Weezer has released countless 7”s over the years. The latest is a song exclusive to a video game. It’s not a new concept, but it’s the first time Weezer has gone this route. I’m not a gamer nut, but I do play video games, though I’ve never heard of this game prior to this song/record. The song is “Tell Me What You Want” from the game Wavebreak.
Since it’s a song from a video game, Iam8bit, video game vinyl extraordinaires, released this 7”. And as a result it’s overpriced. If you’re not familiar with Iam8bit, they are the equivalent of Mondo, but for video game stuff. And falling in line with that comparison, they too rarely, if ever, release pressing info for their releases.
All copies of this 7” are pressed on “melted popsicle” vinyl, which is simply red/pink/salmon/watermelon in color. Still being advertised as having a screen printed b-side, the b-side is actually etched. Why the label has yet to change this in their item description is beyond me. The 7” has been out for months as of posting this. Since the b-side is etched, it should be obvious to everyone that this is a single-sided 7”.
All copies come sealed with a hype sticker for Wavebreak affixed to the top right corner. There is not a download card/code included with physical copies. I bought this from an indie record store, so I’m not sure if a download is sent to people who purchase this 7” online direct from Iam8bit. There is also no insert included. The jacket for this 7” is also very cheap, and it’s yet another record that is tough to get out as the paper dust sleeve is too big (the last few 7”s I’ve bought have been like this). Be careful taking the record out as you may easily tear the cheap jacket in the process, either accidentally or out of sheer frustration that the dust sleeve does not easily slide out like it should.
I mentioned the overpriced factor above, and while many people may not feel like $12 for a 7” is not expensive/overpriced, let me point out that I just bought a six song, double sided 7” for $8. Yes, this 7” has an etched b-side, but I highly doubt the label would charge less if it weren’t.
Weezer has been around for so long that they’ve had their fair share of head scratching moments, home runs, fan club releases, and 15 studio albums yet no greatest hits album, and random one off songs sparked from a social media campaign that managed to chart. Yup, back in 2018 the band recorded two Toto covers after encouragement from Twitter campaign run by a fan page account. Some people think band trolled the account by releasing a cover of “Rosanna” before “Africa,” but they had ulterior motives, which will become clear as you read on.
Weezer fans have been known to be ravenous when it comes to vinyl releases. And this 7” was no exception. It sold out very quickly. I want to say within a single day, but I can’t be certain because I didn’t keep track. Despite this 7” being overpriced for what is likely a multitude of reasons; $16 including shipping. Which is why I initially passed on it, and then my decision was made somewhat easier because it sold out.
There were 1500 copies pressed, all on green vinyl for the first pressing (I’ll go into detail later about the re-press). It comes in a traditional jacket, with a catch. After opening the record it’s next to impossible to actually get it out of the jacket. The dust sleeve used is about the same size on the jacket itself, so it’s a mighty struggle to get it out without damaging the jacket itself. I’ve encountered this problem plenty of times before, but this 7” takes the top spot on the list of annoyingly difficulty to remove from a jacket.
Urban Outfitters (UO) was the exclusive retailer for the first pressing. Not just an exclusive variant; initially this release could only be bought from UO. Yet another reason I held off on buying a copy when this was first released, because I never thought the band and/or label would not have more variants available, or at the very least have copies available from other retailers. Yet I was wrong, as the band and/or label was gearing up for a re-press for Record Store Day (RSD) Black Friday, which was even more overpriced than the original 7”.
Two reasons for the re-press being overpriced; RSD, and how extravagant a release the label went with. Rather than simply re-press the 7”, they opted to do a shaped picture disc. And likely due to physical constraints, it had to be upscaled from a 7” to a 10”. But the playing surface is still a 7”. Which is suspiciously like one of the variants from the Toto “Africa” single that was originally released in 1982 and then re-pressed in 2017 for you guessed it… RSD! So in other words, this is the text book definition of a RSD cash grab.
