Weezer celebrates the art of cuddling

Weezer may be cozying up to rapper Lil Wayne and singing songs such as "I'm Your Daddy" on its new album, "Raditude," but the band hasn't completely abandoned its persona as rock 'n' roll's lovable geeks.

With the release today of the band's new album, the act followed through on its promise (threat?) to release a Weezer-branded Snuggie -- a blanket with sleeves for those who don't watch a lot of late-night TV.

The promotional item is available for purchase on the Weezer website for $30, and the "Snuggie bundles" come complete with the Weezer CD. The band also recorded a fake TV ad for the product (watch it after the jump), and a news release described the blanket as "made of lightweight, soft fleece that keeps people of all ages warm indoors and out, with large, roomy sleeves allowing for free movement."

The Weezer-branded Snuggie is made in conjunction with Allstar Products Group, which also sells the blankets without the Weezer name. Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo described the product as a "Wuggie" in an interview with Rolling Stone, and has donned the kitschy product on stage. There's also a $50 zebra-printed "Snuggie Safari" package that includes a deluxe edition of "Raditude," complete with four extra tracks.

Read the Pop & Hiss review of Weezer's "Raditude." Watch the Weezer informercial:

Album review: Weezer's 'Raditude'

To those taken aback by Rivers Cuomo's newfound embrace of songs about slaying honeys in the club while downing Patron shots on "Raditude," he has this to say to you -- "If you was me honey, you would do it too."

Grammar aside, there's a real kernel of truth to this lyric. Name any neurotic, lovelorn bedroom rocker who, upon achieving unlikely arena-filling status, wouldn't take full advantage of having Lil Wayne on speed dial, as evidenced by the rapper's cameo (Weezer and Weezy, get it?) on "Can't Stop Partying."

The weird aftertaste of "Raditude" isn't that Cuomo has so surrendered the oddball charm of his band's first two albums, though. It's that his late-career pursuit of mindless, opulent fun is so transparent that it almost taps a deeper vein of interior sadness than anything on "Pinkerton." Imagine a kind of "Sunset Blvd." set amid the stuccoed wreckage of post-'90s KROQ stardom.

Cuomo still turns out more functional hooks before his breakfast tequila than most bands get in a career. "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To" and "Put Me Back Together" reclaim gum-snapping pop-punk from Weezer's myriad hijackers. But how does one appropriately respond to tracks like the buffet-soundtrack sitar jam "Love Is the Answer" and the Warrant-worthy ode to post-puberty "The Girl Got Hot?" 

Maybe just relax and order a double.

-- August Brown 

Weezer
"Raditude"
DGC/Interscope
Two stars (Our of four)

Rainn Wilson stands up for Weezer's 'Raditude'

There's a large faction of rock fans who have turned hating on Weezer and the band’s leader, Rivers Cuomo, into something of a sport. The guy can’t seem to do anything -- including name a new album, in this case the forthcoming “Raditude,” due in stores Oct. 27 -- without igniting a whirlwind of controversy.

Cuomo’s pal Rainn Wilson has had enough.

It’s Wilson who's credited with naming “Raditude,” which has been openly derided on the Internet via blogs and fan sites. Yet during a recent interview with ABC in advance of the coming season of “The Office,” he dismissed anyone who had issue with the title.

Is the mini-brouhaha due solely to Wilson's actor status? Wilson thinks so.

He theorized that if Charlie Sheen had been the one who coined the name for Radiohead's 2007 album "In Rainbows," the world would be against it.

"People would be like, ‘In Rainbows,’ that’s stupid,’” he joked to interviewer Dan Harris. “It happens to be the best album of the last decade.”

There’s also footage in the ABC clip of Wilson playing the bongos on Weezer’s cover of Joan Osborne’s “What if God Was One of Us?” Music is a focus of the interview, as Wilson goes on to discuss how a tape of the Clash’s “London Calling” changed his life.

