Weezer announced today a North American tour in support of their top ten album Weezer (referred to as the Red Album). Starting September 23 at the Tsongas Center in Boston, the band will embark on a five week tour including dates in New York City at Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles’ Great Western Forum. This is the band’s first tour in three years. Drummer Pat Wilson announced, “if you want to rock, you know where to find us!”

Weezer (Red Album) is the band’s boldest album, sonically and lyrically, fearlessly reaching places never before heard in popular music. The Red Album’s first single “Pork and Beans” just spent 11 weeks at #1 at Modern Rock radio (the longest streak for a song in 2008) and it’s accompanying video has been viewed on Youtube over ten million times. The song is about self-empowerment, where people are urged to follow their instincts as exemplified by the lyrics “I’m a do the things that I want to do/I ain’t got a thing to prove to you.”

Opening Weezer’s tour are Angels and Airwaves and Tokyo Police Club.

San Diego-based Angels and Airwaves are currently headlining all of Warped Tour 2008 in support of their sophomore release I-Empire, which debuted in the top ten and spawned the hit single “Everything’s Magic”. Singer and guitarist Tom Delonge says, “the Weezer tour is an amazing event, not only for us as a band, but its going to be the best tour of the year for fans, we’re excited to be a part of it”.

Tokyo Police Club is a 4-piece band from Toronto, Ontario. Following one of the most successful 16 minutes in recent history (2006’s A Lesson in Crime EP) is back and currently on the road supporting their critically acclaimed debut full length Elephant Shell.

The following are the dates for Weezer’s North American tour:

Sep 23 Boston, MA Tsongas Arena

Sep 24 New York, NY Madison Square Garden

Sep 26 Atlantic City, NJ Borgata Casino

Sep 27 Philadelphia, PA Susquehanna Center

Sep 29 Detroit, MI The Palace of Auburn Hills

Sep 30 Toronto, ON Air Canada Center

Oct 2 Chicago, IL All State Arena

Oct 3 St. Paul, MN Xcel Arena

Oct 5 Denver, CO Broomfield

Oct 7 Salt Lake City, UT E Center

Oct 9 Portland OR Memorial Coliseum

Oct 10 Vancouver, BC GM Place

Oct 11 Seattle, WA Key Arena

Oct 13 San Jose, CA Events Center

Oct 14 Los Angeles, CA The Forum

Oct 17 San Diego, CA Cox Arena

Oct 18 Phoenix, AZ Arizona State Fair

Oct 20 Austin, TX Frank Erwin Center

Oct 21 Dallas, TX Nokia Theater

Oct 23 Houston, TX Reliant Arena

Oct 25 Atlanta, GA Gwinnett Arena

Rivers has been teaching fans how to write songs while getting them to help him write a song. It’s a great idea.

Here the song/video: “Turning Up the Radio”

Corporate line:
For the third time in its six-album history, Weezer will release a self-titled album through DGC/Interscope Records. To distinguish it from the other eponymous albums, it’s being referred by people as “The Red Album.” There are now no more primary colors to describe Weezer albums having exhausted blue and green previously. Comprised of sessions produced by Rick Rubin, Jacknife Lee and the band itself, the album is adventurous and undeniable Weezer pop-rock. The first single, the quirky and catchy “Pork and Beans,” was recorded under the watch of the Irishman Lee and will soon be a Weezer classic.

Great albums are culminations of the past with an eye to the future, and the Red Album has parts “Blue Album,” “Pinkerton,” and forges new territory with all four members taking turns singing lead. The Red Album is the rarest of modern music combinations: being both immediate and having the quality of growing better upon each subsequent listen.

The hits:
“Pork and Beans” – When you talk about classic Weezer this is it. Big, catchy hook and rocks from beginning to end. Too bad every song wasn’t this good.
“The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)” – Even though it has moments when it could have gone either way, Rivers pulls it out anddelivers.

The rest:
“Troublemaker” – It has all the elements of a Weezer song with its bad-ass geekiness ala Napoleon Dynamite–but it lacks the big hook.
“Heart Songs” – Why Rivers wasted such a beautiful instrumentation to do nothing but list his favorite bands is beyond me. What a waste of time.
“Everybody Get Dangerous” – Maybe it’s only me–but doesn’t this sound like Everclear? And no, that’s not a good thing.
“Thought I Knew” – Why Rivers handed off the vocals to guitarist Brian Bell is beyond me. It sounds like a bad Fastball track.
“The Angel and the One” – Forgettable.

Finally:
A Weezer album always has lots of anticipation. But this one sounds too cool for school again. There is a lot that seems pretentious from tracks like “Troublemaker” to another self-titled album. If Weezer could just stick to their catchy rock tracks like “Pork and Beans” all would be good. But sadly its not.

Watch the video for “Pork and Beans”

According to Weezer.com: The release date for the new album has been moved up–so you can be swimming to new Weezer songs all summer long.

USA – June 3rd
Canada – June 3rd
Japan – June 4th (subject to change)
Germany – June 6th (subject to change)
Australia – June 7th
International – June 9th
UK – June 9th – Digital only
UK – June 16th – Physical CD album release

Pork And Beans Int’l Single (formats TBA) – June 16th
Pork And Beans UK Single (formats TBA) – June 23rd (to be confirmed)