The Week in Metallica

Metallica’s publicists are workin’ overtime pumping out random stories this week. Can’t keep up? That’s what recaps are for!

Saturday
Weezer celebrated the 18th anniversary of their first single “Undone – The Sweater Song” and this time, they really undid it. Rivers admitted to Rolling Stone that the song is a rip off of Metallica’s ‘Welcome Home (Sanitarium)’ and that they were trying to be cool like Velvet Underground but couldn’t escape how metal they were. When they wrote a song about sweaters. Yep.

Tuesday
Jim Breuer sat down for a rare interview with Metallica back in February, but since he’s such a stoner, the video didn’t get uploaded… until now.

Wednesday
In some British radio poll, Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” was voted the #1 track. Just another boring day bein’ Metallica.

Thursday
Slayer’s Kerry King (of gossip) started some rumor about a quadruple bill featuring Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax. He heard it from someone who heard it from someone who heard it from Lars who might be retarded anyway.

Friday
Metalheads went apeshit when they found out that apes stop going apeshit when you play Metallica. Shit is like Xanax for monkeys (or, wait, maybe not).

Edited: September 5th, 2009

Rivers Cuomo Explains Weezer’s “Raditude” Problem

When Weezer announced Raditude as the title of their upcoming album, music nerds far and wide had a serious Raditude problem and thought the band needed a Raditude adjustment. We don’t know what fans expected… this is a band that has released not one, not two, but three eponymous albums so far, the last of which featured their fearless lead Weez-er in a cowboy hat and mustache on the cover. Tongue-in-cheek is the name of the game and album titles are just another place for Weezer’s silliness. Face it: long gone are the heart-on-sweater-sleeve days of Pinkerton.

Nonetheless, Rivers Cuomo explained just where their Raditiude came from in an interview with a Spin… and it turns off The Office’s Rainn Wilson, Cuomo’s sometime collaborator, had a hand in it: “He has a super-rock persona,” Cuomo said. “When it came time to find a title for the Weezer album, I asked him what he thought the ultimate album title would be and he said ‘Raditude.’”

“The sound of Raditude is fun, high energy pop rock,” Cuomo said. “‘I’m Your Daddy,’ has an up vibe with the same, heavy Weezer guitar riff but with a little electro influence. And ‘The Girl Got Hot’ — that’s kind of a witty, party jam.”

Raditude strikes October 27.

Edited: August 21st, 2009

Weezer Covers MGMT + Lady Gaga

Remember when Nirvana covered “Dreamlover” & INXS covered “Heaven is a Place on Earth,” & Led Zeppelin covering “Kung Fu Fighting”?? No? That’s because they never did!  Pre-Youtube, cover songs weren’t meant for contemporaries… there were rules!  Covers were reserved for:

-Modern bands introducing a new generation of kids to a classic hit

-Modern bands giving an ironic homage to something they never actually listened to themselves

-Full on tribute bands, cover bands, weddings bands, etc. who make a living off imitation

But all the rules changed with on demand online video.  Music videos at our fingertips meant artists had to go further to deliver exciting video content, and covers do just that, and artists are looking no further than the current Billboard charts for inspiration.  Choosing other NEW artists’ field-tested hit singles ensures a built-in audience and double (or triple!) searchability in video site search engines.

Which brings us to Weezer… who covered MGMT’s “Kids” with a dash of Lady Gaga’s “Pokerface,” an entertaining fusion and also a keyword cocktail!  Check it out:

Edited: May 18th, 2009