Weezer

The spring semester has arrived, and chief faculty advisor for the Weezer Institute of the Arts, Professor Rivers Cuomo (now officially America’s most popular Cuomo), has prepared a lecture connecting the Bard and Vivaldi to domestic conviviality. “Shakespeare makes me happy,” he declares, repeating that thesis a couple of times before concluding, “and I’m happy to be with you.” There’s acoustic guitar, and pan pipes, and a big, lush Brian May–style guitar solo playing themes from Vivaldi’s “La Primavera”, all complementing the Prof’s supporting arguments that Hamlet, Falstaff, and Rosalind all make him happy–happy! happy! happy!

SZNZ: Summer is the second instalment in one of the bands most exciting projects to date: SZNZ, a four EP song cycle of sorts. Already mythical across the internet, SZNZ will, fittingly, be released at the start of every season. Each EP offers its own palette of colours, creatures, and emotions to explore. They’re also being created in real time, made in tandem with the season themselves. The projects lead single “Records” is a big classic Weezer rock song, with a chorus built around thunderous drums, chunky power chords and a memorable melody about songs that get stuck in your head, which is exactly what this one is sure to do.

SZNZ: Winter is an EP by Weezer, the fourth and final in the SZNZ series of EPs. Following WEEZER's 2021 metal-influenced album, "Van Weezer", the Los Angeles rock band announced they would release a four-EP series in 2022. This wasn't just any series, either, as the band's "SZNZ" series would have releases dropping on the first day of each new season.

Van Weezer is the 14th studio album from Weezer. The inspiration for this album derives from the deepest roots of Weezer - metal! What has metal got to do with Weezer, you ask? In his earliest years, Rivers was a huge Kiss fan; Brian was a big Black Sabbath fan; Pat worshipped at the altar of Van Halen and Rush; Scott loved Slayer and Metallica. The last time this vein of harder rock was mined by Weezer was on their much-loved 2002 album Maladroit; Van Weezer is primed to take that album's sonics many steps further courtesy of producer Suzy Shinn.

So 2020 was going to be the year of Van Weezer - the big riffs rock album Weezer made as an homage to the metal bands they loved growing up - until, thanks to the global pandemic, it suddenly wasn't. The entire time, however, Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo was busy at the piano, writing a very different album that referenced another vital musical touchstone of his youth: The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.

SZNZ: Autumn, the third part in a four-EP song cycle released by Weezer, and continues the narrative started on SZNZ: Spring and SZNZ: Summer bringing Pagan myths, Shakespeare, Catholic rituals, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and more to life. Each SZNZ EP offers its own palette of colours, creatures, and emotions to explore. They’re also being created in real time, made in tandem with the season themselves. Once they’ve all been released, however, the EPs will create an incredible collection of some of Weezer’s best songs yet, which is no small feat for a band that never leaves the Zeitgeist.

High off a successful 2018, Weezer is already putting their stamp on the coming year. The band has announced that their forthcoming album, The Black Album, will arrive on March 1. It’s the follow-up to 2017’s Pacific Daydream. Weezer has already released the album’s first single, the strange “Can’t Knock The Hustle.,” and now they have unveiled the second single “Zombie Bastards.”