If you found Weezer’s “Pork and Beans” video to be a sating treat back in 2008, you’ll be happy to know that YouTube will soon be serving an entire feast of Weezer fare, as the band will be appearing on myriad viral channels as the day progresses.
The barrage of vids, done in collaboration with DashGo, is being launched to celebrate the release of Weezer’s eighth album, Hurley, which drops on September 14.
“We always like to think of new ways to get the word out to people when we have a new record,” lead singer Rivers Cuomo told us. “There’s something about the YouTube people – they have a similar energy to what we’re doing… [I feel like] there’s a lot of creativity there. And they’re doing it for the right reasons… They’ve pulled their audiences the hard way,” he said.
The band will be appearing on channels belonging to YouTube luminaries such as Fred, Ray William Johnson, Auto-Tune the News, Key of Awesome, Real Annoying Orange, Hot For Words, Onision, Keep The Heat, MysteryGuitarMan, StSandersMisc (Kiss Shreds), Tay Zonday, Magic Hugs and Dave Days.
Although this promises to be one epic viral tour de force, this is hardly Weezer’s first foray into the Internet realm. Back in 2008, they teamed with with a ton of YouTube stars to create a music video for their jam “Pork and Beans,” off of the Red Album, and last year they jokingly hawked something called the Weezer Snuggie (a play on that now-iconic viral travesty in fleece) to promote the disc Raditude.
Yup. We’re a long way from the e-mail newsletter and fanpages on old when it comes to music in the Internet realm. “When we started, no one was using the Internet or cellphones,” Cuomo says. “I’d call my manager from the truck stop at a payphone. Or we’d communicate via fax at the hotel. So it’s a different world now. [But] we’re still playing pretty much the same sort of music and doing the same thing on stage.”
In fact, Cuomo – as well as the majority of rock critics out there – think of Hurley as a continuation of the Weezer sound. “I feel like [it’s] kind of an old-school alternative rock record,” he says. “Very raw, unpolished, emotional. It could have been made in the pre-Internet era.”
Check out the gallery of vids (more will be appearing on YouTube as the day progresses), and then feel free to make your way into the gooey, analysis-y center of this article.