Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo and Todd Rundgren have released a new 1960s ska styled track, “Down With The Ship.” The track will appear on Rundgren’s upcoming album Space Force, with the album coming sometime in early 2021.
The upbeat track includes faux-Jamaican accents, classic ska grooves and enthusiastic tones as Cuomo and Rundgren share lyrics. The song sounds as if it could have walked out of a 1960s cartoon, incorporating timeless tones. Both Cuomo and Rundgren wrote the track, according to Brooklyn Vegan, and they discuss “going down with the ship” after “aligning with a treacherous leader.” Incorporating reggae and African rhythms, the instrumentals stick to a typical ska sound, with Rundgren and Cuomo attempting to mimic Jamaican accents so that their vocals can match the instruments.
Rundgren’s most recent album, White Night, had been released in 2017, and featured the single “Tin Foil Hat” which poked fun at Donald Trump’s presidency. Rundgren has also frequently teamed up with Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, with the three releasing the song “Deaf Ears” in 2017. Rundgren released the album Global back in 2015.
With Weezer, Cuomo was set to embark on the Hella Mega Tour, which would also feature Fall Out Boy and Green Day, this past summer. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the three bands were forced to postpone their tour until 2021. Earlier this year, Weezer released an 8-bit video game titled End Of The Game. Last year, it was reported that Weezer had lost their master recordings during the large 2008 Universal warehouse fire, that led the loss of masters for over 100 artists. 2019 also saw the release of Weezer’s most recent studio album, Weezer (The Black Album).
Photo credit: Brett Padelford
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