If the $20 price tag wasn’t hard enough to swallow for the re-press of the Weezer version of the “Africa” single, most, if not all copies of come dished. Not just warped, but dished. Some people who bought a copy tried to play it, all with various results. Some could get it to play to some extent, but most could not. Personally I wouldn’t risk playing a dished record on my setup, or any setup for that matter. Unfortunately the label never acknowledged the pressing error.
Prices on the secondary market vary depending on which pressing you’re looking at. It’s tough to say which is more valuable or expensive because of the drastic difference in retail price. Other factors to consider is that the bulk of the second pressing is unplayable and that “Africa” is later included on the band’s Teal Album. Prices on the first press were as high as $200 at one point, but have now come crashing down to between $25-30. Prices on the second pressing never got higher than $125, but the price has also settled to about the same as the first pressing.
I just mentioned it, but “Africa” was also included on the band’s Teal Album, but not “Rosanna”. So this 7” is not a complete cash grab. It shouldn’t be written off. There is something on it worth buying it for. But once you realize “Rosanna” was a b-side found on Toto’s “Africa” single, everything finally lines up.
When Weezer announced their “new” album Van Weezer, it was pre pandemic. And pre pandemic by a long shot. Pre-orders launched in September 2019 with a scheduled release date of May 2020. Well we all know what happened in that huge timeframe; COVID. The release date for Van Weezer was pushed for literally over a year, to May 2021. The reason for the delay was not directly due to the pandemic. Yes it forced the album to be pushed, but not due to quarantine or medical issues or even production or recording issues. Van Weezer was timed to come out ahead of the band’s gigantic Hella Mega Tour, a co-headlining run with Green Day and Fall Out Boy.
Rivers Cuomo said the album was meant to be played in arenas, and to release it with their arena tour now indefinitely postponed, meant the music would not have the same impact. So the band and the label opted to reschedule the album’s release date. Though they did not stop taking pre-orders for the album via the band’s official web store. They also did not automatically cancel any pre-orders placed before the push of the original release date, which was a nice move. Especially considering some of the variants sold out.
Ironically the band released a different, new album in the time frame between the announcement of Van Weezer and the release of it; OK Human. In the grand scheme of things I wound up buying a copy of Van Weezer before OK Human, and within my price range of $15 for a single LP.
As expected there are variants for Van Weezer; five in total (I’m not counting the box set because it’s technically not the entire album on vinyl). Pressing info has not been released for all of them, but that is not surprising. There are 3,000 copies on glow in the dark, 2,000 on yellow, an apparent 1,000 on violet, an unknown amount on pink and an unknown amount on black. All the colors (aside from glow in the dark) are advertised as what they are; so yellow, violet etc., but in actuality they are all neon. The neon pink is an indie record store exclusive while neon violet, neon yellow and glow in the dark were all band exclusives. Black copies can be bought from every other retailer that is selling copies; even some indie stores are selling copies on black as well. Apparently some indie record stores were shafted on getting the indie exclusive variant and were only allotted black copies.
This is a single LP, with the record coming housed in a printed dust sleeve. There is no download card/code included with physical copies, and I’m not even sure a download was supplied if you bought a copy from Weezer’s web store. All variants have a hype sticker denoting the color of the record, so for variants collectors it will be easy to ensure you’re getting what you want should you be buying this on the secondary market or in a brick & mortar store. The vinyl version also includes two exclusive bonus tracks; “I’ve Thrown It All Away” and “I Need Some Of That (Reprise),” which are found at the end of side B. “I Need Some Of That (Reprise)” features a verse sung by Ric Ocasek, of The Cars fame, who passed away in 2019. So you have to wonder for how long ago Rivers Cuomo not only wrote this song, but when was it recorded?
