Tentative “Hurley” Tracklist?

About 10 days ago, archaic Weezer discussion forum/news outlet alt.music.weezer (shout-outs to ‘Mikey tha Bull’, ‘Chris Flood’, ‘Todd’, &  ‘car-o-line’) saw a post from a poster who goes by the name f0nz4r3ll1.   In their post, they revealed several news tidbits, including the title and album cover for Weezer’s upcoming studio album.  Seeing that this dude hasn’t been wrong yet, we’re going to roll the dice and say that this is (was at one time?) the track list for Hurley, which hits stores September 14th.

01. Memories
02. Ruling Me
03. Trainwrecks
04. Unspoken
05. Where’s My Sex?
06. Run Away
07. Hang On
08. Smart Girls
09. Brave New World
10. Time Flies

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Holy Weezer News!

Here’s what Monday, August 9 has brought us in the world of All Things Weezer:

Around noon today, Weezer mailing list subscribers received a surprise e-mail with a direct download link to an MP3 of their new single, MEMORIES.  The twist? It had “gang” vocals on it.  It turns out the “gang” is none other than the JACKASS 3-D cast, whose third installment opens October 15th.

In the mid-afternoon, media outlets such as SPIN & Pitchfork published the album cover for Hurley, which features a photograph of none other than, well, Hurley.  See the picture and read Pitchfork’s interview with Cuomo here.

And in the early evening, a new interview broke from the LA Times, where Rivers claims he sings like Gollum on the new record and finds it to be creative and weird to serve someone a beer.  In a separate interview with Brian Bell, we also learned of a possible Pinkerton tour in 2010.

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New Weezer Record to be Released on September 13, 2010 plus Pinkerton Deluxe, Alone III, Odds and Ends confirmed

According to Newstimes, Weezer is putting the finishing touches on their as-of-yet untitled eighth studio album to be released this fall. The album is rumored to be funded by Hurley, and will be Weezer’s first full-length release without the support of Geffen/Universal. There is no official word on which label Weezer will be signed to, however.

Additionally, in article on WebsterPost, Cuomo revealed that:

Cuomo listed a re-release of Weezer’s 1996 album “Pinkerton,” unreleased songs from the band’s 15 years with Geffen records, an album of all new material and a third iteration of “Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo.”

“It’s actually going to be a giant book of journal entries, and essays and photos from those few years of my life and also a CD of home demos from that time period that haven’t been released,” Cuomo said.

Finally, Hurley announced the winners of the Weezer t-shirt design contest on Monday.

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Indecision and Abandoning the Past, Part III

For Part I and an explanation of this series, click here. For Part II, http://allthingsweezer.com/2010/05/07/indecision-and-abandoning-the-past-part-ii/.

In July of 1998, Pat Wilson reported on his Web page that Rivers Cuomo had written more than 20 songs for Weezer’s third album, which the band had been working on since that spring.  Pat optimistically added that this slew of songs would guarantee the completion of the record by the end of the year.  However, just a few short months later, the band found itself spinning its wheels in the studio and rather than developing these new potential Weezer songs, Rivers wanted to devote the band’s time to learning old Oasis and Nirvana songs.

Karl Koch suggests that Pat got fed up with the lack of progress. “But then there’s a lot of nothing going on, a few rehearsals and Wilson gets frustrated when it turns into learning Nirvana and Oasis songs. He goes back up to Portland, says call me when you are ready to get serious.”

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Indecision and Abandoning the Past, Part II

For Part I and an explanation of this series, click here.

As 1998 started, Weezer was ready to get back to business.  Rivers Cuomo and Pat Wilson had managed to find some musical common ground.  But the remaining members of Weezer would need to find something else: a new bassist.

During the winter of 1998, there were rumors persisting that Matt Sharp had left the band, to concentrate on the second Rentals album.  To replace Matt, the band initially brought in Pat Finn, a friend of Rivers, Pat and Karl Koch from their pre-Weezer days. Finn was with the band for a few weeks, and Pat Wilson says he contributed to a jam session or two. “It was ostensibly a try out that lasted quite a while,” Karl says. “Although actual music playing was rare in that period, and he thought it was going well, but then Rivers apparently changed (or finally spoke) his mind and somehow finally indicated Pat wouldn’t be a good fit.”

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Indecision and Abandoning the Past, Part I

“…and tomorrow we go to LA to make our new record”

Rivers Cuomo spoke these words to a Boston audience on January 14, 1998. With Pat Wilson manning the drums, Weezer’s fans, both those in attendance and those who would later hear the show through tapes and MP3s had reason to be optimistic. Sure, Pinkerton wasn’t a commercial success, but for the band’s fanbase, it was the perfect album. There was some discord among the band during the post-release promotion and tour schedule, but here, in Boston, half of the band was on the same stage, playing together once again. And while Rivers slowly began to distance himself from the Pinkerton material, fans were pleased with these new songs.

Indeed, Weezer was off to Los Angeles to make a new record. But Weezer’s third record wouldn’t hit stores for another three years, during which time the band lost and gained a bassist, the fanbase would swell thanks to filesharing and Rivers Cuomo and his music would each undergo dramatic changes.

This is not the story of the third album, 2001′s Weezer (The Green Album). Rather, this is the story of Rivers’ final months in Boston through the time the band ceased recording in the fall of 1998. Just as information from this time period is sparse, so is the musical output. As Karl Koch put it, the band “refused to let their management even hear what they were doing for the most part, and shared only a small fraction of the music then or since.” Pat calls the time period “one of indecision and abandoning the past.” This is an attempt to explore the time period using the little available news from the era, along with the words of the band and their friends, and to shed some light on one of the most fascinating (if only because little is known about it) periods in Weezer history.

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