The “Winter Weezerland” Christmas EP
Rarebird’s Rock and Roll Rarity Reviews would like to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, or whatever you personally call this time of year.
During the Christmas season in 2000, Weezer issued a two-song Christmas CD to members of their official fan club, and also sent the CD to radio stations as a promo item. It was simply titled Christmas CD, and its two tracks ran for a total of five-and-a-half minutes. The same two tracks were sold on iTunes beginning in 2005, under the title Winter Weezerland. The songs have not been offered on iTunes since 2008. (This EP should not be confused with the 2008 digital EP Christmas With Weezer, which does not contain either of these two tracks). Some time between 2000 and 2005, the tracks were available as free downloads on Weezer’s official web site. Some rabid fans were evidently unhappy that formerly free downloads were later being sold as commercial downloads, and expressed their supposed outrage on Weezer- and iTunes-related message boards. To my mind, this was as trivial as pay-per-song controversies get. If fans did not care to download the songs when they were free, then it should not have been a major concern when they were being sold for 99 cents each. Anyone who was so disadvantaged as to pay for both mp3s ended up paying all of $1.98. Somehow, I don’t feel their pain.
These two songs were recorded around the same time as Weezer’s self-titled “Green Album” from 2001. The first track, “The Christmas Song”, is stylistically closer to their Pinkerton album from 1996. Not to be confused with the Mel Torme classic, “The Christmas Song” is a melancholy song about a guy who gets stood up by his girlfriend on the holiday. It’s quite good. The other track, “Christmas Celebration”, is more lighthearted and uptempo, sung from the viewpoint of a guy who’s fed up with the usual holiday festivities. It’s a fairly average Weezer song that would have fit into the “Green Album” well enough.
A note on the cover art: The front cover of Christmas CD showed a photo of the four band members wearing Santa suits. The art for the iTunes download was originally the back cover photo for Christmas CD, showing Rivers Cuomo standing on a roof in his Santa outfit.
Weezer “Christmas CD” EP (Geffen INTR-10267-2) 2000
Weezer “Winter Weezerland” EP (mp3 download) (Geffen) 2005
Track Listing:
1. The Christmas Song
2. Christmas Celebration
During the Christmas season in 2000, Weezer issued a two-song Christmas CD to members of their official fan club, and also sent the CD to radio stations as a promo item. It was simply titled Christmas CD, and its two tracks ran for a total of five-and-a-half minutes. The same two tracks were sold on iTunes beginning in 2005, under the title Winter Weezerland. The songs have not been offered on iTunes since 2008. (This EP should not be confused with the 2008 digital EP Christmas With Weezer, which does not contain either of these two tracks). Some time between 2000 and 2005, the tracks were available as free downloads on Weezer’s official web site. Some rabid fans were evidently unhappy that formerly free downloads were later being sold as commercial downloads, and expressed their supposed outrage on Weezer- and iTunes-related message boards. To my mind, this was as trivial as pay-per-song controversies get. If fans did not care to download the songs when they were free, then it should not have been a major concern when they were being sold for 99 cents each. Anyone who was so disadvantaged as to pay for both mp3s ended up paying all of $1.98. Somehow, I don’t feel their pain.
These two songs were recorded around the same time as Weezer’s self-titled “Green Album” from 2001. The first track, “The Christmas Song”, is stylistically closer to their Pinkerton album from 1996. Not to be confused with the Mel Torme classic, “The Christmas Song” is a melancholy song about a guy who gets stood up by his girlfriend on the holiday. It’s quite good. The other track, “Christmas Celebration”, is more lighthearted and uptempo, sung from the viewpoint of a guy who’s fed up with the usual holiday festivities. It’s a fairly average Weezer song that would have fit into the “Green Album” well enough.
A note on the cover art: The front cover of Christmas CD showed a photo of the four band members wearing Santa suits. The art for the iTunes download was originally the back cover photo for Christmas CD, showing Rivers Cuomo standing on a roof in his Santa outfit.
Weezer “Christmas CD” EP (Geffen INTR-10267-2) 2000
Weezer “Winter Weezerland” EP (mp3 download) (Geffen) 2005
Track Listing:
1. The Christmas Song
2. Christmas Celebration
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