No Secret: Weezer’s on Epitaph

New album arrives Sept. 14 via the venerable punk label.

By Fred Mills

As music websites and blogs race to be the first break the news that Weezer has signed with Epitaph for its next album - Pitchfork, for example, posted a breathless entry earlier today, having been clued in by a late-night Twitter announcement from the band - it should be pointed out that this was probably the worst-kept secret in recent memory.

Yes indeed, Hurley, due out Sept. 14, is coming out on the venerable punk label, with the band saying farewell to Geffen in the wake of having completed the terms of its contract with the major. But with the exception of those who were spending their summer vacations in caves, there's not a music magazine or site editor on the planet that hadn't already gotten the news at least a week or two earlier. (Your friendly neighborhood BLURT, in fact, had already arranged through Epitaph some time ago to set up an interview with the band about the new album.) Out of professional courtesy, media outlets deferred to the band's wishes to announce the news itself.

Plus, Weezer-centric fan sites such as AllThingsWeezer.com and various news forums had already floated the possibility, based on the knowledge that the band had definitely left Geffen, that Epitaph was the frontrunner, and that a target date had been set for the second week in September. "No official word" was the mantra, but still... a secret's only a secret if it remains a secret....

Meanwhile, though, the fact that Weezer DID sign to Epitaph is pretty awesome. It's a match made in heaven, and Hurley is gonna do gangbusters. Congrats all around to everyone.