Weezer Ready "Maladroit"

Weezer are putting the finishing touches on their fourth album, Maladroit, at a Los Angeles studio. The follow-up to 2000's Weezer, a.k.a. "The Green Album," is scheduled for release in April. The title was plucked from a suggestion made by a fan on the weezer.com message boards.

In December, the group began working on tracks that frontman Rivers Cuomo had been working since the completion of "The Green Album," which he describes as "the usual crap: girl stuff." The band has posted demos of fourteen songs that are being considered for Maladroit on www.weezer.com, along with a trio of other new songs. "I like the instant gratification of people hearing my new songs," Cuomo says. "Sometimes you don't get a good response. Bot a lot of times you do, and it feels good."

The lag between Maladroit and "The Green Album" is considerably shorter than the four-year wait between the latter and it's predecessor, 1996's Pinkerton. "I write maybe one song a week," Cuomo says. "That adds up to fifty-two songs over a year. People think I'm some kind of freak, but it feels like I'm slacking. Why should I wait two years for a typical album cycle to end so we can put out another one? We're just kind of doing what we want to do."

Weezer will kick off a fifteen-date North American tour on February 5th in Charlotte, North Carolina. After that, they'll head to Europe in March and to Japan in May.

Weezer tour dates:
2/5: Charlotte, NC, Independence Arena
2/7: Rochester, NY, Blue Cross Arena
2/8: Boston, Tsongas Arena
2/9: Wilkes Barre, PA, First Union Arena
2/11: East Rutherford, NJ, Continental Airlines Arena
2/12: State College, PA, Bryce Jordan Center
2/14: Hamilton, Ontario, Copps Coliseum
2/15: Montreal, Molson Center
2/17: Albany, NY, Pepsi Arena
2/18: Pittsburgh, Mellon Arena
2/21: Nashville, Municipal Auditorium
2/22: Raleigh, NC, Entertainment and Sports Arena
2/24: Tampa, FL, Ice Palace
2/25: West Palm Beach, FL, Mars Amphitheater
2/26: Long Beach, CA, with Offspring and No Doubt

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV 10 Shows to Watch This Summer
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter