Weird Al’s initial stab at a title track for his new album met with resistance from the original “artist”.
Or, as @badbanana put it, “The song Lady Gaga didn’t want you to hear[.]”.
Glorious.
UPDATE:
Here’s Weird Al’s side of the story.
UPDATE 2:
I’d be looking for a new manager if I were Lady Gaga. Looks like Al and Gaga have made up and there will be an actual video after all…!
Google Wave Invites
I just recently wrangled my way onto Google Wave and, well, there’s not a whole lot of folks to talk with as of yet, since invites are so scarce. However, I’ve a total of four Wave invites sitting in my Inbox, waiting for disbursal.
So, the first four people that either follow me on Twitter (@zamoose) and/or are able to guess what Weird Al song I’m thinking of right now get an invite.
Caveats:
- Once you’ve followed, leave a comment on this post so that I can send your invite to the appropriate email address.
- It’ll be a subjective thing, but if it seems like you’re a spammer or a very new account on Twitter, I’ll give you a pass on the invite.
It’s No Twinkie-Wiener Sandwich*, But…
I bow before the meat-eating prowess of R. “Bacon Is A Vegetable” Stevens of Diesel Sweeties fame for his construction of the ultimate American food: Hot Dog Loaf. Take two all-beef franks, wrap them in traditional meatloaf-y goodness and then bake it to completion. Mmmm, beefy. I would have used Ball Park franks instead of Hebrew National, but then, there’s no accounting for taste.
Commenters on his LiveJournal thread and on the Flickr photostream linked above suggested adding strips of bacon to the top of the loaf, but I think that’s overdoing it, personally.
*See UHF or read the Wikipedia entry to learn of the disgusting genius of the TWS.
Straight Outta Lynwood, Straight Into My CD Player
Album Title: Straight Outta Lynwood
Artist: “Weird Al” Yankovic
Year: 2006
I went out and snagged a copy of Weird Al’s latest album yesterday and, after giving it a few listens, I have to say that it’s one of his better albums, although by no means his best. I think it’s actually a bit more of an indictment of the state of popular music than one of Yankovic, as his parodies of Usher, R. Kelly and Taylor Hicks (“Confessions Part III”, “Trapped in the Drive-Thru” and “Do I Creep You Out”, respectively) just fall a little flat, particularly “Trapped in…” which clocks in at an almost unlistenable 11 minutes and ranks with “Albuquerque” and “Genius in France” on my “must skip” Weird Al track list.
The rest of the album is quite good, including the obligatory polka medley “Polkarama!”:
For those keeping track, that was:
- “The Chicken Dance” by Werner Thomas
- “Let’s Get It Started” by The Black Eyed Peas
- “Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand
- “The Nina Bobina Polka” by Al Yankovic
- “Beverly Hills” by Weezer
- “Speed Of Sound” by Coldplay
- “Float On” by Modest Mouse
- “Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz
- “Don’t Cha” by The Pussycat Dolls
- “Somebody Told Me” by The Killers
- “Slither” by Velvet Revolver
- “Candy Shop” by 50 Cent
- “Drop It Like It’s Hot” by Snoop Dogg
- “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna
- “Gold Digger” by Kanye West
…in that order.
The first single, “White & Nerdy” is quite good, although I think it is surpassed by two other tracks, original “pastiches” that lampoon/pay credit to bands’ entire catalogs. First up is “I’ll Sue Ya” which is a pretty good send-up of Rage:
[audio:04_I_ll_Sue_Ya.mp3]
Next is “Close But No Cigar” in which Al basically nails Cake’s entire catalog:
[audio:09_Close_But_No_Cigar.mp3]
The album is actually a “Dual Disc” which means that one side is a regular CD while the flip side is a DVD featuring a 5.1 mix of the album and videos for all 6 of the original songs on the album, all of which are animated and high-quality. There’s also a small featurette composed of footage from the studio sessions that went in to producing this album. Because of the Dual Disc nature of the album, it is actually thicker than a regular CD or DVD which presents no problems for PC CD-ROM drives but did almost result in it getting stuck in the slot-loading SuperDrive on my MacBook Pro, so if you’ve got a machine or a CD/DVD player with a slot loading mechanism, you may want to be careful.
