Pitchfork

Here's a sentence that will make your mind explode just a tiny bit: in a recent interview with internet-based singing sensation/"Pork and Beans" clip co-star Tay Zonday for MTV.com, Weezer revealed plans for a tour in which they will invite several hundred of their fans to perform along with them.

When asked of the band's intentions to promote that new Red Album, Weezer frontman/wacky-rock spokesnut Rivers Cuomo told the "Chocolate Rain" crooner, "We're going to go on a tour. It's called the Hootenanny Tour, and it's coming to your town in June. We're gonna bring ourselves and invite a bunch of Weezer fans down to bring their instruments and, uh, jam with us. I don't know, 100, 200 people, whatever. Everyone come down and bring an instrument-- whatever you can play-- and we'll jam out on our songs." Now might be a good time to dust off that "shoulda kept it 'In the Garage'" pun you've been saving.

According to a Weezer rep, the tour will consist of "four or five" West Coast dates, kicking off at an as-yet-undisclosed venue in Phoenix, Arizona on June 16. An L.A. "Hootenanny"-style gig, meanwhile, will apparently take place in mid-summer. The Weezer site suggests more tour info will surface soon, and jeez, it damn well better. June 16 is just around the corner!

While chatting with Mr. Zonday, Rivers also mentioned plans for a more traditional Weezer tour to hit Japan in September and the U.S. in October.

What's more, consummate journalist Zonday got Rivers to open up about the aims he set out with for the Red Album. "Our approach was to get into the studio and try to blow our minds with whatever we wanted to do. To just have fun, so that when we pressed play and listened back to what we did, our minds were just blown. That was the goal." I understand the Jonas Brothers work under much the same conditions.

Anyway, the Red Album is available now in the States and via UK digital retailers, and it's due on the UK shelves June 16 from Polydor.