Well I have the answers. The song was originally released in 2017 on an album by Scott & Rivers, a side project Rivers had with Allister front man Scott Murphy, which is a Japanese language band. The song went by the title “風吹けば” or “When The Wind Blows” in English. The album’s title is ニマイメ which translates to Nimaime in the latin alphabet and means “the second one.” The song was written some time prior to the release of Hurley, which was released in 2010, and was demoed during the Everything Will Be Alright In The End sessions, an album which Ocasek produced. The song was re-worked for Van Weezer, with the vinyl exclusive bonus track featuring an additional 30 seconds at the end, which is comprised of a conversation between Karl Koch, Ocasek and Rivers.
Retail price on this is around $25; the band is selling copies for $24 (before shipping), and I’ve seen some indie stores selling it for closer to $20 while others are selling it for more than the band. For whatever reason this album did not sell as well as OK Human, so you may be able to snag this for around $15 if you’re patient and don’t care about the variant. About the shipping mentioned above from the band’s store; the only option available cost close to $13; so this record immediately catapulted in price to near $37. And it gets worse, because that price is before taxes, should they apply.
In an odd move, Weezer released an even newer album before their previously announced new album. The pandemic turned lots of things on their head, and Weezer’s calendar was one of them. From the outside, it appears to be very confusing. But once you know the reason for Van Weezer, the already announced new album, being pushed back, everything makes sense. But even so, OK Human came completely out of left field to most people.
To show how the music industry can run like a well oiled machine, sometimes to a detriment in terms of quality, Van Weezer was hastily written and timed for release in conjunction with Weezer’s star studded triple headlining arena/stadium tour with Green Day and Fall Out Boy, dubbed the Hella Mega Tour. But the pandemic forced that tour to be re-scheduled from summer 2020 to summer 2021. And rather than have Van Weezer be released as initially planned, the band and label opted to push the album’s release. Despite a couple songs off the album being released to promote it and pre-orders for physical items going live. In the mean time OK Human was released, which was initially planned to be released at some point after Van Weezer.
Work on OK Human began long before it’s release. And by long before, I mean 2017. When something like this happens, it sheds light on how many bands write, record and plan albums. Which casual fans are sometimes not aware of. Basically what I’m getting at is bands often times are sitting on lots on unreleased material. Whether they’re b-sides cut from previous albums, demos or ideas that never panned out, or in this case the concept for an album that gradually gets written over an extended period of time, then eventually recorded and mixed. Work on OK Human album accelerated once the decision to push Van Weezer was made.
OK Human is unlike previous Weezer albums. Many people enjoy it more than Van Weezer. A 38 piece orchestra was used for the album, and some of the best “genres” used to describe the album I feel is baroque pop and chamber pop. Weezer has been no stranger to experimentation, but this album sees them going the furthest out on a limb to date. Maybe a couple songs here and there with classical strings, or keys, or sampling; but not an entire album with this level or orchestration.
As with most Weezer vinyl releases, OK Human sold extremely well. In what has become a recent trend for the band, they went with several variants. And not only that, the pressing info for most of them was actually released. A rarity for a major label release. Names were given to all the colored variants, which is something I’m not a fan of. Especially when they’re cheesy names like these. All but one of the colored variants were exclusive to Weezer’s web store. First up is “test tube” clear limited to 500 copies, “Weezer flesh” limited to 2,000 copies and “alien slime green” limited to 2,000 copies. The remaining colored variant is/was an indie record store exclusive, which is limited to an unknown amount on “control room chaos” splatter. The record was also pressed on black vinyl, limited to an unknown amount.
“Weezer flesh” was depicted as being a peach color in the mock ups on the item page when pre-orders were put up, but it actually turned to be more a pastel/baby yellow. Some labels call this color “Easter” yellow. “Alien slime” green turned out like the mock ups; a green w/ black marble. The “control room chaos” is a clear base with red, blue and yellow splatter. Some sites call it a “rainbow” splatter, but in my mind in order for something to be described (not advertised/listed) as rainbow is needs to have far more colors than three. What makes the “rainbow” description even more laughable is that the biggest site listing it as “rainbow” has “random” colored splatter listed in the notes section. All variants come with the same hype sticker, but only the colored variants have the color of the record printed on them. So if you don’t see a color listed, it’s on black vinyl.
