Snuggie Alert: Weezer's New Album Release Signals Decline of Western Civilization
Written by Marshall Kirkpatrick / November 3, 2009 8:40 AM
/ 7 Comments
Centuries of struggling by artists and musicians to make a living have come to this. While the rest of the music industry is fighting to figure out how to stay viable when so much content is available for free on the internet - the band Weezer may have solved the problem.
Weezer released its latest album today, with a Snuggie. See the video below.
Fans interested in the music alone can purchase the album sans blanket-with-arms for a mere $9 on Amazon. (Update: $4 today - sale!)
It's pretty funny, really. People do seem more willing to buy these ridiculous blankets with arms than they are to pay for music these days. I think that's the point.
Thanks to Yahoo's Christian Heilmann for bringing this to our attention.
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the album in mp3 format is just $3.99 to download today from Amazon. http://twitter.com/amazonmp3/status/5396553523
I saw Weezer open for "New Guns" n' Roses in London in 2000 and something. What a bad career move that was. They got pelted with bottles. To which they remarked "Don't you know who we are? We're Weezer.". Like anyone gave a sh*t. All that got them was an angry crowd chanting "Off! Off! Off!". Hilarious stuff.
Weezer is one of my favorite bands and I'm happy to say that I bought their snuggie/CD package. Come guys, they are a fun band and they did a creative thing by combining something popular in pop culture now with their new CD.
If the web community could find a way to offer the snuggie for free we would, but you can't. lol.
This is far from the first time marketing geniuses Weezer have repurposed some well-recognized piece of the zeitgeist for promotional purposes. This is the band, let's not forget, that burst on the scene with a Happy Days video that got everyone talking, had the Muppets in another video and now has taken a page from Foo Fighters' marketing playbook (remember the Mentos commercial spoof video?) and levered a highly recognizable and brutally mocked commercial for their own purposes. It's just a matter of time before a cagey band is mimicking the ubiquitous Head On commercials and recommending listeners apply their music directly to the forehead (directly to the forehead... directly to the forehead...)
And, I firmly agree: the fact that people will pay for blankets with sleeves and not CDs is one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
What's funny is how much more value you get out of a Snuggie than a record as lousy as this one. Weezer sucks. I don'teven mean to troll this post, but they are a terrible band now. I was presented with the opportunity to download their album for free and passed. I loved their self-titled record, I loved Pinkerton, but Cuomo is a sellout and now if you really think this material compares to those records then you must be high.
All bands will soon join the Snuggie Cult. All hail the mighty fabric!