WEEZER
Former Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh was found dead in a Chicago hotel room this Saturday...and he might have saw this one coming.
Welsh performed with the band from 1998-2001. During that time, they released the self-titled Weezer, which had the hits ‘Island in the Sun’ and ‘Hash Pipe’. He left in August of 2001 due to a nervous breakdown and was therefore replaced by Scott Shriner. He then began his career as a visual artist and continued to pursue it until his untimely death.
On September 26, Welsh left a chilling tweet on his account: “dreamt i died in chicago next weekend (heart attack in my sleep). need to write my will today”, then, “Correction--the weekend after next.”
The Chicago Tribune reported that Welsh was pronounced dead at 2:50 pm at the scene with narcotics suspected to be the cause. Prescription drugs were found in his room along with a zip-lock bag filled with a white powder substance, suspected to be heroin.
Scott Shriner took to Twitter to say, “ Really bummed about Mikey. My heart goes out to his family and friends. Such a talent” and “ He made a special mark on the world with his art.” The band also tweeted, “We are shocked and deeply saddened to hear the awful news, our friend and our fellow weez rocker @mikeywelsh71 has passed away. We love u Mikey.”
A yearly celebration of punk rock's godfathers and grandchildren alike, Riot Fest will rage through Chicago's Congress Theater, among several other venues, from Oct. 5th-Oct. 9th. Get your liberty spikes and leather vests ready, or at least convince your dad to dig his out of the closet.
The festival's biggest names will bring some rowdy energy to the stages of the Congress Theater. Punk stalwarts Social Distortion will headline on Thursday, supported by the Tossers and Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band. Danzig fans are in for a special treat Friday night, as the legendary frontman will perform Danzig, Samhain, and Misfits songs as part of his career-spanning "Danzig Legacy" set. Nerd-punk pioneers The Descendents will close out Saturday night, backed by equally influential acts such as Suicide Machines and Leftover Crack. Finally, as voted by fans, Weezer will perform their beloved Blue Album front-to-back on Sunday night. It's a fitting close to the entire festival, as half the show's participants likely started writing songs after hearing the opening plucks of "My Name Is Jonas."
When most people think of Weezer, they do not think of insurance, but they should now.
The group before their "The Memories Tour" was approached by State Farm Insurance to sing the State Farm jingle, "like a good neighbor, State Farm is there". The band inquired if the jingle was part of anything and State Farm looked it up. They discovered the jingle was taken a song written by early in Barry Manilow's career. Rivers Cuomo looked at the sheet music, thought it was good, showed the band, and they decided to record the song.
State Farm has released a video of Weezer recording the song and has released the video on youtube. The song is about three minutes long and shows the band recording the song in the studio.
On the 21st of January, Weezer will be bringing their Memories Tour to the Hard Rock Hotel, located in Las Vegas.
Still hard at work, Weezer released their most recent album, Hurley, this past year. It was most noticed for its intriguing album cover: the face of actor Jorge Garcia, who portrayed Hurley in the hit television show, LOST.
Though they are not the same young, rockers from 1994 anymore, Weezer still puts on a fun, energetic performance that is still worth the price of admission.
Check out some of the month's best new albums that hit the shelves today:
The Black Angels: Phosphene
Blonde Redhead: Penny Sparkle
Michelle Branch: Everything Comes and Goes [EP]
On August 14 and 15, see the hottest rock, pop, and alternative artists at the Mile High Music Festival in Denver. Celebrating its third year, MHMF is making the event more user friendly this year by offering festival re-entry (now you can dip out for a power nap), hotel packages, and shuttle service to the festival from Boulder, Denver, and Broomfield. The Dave Matthews Band headlined the first MHMF in 2008 and are back this year along with Jack Johnson, Slightly Stoopid, Nas & Damien Marley, Amos Lee, My Morning Jacket, Weezer, Steve Miller Band, and others. Get your tickets for the Mile High Music Festival, August 14 and 15, here!
On the last week of their U.S. tour, British Columbia's You Say Party! We Say Die! (YSP! WSD!) visited Cambridge and proved to the people at T.T. the Bear's that they are more alive than ever. After internal problems that almost led to the disintegration of the band in 2007, the Canadian five-piece got its act together to produce XXXX, their third album, released in the U.S. February of this year. This was, also, the end of a long wait for the band's American fans: in 2006, Stephen O'Shea, YSP!'s bassist was supposed to be banned for five years from playing in the U.S. following problems with his visa paperwork. The guys worked the legal problem out in less than four years, just in time for the 2010's edition of SXSW, making this Spring a definitive revival.
"This Will Be Our Year" was the first OK Go song I ever listened to. It was the first track on a popular indie compilation album from 2004 entitled The Future Soundtrack of America. The compilation was chock-full of brokenhearted music, but OK Go sounded different. Their song emitted warmth, solace in love, and hope. "This Will Be Our Year" was instantly lovable and infectiously catchy.
In subsequent releases, in spite of the heartache their lyrics displayed in "OK Go" and "Oh No," the warmth and optimism remained. Just check out "Get Over It." There's anger there, sure, but the conclusion is positive. You might be alone, in a lot of pain, but this isn't forever. Get up, lift your head, and face tomorrow. OK, go. Behind these lyrics are some of the tastiest licks in all of rockdom, featuring multi-layered songs, complex keyboard and bass lines, and hooks that would make your grandmother tap her feet.
It's that time of year again, when music festivals start to show what they got. Recently Coachella announced their summer line up, and now it's Bonnaroo's turn. Except they're doing things a bit differently this year; Bonnaroo is slowly unveiling the names that will be playing this year's festival in Manchester, Tennessee every six minutes at their Bonnaroo Myspace.
The Flaming Lips squealed early and announced that they would be playing Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon in its entirety. Other than that, we had to wait - and we'll have to continue to wait until the day's end to find out the rest of the lineup.
I sincerely hope I am not alone in my excitement of news regarding a new album featuring songs made popular by those always entertaining, fur-laden icons of positive entertainment, the Muppets. The Disney Corporation announced at this year’s 23rd annual company expo, D23, that they will be releasing an entire album of classic tunes covered by some of the most prominent artists in the music industry. The new album, Muppets Revisited, will feature Andrew Bird performing “It’s not Easy Being Green,” The Fray with their version of “Mahna Mahna,” Amy Lee singing on “Halfway Down the Stairs,” My Morning Jacket on “Our World,” and Weezer playing a much anticipated version of “Rainbow Connection.” No official release date has been revealed as of yet, but sources hint that the album will become available sometime in February of 2010.
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