What do we make of Weezer these days? If I told someone 15 years ago that the same band responsible for shaping the idea of indie pop music thanks to gems like The Blue Album and Pinkerton would ultimately evolve into an aging outfit that put dogs and characters from Lost on their album covers and collaborated with a rapper who drinks codeine on a regular basis, I certainly doubt they’d believe you. Hell, it actually sounds like the premise for a kickass mockumentary.
But that is in fact what has happened to the Rivers Cuomo-led outfit, and as today’s news reveals, there’s no sign that the band’s controversial decisions will be ending anytime soon.
As our friends at Antiquiet report, during a recent interview at the Mile High Music Festival in Denver, Weezer guitarist Brian Bell possibly revealed the true inspiration behind the title for the band’s forthcoming eighth album, Hurley.
“The inspiration, um, came from a surf company called Hurley, that was funding the record at the beginning of the recording process, and… We actually did some sort of advertisement — I don’t even know how they’re tied in so much although — We got some clothes, and we did a photo shoot where we’re wearing these clothes, and I think we’re selling these clothes in malls,” explained Bell. “Uh, so how that’s tied in, I don’t know. And then I think it’s this whole like… tying in different medias and then using Hurley, the character from Lost, which I’ve never seen in my life, as our, you know, mascot, almost…”
Of course, those comments don’t necessarily jive with frontman River Cuomo’s previous affirmation that the name was inspired by a picture he saw of actor Jorge Garcia, who plays the aforementioned Hurley on Lost.
“I was coming up with all kinds of stuff, but ultimately, we just went with some random word that doesn’t really have anything to do with anything. I just loved this photo of Jorge Garcia — it just had this amazing vibe. We didn’t want to do a fourth self-titled record and we knew people would refer to it as ‘the Hurley record’ even if left it without that title, so we just called it ‘Hurley.’ No words are on the cover because all we wanted was his amazing face,” Cuomos told Spinner.com in early August.
After some fans caught wind of Bell’s comments and expressed frustration, Bell took to weezer.com to clarify what he had said:
Just wanted to clear something up
Recently I did an interview in Denver where I was asked why we called the album Hurley. I mistakenly said that Hurley funded the album. I later found out that it wasn’t true at all. Weezer paid for every penny of this recording. The reason the record is called “Hurley” is because Hurley (Jorge Garcia) is on the cover. We thought about leaving the record untitled for the fourth time, but that causes a lot of problems and he knew people would end up calling the record “Hurley” anyway. We got no money for calling the record “Hurley.” thanks folks,
-Brian
Whatever the truth may be, as our friends at Stereogum point out, Weezer already has a pre-existing relationship with the Hurley company, which is owned by Nike. They recently did an online commerical for the company (see below) and are said to have recorded a portion of the album at Hurley International’s Costa Mesa HQ. So where there’s smoke, there’s maybe fire.
We’ll let you draw your own conclusions on this. But let’s say, Weezer really was bought off by Hurley and their new album is named after the company. Does it even matter? After all, we all have to pay rent one way or another… Right? Maybe?
Hurley arrives September 14th via Epitaph.
