Weez Like to Know What’s on This Set

A substantiative update from Weezer webmaster/archivist Karl Koch about the planned catalogue efforts of one of the most intriguing bands of the past few decades was posted on the band’s Web site back in August. It’s making the rounds now, and while it should have Weezer fans excited, it might make them a bit confused as well.

Longtime Weezer fans know that the band – who just signed with indie label Epitaph after 15 years with Geffen and have a new, ridiculously-packaged record due out next week – were planning two catalogue titles with their old label: a deluxe edition of sophomore record Pinkerton (1995) – considered to be the band’s crowning achievement – and a compilation of outtakes called Odds and Ends. In his post, Koch provides news on both, as well as some other titles that others might not have expected. Keep fishin’ for info after the jump.

Both the Pinkerton set and the outtakes set, now called Death to False Metal, will street on November 2. The latter set (which Koch promises/threatens will have a myriad of bonus tracks across formats and retailers – wonderful…) will cover the band’s entire Geffen tenure and more – from 1993 to 2008 – and will even include music from what’s considered to be Weezer’s “lost year” in 1998, when bassist Mikey Welsh joined the band for the group’s first studio recordings since the failure of Pinkerton three years prior. (It wouldn’t be until 2000 when Weezer returned from hiatus. Welsh would be replaced by Scott Shriner the next year.)

As for Pinkerton,it’s going to follow the same basic format as Universal’s standard Deluxe Edition entries – two discs, a dual-gatefold digipak and slipcase, a big booklet – but the actual bonus content is as yet unannounced. One assumes previously released B-sides would be included, as was the case on the deluxe reissue of the band’s 1994 self-titled debut, alongside some demos or outtakes. Of course, when talking Pinkerton demos and outtakes, this is where things get interesting. It’s well-known that Pinkerton evolved from an aborted rock opera concept album Weezer intended to release called Songs from the Black Hole. Those tracks had been holy grails for Weezer fans, and Geffen’s release of two solo demo sets by Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo in 2007 and 2008 saw many of those tracks finally released.

So what else could be utilized for Pinkerton bonuses? That’s where Koch sheds some light. Apparently, a super-deluxe Pinkerton reissue – to have featured an in-depth book penned by Cuomo and another solo demo collection (provisionally titled Alone III: The Pinkerton Years) – has been scrapped, but the book and compilation will be released separately. “Release dates on those havent [sic] been set yet,” Koch writes, “but Im [sic] for now assuming they will be around the same time as [Pinkerton: Deluxe Edition].”

And of course, none of that even covers the planned two-night-per-city tour in which the band plays their first two albums each night in their entirety… Stay tuned to The Second Disc for news as it develops.