Weezer share the star-packed ‘C.E.O.’ video, a spoof of ‘Undone,’ and expand their Gathering tour ahead of The Gold Album
Weezer have always been self-aware about the strange business of being Weezer, and their new single “C.E.O.“ turns that self-awareness into a full-blown joke at their own expense. Released August 5 ahead of The Gold Album, out August 21, the track arrives with a celebrity-stuffed video in which the band literally gets fired and replaced by look-alikes. It is the sharpest, funniest thing Rivers Cuomo has done in years, precisely because it refuses to pretend the nostalgia machine around his band does not exist.
The video is a meta hall of mirrors. It restages the group’s iconic 1994 clip for “Undone (The Sweater Song),” this time swapping the original blue backdrop for gold, as a pair of record executives played by Rob Riggle and Rob Huebel hound Cuomo into reliving his past. “People are hungry for nostalgia,” Huebel insists, brandishing a “CEO” mug. “They want to see the old with a new twist.” When the band halfheartedly obliges, Obsession director Curry Barker, in the director’s chair, unleashes a swarm of live bees onto the soundstage, a gag that riffs on the dogs from the original “Undone” shoot. The real Weezer walk off. The execs make some calls.
A Guest List That Is the Joke
What happens next is the punchline. A replacement Weezer strides in, assembled from an absurd roster of ringers: skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Michael Peña, Giovanni Ribisi, Dax Flame, and Chit (Jay Renshaw), all gamely miming through the gold-hued redo. The actual video was directed by Brendan Walter and Jasper Graham, and the band leaned all the way into the bit, issuing a deadpan corporate memo thanking their “distinguished associates” and awarding each a “Gold Star of Excellence for exemplary performance.”
The comedy lands because the song underneath it is genuinely rueful. “Cranking out another ’90s jam / Wish I could do something new,” Cuomo sings, before conceding the trap he is in: “But nobody wants to hear that / They just want the classics / You can’t blame ’em, really / There’s something special about your early shit.” It is a tongue-in-cheek meditation on staying relevant while your audience keeps reaching for 1994, and Cuomo, ever the reluctant frontman, sounds both resigned and weirdly at peace with it.
The Gold Album and a Bigger Tour
“C.E.O.” is the third single from The Gold Album, Weezer’s 20th studio LP and first full-length in five years, following 2021’s OK Human and Van Weezer. In keeping with tradition, the record is technically self-titled, with the color designation acting as the fan shorthand. It was co-produced by Kenny Blume (formerly Kenny Beats), a Geese collaborator, alongside Klas Åhlund, and the band has framed the sessions as a deliberate push toward heaviness. “He wanted to make the most violent Weezer record ever,” bassist Scott Shriner said of Blume, describing an “educated-thug vibe” that reshaped the album.
The two previously released tracks, “Shine Again” and “We Might as Well Be Strangers” (a duet with Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman), suggested a record split between melancholy and muscle. “C.E.O.” adds a third mode: knowing comedy. Together they paint The Gold Album as a project fully aware of its own legacy and willing to poke at it.
The release doubles as a tour expansion. Weezer have added 2027 dates across the UK, Europe, and Japan to their Weezer: The Gathering tour, with Taking Back Sunday supporting on select shows. Tickets for the UK and Europe dates go on sale August 12, Japan tickets follow September 5, and Weezer Fan Club members get early access from August 11.
More than three decades into their career, Weezer keep finding new ways to interrogate the thing that made them famous. “C.E.O.” is the rare legacy-act single that treats the nostalgia economy as material rather than a lifeline, and it is all the funnier, and sadder, for it.
