All Your Pork and Beans are Belong to YouTube!
What’s the best way to guarantee that your internet video will go viral? Make a video spoofing other viral videos. That’s the strategy behind the latest offering from indie music darlings Weezer in the video for their latest self-titled album.
Why does this video work so well? Schadenfreude - that basic human emotion where a person experiences guilty/malicious glee as others suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Humans like watching other humans getting hurt. Period. If it wasn’t so, would reality television programming be so prevalent?
Pork and Beans collects the ’stars,’ and I use that term loosely, of the most popular viral videos of the last few years, and puts them all in one place in a surprisingly amusing piece of internet navel gazing. From Tay Zonday of ‘Chocolate Rain‘ infamy to the excreable Chris Crocker, they’re all here, even reaching back to the late 90’s for an ‘all your base’ parody. This video is 3 minutes of condensed idiocy backed by an amazingly catchy song.
Once again we’re treated to a unique fusion of styles that is instantly recognizable as a Weezer track. Starting with a mariachi style acoustic guitar hook melded with a retro-lounge feel, it slips easily into Rivers Cuomo’s signature distorted guitars and massive feeling wall of sound . Maracas and piano accompaniment are sprinkled liberally throughout the track, and the chorus harmonies are what we’ve come to expect from this band over the last 14 years.
My single gripe is that this song is yet another nerd anthem from Weezer. I love this band, truly, but we’ve been over this ground before. My favorite song off of the Blue album is ‘In the Garage’ their first, and in my opinion, best nerd anthem.
Minor griping aside, this song has me looking forward to the eponymous Red album. I have high hopes for this, especially after ‘Make Believe.’ The song ‘Beverly Hills‘ makes me cringe to this day, and when I heard the radio edit of ‘We Are All on Drugs’ a little part of me died. I can hear them sing about having a ‘Hash Pipe‘ and a ‘Dope Nose‘ but merely saying that we’re on drugs is a no-no? Weak.
The best part of any new album is the tour. My wife and I saw Weezer in Ames in 2002 while they were supporting the ‘Maladroit’ album, and it was the single best concert I have ever been to. The 30,000 capacity stadium we were in was completely sold out, and the atmosphere was like nothing I have ever experienced again. Electric doesn’t even begin to describe it.
When Weezer took the stage, everybody in the audience rose to their feet, and remained standing for the 70 minute set. It seemed like about 80% of the crowd knew every song by heart, and was singing along at the top of their lungs - myself included. Short of a ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show‘ viewing, I can’t imagine the crowd getting more involved without resorting to violence.
After the show my wife and I got separated from the group we were with, and decided to head home. Unfortunately we found out later that they ended up meeting with the the band - sans Rivers - with pictures and autographs to prove it.
Valleywag has a deconstruction of all of the references in the video. Brooklyn Vegan weighs in, as well as the usual suspects at Idolator.
Watch ‘Pork and Beans’ and decide for yourself.
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