Weezer

Weezer

Weezer is an American alternative rock band. The band currently consists of Rivers Cuomo , Patrick Wilson , Brian Bell , and Scott Shriner . The band has changed lineups three times since its formation in 1992...

's Winter Weezerland EP is an EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 released in December 2005 exclusively for iTunes

ITunes

iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

 users. It features songs that had originally been recorded by the band in 2000 as part of a special Christmas CD that was sent out to Weezer fan club members. The cover of the CD featured the band members dressed in Santa costumes.

Speculation

A teaser message posted on the band's official website prompted speculation about Winter Weezerland and soon fan message boards were flooded with speculative posts. Despite many Weezer fans believing the tracks were just a re-release of the Christmas CD (which they were eventually revealed to be), some fans believed the EP would contain all-new Christmas versions of classic Weezer tracks including one group that believed previously unheard tracks would be released in the tradition of Weezer's popular "Holiday Treats."

Reaction

Many fans complained that the release of the EP was completely unnecessary since mp3s of the songs were already available for free download in the media section on the band's official website.

Geffen removed the songs from the website shortly after several iTunes reviews of the EP included references to the free mp3s available on the band's website.

E-mail replies from the band's unofficial fifth member, Karl Koch, have suggested that the band was not involved in the release of the EP and it was a decision made independently by the band's record label, Geffen Records

Geffen Records

Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:...

. Karl said in one e-mail to a fan:
The backlash from the devoted Weezer fanbase was somewhat minimal, with many fans resorting to posting negative reviews on iTunes and others flooding Weezer message boards with derogatory comments towards the band, despite no actual involvement of the band in the release of the EP.

As of 2008

2008 in music

2008 was a huge year in music history with the emergence of pop superstars Lady Gaga and Katy Perry into the mainstream. Also, this is the year that is widely agreed upon by critics as the start of the fall of hip hop from the mainstream and the rise of Synthpop into the mainstream due to acts such...

, the EP has been removed from the iTunes store.

Track listing