Weezer Scrap Fifth LP, Start Again from Scratch

After an uncharacteristically productive period in 2001 and 2002, during which they released their first albums in five years, Weezer have been taking things relatively slow, perhaps taking extra care to ensure that their long-gestating (and still forthcoming) fifth full-length exceeds the expectations of their notoriously hardass fanbase. Since December of 2003, Weezer had been in and out of the studio with producer Rick Rubin working on new material, to varying degrees of success. However, the band has now scrapped the results of those sessions, in favor of new material they began work on three weeks ago. According to a post on Weezer.com, the group has been in the studio for much of August laying down songs from scratch.

The website explained the band's decision to shelve their work with Rubin, stating that it was a "response to [frontman] Rivers [Cuomo] regaining his sense of momentum with his songwriting, and not feeling right about continuing with the incomplete recordings from December." It goes on to reveal: "In effect, the band is now producing itself, as it did on [the prior albums] Pinkerton and Maladroit, but this time they have a wise shoulder to lean on if and when need be. So far, it's working out pretty excellently."

Indeed, those of you concerned about the status of Rubin's feelings should be pleased to know that Weezer are still exceptionally tight with the ZZ Top lookalike, and even credit him for helping frontman Rivers Cuomo through some apparently Pinkerton-caliber personal issues. As another post on the band's site reports, "[Rick] has become more of a 'mentor' figure. He had a tremendous impact on Rivers and the band in '03, helping re-organize the band's then-somewhat confused recording priorities, and being a wonderful and positive influence on Rivers, helping him 'find his way' both personally and in songwriting again." That's awesome. Maybe someone with some clout out there can offer this guy a talk show? Come on, he'd totally maul Dr. Phil.

Nothing resembling an accurate tracklist has surfaced yet, but the band has been working steadily on a collection of 12 songs during their summer sessions, including both new compositions and some older tunes from Cuomo's stack of Ace Frehley-stickered notebooks. As yet another in a long list of website updates tells us, the tracks "have been worked up since early this year as demos, over the entire spring time, by Rivers. In some cases, they were developed from songs being worked on in '03, but underwent such changes as to now be totally distinct from their origins. Basically, these 12 songs are 'new,' but 'new' means early and spring 2004 (not last week or whatever). Also, there is the possibility of trying some additional songs if there is time, and such material could be '04 or '03 stuff."

No release date is being offered, but as Cuomo has revealed in his blog on MySpace.com (where he's also been posting solo acoustic demos as of late), he's heading back to Harvard in mid-September, so the band is hoping to wrap up major recording duties in the next few weeks. A purely speculative release would have it finished by late fall and in stores by early-to-mid 2005.

New Mission of Burma Compilation, Tour This Fall

My little brother (God bless him) recently rapped upon my door to inform me of his latest musical discovery: "They're this new band called Mission of Burma. They came out with this album this year called OnOffOn and it's a totally balls-to-the-wall punk-rock explosion in your motherfucking earbones!" He's sort of right, except that part about them being new and stuff. But this encounter further underscored one important thing: Mission of Burma's newly resurrected bad self, after nearly 20 years of hibernation, has clearly made an extraordinary comeback, comparable perhaps only to Christ himself. I complimented my brother on his enthusiasm, chastised his ignorance, and let him burn my copy of Vs.. Then I watched as he located Burma in a world atlas, realizing that he knew more about geography than I did, and that that was probably somewhat more admirable than my music trivia obsessing.

Much like 70s post-punks Wire, Mission of Burma's virtually seamless re-entry into generation Y's musical lexicon-- combined with an avid touring schedule akin to the newly resurrected Pixies-- has proved a flawless transition, and, as I learned, they're now positioned to burn another scar into the mind of the public. After Rykodisc's unauthorized, disastrous near-release of Accomplished: The Best of Mission of Burma last spring, the label has set things right with the band and apparently prepared a new and improved best-of compilation in conjunction with the band and the owner of their former label, Ace of Hearts. Titled A Gun to the Head, the disc consists of tunes from their early 80s releases. With 16 tracks guiding fans from the renowned "Academy Fight Song" to the closing live recording of "Go Fun Burn Man", this latest Burma compilation is expected to hit stores on September 14th. Tracklist:

01 Academy Fight Song
02 That's When I Reach for My Revolver
03 Fame and Fortune
04 This Is Not a Photograph
05 All World Cowboy Romance
06 Trem Two
07 Learn How
08 Dead Pool
09 Mica
10 Weatherbox
11 Fun World
12 That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate
13 Einstein's Day
14 The Ballad of Johnny Burma
15 Peking Spring (live)
16 Go Fun Burn Man (live)

Additionally, the band have announced yet another small handful of North American tour dates in support of OnOffOn, to begin in October. And they read like this:

10-03 Montreal, Quebec - Pop Montreal Festival
10-14 Washington, DC - Black Cat
10-15 Atlanta, GA - Echo Lounge
10-22 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
10-23 Chicago, IL - Metro
12-13 New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom

Engine Down Get Jacked in Houston!

As depressing as it is to have to do this again (following similar recent incidents involving Pretty Girls Make Graves and Xiu Xiu), here we go: Following a Houston show late last week, indie rockers Engine Down discovered that their touring van and trailer-- along with a veritable shitload of equipment-- had been stolen from the parking lot of their hotel, the Red Roof Inn on the NW Freeway. As all of the band's equipment was in the van at the time of the theft, they're understandably anxious to retrieve it, and are asking for anyone with knowledge of the theft to contact the Houston Police Department and/or Cathy Bauer, the band's management at Lookout! Records.

