year hiatus (longer hiatus than the real weezer!)
...A Weezer tribute show in honor of the injured Rivers - David Thong and Joseph Maniwang rock out acoustically on Dec 8th at the Frontpage in Arlington VA (special thanks to Brad Pugh of Practically Einstein), with a just-learned banjo in the mix, playing when weezer was supposed to play before the accident derailed the tour. Videos here.
Todays pix: Emily and her xmas Snuggie strike an infomercial pose. giant Flip billboard in Penn Station, New York City by Hayley (Weezer_Child). Alexa from Winnipeg with her new 'December' tattoo. RJ Moore and buddies in holiday coordination mode, post show in Hartford. Sam C from Illinois with the weez xmas cookies.
(click on pics for larger photos)
12/24/09 Twas The Night Before Weez-mas
Twas The Night Before Weez-mas and all thru the site
not a click thru was clicking, not a background was white.
The Twitter was Tweeted, the Facebook Wall texted,
In hopes that our followers soon would be...
The....uh...
....ok... thats just not gonna fly! Ha ha! Well, people of all persuasions, musical, spiritual, and otherwise, we here in Weezerville are wishing you a happiest of holidays, a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa, Joyeaux Noel, Good Tidings, and a happy new year, regardless of calendar. Music is what brought us together, and thats what we celebrate together. In the new year there will be more of it for all, as we continue releasing Weezer music - new and old - and posting up news, pix, webisodes, info, and suprises. We are all thankful that Rivers and Sarahs injuries continue to heal, and we look forward to the next chapter in the weezer saga. See you there!
...heres something for some Xmas morning fun - Chris Hardwick is a really funny comedian, and he has posted a super funny "glam metal Xmas carol" up. Enjoy!
12/19/09 The Intense Wizards meet Simultaneous Ambivalence
...Folks, Rivers is looking for both seasoned veterans and young upstarts in the producing game to help him out with his new demo that he's cooking up on his artist profile on Indaba Music. Whosoever's production is chosen by Rivers shall be paid exactly $208 dollars. Work with Rivers now!
...Weezer's version of "We Wish You A merry Christmas" (from the "Christmas With Weezer" iTunes EP) is available for free download right now. Enjoy!
Reminders:
...Due to the recent bus crash involving Rivers Cuomo, as per doctors orders all previously scheduled December and upcoming January Weezer shows are cancelled. At present, neither the December shows nor the upcoming January shows are being rescheduled. We’ll try to get back to the cancelled areas asap, but we have no info currently.
The following shows are cancelled:
12/7/2009 -- Agganis Arena -- Boston, MA
12/9/2009 -- UMBC Fieldhouse -- Baltimore, MD
12/10/2009 -- Susquehanna Center -- Camden, NJ
1/9/2010 -- Bill Graham Civic Auditorium -- San Francisco, CA
1/11/2010 -- UCI Bren Events Center -- Irvine, CA
1/13/2010 -- RIMAC Arena -- La Jolla, CA
1/15/2010 -- Dodge Theatre -- Phoenix, AZ
Refunds will be given at point of purchase.
...the December Raditude Tour shows (that actually happened) will be added to the Official Bootleg Series soon.
...Dont miss the January 2010 issue of EQ magazine, with the feature cover story on Weezer and the Raditude album.
...todays photo is of fan Jon Allen enjoying his new Weezer Snuggie in the comforts of his own home.
12/17/09 The Road To Recovery
...Rivers is back in L.A., recovering safe and sound after a 48 hour bus ride from Albany Medical Center. From this ride spawned Weezer Webisode 17: The Road To Recovery...check it out!
...Miles from Live 105 in S.F. sez they have some wacky new contest brewing, where you sing weezer songs. Watch this video for details!
...Due to the recent bus crash involving Rivers Cuomo, as per doctors orders all previously scheduled December and upcoming January Weezer shows are cancelled. At present, neither the December shows nor the upcoming January shows are being rescheduled. We’ll try to get back to the cancelled areas asap, but we have no info currently.
The following shows are cancelled:
12/7/2009 -- Agganis Arena -- Boston, MA
12/9/2009 -- UMBC Fieldhouse -- Baltimore, MD
12/10/2009 -- Susquehanna Center -- Camden, NJ
1/9/2010 -- Bill Graham Civic Auditorium -- San Francisco, CA
1/11/2010 -- UCI Bren Events Center -- Irvine, CA
1/13/2010 -- RIMAC Arena -- La Jolla, CA
1/15/2010 -- Dodge Theatre -- Phoenix, AZ
Refunds will be given at point of purchase.
...the December Raditude Tour shows (that actually happened) will indeed be added to the Official Bootleg Series. Not sure when yet, but they will be added!
..."Weezerian", the indonesian weezer community is having its 10 year anniversary! To celebrate, they are releasing a "geek rock invasion compilation" album with "11 indonesian weezer and geekrock influenced band in one compilation" - plus a Ryen Slegr (Ozma) track! Check out the myspace page here! CD launch and anniversary event is TODAY, December 17th in Jakarta. Event info here!
...Dont miss the January 2010 issue of EQ magazine, with the feature cover story on Weezer and the Raditude album.
...Check out this animated video for "(If you're wondering if I want you to), I want you to" by 12 year old Tyler T.! The best is when it pays homage to various weezer videos over the years. Funny stuff!
...todays photo of the Super Wonder Weezer Girl is courtesy her mom Julianna, who says while her daughter may not get the best view at the concert due to her size, shes nonertheless a huge fan! And she has a magic lasso to boot. Rock on!
