Release
Geffen A&R rep Todd Sullivan described Pinkerton as a "very brave record,' but worried: "What sort of light does this put the band in? It could have been interpreted as them being a disposable pop band.'" The label was pleased with the record and felt that "no one's going to be disappointed".
The band turned down a video treatment for lead single "El Scorcho" proposed by Spike Jonze, who had previously helped raise the band's status with his videos for Undone (The Sweater Song) and "Buddy Holly". Cuomo explained: "I really don't want the songs to come across untainted this time around... I really want to communicate my feelings directly and because I was so careful in writing that way. I'd hate for the video to kinda misrepresent the song, or exaggerate certain aspects." The final video featured the band playing in an assembly hall in Los Angeles, surrounded by light fixtures of diverse origin flashing in time to the music. Mark Romanek, the video's director, quit after numerous arguments with Cuomo, leaving Cuomo to edit the video himself. The video debuted on MTV's 120 Minutes and received moderate airplay.
A day before the album was to be released on September 24, 1996, a restraining order was obtained against the band and Geffen by Encino, California-based security firm, Pinkerton's Inc. The company sued the band and Geffen for alleged federal trademark infringement, claiming that Weezer was trying to capitalize on the company's reputation. Under the terms of the restraining order, which had Pinkerton's Inc seeking two million dollars in damages, Weezer would be kept from "selling, distributing, or advertising an album with the name Pinkerton." Geffen spokesman Dennis Dennehy defended the title, arguing that "to Weezer, Pinkerton is a character in Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly... It was not meant to be aimed at any sort of corporate entity." Cuomo wrote a six-page paper defending his choice of the title, explaining "why I chose it, and how it works for the album, and how it's essential." The case was thrown out of court after the judge determined that "that the hardship of not issuing the Pinkerton disc would be greater for Geffen than any hardship Pinkerton's Inc or its shareholders might incur from consumers who mistakenly presume the company has anything to do with the album."
As it became apparent that Pinkerton was not meeting expected sales figures, Weezer felt pressure to make another music video more to the liking of MTV. The music video for "The Good Life", directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, features a pizza delivery girl (played by Mary Lynn Rajskub) and uses simultaneous camera angles appearing on screen as a fractured full image. The video was rush-released by the record company to try to save the commercially failing album, but was not successful.
In October 1996, the band toured the Far East with concert appearances in Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Afterwards, the band flew home to Los Angeles, where Patrick Wilson and Matt Sharp made a promotional appearance on the nationally syndicated radio show "Modern Rock Live" in an attempt to improve the album's standing on the US album charts. A few days later, on November 1, Weezer launched its tour of North America at the Ventura Theatre in Ventura, California. On November 6, Weezer performed an acoustic set at Shorecrest High School in Seattle due to a contest won by a student. A few of the songs performed at the acoustic set would later appear on the The Good Life EP. The band continued to tour until Christmas 1996.
In July 2009, Karl Koch, the webmaster for Weezer's website, revealed that Weezer was preparing a "deluxe edition" of Pinkerton. On November 20, 2010, the reissue debuted at number six on the Billboard Catalog Albums chart and re-entered the Billboard 200 at number 73.
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Famous quotes containing the word release:
“We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.”
—Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)
“As nature requires whirlwinds and cyclones to release its excessive force in a violent revolt against its own existence, so the spirit requires a demonic human being from time to time whose excessive strength rebels against the community of thought and the monotony of morality ... only by looking at those beyond its limits does humanity come to know its own utmost limits.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)