All copies come housed in single pocket jacket with the record in a half color printed dust sleeve on card stock. The sleeve would be full color if not for a black & white photo on one side. There is not a download card/code included with physical copies, and I’m not sure if people who ordered directly from the band received a download via e-mail.
Retail price on this record is around $24, mainly on the colored variants. You can easily find this on black vinyl for under $20, but if you’re buying online shipping may apply, and then there are taxes that may also apply. The “test tube” clear variant sold out in a matter of minutes. With the rest of the variants taking several weeks to sell out. Some indie record stores may still have copies of the “control room chaos” splatter, it all depends on luck or how hard you search online.
Prices on the secondary market are insane, as is the case with most Weezer vinyl once it sells out or goes OOP. The “test tube” has sold for a high of $145, “alien slime green” a high of over $100, “Weezer flesh” a high of over $83 and “control room chaos” splatter for $75.
Weezer had done a fan club 7” for a few years now, non-consecutively starting in 2015 but stopping after 2019 for an unknown reason. But if its pandemic related then it makes perfect sense. But the fan club did undergo a reformatting to go completely digital via a stand alone app. This is the second of three released fan club 7”s thus far, for b-sides from The White Album. What makes this fan club 7” a bit unique is that it’s not single-sided.
There are two songs featured on this fan club 7”; the title track “The Last Days Of Summer” on the a-side with “Prom Night” on the b-side. Pressing info has not been released, and likely never will be. All copies were pressed on black vinyl, come sealed, but do not include a physical download card/code. Since I’ve never been a fan club member I’m not sure if members received access to digital files of the songs found on this 7”. Only “The Last Days Of Summer” is exclusive to the fan club, with this 7” being the only physical release of the song. But “Prom Night” can be found on the both the deluxe edition and Japanese release of The White Album, so it’s can be purchased by anyone without any exclusivity.
Apparently it cost $55 to join the fan club as of 2019 when this 7” was released. Though more and more copies of The Last Days Of Summer 7” are making their way out to the general public on the secondary market. They’ve never been available for sale to the general public direct from the band however. Prices fluctuate, but they range from a little over $20 on up to $40. I bought this for $25, from a seller who for some reason had literally a dozen copies of it up for sale for $25, which was the discounted price fan club members who were grandfathered into the club had to pay in order to get a copy. New members got this 7” included with their membership fee.
Original ideas are apparently hard to come by. Hollywood has rehashed things for decades now, from reboots to sequels, to re imaginings. In 2020 the third installment of the Bill & Ted franchise was released; almost 30 years after the previous film was released. The soundtrack for the previous two films featured music of the era, and the soundtrack for Bill & Ted Face The Music is no different. I’ll be up front; I only bought this for the Weezer song; a remix/alternate version of a track off their studio album Van Weezer; “Beginning Of The End (Wyld Stallyns Edit).”
There are two variants for this soundtrack. Both are pressed as a single LP, and other than the track listing, that is where the similarities end. Each variant was essentially released by a different label. TenThousand Projects, sometimes referred to as 10K, is the main label at play here. But they licensed out the album to Mondo, because why not.
This is hands down the worst Mondo release I own. I don’t own many of them. They’re all definitely overpriced. But all of them I have in my collection, other than this one, are at least top notch quality wise. Mondo definitely prioritizes the aesthetics, which the vast majority of people are well aware of. If not for the alternate artwork I would have gladly passed on Mondo’s variant for this soundtrack. Especially considering it costs $30 before shipping, which is an additional $9 for the cheapest option. Oh and you may have to include taxes should they apply to your order. And Mondo rarely runs sales, and one of the few they do is free shipping on vinyl, which is only held once a year I believe, which is when I bought this variant. Had I not bought this during their free shipping promo, this variant would have cost me just under $41.