All in all, it’s an album that fans of Al should pick up and that casual listeners will most likely be able to give a pass.
Most Definitely Off The Heezy
The “White n’ Nerdy” video has debuted:
*chuckle*
A week and a day, baby.
UPDATE: YouTube link’s been RIAA’d. Hit the Google Video copy instead.
UPDATE 2: The video is back and Al-sanctioned at YouTube, so the player above should work.
I’m Ready For September 26th, Are You?
That’s right, baby: new Weird Al album on the way. Hit his MySpace page for the first single off the disc, “Don’t Download This Song” or simply click below:
[audio:Dont_Download_This_Song.mp3]
While you’re at his page, make sure to give a listen to his parody of Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’ Dirty” entitled “White and Nerdy” and be sure to check out the video for “Don’t Download This Song”:
Lost + Weird Al + Queen = Crazy Delicious
Take Weird Al’s polka incarnation of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, add it to a flash animation comprised entirely of images from the first season of Lost and, et voila!, you have a highly amusing 5 minute “music video”.
Heh.
“The Party Of The Century!”
Phew, what a week-and-a-half it’s been. I’ve hardly had two spare moments to rub together since last Thursday, the day chosen for my brother’s bachelor party. I left work early that day, helped my wife out with some last-minute packing and then conveyed Stewarts, The Next Generation to my parents’ place. We left Will behind with Grandma and Grandpa and headed out to the bachelor/bachelorette parties (previously mentioned ,a href=”http://literalbarrage.org/blog/archives/2006/05/26/my-breath-tastes-like-armpit/”>here). Well, my wife went directly to her party. My brothers, the other groomsmen and I had to stop by the tux place to pick up our wedding suits before heading off to the restaurant, which delayed us by about an hour. I ended up having a good time and having a good long talk with my brother about marriage and life in general, which was great. Being separated by only 22 months, Bryce and I used to fight like crazy and never really got along as kids. Things have been much better between us since I left for college and last Thursday was a really cool moment in our history of reconciliation.
Friday was spent primarily getting ready for the wedding, with my wife hitting the nail salon (along with my mother, sister and aunt) for pedi/manicures and then a run to the King of Prussia Mall to grab some last minute items. The rehearsal was that night, which allowed us to meet Bryce’s in-laws for the first time. We had a good time, although my parents’ church isn’t air-conditioned, meaning that the rehearsal, and the rehearsal dinner, which was held in another area of the church were, well, warm affairs. My brother ended up giving all of his groomsmen silver Zippo lighters with their names engraved on them, which was only half of the gift – he gave us all Romeo Y Julietta Churchills at the reception the following night.
Saturday dawned bright, early and warm. The wedding was a beautiful one, although once again, it was H-O-T hot in the sanctuary. I was sweating (of course) as was apparently the entire rest of the bridal party, perhaps excepting the bride herself. After the ceremony, we headed to Historic Waynesboro for the reception, which ended up being one of the best wedding receptions I’ve ever attended. The band my brother and now-sister-in-law chose was extremely talented and played a wide-ranging set, from Jackson 5 covers to Harry Belafonte to Beyonce. The open bar was utilized, but not heavily, meaning no annoying drunks ruining the party and the dance floor was nigh constantly filled, with even my grandparents taking a turn on the floor. The only downside was the main course selection – the choice was between veal and red snapper. The food itself was good, but apparently not a single other soul at the reception was a UHF fan, as my “Red snapper, very tasty!” elicited only confused glances and a withering look from my wife (no fan of Weird Al, she…). I smoked about half of the cigar my brother gave me and then danced the night away with the other revelers. Then, it was back to my parents’ to crash.
We went to church Sunday morning and then had lunch with my paternal aunts and grandmother who had come in from as far away as California. It was good to see them and get a chance to talk with them, since distance dictates that we see them so infrequently. We finally headed home that evening to sleep in our own beds, only to rise the next day and make our way to Lancaster for Memorial Day festivities with my mom’s side of the family. It was good to see everyone, but we were ever so glad to make it home Monday evening and crash face-first into our pillows. We had a great time, but are still plum tuckered out from the whole 5 day affair.