In the meantime, touring partners Brazil are currently lending the band any gear they need to continue the tour, but as you'll see from the following list, them's some hard shoes to fill. In addition to the following gear, they also lost a considerable amount of tour merchandise, including albums, shirts, jackets and hats. The purloined gear:

Blue Ford V10 98 Van (Virginia License #: xyz 7278)
5 x 8 Haulmark trailer

Jason Wood:
Ampeg 8x10 bass cabinet
GK 800 RB bass amp
Fender PBass Elite black w/ white pick guard
Fender PBass Black w/ black pick guard
Sans Amp bass driver direct box
Line 6 distortion pedal
Boss tu-2 chromatic tuner

Jonathan Fuller:
Marshall JCM800 dual reverb amp
Marshall 1960 lead series 4x12 cabinet
Gibson Firebird V(1990) sunburst
Gibson 'The Paul' (1979)
Boss TU-2 chromatic tuner
Big Muff pedal
Custom Blue Beard distortion pedal
Korg ES-1 sampler with road case
Behringer Headphone amp
Sony headphones
Macintosh iBook G3

Keeley:
Macintosh G3 powerbook
160 GB external hardrive
Canon digital camera
2 Rickenbacker 330 guitars
1970's Marshall JMP 50watt amplifier
1960 Marshall lead series 4x12 cabinet
Shure PSM 2000 in-ear monitors
Line 6 delay modeler pedal
Custom Blue Beard distortion pedal
Boss TU-2 chromatic tuner
Marshall PowerBrake

Travis Conner:
Macintosh G4 iBook

Matthew Compton:
Ayotte 22" bass drum, 12" rack tom, 16: floor tom (red maple)
Ludwig Metal/Aluminum 14: snare drum
22" Zildjian K Custom Medium Ride
18" Sabian HH Crash
18" Zildjian K Dark Crash
14" Sabian AA Hi-hats
Hardware (2 snare stands, hi-hat stand, seat, ride stand, 2 crash stands)
Oxygen 8 Mini MIDI Keyboard

Trash Can Sinatras Ready New Album, Tour

For most of the Trash Can Sinatras' audience-- that is, people with some interest in soulful pop or Scotland, but no Aztec Camera tattoos-- the band vanished in 1993 after releasing I've Seen Everything. Maybe they heard rumors (which are true, incidentally) that the Sinatras put out a record in 1996 which didn't even make it to the United States. A core group of listeners, though, has watched eagerly over the last few years as the band quietly resurfaced and began walking the line between rewarding their fans and taking them to the cleaners. Double CD of demos! Double CD of B-sides! Live album! Hahaha!

This approach has apparently paid off, because their first studio album in almost ten years, Weightlifting, is not only due out August 31st on spinART Records, it's coming in four forms. There's the standard 12-track album, which will be accompanied in stores by a "Deluxe Version" that features all 12 of the album's songs in their original forms, plus two of them redone acoustically, plus extra artwork, plus a bonus DVD with five Weightlifting tracks recorded live on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. Then there's the "Executive Edition" (full disclosure: I made that name up), which is limited to 5,000 copies and has all the frills of the "Deluxe Version," but with an additional lyric insert autographed by the band. Finally, the album will be supplemented on iTunes with three more unreleased live tracks. Here's the economy class tracklist:

01 Welcome Back
02 Got Carried Away
03 All The Dark Horses
04 What Women Do To Men
05 Freetime
06 Usually
07 It's A Miracle
08 A Coda
09 Trouble Sleeping
10 Country Air
11 Leave Me Alone
12 Weightlifting

And for the aristocrats among you:

13 All The Dark Horses (acoustic)
14 Weightlifting (acoustic)

Bonus DVD:
01 Got Carried Away
02 It's a Miracle
03 A Coda
04 Leave Me Alone
05 Weightlifting

iTunes bonus tracks:
01 Leave Me Alone (live at the Troubadour 2004)
02 The Safecracker (live on The Adventure Club 1993)
03 How Can I Apply...? (live on Morning Becomes Eclectic 2004)

The Sinatras will also return to North America in style around mid-September for a month-long tour, accompanied by fellow Scot Roddy Hart. The itinerary:

09-14 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
09-15 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
09-16 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
09-18 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
09-19 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero
09-20 Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
09-22 Montreal, QC - Cabaret Music Hall
09-23 Toronto, ON - Lee's Palace
09-24 Ottawa, ON - Zaphod Beetlebrox
09-26 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
09-27 Chicago, IL - Double Door
09-28 Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line
10-01 Seattle, WA - Crocodile Cafe
10-02 Portland, OR - Dante's
10-04 Sacramento, CA - Harlow's
10-05 San Francisco, CA - Slim's
10-06 San Juan Capistrano, CA - The Coach House
10-08 Hollywood, CA - The Troubadour
10-09 Hollywood, CA - The Troubadour
10-10 San Diego, CA - Cane's Bar & Grill
10-11 Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theater
10-13 Salt Lake City, UT - Club Sound
10-15 Denver, CO - Lipgloss @ La Rumba
10-17 Dallas, TX - Gypsy Tea Room
10-18 Austin, TX - The Parish
10-27 London, England - The Spitz
11-04 Edinburgh, Scotland - St. Brides Centre
11-05 Glasgow, Scotland - Cottier Theatre
11-07 Aberdeen, Scotland - The Lemon Tree

Do you have a news tip for us? Anything crazy happen at a show you attended recently? Do you have inside info on the bands we cover? Is one of your favorite artists (that's not somebody you know personally) releasing a new record you'd like to see covered? You will remain completely anonymous, unless we are given your express permission to reveal your identity. (Please note that publicists, managers, booking agents, and other artist representatives are generally exempt from this rule, but will also be granted anonymity if requested.)