America's best-loved bunch of nerds

Weezer from left, Scott Shriner, Rivers Cuomo, Patrick Wilson and Brian Bell.

Weezer have written another good song to make a great video for. Buxom babes at the Playboy mansion frolic around the incredibly monotone but irresistibility catchy Beverly Hills, off Weezer's new album Make Believe.

Yes, the lion cubs on the Island In the Sun video were much cuter than Hugh Hefner's harem. But ...

"Videos suck," drawls drummer Patrick Wilson. He offers no explanation, just that videos suck. He does admit though, rather sweetly too, that he loves the Island In the Sun video.

Admittedly, Weezer have written some hot songs (Hash Pipe, Say It Ain't So, and Undone (The Sweater Song). But they've also made a name for themselves with some great clips like the Happy Days parody in Buddy Holly and buddying up with the Muppets in Keep Fishin'.

"But you just wonder how much of a place videos have now, at least in America," says bassist Scott Shriner. "MTV doesn't show as many videos any more."

"The thing is though," adds Wilson, "you make the making of the video [at the same time], so you make the video, not so people see the video, but so they'll see the making of it. Bizarre."

Even though Weezer may not want to rely on videos, in Beverly Hills they've made yet another classic. Among the bouncing bosoms, fun and games, and hundreds of fans, Weezer again appear as the deadpan geeks they are.

"We don't really fit in with models and Playboy bunnies and your typical kind of rock-star images," says Shriner. "You see a lot of rock stars at the mansion but you would never think Weezer would be there. We were [also] intrigued by our fans being around Playboy bunnies, and we anticipated it being uncomfortable and maybe even ironic-looking," he says.

Wilson: "There were a couple of kids who flew in from Utah, a brother and a sister, and they were Mormons. But it was so cool to see because they were so straight-laced and so starchy."

Shriner, and the other members of Weezer, including band leader Rivers Cuomo, can relate to their Mormon fans. "I've never really been that good around models and super-beautiful people either," says Shriner.

Yet they all choose to live in LA - the city of beautiful people - and they wouldn't have it any other way.

"It's really cool. It's all about finding the place where you want to be. When I first moved here in 1990, walking round on Sunset Strip, everybody was in spandex and big hair, and I'm like, 'That's not really my scene'. And then you go to where all the junkies are shooting dope and smoking and it's like, 'No, that's not really it either'. It's a great town; I love living here.

"There's a bunch of bullshit, like silicon and plastic surgery but there's so much more going on. I live up by the park, way up east, so you get the serenity but then you drive in your car 10 minutes and there's people beating the shit out of each other. I like to look out my window and see chaos, and heaven and the ocean, and mountain lions."

Weezer started out in LA in 1993. Cuomo - who isn't around today; he's quite shy - moved there from Massachusetts in the late 80s to go to college.

He formed Weezer with Wilson and original bass player Matt Sharp (Shriner joined in 2001) and before recording their debut, The Blue Album, with producer Ric Ocasek in 1994, they recruited guitarist Brian Bell.

They had all moved to the city to start rock bands. Even though Shriner joined Weezer later, he moved to LA in 1990 to "play in a band that was heavy but had melodies".

It took him a while but in Weezer he found the perfect band. Their melodic chug is no better represented than on Hash Pipe from 2001's Green Album, while for sweet pop look no further than Island In the Sun.

Make Believe has plenty of those sorts of songs, like the AC/DC chant of We Are All On Drugs ("We'll all get to enjoy that song," says Shriner), the New Wave-ish This Is Such a Pity and sweet rocker My Best Friend.

But the new album also signals some changes in Weezer. "Everything's changed," says Wilson, in a slow drawl that suits the fact he's sitting there looking uninterested.

More on the changes later. But it is the enigmatic Cuomo's sense of humour and endearing geekiness that comes through most in the music. He's an intriguing guy. He's currently at Harvard after starting his studies back in the mid 90s, he swears by Vipassana meditation, and in photos he's frighteningly run-of-the-mill.

So how is Rivers?

"He's better than ever," says Shriner.

"He's very mellow ..." says Wilson. " ... and he's a team player," adds Shriner.

You two are in the perfect position to tell us what Rivers is really like.

"We'd never think about that. Our relationship, with the four of us, keeps evolving. We keep getting to know each other better, and we all keep growing separately."

The previous album, 2002's Maladroit , had a "Zeppelin feel to it" says Shriner but with Make Believe they wanted to strip back the Weezer sound.

Wilson: "We were constantly saying, 'Can you play a little less?' So much has gone in and out of it. From being complex down to nothing to barely any melody at all, Rivers at one point was singing one or two note melodies, we took it to the bare bones, and then picked what was absolutely necessary."

LOWDOWN

WHO: Weezer are Rivers Cuomo (songwriter/singer/guitar), Brian Bell (guitar), Pat Wilson (drums) and Scott Shriner (bass)

FORMED: 1993, Los Angeles

WHAT: Good-time geek rock from Los Angeles

OTHER RELEASES: Weezer (The Blue Album) (1994); Pinkerton (1996); The Green Album (2001); Maladroit (2002)

NEW ALBUM: Make Believe out now