Scott Shriner would admit that he was never really a YouTube guy.
That's pretty understandable. When you are in a band that has been plying your trade since the early 90s, just like Weezer had been, becoming the figurehead of the most insecure and awkward elements of emo and alternative rock, you would be amiss to not feel very set in your passions and ways of the world by the time that 2008 rolls around. And though you have spent plenty of your career making music videos, they would usually be found on TV screens, played during your appearances on MTV's TRL and whatnot, rather than on computers, laptops and, as modern as it can get, mobile phones.
But the tides were turning. Celebrity was no longer just reserved for musicians, actors and socialites. If you had a camera (or webcam), an idea, and enough bandwidth to upload your creation to the World Wide Web, you too could become an overnight sensation. From the lip-syncing prowess of Gary Brolsma the Numa Numa Guy, to the unique songwriting talents of Tay Zonday, the unfortunately timed acrobatic abilities of Mark Allen Hicks the Afro Ninja, to the impassioned pleas of Cara Cunningham begging people to leave Britney Spears alone, YouTube was the home of it all.
But despite it being a brave new world for Weezer to discover, they went one better than just trying to understand what was going on. They made a whole music video around these new-age stars.
The video is based on the YouTube phenomenon, and we really took it to a whole other level," the bassist told Buzznet. "We brought a bunch of YouTube celebrities into L.A. and shot a video with them, and it was really insane and surreal. I'm pretty excited about it. Even to someone who's not that interested in YouTube, it's still a really interesting video. It's gonna be a trip."
Though before the band could comprehend such a project, there had to be a song for it to accompany. The song in question, Pork And Beans, wasn't even originally part of what the quartet had put together for their sixth full-length record, known as The Red Album. Serving as the third record in their discography to be filed under the Weezer name, after 1994's Blue Album and 2001's Green Album, vocalist Rivers Cuomo stated that they "Put a lot of emphasis on blowing our minds with creative freakouts" for it.
Unfortunately for the band, pushing the boundaries wasn't enough to please the executives at their label, DCG. Off the back of the commercial success of 2005's Make Believe, home to sunshine smash Beverly Hills, they were after more of the same, ordering the band to squeeze out a few more tracks that could give them the same result. Rivers was not best pleased.
"I came out of it pretty angry. But ironically, it inspired me to write another song," he told Rolling Stone, and the result was a song that felt as much a tongue-in-cheek reply to such demands as a reminder that they knew how to get the job done. From the classic chug of the chorus to the biting references to the production of rapper Timberland, blowing up the charts at the time with his work with the likes of Nelly Furtado and One Republic, Pork And Beans is as silly as it is sentimental. A reminder that you should never dull your sparkle for anyone, and that creative freedom and unashamed expression will always come out on top. An assertion of artistic independence and personality.
"The words that Rivers wrote just kind of draw you in," Scott told Buzznet. "The clever way that he writes and then the chorus, to me, is just classic, killer Weezer. Big guitars... edgy-sounding, classic Weezer rock. It's a great formula. It's taken it to another level of Weezer as well, without repeating the old. The song has captured the spirit of Weezer, but taken it to another place."
