It appears that rumors of Weezer's death have been greatly exaggerated.

Back in September, just as they were kicking off their co-headlining tour with the Foo Fighters, reports began to circulate that the Weez were about to call it a day (see "Are Weezer Calling It Quits?"). Weezer did not refute the reports, nor did they elaborate on some cryptic, foreboding messages in their most recent album, Make Believe.

And with frontman Rivers Cuomo all set to return to Harvard on February 1 to complete his degree in English literature (see "Rivers Cuomo: Coming To A Dorm Room Near You?"), and the rest of the guys in the band seemingly content to do very little — "I might spend some time in Hawaii," guitarist Brian Bell joked — the prognosis for the band looked very bleak indeed.

Until earlier this week, that is.

On Tuesday, several sources began reporting that Weezer were prepping a new album for Geffen Records, to be released sometime in 2006 or early 2007. It seemed to go hand-in-hand with recent postings on Weezer.com that certainly made it sound like Weezer were anything but inactive.

"It's not going to be entirely quiet around the Weezer 'hood, not by a long shot," a posting on the site read. "Everyone is planning on writing music, and indeed, a good deal of songs have been already created while the band was still on tour this fall. Rivers returns to school in the spring and everyone ... continues to work towards a musical future. [Drummer] Pat [Wilson]'s even building a new home studio to better work on music. ... Only time will tell when the Weezer machine will get back into full gear."

Of course, neither Weezer's management nor Geffen Records seemed to know just what will become of those new tunes.

"[There are] no definite plans for a new record," said a spokesperson for the band's management company. "Rivers is at school till June, and when that is done we will see what everyone wants to do."

Geffen added that while there is no new Weezer album on its schedule for this year, there will be some fresh material from the band in stores sometime over the next 12 months — namely their first-ever live DVD.

Filmed over the course of Weezer's weeklong Japan tour in late December, the still-untitled DVD is said to include performances taken from the band's three-night stand at Tokyo's Studio Coast venue, plus backstage footage and "candid" material. There is no release date set for the DVD, but according to Weezer.com, the project is a priority and will be completed sooner rather than later.

"It's a two-day, seven-camera shoot of the shows, plus material that will be drawn from various 'behind-the-scenes' [sources] ... as well as footage [we've] been gathering as we travel around," a post on the site read. We've got the footage; now it's a matter of putting it together. I don't have any info as to a projected release time yet, but it will happen in '06 for sure."

For more on Weezer, check out the feature "Distraction Subtraction."