-- Scott T. Sterling

Photo: The Associated Press

Snap judgment: Weezer's '(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To'

There are precious few rock bands that elicit such extreme and disparate reactions as Weezer. It seems people are either vying to be the president of lead singer River Cuomo’s fan club, or dream of seeing him publicly executed. There is very little room for apathy in the wild world of Weezer.

True to form, the interwebs have lit up with insta-reviews of the freshly leaked new Weezer single -- the oddly titled (“If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” from the act's upcoming seventh album, awesomely named “Raditude.” The album is due out on Oct. 27.

Reactions include allegations of it being a Cheap trick rip-off -- probably because of the song title’s similarity to CT’s classic single “I Want You to Want Me” -- and claims of it being a return to form. The upbeat, acoustic guitar-driven tune rides a swing beat similar to the Jam’s 1982 hit “Town Called Malice.” It gallops along before erupting into a hard-rocking and customarily catchy chorus.

With the single not officially released until Aug. 25, it’s fast being pulled from blogs and YouTube by the band’s label, Geffen, as fast as fans can re-post it. At press time, the fans were winning and the song could easily be heard on a variety of sites.

Is "(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” the next great Weezer single, or yet another rusty nail absently driven into the rickety coffin they keep jumping out of? We lean toward the former, but that's why there's a comments section. You know what to do, people.

--Scott T. Sterling

(Photo: Rivers Cuomo performing with Weezer at the 2009 KROQ Weenie Roast; Credit: Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times)

Blink-182 plotting a new album, but will it be unveiled on summer reunion tour?

Blink-182 has been in the studio recording a new record, but don’t expect to hear the album on  tour this summer. The pop-punk band’s reunion trek hits the Los Angeles area on Sept. 17 in Irvine.

“I think that people want to hear the old stuff right now,” said bassist/singer Mark Hoppus. “I think that people want to relive the old times, and the people who haven’t seen Blink yet want to see the songs they’ve been listening to the past few years. We’ll throw in some new stuff, but this is about reforming as a band and playing the songs that we grew up playing.”

Hoppus, speaking at a party  at the Hollywood Mexican restaurant El Compadre to promote the tour, said Blink-182 is still signed to Interscope Records. Though the tour may be focused on old material, fans should rest assured that the band’s reunion trek, which also features Fall Out Boy and Weezer, is not to rehash the late ‘90s, when Blink-182 was a staple on mainstream rock radio with “Dammit (Growing Up)” and “What’s My Age Again?” The band will indeed hit the road with a new single in hand.

As to whether or not the new cut will be released as an official single before the tour begins in late July in Las Vegas -- that’s still up in there air.

Said Hoppus, “Intescope will be putting out our next record, but I don’t know if the song will be coming out as a release -- a for-sale version for the tour or not, or if we’ll just debut it for the tour and let it sit it in ... badly-played live editions.”

Live review: KROQ's 2009 Weenie Roast goes outside the bun

KROQ's annual Weenie Roast bash typically reflects the core tenets of the radio station's musical ethos: The '90s were alternative rock's Gilded Age, skate punk moonlights as pop music and L.A. produces one good local band every year.

But this year's event, held Saturday at Irvine's Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, showed a surprising bit of daring from the station's tastemakers, who let the toothsome dance hall punks Rancid carry the headlining slot. No Wave weirdos Yeah Yeah Yeahs delivered a strong turn, and several young L.A. bands made the case that our local indie scene still snowballs into the nation's mainstream rock.

Excepting Weezer's always-welcome volley of power-pop, the titans of the '90s were nowhere in sight.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs are probably the strangest band to earn prime Weenie Roast real estate, though they do have one genuine smash hit ("Maps") and probably another in the synth-driven single "Zero." The trio's fractured art-pop translated unexpectedly well to KROQ's beer-and-board sport crowd.

Jimmy Eat World's workmanlike emo was a more traditional fit, as the Arizona quartet has a serious fix for anthemic guitar-pop sugar. Singles like "The Middle" and "Sweetness" made strangers hoist Coors Lights to the heavens, but the band satiated its loyal MakeoutClub.com-era fans with deep cuts from its 1999 album, "Clarity."

Kings of Leon had a similar hugeness to its choruses, and even inescapable goofy love-god tunes like "Sex on Fire" and "Use Somebody" seemed refreshed by night breezes and a few thousand lighters in the air.

The grotty punk quartet Rancid has a long-anticipated new album coming out soon, but the band largely stuck to its considerable catalog of steel-toed hits like "Bloodclot" and "Roots Radicals." The band has only gained vitality with new drummer Branden Steineckert and its live set was like watching a gang of rowdy old sailors pulling into port -- singing gang-chant odes to their own longevity and spirit and maybe leaving a black eye or two in their wake.

The Airborne Toxic Event and Silversun Pickups illustrated different paths to fame (and whatever counts for fortune in today's music industry) for L.A. bands. Airborne, a new Island Def Jam acquisition, got there from its bleary Brit-rock earnestness. Silversun Pickups kicked around Silver Lake for years before striking gold with one of its oldest singles, the raspy crowd favorite "Lazy Eye." Each act was in good form at Weenie Roast, especially the Pickups, whose gauzy guitar thrash easily hit the cheap seats.

Weezer's early evening set was the one nod to the KROQ formula and while recent albums have indulged front man Rivers Cuomo's yearning to be a genuine codpiece-rock god, the band's brisk performance pleasantly reinforced why they get to play stadiums. "Say It Ain't So" and "The Good Life" still sound like nothing else on the radio.

This year's Weenie Roast, which closed out with TRV$DJ-AM offering up grindable exit music for the crowd, suggested that mainstream rock fans have broader tastes than KROQ sometimes gives them credit for. But it also proved that, sometimes, a dip in the status quo can be rather fulfilling.

-- August Brown

Photos: Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (top) and (bottom, from left to right) Lars Frederiksen, Branden Steineckert, and Tim Armstrong of Rancid peforming at KROQ’s Weenie Roast at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine. Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times

Weezer, Kings of Leon and Rancid will all roast weenies for KROQ

Maybe they'll call it the Weezer Roast? Or just a Rancid Picnic?

Weezer, Kings of Leon, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jimmy Eat World, Rancid and Silversun Pickups are among the headliners for the KROQ-FM (106.7) Weenie Roast Y Fiesta at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater on May 16.

Tickets go on sale at 5 p.m. Thursday (May 7).

The other announced acts on the bill: Cage the Elephant, Asher Roth, Anberlin, Hollywood Undead, White Lies, the Airborne Toxic Event, Big B.

The Weenie Roast began in 1993 with a show featuring Stone Temple Pilots, Dramarama, X, The The and Terence Trent D'Arby, believe it or not. Last year, Metallica, the Racontuers and the Offspring led the bill, one again reinforcing the show's Mad Libs approach to live-music booking.  

The concert is a fundraiser for a number of charities, including Heal the Bay, the Surfrider Foundation and the AIDS Services Foundation Orange County.

-- Geoff Boucher

Photo: Rivers Cuomo. Credit: Bryan Haraway / Getty Images

Weezer shows L.A. a good 'Time' -- the Pink Floyd kind

Early into Weezer's Tuesday night show at the Forum, the band slow-jammed its way into crowd favorite "Say It Ain't So." And the audience settled in for an evening that would pleasantly look back on the act's 15-year career.

But when Weezer covered Pink Floyd's "Time" -- beautifully and perfectly, by the way -- with Rivers Cuomo on drums and Patrick Wilson on lead guitar and vox, it turned a fun-but-average show into something quite special. 

Granted, any Weezer concert is going to be a glorified Rivers Cuomo Show. And the formerly bespectacled, and now mustachioed, King of All Geeks has been able to walk the tightrope between the earnestness of emo and the arena-ready hooks need for pop stardom as well as anyone, especially live.

So when Rivers got behind the drums for "Time," it was no surprise that he capably handled the intro. But once the song kicked in, the spotlight and attention was firmly placed on someone other than Mr. Cuomo, as Wilson held the near-capacity Forum crowd captive as he nailed the vocals and David Gilmour solo.

Video of the performance after the jump...