Weezer is one clever band determined to stay relevant in a changing pop culture soundscape.
Its earlier video for "Pork and Beans" recruited a gang of YouTube stars, thereby increasing its chances at buzz by about a billion. Its latest video for "Troublemaker" is equally forthright in its desire to stick around, this time by setting records.
The video went live at Yahoo Music on Monday night, and it’s packed with people, all of whom are invested in rewriting the Guinness Book of World Records. So much so that Weezer went so far as to invite Guinness official Stuart Claxton to the August shoot in Los Angeles to certify the accomplishments, which are as follows:
Longest Guitar Hero World Tour Marathon, which lasted for 10 hours, 12 minutes and 54 seconds
Largest Air Guitar Ensemble, which consisted of 233 participants
Largest Game of Dodgeball, which consisted of two teams numbering 50 people each who mercilessly hurled spheroids at each other
Most People in a Custard Pie Fight, which included 120 individuals mercilessly hurling yellow matter at each other
Most People Riding on a Skateboard, which packed 22 daring participants on to one ride
Say what you want about Weezer’s music, but it seems to have moved on to stratagems calculatedly designed to hold Earth’s attention. The YouTube-fueled "Pork and Beans" video was a viral hit, and the band already invites audience members to jump on stage in a participation promotion called Hootenanny.
What’s next? Recording an album in space? Letting robots compose its next hit? Any suggestions? Post them below. The smart money is that Weezer will probably use one of them.
