Weezer

What's in a name? For pop-rockers Weezer, nothing but trouble.

Just ask frontman Rivers Cuomo -- he and his bandmates can't win for losing with album titles.

"We've always had bad luck," laughs the singer-guitarist en route to Edmonton's Sonic Boom Festival on Saturday. "We put out Pinkerton in 1996, and the day it came out we got sued by the Pinkerton Security Agency, and they took the albums off the shelves in its first week of release."

No one has sued yet over their typically rockin' eighth album Hurley, due Sept. 14. But fans have cried sell-out since guitarist Brian Bell recently said the disc wasn't named after the Lost character on its cover, but for the Hurley clothing company (which is making Weezer-inspired shirts and hoodies). Bell has since recanted, and while Cuomo backs him up, he now wishes they had chosen another title. "We didn't want to have another self-titled album, because that's just confusing," he explains. "But yeah, we easily could have called it Jorge Garcia, the name of the actor who played Hurley. Anything else would have been better."

But it takes more than a PR kerfuffle -- or even a bus crash -- to stop Cuomo. Nine months after busting three ribs when his tour bus hit ice and then a ditch in New York, the prolific 40-year-old pop-rocker is back in high gear. During a speedy 10-minute interview, here's what he had to say about the accident, Hurley's Canadian connection and all the trouble he'll be getting in next.

A lot of people might have slowed down after that bus accident. You seem to be making up for lost time.

Well, I did take several months off. But now I feel like I have more energy than ever. Going through an accident like that, you realize every song you write might be your last and every show you do might be your last. So you have to give it everything you have.

How did that philosophy impact the new album?

I think you hear that we're just going for it. I'm trying all sorts of crazy things with my voice -- screaming one moment and singing very gently the next, and just being as expressive as I can. We wanted to make it a very raw, emotional and not overthought record.

There's quite a large Canadian presence on this one.

That's right! It's co-produced by a Canadian named Shawn Everett. And we have Michael Cera singing and playing mandolin on a song called Hang On. Well, it's actually a guitar that we set up so it sounds like a mandolin.

And the strings were recorded in Banff. Any plans to bring some of those players up to Edmonton?

We hadn't thought of that. But if anyone wants to come by, we'll welcome them onstage with us.

Speaking of collaboration, you're co-writing with a lot of people again here, including Ryan Adams and Linda Perry. Why is that so satisfying?

I just love to meet new people and learn about how they work and create -- just get exposed to different ways of thinking. So the best way for me to do that is just to call up musicians I admire and say 'Hey, let's write a song together.' I do that wherever I am. I was just in the U.K. and I called up this band Male Bonding and went in the studio with them.

Does anybody ever turn you down?

Yeah, all the time. A lot of musicians are really busy or they're not interested in writing with somebody else. Sometimes, if it's someone from a real different genre, they just don't understand why someone from the alternative rock world would want to do a song with them. But a lot of people are excited by the idea too.

Is there an ultimate cowriter on your wish list?

Well, I've been trying to work with Brian Wilson but I haven't got any response from his camp yet. That would be really cool.

I understand you have three archival albums coming out soon.

Yeah, we have Pinkerton Deluxe, with an additional CD of material from that era. I also have Alone 3, which is called The Pinkerton Years, and that's all my demos, along with a 200-page book of journals and letters and photos. And we have Death to False Metal, which is songs that didn't make the first seven Weezer records because they were either too weird or too pop or too metal or too punk. It's really an amazing album. I hope it's not overlooked.

Do you ever take a vacation?

Every year! February and March, I don't do any work at all. The other 10 months, I have tons of energy.