Granted this is a single LP, but Mondo usually springs that extra bit for gatefold jackets and higher quality materials. This release/variant comes housed in a cheap single pocket jacket, with an obi-strip! You can’t forget that meaningless obistrip! Yes, it does come with a full color, printed dust sleeve, that has more exclusive, original artwork. The record comes on color vinyl, which is a transparent red/pink with some marbling/swirl/smoke in it. The picture on Mondo’s store shows a lot of the marbling/swirl/smoke, but the copy I received has barely in it. And of course pressing info will never be released for this record, because otherwise Mondo wouldn’t be able to charge over $40 for a single LP of an inconsequential soundtrack if everyone knew there were thousands of them pressed.
In the grand scheme of things this is a bare bones release though. The standard variant is a single LP stuffed into a cheap single pocket jacket too, but without a printed dust sleeve, and no download card/code. I’m actually surprised they opted to go with colored vinyl for this variant. But likely only did so to charge a bit more for it. The standard variant has the soundtrack’s original cover art. It’s pressed on transparent purple with a similar marbling/swirl/smoke as the Mondo variant. Pressing info has not been released. Key with this variant however is that retail price on it around $22.
Weezer’s first single, “Buddy Holly,” is somewhat of an enigma on vinyl. Is it hard to find? No. Can it be expensive? Yes. Prices on this 7” fluctuate, which is the main reason for how costly it can be. There doesn’t seem to be any reason for the wide range in prices. It can sell for as little as $15, but can go all the way up to over $100. What doesn’t help prices is that there are variants.
They’re not variants like most people think of. All copies were pressed on black vinyl. The variants depend on what type of hole the 7” has; either a large hole or a small whole. There are far fewer copies with a small hole, rumored to be roughly one third of the entire pressing. The large hole (featured here) is the most common variant, and by large hole I’m talking about the kind you’d need an adaptor to play. To add in even more fluctuation to the prices on this 7”, only some copies came with a 45 adaptor plugged in to the center hole, a so called “spider.” Take into account copies that lost this adaptor over time for whatever reason, and you have a recipe for copies that sell a bit higher than others should they include the adaptor.
To further complicate things, this was a UK exclusive release, so anyone in the states, or from anywhere else for that matter, would havev to import a copy, which inevitably drives up the price. Especially considering majority of Weezer’s fans are U.S based. But when this single was released, 1995, there was still a market in the UK for vinyl singles. There wasn’t much of a market in the U.S. for vinyl singles anymore, so the UK saw the brunt of 45s, mainly as a means to further promote full length albums while still making some profit by having a physical product to sell.
As you’d guess, “Buddy Holly” is on the a-side of this record, with it backed by an alternate version of “Jamie” on the b-side. This version of “Jamie” was taken from the Geffen Rarities Vol. 1 compilation, a record itself that fetches upwards of $50 on the secondary market. No matter the variant all copies are supposed to come in a “stock” Weezer sleeve. There are some copies that come in a plain white paper dust sleeve, but these particular copies either never came with a sleeve from the supplier or the seller simply lost the original sleeve.
Weezer is still going strong in 2019, releasing their 13th studio album. And it was the long rumored Black Album. The Black Album was pressed on five variants; black, black and clear, “black cloud” / black smoke, half black/half clear and clear with black splatter. If you didn’t notice there was a theme with the variants. And at least they went with the obvious color choice. Pressing info has been released for all the variants except straight black and the half black/half clear. There are 500 copies on black and clear (which is a black blob in clear), 1500 copies on clear with black splatter, 2,000 copies on “black cloud” / black smoke.
The black and clear, “black cloud” / black smoke and clear with black splatter were band exclusives, all of which have sold out except for the “black cloud” / black smoke variant. The half black/half clear is an indie record store exclusive, and straight black is the mass retail variant.
If you ordered directly from the band you received a black plastic spork. A seemingly random free bonus item, but it’s featured in the music video for “Can’t Knock The Hustle.” There was also a metal spork given out in 10 random order, which was dubbed the “golden black ticket,” which the recipient won a test pressing of The Black Album.
All copies come in a “full color” dust sleeve printed on card stock. I say “full color” because it would be considered full color if the sleeve wasn’t intended to meet the black theme/motif of the album’s imagery. One side of the dust sleeve has the lyrics, with the other side having the liner notes. No download card/code is included, which is a rip off at this point. You sed to be able to buy say a $15 or $20 LP and get a download card/code, now you buy $20 or $25 LP and don’t get a download card/code.
Retail price on this is around $20, but since there was likely far more copies pressed than demand dictates, if you continue to wait to buy this you can easily buy this for under $15 shipped. Which is what I did. That is of course if you don’t care about which variant you get. At this point in my collecting days I value my wallet over having something more limited for say $10 more.
When Weezer released the Teal Album without a vinyl release almost everyone assumed it would be a Record Store Day (RSD) release since it was only a few months away. Well, everyone was right as it was a RSD 2019 release. But fear not anyone who missed out on a copy on RSD; it’s a RSD first release, implying it will see a wider release. Though it may not be on colored vinyl.
The RSD pressing is limited to an apparent 6,000 copies on teal vinyl. This number is not from the official RSD list, as that is conveniently left blank; it’s from Bull Moose, who I trust. The record is transparent, and somewhere between a coke bottle, aqua and baby/ice blue color. It would have been much better had they went opaque with this rather than translucent in my opinion. Because it’s transparent it’s not really an ideal teal color.
All copies come in a single pocket jacket with a full color double sided insert. No download card/code is included, but it’s a moot point as the covers album was given away for free by the band. Retail price on this was between $20-23 depending on the store. Since there were so many copies pressed, and the fact that it stands to b re-pressed in the near future, those who missed out on grabbing a copy should not worry as they should be able to easily find a copy. And the patient shopper may even be able to score it for well below retail. I bought this now because if I can get a first pressing I’d rather have that than a later pressing, if price is not too egregious. Plus, since this was an RSD release, it makes camping out in line a bit more worth it as it adds to the total amount of releases I want.
It’s not unusual for an artist to release multiple things for Record Store Day (RSD), and in 2019 Weezer joined the list of artists to cash in on RSD. They released two things, and when I say cash in they likely did just that. The band has seen a resurgence with the coves of iconic 80s tunes, and they released a covers album full of them. But this post is for their other RSD release, a b-sides album from the Blue Album era. Most of these songs have seen the light of day by this point, but this release; Dusty Gems And Raw Nuggets, is the first time they have been compiled together, with no other songs.
Dusty Gems And Raw Nuggets was pressed as a single LP, and with it being a RSD first release it should see a wider release at some point down the road. I will mention this; someone posted on the interwebs that they bought a copy from an indie record store in the weeks leading up to RSD, with the copy they purchased being the same variant as the RSD release. Whether or not the second pressing/non-RSD variant/pressing will be on the same color or not is still to be determined, but the fact that copies saw the light of day before release date is alarming.
The official RSD list makes no mention of pressing numbers, but Bull Moose, who I trust, posted on their web store that there were 4,000 copies pressed for RSD. All RSD copies are on blue and white marble vinyl, and come in a single pocket jacket with a full color double sided insert. The insert has the liner notes on one side with promo photos of the band of the band on the reverse side. No download card/code is included, which unfortunately is the way the industry is heading. It’s lame, but people vote with their wallets and the minority have been overwhelmed at the ballot box.
Retail price on this LP is around $20, with the MSRP actually being below the Teal Album. Odd, but whatever.
Stitches and Grooves 